NEW YORK — Breaking more than a decade of silence, former U.S. coach Steve Sampson says he dropped John Harkes two months before the 1998 World Cup because the captain was having an affair with the wife of teammate Eric Wynalda. Harkes has long denied having an affair with Amy Wynalda… Sampson told The Associated Press on Tuesday he was glad the story was coming out now because “maybe people will have a little better of an understanding of what happened in the final months leading up to the World Cup.” After advancing to the second round of the 1994 World Cup at home, the U.S. finished last at the 1998 tournament in France, getting shut out by Germany, then losing 2-1 to Iran and 1-0 to Yugoslavia. “It wasn’t about losing 2-0 to Germany or losing to Iran,” Sampson said. “There was more to it than that that impacted I believe the outcome of this team.”

Well thank God we’ve finally gotten to the bottom of this. Because that 1998 World Cup debacle has always haunted my very footsteps. I put it right up there ahead of David Tyree, Buckner and Grady Little. It was the stuff of nightmares and I’ve been waiting for an explanation for 12 long years now. And finally we get an explanation that makes sense. Dissention in the ranks caused by that slut Amy Wynalda. She’s the Yoko Ono of US Soccer and she ought to be made to wear a scarlet “A” on her chest and be shunned by decent society. But to be honest, I don’t blame John Harkes for this though. When you’re an American soccer player there’s a very limited pool of women willing to bang you. I mean, this isn’t Great Britain for crissakes. Our hot women all go after real athletes. So it’s only natural a guy would go after one of the few US Soccer Annie’s in existence.