Worms

Quick, name your most hated Philly player. Come on, this should be simple! This is a huge rivalry, according to MLS and to Philly fans. So name one player. Just one. No?

We're drawing a blank here. For us, Freddy Adu is probably tops, but face it, the washed-up never-been is hated mostly because of his DC days. After that... we got nothing.

Now, name your most hated DC player. Currently, right? Does Ben Olsen still count? If not, Chris Pontius. Historically? Don't get us started. Marco Etcheverry, John Harkes, Jaime Moreno... Crap, you got us started. We can easily spit out a dozen names before catching our breath. Now THAT'S a rivalry.

After their inaugural season, Metro and DC Scum had met seven times. They went through an epic playoff series. We had our heroes, our villains, our goat for a lifetime (Rob Johnson), and a hatred that only grew and intensified since then. Just like we can easily name hated Scum players, we can easily name a dozen huge games the two teams have played. Actually, a dozen is selling it short.

Have Metro and Philly ever played an important game? Sure, last year's regular season finale was important -- for Metro -- but for the Worms, it wasn't that relevant. Sure, the game this week holds some importance -- again, for Metro -- but for Philly, it means nothing. And yes, Metro did knock the Worms out of the Open Cup in a play-in-game back in 2010... if anyone remembers that. Not exactly a playoff series for the ages.

No matter how you slice it, this is just not a rivalry. Sure, one day it might become one, but for that, we need some villains, not pansies in Bimbo shirts. We need to play a few games that really count. We need to start feeling hatred, and not just pity.

Until then... Yawn.