Shakespeare Over Soccer?!

The United State men's national soccer team hosted Turkey yesterday afternoon in a 'friendly' game in Philadelphia, which resulted in a 2-1 victory for the home team.

A few hours prior to learning about the game, I brought tickets to see a matinee performance of William Shakespeare's "All's Well That Ends Well" at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Staunton, Va., some four and a half hours south of Philly.

The soccer game was airing on ESPN-2 at 1:30 p.m., just a half hour before the curtain was to rise, so I phoned a friend in North Carolina to see if by chance he would tivo the game for me. As it turned out, Osman Bey (not his real name) was taking the whole extended family, a party of 11 people including his toddler grandchildren, to Philly for the game!

The game was apparently an exciting one as Turkey scored first on a goal from Arda Turdan, who plays for Istanbul powerhouse GalataSaray, in the 27th minute. But, the second half completely belonged to the home squad as Team America scored an equalizer in the 58th minute as Robbie Findley, who plays for the current MLS champ Real Salt Lake (Salt Lake City, Utah) lofted a pass to American star Landon Donovan of the L.A. Galaxy who in turned passed the ball to teammate Jozy Altidore who scored the goal.

Then, Clint Dempsey, on another Donovan assist, snuck the ball past Turkish goalie Volkan Demirel, who plays for another Istanbul powerhouse FenerBahce, in the 75th minute to give Team America a 2-1 lead which they held on to until game's end.

The match was played in front of 55,047 people at Lincoln Field. Afterward, Donovan told reporters that: "We're going to be good as we want to be." Team American next faces England in the World Cup in South Africa in June. Vice President Joe Biden will be attending the game in person.

As for the Turkish side, the newspaper "Today's Zaman" speculated that partisan Turkish soccer fans might be hostile towards new team coach Guus Hiddink (a Dutch citizen) if play doesn't improve. Turkey did not qualify for this year's World Cup though their arch rivals Greece did.

The Turkey-USA game put me in a bit of a political quandary as I am a Turkish-American, and though I grew up in Roanoke, Va., I felt compelled to root for my late father's country.

But, apparently, my situation was not as awkward as the one that Guiseppe Rossi, 23, an Italian-American soccer player who grew up in Clifton, NJ, faced as he chose not only to play for Italy, but he scored two goals for his team in a win over the United States earlier this year! Hence, some partisan American soccer fans have taken to calling him 'Judas.'

As for "All's Well That Ends Well," the production was simply delightful though I was glad I didn't have a Blackberry which might have forced me to check the score of the game during the play's intermission.

The ever-gorgeous actress Kelly McKinnon was delightful as The Countess and the barefoot pilgrim Mariana as was African-American actress Brandi Rhome who played the roles of Diana and Steward in the production. She plays Juliet in one of the troupe's other current plays "Romeo and Juliet." Rick Blunt also stood out as Parolles as did Josh Carpenter who played The Duke and (interestingly enough!) the widow.

For more information about tickets and performances, log on to www.ASCstaunton.com or call 1-877-MUCH-ADO.