Bulgaria Month, June 6

In my dream episode of Wide World of Sports today, Jim McKay would be ushering me among:

• this morning's Graham, N.C., 5K,
• tonight's A's-Orioles game (Oakland's on a four-game win streak!),
• whatever Bob Griese happens to be doing today (going to a hardware store, watching TV, whatever) and
• the Bulgaria-Ireland match beginning in Sofia starting at 12:30 p.m. U.S. Central today.

Vasil Levski Stadium is probably already aflutter with fans anticipating a World Cup-contention-saving victory, but "The Bulgarian Billy Reed" is sounding a cautionary alarm.

"The fact is, if Ireland are not exactly a 'force' in football, well then neither are Bulgaria," writes The Sofia Echo's Nick Iliev. "The glory days of 1994 are long gone and the current football generation has done little to prove the Bulgarian supporters that a "Second Golden" generation is coming up through the ranks. At least at skin-deep level It appears, that the Irish are taking this game a little more professionally and more seriously than the overflowing with confidence Bulgarians."