The Mag's Jeff Bradley braved elderly chicken to visit with some serious U.S. Soccer fans in Columbus in the first of a week-long series of Postcards from the World Cup qualifier and the MLS Cup.

Sports bars are, as they say, so five years ago. You know? I'm talking about the joints with memorabilia all over the walls, baseball cards embedded in the bar top, separate televisions at every booth. No, no, no, not the Zone -- that place rocks.

I'm talking about the early-'90s sports bar -- not my type of hangout. And, obviously, not the kind of place where you'd ever expect anyone to talk footy.

But Tuesday night, after getting into Columbus, I found a place on the Internet called Hagen's Ale and Tee that was supposed be the meeting place for those rabid U.S. Soccer fans known as Sam's Army. So I bellied up there, ordered a chicken sandwich that had to be sent back because it was, let's just say, a little too chewy, and sought my brethren.

(An aside: I live by one basic rule when dining in bars -- order "bar food." Even when they advertise a $7.95 prime rib or a veal scallopini special, stick to burgers, chicken sandwiches, wings, etc. As I learned last night, even poultry may be too risky.)

But anyway, Sam's Army had its own separate room at Hagen's and its members promised that on Wednesday night they would give the U.S. a home field advantage the likes of which a men's national team had never seen. There were members from Kansas City, D.C. and Pittsburgh, who all made their way to C-Bus to cheer on the home team.

Not only did they plan to sing, chant and taunt, but a woman who billed herself as the Crew Diva said she was ready to distract the Costa Ricans. "When Hamburg played the Crew this season, I pulled up my skirt and showed them a little leg," the Diva said, "And they were completely thrown off target after that." (Crew Diva, who also bills herself as a model and sports genius, asked if I could plug her site, www.aimercat.com. It's not what you're thinking, really.)

So, Bruce Arena, who didn't have his first-choice lineup and who was banned from the bench because of some inflammatory comments he made about the referee the last time the U.S. played Costa Rica, at least had the Diva on his side.

Jeff Bradley writes soccer for ESPN The Magazine. Next time, he'll just have pretzels.