Noor-say

If you want to say Roberto Nurse's last name correctly, it's like this: noor-say. In Spanish, of course, every syllable is prounounced so you don't get silent a -gh thrown into the middle of the word or a silent letter at the end. Thus, in an English word like Nurse when prouncouned in Spanish is noor-say.

Roberto noor-say is of course Chivas USA's latest signing. And he's not your typical Mexican soccer player either.

First of all, it's not common for Mexicans to have an English last name. Former President Vicente Fox was an exception, as is Roberto Nurse. You typically find that more Central Americans have English surnames, such as Costa Rican World Cup vets Harold Wallace and Mauricio Wright or Hondurans such as Carlo Costly and George Welcome.

Part of Nurse's own heritage is Central American - his dad was born in Panama. Nurse also speaks English; the only other Mexican-born Chivas USA player who spoke English before he arrived with the club was Francisco Palencia, and that guy was definitely another unique character.

Anyway, Nurse tore apart the Primera A in Mexico, the second division. But that's not what he aspired to do, to be a second division player. In fact, when I asked him about his options in Mexico, he said he felt that he was stuck in a league that nobody cared about.

I just filed a story on Nurse for MLSnet.com, so you'll have to wait until it's published to read more about him. But if you speak Spanish, here's the audio of my interview with Roberto Nurse. The voice asking questions before me is the esteemed Rigo Cervantez. Rigo rules!