The glare is still there, just at it was at Tacoma and Everton and Portsmouth and Miami and with the U.S. national team. Under dark tufts burn a pair of brown eyes, scan-ning the landscape for crevices and spaces as he formulates the optimum mix of movement and touches that will expose his quarry, the goal.

For all the marvel focused on his left foot and his body's resistance to age and abuse, Preki is most brilliant from the shoulders up. Somewhere between cognitive thought and animal instinct resides his primal thirst to defy time, conquer space and withstand savage kicks and sharp elbows.

"The man is tremendously gifted physically and is a consummate technician, which is partially gift and a lot of hard work over the years," says his coach at Kansas City, Bob Gansler. "He sees the game and you'd expect that, but he's still got his quickness and his one-against-one ability. He's enjoying his work and he's got every right to enjoy it because he's awfully good."

He's the all-time leading scorer in MLS and a bit perplexed about all the attention focused on his 40th birthday June 24.

"Over the years, I've done different things to keep myself in shape and stay loose, because obviously the key factors in our game are flexibility and mobility," he says. "When you start to lose that, that's the time to start wondering when it's time to retire."

He says he might have retired two years ago if the Wizards hadn't re-claimed him in the draft implemented by MLS when Miami and Tampa Bay folded. He'd left Kansas City after a championship season in 2000 miffed at being asked to take a part-time role and a big salary cut.

"I was looking at retiring from MLS, maybe playing indoor here in town with Zoran Savic [coach of the indoor Comets] or go into coaching," he says. "I didn't think I was going to be drafted. I'm glad they took me back."

Gansler believes that year away from Kansas City and the Fusion's collapse blew some dark clouds out of the Preki psyche. He noticed a subtle personality change last season and says so far in 2003 the man is, if not bubbly, certainly cheerier.

"There's more smiles, there's more laughter, there's more buffoonery on his part and coming back at him," says Gansler. "We got off to good start this season, which obviously helps, and we see practical jokes and some of the adolescent things maybe he hadn't done for a while."

When asked why Preki left, Gansler chuckles a bit defensively. "I just felt there was no way the man is going to get any better," he says. "But if anything, he has gotten better, and, for sure, he hasn't slipped one iota."

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