No, we’re not talking the credit card and the infamous slogan. We’re talking passport.

This year’s Kansas University soccer team is something the politicos in Washington, D.C. and beyond would be proud of. A veritable United Nations of soccer talent.

“Wherever we have to go to get the best players,” Francis said, “we will.”

If you don’t believe him, just track his flight itineraries and telephone calls.

Half the roster, nine of 18 players, will arrive in Lawrence on Aug. 10 from foreign soil. Four Canadians, a pair each from England and Finland and a Swede should help Francis continue to improve a program that has never seen post-season play.

Francis, in his second season, is finally feeling comfortable. After a successful stint at South Alabama, Francis arrived in Lawrence late in the recruiting season last summer, which means it’s tough to find American soccer players.

“All the good ones are usually signed up by the time I arrived here to start,” Francis said. “So we had to go other places to fill the roster.”

So Francis made do with the women already here, and added a couple of players who came from Alabama with him. Most notably, Hilla Rantala, a goal-finding senior forward originally from Finland who infused life into the offense. When Rantala made the transfer, she had scored more goals in two years at South Alabama than KU had recorded in its four-year existence.

“We’re expecting big things from her this year,” Francis said. “Last year, she missed the first six games and she still ended up our leading scorer.”

Thanks to a marriage, Kansas should be stronger on defense. Pardis Brown transferred from a top 10 program at Portland University to play for the Jayhawks. A big factor was her December marriage to college sweetheart Chris Brown, who currently plays professional soccer for the Kansas City Wizards.

Brown, who will be a sophomore, started taking classes at KU last spring, along with playing in the team’s exhibition season. She was a high school all-American in 1997 before sitting out 1998 with a broken leg.

“We’re excited to have her,” Francis said. “We feel like this year we can score, but even better, we can keep teams from scoring.”

Francis, a native of Great Britain, said he is finally comfortable at Kansas. Recruiting is going much smoother now that he’s set in one place, and he already has visits scheduled from some of the top American high school talent to check out the campus and fledgling program. But, of course, he’ll still look beyond boundaries for players.

“Anywhere we have to,” Francis said.

Now the key is getting the talent, which will arrive from so many places, to jell. The season, as Francis says, is “short and sweet. You only get so much time to work on stuff, or it becomes too late pretty quickly.”

The goal this year is to qualify for the Big 12 Conference tournament, won by Nebraska last season. Only the top eight teams from the conference qualify. Last year, Kansas finished ninth, but with the program’s best record ever of 8-10-1.

No doubt what the Jayhawks’ goal is this season. With talented goalkeeper Layla Young, a backup on Britain’s national team, and a healthy Rantala, Francis hopes this is the time for Kansas to venture into the postseason for the first time.