MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER TEAMS AT A GLANCE
WESTERN CONFERENCE
CHICAGO FIRE
Coach: Bob Bradley.
Stadium: Soldier Field, Chicago.
1997 record: Expansion team.
Key players gained: Jorge Campos, Lubos Kubik, Roman Kosecki, Peter Nowak, Jerry Podbrozny.
Update: Bradley, assistant to Bruce Arena on D.C. United’s two championship winners, has pulled together a competitive team in a hurry. Getting Campos was a coup, even if the arrival of the former Galaxy goalkeeper will be delayed by Mexican club and World Cup commitments. Three aging Poles, midfielders Peter Nowak, 33, and Roman Kosecki, 32, and forward Jerry Podbrozny, 31, and one dated Czech, defender Lubos Kubik, 34, form the backbone of the team. How the four cope with heat and humidity will determine the Fire’s fate.
COLORADO RAPIDS
Coach: Glenn Myernick.
Stadium: Mile High, Denver.
Average attendance: 11,806.
1997 record: 14-18; MLS runner-up.
Key players lost: David Patino.
Key players gained: Marquinho.
Top returnees: Marcelo Balboa, Paul Bravo, Chris Henderson, Wolde Harris, Adrian Paz.
Update: Last season’s improbable success, in which the Rapids went from last place in 1996 to the championship game in ‘97, is unlikely to be repeated. The team adds a bit of Brazilian flair with Marquinho joining Uruguay’s Paz in midfield. World Cup ’98 will take away Balboa (U.S.) and Harris (Jamaica), and possibly Henderson (U.S.). Colorado went 8-2-1 in preseason games.
DALLAS BURN
Coach: Dave Dir.
Stadium: Cotton Bowl, Dallas.
Average attendance: 9,678.
1997 record: 16-16; eliminated by Colorado in conference finals.
Key players lost: Diego Sonora.
Key players gained: Leonel Alvarez.
Top returnees: Damian, Mark Dodd, Alain Sutter, Dante Washington.
Update: Dodd, goalkeeper of the year in ‘97, broke a finger on his right hand when the Burn lost, 2-1, to Cruz Azul of Mexico in a CONCACAF Cup Winners’ Cup game at the Cotton Bowl on Sunday. He will be sidelined four to six weeks. The return of Colombian midfield general Alvarez is huge, more than offsetting the loss of Mexico’s Sonora to New York/New Jersey. Alvarez’s defensive skills will allow Swiss standout Sutter more freedom to attack. The Burn will be competitive on the field but attendance still lags badly.
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS
Coach: Ron Newman.
Stadium: Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Mo.
Average attendance: 9,058.
1997 record: 21-11; eliminated by Colorado in first round of playoffs.
Key players lost: Richard Gough.
Key players gained: Refik Sabanadzovic, Goran Hunjak.
Top returnees: Preki, Mo Johnston, Mark Chung, Vitalis “Digital” Takawira and Paul Wright.
Update: The peculiar situation here is that the league’s most successful and attractive team on the field (38-26 in regular-season play compared to D.C. United’s 37-27) is also its least successful at the gate. Why fans refuse to come out to see such offensive-minded standouts as ’97 league MVP Preki, Johnston, Chung, Takawira and Wright has the Wizard front office baffled. The arrival of two players with tongue-twisting names, Sabanadzovic from Yugoslavia and Hunjak from Croatia, is unlikely to help matters. Newman’s team should have reached the final last season. This season might be 12 months too late.
LOS ANGELES GALAXY
Coach: Octavio Zambrano.
Stadium: Rose Bowl.
Average attendance: 20,626.
1997 record: 16-16; eliminated by Dallas in first round of playoffs.
Key players lost: Jorge Campos, Chris Armas.
Key players gained: None.
Top returnees: Mauricio Cienfuegos, Eduardo Hurtado, Welton, Dan Calichman, Cobi Jones.
Update: With the MLS championship game scheduled for the Rose Bowl on Oct. 25, there is more pressure on the Galaxy front office to put fans in the stands and on the coaching staff to get the team to the final. Zambrano starts his first full season in charge with basically an unchanged lineup. Campos is history, meaning that two former UCLA goalkeepers, Kevin Hartman and Matt Reis, will fight for the starting job. Chris Armas also was lost to Chicago, but draft pick Clint Mathis is said to be his equal. The continuing search for another top striker has sparked rumors that Germany’s Juergen Klinsmann or a Mexican Word Cup forward might be headed here after France ’98.
SAN JOSE CLASH
Coach: Brian Quinn.
Stadium: Spartan Stadium, San Jose.
Average attendance: 13,597.
1997 record: 12-20; failed to make playoffs.
Key players lost: Michael Emenalo, Dominic Kinnear.
Key players gained: Richard Gough, Victor Mella.
Top returnees: Eric Wynalda, Ronald Cerritos, John Doyle.
Update: The Clash needs help but it has not arrived yet. Yes, the addition of former Scotland national team captain Gough will put some steel in the back line, and the return of popular Chilean midfielder Mella will add a bit of sparkle. El Salvador forward Cerritos is excellent. But Quinn, entering his first full season in charge, needs more. Mexico’s Carlos Hermosillo, a striker of immense talent, was all but signed, then changed his mind at the last minute. Wynalda will have his mind on the World Cup. El Nino delayed stadium reconstruction (at last, a wider field), so the Clash will start out playing at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
COLUMBUS CREW
Coach: Tom Fitzgerald.
Stadium: Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio.
Average attendance: 15,043.
1997 record: 15-17; eliminated by D.C. United in conference finals.
Key players lost: Brad Friedel, Doctor Khumalo.
Key players gained: Juergen Sommer, Mark Dougherty, Andrew Williams, Stern John.
Top returnees: Thomas Dooley, Brian McBride, Mike Lapper, Brian Maisonneuve, Robert Warzycha.
Update: Having been rebuffed twice by Franklin County voters, who declined a minuscule tax increase that would have paid for roads and other infrastructure and thereby allowed owner Lamar Hunt to build (and fully pay for) a new stadium in or near Columbus, the Crew is in limbo after this season. Ohio Stadium is being refurbished and the Crew has to find a new home. It has swapped national team goalkeepers, losing U.S. No. 2 Friedel to Liverpool but gaining U.S. No. 3 Sommer from Queens Park Rangers. Columbus also added offensive clout by signing forwards Williams of Jamaica and John of Trinidad.
MIAMI FUSION
Coach: Carlos “Cacho” Cordoba
Stadium: Lockhart Stadium, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
1997 record: Expansion team.
Key players gained: Carlos Valderrama, Diego Serna, Marcelo “Popeye” Herrera, Jerry Tamashiro.
Update: Argentine-born Cordoba was an assistant coach with the Dallas Burn last season. He has built a team with a heavily Latin flavor to surround Colombian playmaker Valderrama, the league MVP in ’96. The Fusion lineup includes midfielder Herrera (Argentina) and forwards Serna (Colombia) and Tamashiro (Peru). Miami also landed several capable Americans, among them goalkeeper Jeff Cassar, defender Ramiro Corrales and midfielder Nelson Vargas.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION
Coach: Thomas Rongen
Stadium: Foxboro Stadium, Foxboro, Mass.
Average attendance: 21,423.
1997 record: 15-17; eliminated by D.C. United in first round of playoffs.
Key players lost: Walter Zenga, Alexi Lalas, Giuseppe Galderisi, Alberto Naveda, Francis Okaroh.
Key players gained: Raul Diaz Arce, Richard Goulooze, Edwin Gorter, David Nakhid, Anselmo “Jair” Ribeiro.
Top returnees: Mike Burns, Joe-Max Moore.
Update: The rapid turnover of foreign players continues this season, with Italy’s World Cup ’90 goalkeeper Zenga having retired and Rongen clearing out the rest, along with about 10 Americans. The arrival of Salvadoran Diaz Arce from D.C. United more than compensates for the loss of Lalas. A couple of Dutch newcomers, Goulooze and Gorter, are supposed to add cohesion and professionalism. Trinidad’s Nakhid beefs up the defense. The league’s most faithful fans deserved better.
N.Y./N.J. METROSTARS
Coach: Alfonso Mondelo.
Stadium: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.
Average attendance: 16,899.
1997 record: 15-17; failed to make playoffs.
Key players lost: Roberto Donadoni, Anthony de Avila.
Key players gained: Alexi Lalas, Diego Sonora, Wellington Sanchez, Jose Arley Palacios.
Top returnees: Tab Ramos, Giovanne Savarese, Tony Meola, Mike Sorber.
Update: Brazil’s 1994 World Cup-winning coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has fled the Meadowlands to take charge of Saudi Arabia’s World Cup team. In his place comes Mondelo, making the quantum leap from the A-League’s Long Island Rough Riders to MLS. He has stiffened the defense by adding Lalas and Colombia’s Palacios and enlivened the offense with the addition of Sonora from Mexico and Sanchez from Ecuador. Ramos is still recovering from knee surgery and won’t risk a World Cup place just to rush back to the MetroStars. The stadium agreement runs out in two years and Elizabeth and other New Jersey cities are promising the world. And no fake grass.
TAMPA BAY MUTINY
Coach: John Kowalik.
Stadium: Houlihan’s Stadium, Tampa.
Average attendance: 11,333.
1997 record: 17-15; eliminated by Columbus in first round of playoffs.
Key players lost: Carlos Valderrama, Chiquinho Conde.
Key players gained: Jan Eriksson, Thomas Ravelli, Dominic Kinnear, Jacek Ziober, Gilmar.
Top returnees: Roy Lassiter, Frankie Hejduk, Frank Yallop.
Update: The Mutiny has exchanged one circus act for another. Valderrama and his wild hair have gone and Ravelli and his wild eyes have arrived. Ravelli led Sweden to third place in World Cup ‘94, delighting fans with his antics in and around the nets. He is joined in Tampa by fellow Swede Eriksson, who adds muscle to the defense, and by Gilmar of Brazil and Ziober of Poland. The Mutiny will be stronger but less creative. There is only one Valderrama.
WASHINGTON D.C. UNITED
Coach: Bruce Arena.
Stadium: RFK, Washington.
Average attendance: 16,704.
1997 record: 21-11; MLS champion.
Key players lost: Raul Diaz Arce, Ben Iroha.
Key players gained: Geoff Aunger.
Top returnees: Marco “El Diablo” Etcheverry, Jaime Moreno, John Harkes, Eddie Pope.
Update: Not many teams would give up the league’s all-time leading goal scorer and still be considered the favorite to win the championship for the third consecutive time, but D.C. United is. Its “devil’s triangle” offense of Diaz Arce, Moreno and Etcheverry has been broken with the trade of Diaz Arce to New England, but there is enough skill and offensive clout left to make another strong run at the title.
