Here are the quotes from MLSÆs fourth weekly teleconference (April 11) of the 2000 season. The guests: MLS executive vice president: Ivan Gazidis Miami Fusion defender: Francis Okaroh Chicago Fire forward: Ante Razov Ivan Gazidis’ Opening Comments: “I’d like to start by addressing the Mexican player for Los Angeles. I don’t have any comments to make on that at this time. When we do have something to report, we will get it out there. ôWe have signed Andy Williams to a multi-year contract with MLS. I am very pleased about that. He is still a young player, with great talents. We are pleased to sign him and have him on the field in Miami showing what he can do.” “This weekend we have two home openers, one in Chicago and one in New England, I’m sure they will both be well-attended. ôThe intensity level of the competition appears to be high. This past weekend I saw one of the best goals I’ve ever seen in MLS. I’m talking about Hristo Stoitchkov’s goal against D.C. United. ” Ante Razov’s Opening Comments: “The Fire is moving forward, we are trying to get together and put some training sessions together. It was a bit of a weird preseason for us, all our guys weren’t in and then we got Hristo Stoitchkov. ôWe are playing well, creating quite a few chances. It think our attack is one of the best in MLS. As we move forward in the season we are excited, and Hristo is a world-class player who we are glad to have.” “We’re happy to be at home, for the first time this season we are not traveling. It’s nice not to worry about that. We’re looking forward to playing Miami, a tough team, looking forward to running by my pal Okaroh a few times. ” Francis Okaroh’s Opening Comments: “The team down here is shaping up to be a good team. We are hoping the offense comes around and starts scoring some goals. “The young players are coming around and we will have our hands full this weekend with a good Chicago team. My friend [Razov] and I will meet a few times on Saturday, I’m looking forward to meeting my old team, it should be a good game.” Razov on Miami goalkeeper Jeff Cassar “I know Jeff personally, but I haven’t seen too many of his matches. We haven’t looked at the tape yet. I know Jeff is a quality goalkeeper, with a lot of talent, and is having a big year.” Okaroh on defending Hristo Stoitchkov: “Can’t say right now, with me, when we get on the field I will react. I’m sure he will come ready to play.” Razov on Chicago’s red cards: “It’s a weird thing, not something we are happy about. We’ve maybe had some calls go against us, but the team has to be much more disciplined. ôWe don’t want to be a team that’s known for getting cards every game, but we don’t look at it that way. We just have to play with more discipline, and deal with the bad calls a little bit better.” Razov on the Fire’s growing reputation for accumulating red cards: “I hope we don’t have a reputation. We hope that reputation doesn’t have anything to do with it. I hope every game there’s an open mind.” Razov on playing with Stoitchkov: “Hristo’s brought in a lot. He’s a great player and everyone around him feeds off him. He’s not yet in game shape, but having him around makes our jobs a lot easier.” Razov on the trade of Junior Agogo: “Junior is a very talented young player, a big strong guy with good skills. I’m not sure how the trade came down, but it’s tough to loose a guy like that. We have a lot of guys in the attack who can do the job, so the loss isn’t that great. Still, anytime you give away a good young attacking player you lose something.” Razov on last week’s loss at D.C. United: “It was a disheartening defeat for sure. We are pretty upset with ourselves, we feel some things didn’t go our way. In the end, we gave away a game. “Our concentration has to be a lot better. This week’s training is going to be hard, but we’re trying to bring a better mentality against Miami this week.” Razov on how Eddie Lewis is doing in England: “I’ve talked to Eddie frequently, he is doing well, adjusting a lot faster than he thought he would. They got a new coach, his team is looking to make some changes and make a push for the Premier League.ö ôHe seems to think the difference is not that high as people think. Eddie says that American players are right on par to become good players on a world stage.” Razov on the volatile temper of Stoitchkov: “He’s a fiery guy. Hristo needs time to adjust to us, as we need to understand him. Some of the things he does aren’t in sync with the way we do things. We have to find balance between the 11 guys out on field. ôHe’s not beyond … giving the wrath to anyone on our side.” Okaroh on Miami’s goal drought: “Yeah, definitely [the pressure] is building. On paper we have guys who can score goals, but sometimes you have droughts. They need time to get out of the funk and start scoring goals. We can keep the score down until we do start scoring goals.” Razov on communication with Stoitchkov: “He speaks several languages, but very little English. A lot of guys talk to him in Spanish. The Eastern Bloc guys can speak with him, Kubik talks with him in Italian. We have a pretty multi-lingual team over here.” Razov on Stoitchkov’s demeanor: “He’s been pretty low-key. He’s not very loud, maybe a bit during games. Off the field I haven’t seen anything that shows his flamboyant or wild side — yet.”