The following are quotes from MLSÆs July 18 conference call the featured MLS executive vice president Ivan Gazidis, Columbus Crew forward Dante WashingtonTampa Bay Mutiny defender Steve Trittschuh. Ivan Gazidis’ Opening Comments “Congratulations to Dante, it was long overdue for you to win Player of the Week honors with the kind of season you are having. I have a couple of things for this week. … We had 22 players called up to national team duty, to take part in the opening games of the semifinal stage of World Cup qualifying last weekend. The first round of games took place last weekend and the next round will be this coming week. The highlights for MLS were, Ante Razov scoring for the U.S. in that 1-1 tie. Mauricio Cienfuegos also scored for El Salvador in a 5-2 loss to Honduras. Tomorrow, Ariel Graziani and Ecuador will be taking on Argentina. That will be a difficult game for Ariel and we wish him well down in Buenos Aires. The 22 representatives are: from the MetroStars, Tab Ramos and Clint Mathis (USA); from the Miami Fusion, Andy Williams and Tyrone Marshall of Jamaica; Raul Diaz Arce (El Salvador) and Eddie Pope (USA) of D.C. United; Chris Armas (USA) and Ante Razov (USA) from the Chicago Fire; the Columbus Crew’s Ansil Elcock (Trinidad & Tobago); Jason Kreis (USA), Chad Deering (USA), Ariel Graziani (Ecuador) and Jorge Rodriguez (El Salvador), all of the Dallas Burn; Gary Glasgow (Trinidad & Tobago) of the Kansas City Wizards; from the Los Angeles Galaxy Cobi Jones (USA), Robin Fraser (USA), Greg Vanney (USA), Mauricio Cienfuegos (El Salvador), Ezra Hendrickson (St. Vincent and the Grenadines), Luis Hernandez (Mexico); and Jorge Dely Valdes (Panama) and Jason Bent (Canada) of the Colorado Rapids. It’s a lot of talent to be out of the league at this time, but it’s a reflection of how much talent there is in the league. It’s one of the part of soccer that those of us who appreciate the international game love and live with. We have this cooperation where we give up players to play with their national teams around the world. We very much hope the U.S. team will be representing us and MLS in the next World Cup. Also, at this time, I’ll have no comment on any question regarding Lothar Matthaeus. We have no comment on that situation for the time being.” Dante Washington’s Opening Comments “Things have been up and down for us. We haven’t really been able to put together a good string of games up until now. This past week was really big for us. We have Kansas City coming up again this weekend, everybody knows it will be a difficult game. They haven’t been giving up a lot of goals this season. It’s playoff hunt time, not only for our team but for all the teams in the league. We’re starting to bear down and play some really good soccer in an attempt to make the playoffs. We’re all trying to win the championship.” Steve Trittschuh’s Opening Comments “Things have been going pretty well, we’ve stayed at the top almost the whole year. Our division has been the tightest in the league. This next game against Los Angeles will be really important. L.A. will be missing some players and we’ve got to take advantage of that and get some points.” Washington on playing without McBride “I don’t think its helped me as much as it has hurt me. Everyone knows how dangerous Brian is. With him on the field, back in the midfield it helps me a tremendous amount. He creates a lot of space for me. Without him, they’ve been able to mark me a bit tighter. We are definitely looking forward to getting McBride back.” Washington on the scoring race “The scoring title is not that important, it would be a great award to get. What’s most important for me is to have the team have success. It that involves me or any other player having personal success that we’ll take that as well. The biggest goal is for us to win a championship.” Washington on possible being an All-Star “Provided that I am an All-Star, it will be a lot of fun playing at home in front of the fans. There’s nothing like playing at home. To be in an All-Star game, representing your city in your own stadium will be a lot of fun.” Trittschuh comparing Washington and Mamadou Diallo “They are pretty similar players, you can look at Mamadou, he’s so big and fast. With Dante, you have to always keep your eye on him. If you take your eye off him, he can slip behind you and score a goal. Mamadou is pretty much straight forward, if he gets the chance to turn on you, he’ll blow by you. He’s a great addition to the league. Both of these forwards are very good in this league.” Trittschuh on the tight Central Division “The points right now are showing that. We play Chicago twice more and the other two teams once more. Those are very important points. It’s going to come down to the wire as to who finishes first. It can be a case where maybe two or three teams make the playoffs.” Washington on the Central Division “If you look at the standings, all four teams have 30 points or above, the other divisions can’t say that. Every game within the conference is a tremendous battle. We haven’t done too well within our division, luckily we have been able to pick wins outside the division. Our main goal at this point in the season is to get points. We still have some more division games to do that.” Washington on controversial no-goal call last week “As a forward, anytime that you think you have a goal and its taken away it is frustrating. For me, it was the second goal taken away from me. I had one against New England, when I was called offside when I think I was not offside. It looked from my point of view in Saturday’s game, that the ball was clearly over the line. I guess with the view the linesman had, he couldn’t state positively that the whole ball was in the net. It didn’t have an impact on the game, but I would be nice to have one more goal.” Washington on New England “In Dallas, we always had problems with New England. Here in Columbus, we haven’t had much trouble with New England. Maybe it’s the style of play. Probably all the teams in the league will vouch that we have a lot of team speed, and that affected the Revs for sure. ôOur second goal came off a defensive mistake, which made things very difficult for them. We played really well against them, I think they are having some problems right now. We were getting behind their defense and going at them a lot. We came up with one of our best games all season.” Trittschuh on the division race “It’s been pretty consistent, we’ve hung around the top in points, it’s exciting. The guys have a great attitude down here. It’s going to come down the wire. Hopefully the fans will come out and see it. At this point, you have to take everything game by game. This week against L.A. it’s very important to get three points. We play three of our four division games here at home.” Washington on the division race “I’m sure its got to be exciting for the fans. Any time there is a measly five points separating all of the teams, it’s going to be difficult because every game counts. It probably will go down to the wire, making it difficult on us as players. Now as we go down to the end of the season, it’s pretty evident that each game is big. For us, we have four games in a row on the road, making it somewhat difficult for us.” Gazidis on All-Star game “I think the All-Star game does a lot of different things for us. From the marketing and branding standpoint, it’s a way of generating interest in our league. It’s a formal way of recognizing players with outstanding performance. It also gives us a break halfway through the year, where we as a league can take a pause and consider a few things. We have competition committee meetings, referee meetings, our coaches and owners come in. ôHaving said all of that, we have a very crowded schedule. This year we’ve crammed our 32 game schedule into a shorter period that last year. Finding a weekend is not easy in the middle of the year and it produces some challenges. It’s got some tremendous benefits for us. I think that other leagues around the world are interested in the format, although I haven’t seen any suggestions that they are putting all-star games in the German winter break for example. ôThe problem in the rest of the world is the same problem we have. The schedule is even more outlandish in Europe, squeezing things like all-star games in is difficult. However, the FIFA world all-star games are very successful. For example, a game in South Africa would feature world stars that people in South Africa don’t normally get a chance to see. ” Trittschuh on Tampa Bay’s defense “I think we can play a little bit better. This last month we’ve been on the Wednesday to Saturday stretch. The Chicago game was the end of that run, so guys were a little bit tired. I do think we can play a little bit better. Chicago played real well on Saturday. We were fortunate to come away with a tie. They had a few corners toward the end, but nothing came of them. We were fortunate that the Fire didn’t get any goals off us.” Gazidis on the sale of the Dallas Burn “We have had some serious interest in Dallas over a period of time. Ultimately, one of our goals is to divest the league of our league-operated teams. There is definite interest in Dallas. It is a tremendous soccer market, with an enormous amount of potential. I wouldn’t be surprised that if at some point in the relatively near future, we see some positive developments on this. Obviously, we play in a stadium that is not ideal for us in Dallas. That would be a priority for any investor, but not a precondition to a sale.” Washington on leaving Dallas “Last year I was a bit disappointed in not getting playing time in Dallas. It had a lot to do with Ariel Graziani coming in when I finally got healthy. I told Dave Dir that I wanted to be moved in the off season. When nothing happened in the off season, I didn’t think that anything was going to happen. When the trade came down around the draft, I was excited. I think that sometimes change is good.” Trittschuh on how Pro-40 develops young players “I think Project-40 is great. Those guys are starters on this team. Chad McCarty going to the Olympics, while Eric Quill is in the Olympic pool. With Project-40 its great to get games every week and prepare the young guys to play. They can step in if we have and injury on the team. Out of college, I was a starter in the indoor league and right into the national team pool. I didn’t have to prove myself, while these guys have strong competition now. I can see Chad and Eric improving every time they get on the field, they both can be part of the U.S. National Team pool in years to come.” Washington on Project-40 “It’s done well for us in Columbus. Brian West and Matt Napoleon are products of that system. West had a callup to the full national team earlier this year. Napoleon is in the pool now for the Olympics. It’s good to get them involved in a high level at a younger age. The earlier you start the more you can learn. When I came out of college, there was no major league. When I came out, I wish that I would have had the option like they have. I wasn’t too keen on going overseas. ôYou are definitely seeing an impact on the game here now. These guys are so young, and some of them are starting on their teams. They are developing some real good experience.” Trittschuh on last week’s Fire-Mutiny game “You had the two top scoring teams playing, who would have expected a 0-0 draw. I’m sure the fans were excited to watch that game, and there were plenty of good chances. Anywhere else around the world, you go away from home and get one point you have to be happy. We were satisfied against Chicago. It’s going to be real interesting the rest of the way.” Gazidis on showcasing Crew Stadium “It is very important. That stadium was built with the idea of holding significant events there, such as our All-Star game. We want to use that as a model for other stadiums. To see a soccer specific stadium, with our markings and our goals, is something very special for soccer fans in the country.”