Chock full of players with leadership qualities, the MetroStars aim to avoid the infighting that has afflicted them the past two seasons.
WITH A VIGOROUS, CLEAN TACKLE, Columbus midfielder Duncan Oughton took down new MetroStar Brian Kamler in front of the team benches and then suspiciously lashed his studs at Kamler from the ground. Daniel Hernandez, Kamler's nearest teammate on the field, strode in, delivering a two-handed shove to Oughton's chest. When tempers cooled, Oughton received a caution and Hernandez a verbal warning.
A few nights earlier, Hernandez had worn the captain's armband for the MetroStars. His actions in this instant illustrated why his coach, Octavio Zambrano, sees both promising leadership qualities and a need for more maturity in the 25-year-old midfielder. Sending a warning to Oughton was understandable, but more important was showing Kamler, in his second league game with the team, that his back was covered. That Hernandez already had a yellow card in the game meant he risked ejection to make those statements.
''Daniel is still a young guy,'' Zambrano says. ''He will be a captain in the whole sense of the word at some point in the future, but he still needs to learn more to become that galvanizing force.''
Hernandez is one of the central figures in an ongoing search for cohesion within the MetroStars. Zambrano has deemed him the second captain behind Tab Ramos, a seventh-year member of the team with experience in three World Cups. When Ramos is unable to play, as happened in nine games last season, Hernandez becomes the on-field captain. Much of the MetroStars' success this season may hinge on how smoothly Ramos, 35, and Hernandez share those duties, how effectively the players police their own behavior, and how well the groups within the team mesh.
Maintaining unity, particularly when the results go awry, is an issue for many MLS teams. For the MetroStars, it has been an annual challenge.
PATTERN OF PETULANCE. The MetroStars' history is littered with personality conflicts, fruitless international signings and losing seasons.
The team fired its first coach, Eddie Firmani, after just eight games as player unrest had already set in. Year 2 was marred by factions that formed when Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira brought in three of his countrymen and none produced. Alfonso Mondelo's 1998 team chugged through 25 games, but then lost six straight and in came Bora Milutinovic to replace him for the playoffs. The 1999 MetroStars had their worst season, going 7-25, including a 13-game losing streak, and the players publicly criticized Milutinovic. The 2000 season was the team's most successful to date, but even en route to the Eastern Division title, German legend Lothar Matthaeus proved to be more a distraction than a leader.
Ramos, the only player to have endured all the MetroStars' locker-room drama, theorizes that the pressures of New York work against team morale.
''I've been here seven years and there's no place I'd rather be,'' Ramos says. ''I've always said that I don't want to play for any other team in MLS besides this one. But we've always had that problem: This is a very difficult place to live. Because of the economics of the league and everything else, there are always going to be some people who are unhappy on this team. When you win and you have a season like we had in 2000, you can cover up a lot of things by winning. Sometimes when you don't win, all the little things start coming out.''
UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS. The MetroStars began last season favored to win the division and full of confidence. They won six of their first eight games, but suddenly sunk into a seven-game winless streak that was exacerbated by an injury to leading scorer Clint Mathis. Mathis tore a knee ligament June 5, and missed the rest of the season.
It was during the month of June that things began to unravel.
Adolfo Valencia, who had scored 16 goals the previous year, was unable to fill the void left by Mathis, netting just five goals. By season's end, Hernandez would publicly rip Valencia's work ethic, thereby cementing a rift that formed during the year.
Valencia's fellow Colombian, Alex Comas, fell even further out of form and was cut June 30. That same day, Billy Walsh scored in a 3-1 loss to Chicago and had another disallowed for offside. Since Walsh had just heard news that the team had tried to trade him to the Fire, Zambrano made him the captain for two games. Walsh would later criticize the way the team was run. Roy Myers joined the team and midfielder Mark Chung, pushed to a reserve role, voiced his desire to be traded. Petter Villegas also expressed wishes to leave New York.
''There were guys who openly said they did not want to play for this organization and we're supposed to go out and battle for those guys? That's pretty silly,'' goalkeeper Tim Howard says.
Various veterans on the team clashed. Quarreling, even physical confrontations, became increasingly common in practice. The team went 7-7-1 without Mathis and lost in the first round of the playoffs to Los Angeles.
''There is such a thing as having too many leaders,'' Howard says. ''This club had way too many leaders. Maybe we still do – but only time will tell that.''
The MetroStars are quick to dismiss the notion that last season's slide was solely due to Mathis' injury. They know other factors were at work.
''It's inevitable that guys will drift toward a certain group, but we had lines form off the field that never went away on the field,'' Zambrano says. ''It was bad.''
RENEWED OUTLOOK. After the 2001 season, Zambrano and general manager Nick Sakiewicz confronted the team about its attitude and poor showing in the latter half of the year.
''They really let us have it,'' defender Mike Petke said. ''They said, 'Look around you. This is not going to be the same team next year.' That scared a lot of guys, knowing they were going to ship out people who contributed to the downfall. I knew honestly that I did my part in that and realized that I didn't want to be cast off like a bad apple. I didn't want my time in New York to end, so it really made me reflect on a lot of things.''
Petke said he and Hernandez have pledged to prevent on-field arguments from spilling over into off-field grudges and have encouraged others to do the same.
The club parted with Chung, Valencia, Walsh, Pedro Alvarez and Richie Williams in the offseason.
Young newcomers Brad Davis, Darin Lewis and last year's top rookie, Rodrigo Faria, bring a fresh breath of enthusiasm to training this year, Zambrano says.
The team also acquired Diego Serna, a player infamous for irking teammates and coach Ray Hudson with his habits in Miami while scoring bunches of goals.
''[Hudson] always tried to call attention to me as a bad boy to the media, but I always gave my best on the field,'' Serna says. ''I have nothing against [Hudson]. I consider myself a nice guy, so I don't see how people outside can judge me as somebody who would come in and disrupt the group.''
So far, Zambrano and Co. have been pleased with Serna's dedication and the players talk of a much-improved atmosphere.
''It's funny how in preseason, things just came together,'' Hernandez says. ''Last year there were a couple groups kind of separated on their own and I think the management and the coach did a great job of getting rid of the players that gave us that negative vibe in the locker room. We have a better core of players this year. All the B.S. off the field is gone. When things come up during the year, you have to keep everybody going the same direction.''
Zambrano believes the entire team took lessons from last year, but that Hernandez, Petke and the other pros with a few years of experience benefited most.
''These guys have seen the results of not everyone being on the same page,'' Zambrano says. ''Now they have reached a maturity level where maybe they realize there aren't that many years left in their careers. … They've seen how you can beat yourself. Whether we have, in fact, overcome that remains to be seen. We have not been tested yet.''
by Soccer America Senior Editor Will Kuhns in East Rutherford, NJ