MLS Conference Call Guests: Colorado Rapids forward – John Spencer Tampa Bay Mutiny President & GM – Bill Manning Chicago Fire Head Coach – Bob Bradley MLS Deputy Commissioner – Ivan Gazidis Ivan Gazidis’ opening comments: “John has made a huge difference to that team in Colorado. He has come in as a new player to our league, adjusted immediately and is currently tied with Diego Serna for the goal scoring lead. Most amazing to me is that he has scored 44 percent of Colorado’s goals this year. That’s a remarkable achievement for a new player in the league. “Quietly Bob (Bradley) has fought through a lot of adversity with Chicago this season. They have had a lot of injuries and players not available, but he has used the full extent of his roster. It is a real testament to the players he has pulled together and also developed. They have a tremendous record this year despite all the adversity they’ve been through and that has been done with out great fanfare. They certainly are one of the strongest teams in the league.” John Spencer’s opening comments: “Luckily for us we are starting to turn the corner at the right time of the season and hopefully we’ll be able to make a run for the playoffs. “The biggest adjustment for myself has been the weather that I’ve had to play in. Some of the cities we’ve been going to have been really hot and that’s not something I’m used to doing. Coming from Scotland it was more of a long-ball type game that we used to play over there. Here in the U.S., we play more of a passing type game which I think suits my style of play a lot better and I seem to be getting a lot more passes to my feet. I’m really enjoying my time in MLS. “Carlos has been excellent, and everybody knows what Valderrama can do. He’s been a famous player for a long, long time and everybody knows him. Especially Scott (Garlick) and Ritchie Kotschau have been excellent for me. Scott in goal has really given a big voice to the defense and Ritchie has added a lot as well. With Valderrama, being a striker, you know that you are always going to get chances from him. He always plays the little threaded passes through the defense, so if myself and Raul (Diaz Arce) can get on to some of those great passes I think we’re going to score a lot more goals this season.” Bill Manning’s opening comments: “My compliments to John Spencer for being a great addition to the league and for bringing some excitement to Colorado. It has been a disappointing season in Tampa, and certainly not one that we envisioned coming into the season. Early on we had some key injuries and the suspension to Mamadou Diallo put us in a tailspin and we were never able to get out of it. Alfonso (Mondelo) attempted different lineups and tried to find the right equation, but it just didn’t work. Basically he pulled himself out of that equation last week. At this point we are very close to naming a successor, and we think it is something we’ll have done in the next 24 hours.” Bob Bradley’s Open Comments: “We are pleased with the fact that so many different players have stepped up and played well over the first half of the season. We think that is important if you are going to have a good team and get through the tough schedule that we all have which obviously for many teams includes call-ups, injuries and suspensions. “We are certainly not the only team that is put in that position and we believe the way you deal with it is not by talking about who’s not there but having an attitude that whoever you play, you can go on the field and still try to compete for three points. It is a credit to our team and our leadership. “We are going though a busy stretch of games, and I think that the nicest part about the All-Star Game is that things are going to slow down for a few days. I think players around the league are looking forward to that.” Manning on the possibility of Tampa salvaging this season: “It could be salvaged. We’d have to get on a serious roll to salvage the season. How we are looking forward to the rest of the season is that hopefully we’ll be able to get some positives out of it. Obviously we’ve changed the face of the team a little bit and it’s searching for an identity. With the person we hope to name as the new coach, that will add a strong identity here in the Tampa community. We’re still not done trying to put the puzzle together and we want to try and take some positives out of it. More than anything we want to build a foundation for success next year and for future years.” Spencer on his adjustment to Major League Soccer: “I had two former teammates both playing in MLS, Mo Johnston in Kansas City, and Juergen Sommer with New England. Both these guys helped out and told me it was a difficult league to come and play in. They said that it was very physical and that you needed some decent technical ability to play here. Honestly I came over here with open eyes and with a work ethic that I was going to work as hard as I possible could for the team. I feel that if you do that, you earn the respect of your teammates and then you can start to do well. I’ve been pretty impressed by my teammates as well as the opposition. They have a very high standard in MLS.” Spencer on comparing his previous experiences to that of Major League Soccer: “I think the English mentality just tends to think that the leagues they have there are the best in the world. They don’t tend to look at the other leagues too much. It doesn’t really matter what they think of the game, it is what us people are trying to do over here. As long as we can do well, work hard and look to take the league forward – that is the main thing. “As to comparing it to the big leagues in the world, you’ve got to remember these leagues have been going for a long, long time, whereas MLS is just in its sixth season. I think the guys here looking after the league and the guys that are playing in MLS are doing a fine job. Hopefully in the years to come everybody all over the world will know what MLS is all about. “I’ve come from the Scottish Premier League, which is quite highly regarded as a decent league to play in. I feel that there are a lot of players here that could go and do very well in the Scottish Premier League. I feel that they try to play a much better passing game here and keep the ball on the ground, whereas in the Scottish game and a lot of English teams tend to play a longer ball which I don’t think is a good way to take soccer ahead. I feel that MLS is coming along fine and that in the next few years it will no doubt be one of the top leagues in the world.” Manning on finding a potential ownership group for the Mutiny: “We think that (discussions with the Glazer family) will have a positive outcome. Mostly this had been handled by the Commissioner’s Office. Discussions have been ongoing, but we think it is going to turn out positive for the organization. I think any business deal takes time and certainly with one of this magnitude I’m sure they will take their due diligence. We think things are going along fine, and we expect that Commissioner Garber is attempting to have something wrapped up soon.” Bradley on facing the Colorado Rapids this weekend: “We know that they have been playing well of late and we expect it to be a difficult game.” Gazidis on the process of selecting All-Star reserves: “There is not a fixed number of reserves due to the injury issues. Generally, over the years, including the number of injured players, there are about 20 players per team. Obviously we look to have the roughly the same number of fit and healthy players on each team. There is not a fixed number, but it is generally going to be seven or eight players that are chosen by the coaches. There are some very collaborative discussions and a lot of different factors, but ultimately it is Bob’s (Bradley) decisions. We have input to give and I’m sure that Bob will take it into account when he makes his decisions.” Bradley on picking reserves as an All-Star coach: “Quite frankly I don’t think it is going to be that much fun figuring this part out. I believe strongly in trying to show respect to the players that have played well in the first half of the season. At the same time, when your team has done well in the first half, I’m also going to show respect to my team. When you talk about the baseball All-Star Game, obviously a lot of discussion went into it but I think that the Yankees have done well and Joe Torre was entitled to pick his players.” Bradley on the U.S. Open Cup: “The Open Cup is a very historic, prestigious cup and I know people who played on very good amateur team years ago whose teams won the U.S. Open Cup and when I was first at D.C. United and not in Chicago I think we have tried to respect the history and if we are going to be a good team and a good club then we want to compete to have our names on that cup. “I can assure you that the players get excited for these kinds of things, not to mention the fact that there is prize money involved for the players. It’s part of soccer all around the world and I think that we are very lucky to be part of it in the United States.” Gazidis on FIFA providing compensation for the canceled Club World Championship: “We received the $500,000 some time ago. That was an advance payment on costs. “People I know that were in Argentina tell me that there was not a decision made yet as to the final amount that is going to be paid. It was a deferral of that decision to an executive meeting in August when that final decision will be made. They are still talking with Traffic how that is going to be paid out to each team. There is an indication that we will get to keep that half of a million that has been pre-paid, and it sounds like there will be something in excess of that. “The money may be distributed to the players, but that is a decision that is going to be made by our Board of Governors.” Bradley on Eric Wynalda and Jamar Beasley’s success after joining the team: “We are pleased with the progress that Eric and Jamar have made so far since they came to Chicago. They have contributed in the last part of this season for us. “We all know Eric’s career and I think every now and then you have a situation where a player is frustrated with things and need to change. I think that is exactly what happened with Eric and we were able to provide a change of scenery which was good for him and he has responded really well. “Jamar, as a young player, I think has had his ups and downs so far in his career and what we have tried to do is to just help stabilize things and it certainly helped because he and his brother (DaMarcus) get along really well. We’ve tried to have the approach with him that he is a 21-year-old player and he is still young and must work hard every day and learn from the players that we have in Chicago and he does a good job of those things. “A lot is always written about how Peter Nowak and Hristo Stoitchkov take interest in young players. I think that has helped him.” Gazidis on the league office’s involvement in the Arlington Park Stadium discussions: “The AEG group is very experienced in sports and has done an enormous amount of the type of discussions they are having involving Arlington Park. They don’t need assistance from the league office. They know the telephone number, but I don’t think that they need it.” Bradley on being named coach of the West All-Star team: “I see it as a credit that in the first half of the season, our players have done a very good job. We also realize that they don’t hand out any trophies in the first half of the season. “I think the league does a good job of putting together an exciting weekend and it’s always fun to spend some time with players from the other teams and get to know them a little bit. I think that once I arrive in San Jose then I will be excited about things. In the meantime, as always, there are a lot of things going on and you try and concentrate on the things that are right in front of you.” Bradley on the condition of Fire forward Josh Wolff: “That is a difficult question to answer. It’s difficult because of the type of injury that he has sustained. It is a foot injury and it involves two stress fractures and an area of the foot called the Lisfranc. If I’m not mistaken Jeff Blake, a quarterback in the NFL, has had some trouble with a similar injury. Our doctor Preston Wolin felt that Dr. Mark Myerson was an expert in this area. At this time he’s (Wolff) wearing a boot. Obviously he’s not played for quite a long time. Dr. Myerson believed that sometime in the middle of August, Josh would be able start running a little bit in running shoes. If that went well, then possibly early in September he starts actually touching the ball and putting on soccer shoes and training a little bit. If that went well, then maybe toward September 15, which is our last regular season game, you could start to think he could play a little bit as a reserve. If you think about things, when we reach September 15, he will have been out for four and a half months. I think that all of us know that with a young player like this, who has such a bright future, we are not going to rush him at all. In my discussions with Josh, the two of us agreed that when we look at this kind of scenario it is likely that he will not be back this year. We have not shut the door entirely on things, but I think it’s likely that he will not make it back for MLS. We are thinking more that at the end of this calendar year that he could be back and doing a good job at training. I would want to make sure that in January, when Bruce (Arena) is starting to get people together that Josh is ready to be at full speed as they move through the early months of next year and that he is somebody that can play a big part in the national team’s plans.”