Quotes from the March 21 MLS conference call, the first of the 2000 season: Opening Comments by MLS Executive Vice President Ivan Gazidis “We had a very positive opening weekend, we saw the resumption of some old rivalries between Chicago and Dallas, which was probably one of the best opening games we’ve had in MLS. It was a terrific game for those of you who didn’t see it and certainly there were a lot of positives that came out of it, one of which was the performance of Hristo Stoitchkov, and the fact that he was very fit and motivated. … That shouldn’t overshadow some of the other things that happened last weekend, one of which was the very positive debut of William Sunsing for New England, and I think we’re going to see much more from that young gentleman over the coming months and years. … I’m very excited about next weekend, we’ve got some great matchups including the L.A. at D.C. game and also the debuts of some of the new internationals we’ve brought into the league this year. … On top of that it was nice to see DaMarcus Beasley get his first start, and I’m also looking to forward to seeing Chris Albright make a very significant contribution to D.C. United this year.” Opening Comments by D.C. United Head Coach Thomas Rongen “I think our players have been looking forward to this contest for quite a while. The preseason can sometimes get very long and tedious, but we’ve had some very productive games and quality time in Bolivia. … We finished our trip on a high note with a win over Wilsterman. … We are as healthy and as fit as we can be. … I expect that Jaime [Moreno] and Marco [Etcheverry] will be ready to play [against L.A.] which should make for a special occasion and that should make for a great game.” Opening Comments by Los Angeles Galaxy Head Coach Sigi Schmid “Obviously its a game that we’re looking forward to. … I think when you have two teams with the track records of D.C. and Los Angeles, and certainly United’s is a little better than ours, but either way it will be great for the fans. … With two teams that have always been near the top of MLS, it’s an attractive matchup early in the season that gives us all an opportunity to see exactly where we’re at. … You always look forward to playing against the best and challenging yourself, and I think its going to be a very entertaining game, and a good game for TV. … I’m also glad I get to sit on the bench this week.” Rongen on the perception of MLS in South America “If the amount of people and coverage when we go to Bolivia is any indication of what they think about D.C. United and MLS, we played two games and the average attendance was between 35 and 40,000. … Jaime Moreno I think will be a starter for the Bolivian national team against Uruguay, and if Marco was completely fit, he also probably would start against Uruguay. … Of course Marco and Jaime are household names there, but certainly our game with Vasco Da Gamma also put us on the map in Central and South America. … There is a lot more respect out there for our league than there was two years back.” Gazidis on the MLS Salary Budget and international allocations “We’re getting toward the end of our signings for the year, but we’re not there yet. We’re still exploring very vigorously some options in Mexico, and I hope that we will be able to have some positive developments on that front to announce in the next couple of weeks. … As far as the salary budget is concerned, it was uplifted again from last year, the important development this year is that we’ve expanded our roster size. … We’ve kept our senior roster to 20 players, and managed to do that within our budget this year, while adding a new class of protected players above and beyond the Project-40 players, and that is our new Junior International players. … Although there are a couple of teams struggling with injuries right now, as a general rule we should find ourselves a little deeper in terms of roster size this season.” Gazidis on which MLS teams are due foreign allocations “The important thing we realize is that it is important for this league to have Mexican players of significance in a couple of our key markets. … What the competitive ramifications of those signings will be if they happen, we’ll have to work out when those signings come to fruition.” Schmid on losing Galaxy players due to Olympic Qualifying “First off I’m happy that we of the L.A. Galaxy are in that position that we have three players who are being considered in the Olympic pool. … That is a nice position to be in because it is not a position we’ve been in in the past with our younger players. … Danny Califf is another one who has done well for us. … He has a little bit tougher job because he has a couple of guys ahead of him named Robin Fraser and Greg Vanney who are both playing on the senior national team. … He’s somebody who will make his way into our lineup, and someone who was important for us to draft.” Schmid on the status of Robin Fraser for the March 25 game against D.C. United “He should be ready. He could have probably played last Saturday as well for us if it had been a playoff game or something like that, but early in the season we’re going to be a little conservative with injuries like that.” Rongen on the status of Eddie Pope and Marco Etcheverry “Marco has a lingering calf problem that is not very serious, but has prevented him from playing 90 minutes and is still something we need to take a look at. … Eddie did play about 65 or 70 minutes in our second game with Wilsterman. … I expect that both players will be fully fit and ready for our big game against Los Angeles on Saturday.” Gazidis on MLS attendance during the opening weekend of play I wasn’t surprised by it, I think its in line with what we expected. … Its very early to be opening our season. … What we tend to have if you look at our attendance figures for games this early in March, our attendance figures have never been tremendously high, but they tend to build into April and May. … We were not surprised, they were very much in line with what we were expecting.” Gazidis on the format of the MLS Cup Playoffs “There is only one issue that’s outstanding on the playoff format, and that is if we get to the end of Game Three and the two teams are level on points: How do we tie-break the series?. … Our preferred solution is to play a mini-game, preferably a 30-minute mini-game followed by penalty kicks. … The problem we run into is that in terms of time, that could take up to 50 minutes if you have PK’s following a full golden-goal overtime where no goal is scored. … What we are doing at the moment is negotiating with our TV partners to work out how far toward that goal we can get.” Rongen on the absence of United players due to international competition “It’s nothing new, but this year probably will be the most daunting task out of all years because of the Olympic team commitments, that us takes three players away. … That combined with 10-12 qualifying games for Bolivia and the U.S. national team where we also have players involved and it becomes very challenging. … Depth is again going to be a factor for us, and last year we did a very good job of managing all the players on our roster. … It’s never easy for a coach, but its always been a team effort for us.” Gazidis on bringing an international allocation to Los Angeles “Because of the way the Mexican season runs, it is unlikely that we will be getting a Mexican player before the end of the Mexican season. … In terms of the order in which players are being signed, the availability of a Mexican player won’t happen until May at the earliest. … I agree that we need to have a significant Mexican player in Los Angeles, and that commitment was reaffirmed again out in Los Angeles this past weekend.” Gazidis on rumors about extra money being allocated to sign a Mexican player “There’s no truth to the number [$ 2 million]. I am quite sure that if we could find a deal that makes sense we would get the funding and commitment from our ownership to pursue that. … I’m not sure that I’ll need extra funds over and above what I have right now. … What we have this year is a good budget to go out and sign some important players. … If I find that we need some extra funds, than I’ll approach the ownership for those funds and I’m sure I’ll have their support. … We’re looking at a number of different possibilities that could end up with one significant Mexican player for L.A., but if there are other good deals out there that we think make sense for us, we’re not going to be deterred by saying that we’ll only have one. We’re committed to making it happen, and if there is any way that it can happen it will happen.” Gazidis on the arrival of Mamadou Diallo on Thursday, March 23 “I think that is possible, but I think it’s probably a little bit optimistic. It is not in our hands at this point, it’s in the hands of the INS and we’re just waiting for work permit approval to come through. … I think that Thursday might be a little bit optimistic, but its possible that we could have him available for this weekend’s game.” Gazidis on the possibility of a player from Leon of the Mexican First Division joining MLS “That was a possibility at one time. … I think that we are close to reaching a resolution with Leon of that outstanding debt [to the U.S. Soccer Federation], but it does not involve any player movement.” Gazidis on Roy Lassiter’s recent holdout “I’m not going to comment on levels of salary for any individual player’s salary. … Roy is currently under his third MLS contract since he joined us, the most recent was negotiated at the beginning of the 1999 season and signed at that time. … At the end of the 1999 season and prior to the beginning of this season we told Roy that, that contract withstanding we were prepared to sign him to his fourth MLS contract within the space of five years with some uplift. … I believe Roy made the wrong decision in choosing not to honor a contractual commitment that he had made less than 12 months previously. … Failing to report to camp basically ceased discussions about a new contract with him because our principal is that we are not prepared to talk about contracts with players if those contracts aren’t worth the paper they are written on. … I’m glad to see that we’ve had a positive development and that Roy has decided to report to camp, and so those discussions can restart where they left off.” Rongen on 16-year-old Bobby Convey “Our process with him started off the field with him very early. … On the field he has made remarkable progress as well. … He’s a player that we chose because of some of the qualities that he’s shown, not only with the U-17’s and during the combine, but things that showed he could develop at his own rate. … He’s very fit, and a player that will certainly see some time of significance this season.” Gazidis On Eddie Lewis’ Transfer “We had expressions of interest, but nothing serious for some time. … What drove the rapidity with which that deal had to come together was the signing deadline in England. … It became obvious that we had a very serious interest from Fulham and that they wanted to put it together in a matter of hours. … Eddie clearly wanted to pursue that opportunity and we didn’t want to stand in his way. … If Eddie is performing well in England, we’ll certainly see increased benefits and that’s something we look for in all these types of deals. … It shows the high regard that Fulham Football Club held him in.”