Rosters are trimmed in anticipation of leagueÆs player limit being reduced
When Lothar Matthaeus arrived in New York, one of the first things he did was send out girlfriend Maren Mueller-Wohlfarth to buy furniture.
The league, you see, had filled his apartment ù for which MLS was paying $10,000 a month ù with rented furnishings not suitable to his tastes. Thus did his sojourn with the MetroStars begin.
But MatthaeusÆ thirst for tufted chairs could have been tolerated had he not played with the immobility of a leather ottoman for most of the season. Not until the last few weeks did he exhibit the vision and guile he displayed during his legendary career.
The furniture fiasco is just one entry in the Matthaeus saga. It will not continue next season. He and General Manager Nick Sakiewicz will have a farewell dinner sometime soon, thus ending yet another turbulent visit by a Metros foreign envoy.
Colombian international Ruben Dario Hernandez (0 goals) was gone after only 10 games in 1996. Former Brazilian national team star Branco arrived during the summer of æ97 to haul three red cards in just 11 games. Let us not forget Colombian Arley Palacios from the class of æ98. Last yearÆs 7-25 season was personified by the bizarre Serb Sasa Curcic.
In 2000, the Metros dropped Iranian defender Mohammed Khakpour not once, but twice. Unlike many of his volatile predecessors, Khakpour usually showed up on time and did what the coaches asked. Yet his fate was the same.
LIMIT TO BE REDUCED. Teams will have one less headache to worry about ù and one less chance for redemption ù next year when the limit on foreign players is reduced from four to three.
Several teams ù the MetroStars, Dallas, New England ù have already trimmed foreigners off their rosters. Dallas waived Argentine defender Ricardo Iribarren because of the anticipated reduction to three foreigners.
Iribarren was forced out of the league in 1997 because the league fouled up his paperwork. Teams could field five foreigners that season, but the Crew had to do without Iribarren.
He was the BurnÆs best defender at times this season, but with Ariel Graziani to score goals, Oscar Pareja to set them up, and Jorge Rodriguez to play staunchly in the back or in midfield, Iribarren is the odd man out.
At least for now.
There are open spots around the league, yet a senior international defender could be a luxury with the limit at three.
A few teams have had enough trouble putting more than one decent foreign player on the field in some seasons.
No matter how great the talent or how glittering the resume, a foreign player is a gamble. Those coaches who make the right gambles win.
Chicago reached MLS Cup 2000 thanks in great measure to Bulgarian Hristo Stoitchkov; the Fire was beaten in the final on a goal by Dane Miklos Molnar.
Fire coach Bob Bradley had to juggle his roster and sacrifice draft picks to get Stoitchkov, who started his MLS career combatively but soon emerged as a true leader.
Bob Gansler rode out some rocky stretches of Molnar complaining about being substituted.
Sigi Schmid had to make sacrifices to get Luis Hernandez on the Galaxy roster. His gamble came in believing the league would permit Hernandez to replace Carlos Hermosillo straight across.
Instead, an unprecedented dispersal draft swept Clint Mathis and Joe Franchino off his roster. The salary cap and foreign-player limit forced Schmid to trade Costa Rican Roy Myers back to the MetroStars.
Those who play the wrong gambles suffer, even when it appears theyÆve won.
Ex-Mutiny head coach Tim Hankinson had seemingly cashed in when Senegalese striker Mamadou Diallo set off to lead the league in scoring. But HankinsonÆs insistence on playing a 4-5-1 usually left either Diallo or Raul Diaz Arce out of the lineup, and when GM Bill Manning insisted on trading the Salvadoran, a rift opened up between the GM and head coach that eventually resulted in HankinsonÆs departure.
Lothar Osiander extracted little from Khodadad Azizi this season. When Ronald Cerritos suffered an injury and Azizi didnÆt pick up the slack, the Quakes were cooked.
Henry Zambrano ù traded from the Metros when they picked up fellow Colombian Alex Comas ù did little more than take up a roster spot in Colorado, but Glenn Myernick did get 10 goals out of youngster Junior Agogo and reached the playoffs.
THE RIGHT FORMULA. Fusion head coach Ray Hudson has already begun his quest for another foreigner. He is notably fond of the skill exhibited by Colombian players and a compatriot might be the best fit for Diego Serna.
Or he could mine Honduras, one of the untapped areas of Central America. It is no longer uncharted territory: English club Derby County paid $3 million for Honduran Milton ôTysonö Nunez last spring, and most of members of the Honduran U-23 team that won the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament have been swept up by teams in Europe and South America.
If Hudson comes back from his native England with Paul Gascoigne in tow, anything can happen.
In Europe, the dictum for decades had been to import two or three players from the same nation so they can blend off the field as well as on it.
Inter Milan hasnÆt won a Serie A title since it featured the German duo of Lothar Matthaeus and Andy Brehme. (Juergen Klinsmann arrived after Inter won the crown in 1989.) Rival AC Milan won back-to-back European Cup titles with the Dutch triumvirate of Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten and Frank Rijkaard.
Blending players from the same country worked in D.C., but not until Jaime Moreno replaced Juan Berthy Suarez and was melded with Marco Etcheverry.
ChicagoÆs 1998 double-winning team featured the Eastern Bloc: Jerzy Podbrozny, Roman Kosecki and Peter Nowak of Poland and Lubos Kubik of the Czech Republic.
But one of the reasons Brian Quinn was canned by San Jose in 1999 was because Diaz Arce couldnÆt score when lined up alongside Salvadoran teammate Ronald Cerritos.
THE HISPANIC FACTOR. One of the marketing aims in the original MLS business plan was to sell the league to Hispanic fans. ThereÆs still an Hispanic influence in MLS, but several factors are working against that influence growing:
The staggering expense of Mexican players stilts the leagueÆs efforts to import those players.
MLS simply canÆt compete with Mexican clubs for talent. (The Fusion likely will lose Guatemalan midfielder Martin Machon to a Mexican team this winter.)
MLS may have already obtained the best available players from several countries, including El Salvador, Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica.
Argentine players have not been the sure things the soccer traditions of their country might portend. And they tend to be pricey.
THE YOUNGER BRIGADE. Under the current MLS definitions, Kansas CityÆs Trinidad & Tobago striker, Gary Glasgow, will count as a senior international next season when he reaches the age of 25.
League officials are anticipating approval from U.S. Soccer to increase the number of junior and transitional internationals to 24 next season.
Junior internationals are those 22 and younger, transitional internationals can be 23 or 24 years old. Juniors do not count against the salary cap or foreign-player limit; transitionals count against the cap but not the limit.
Through its affiliations with the Tahuichi Academy in Bolivia ù MLS signing Joselita Vaca is one of the top teen-agers in South America ù and the Caribbean Football Union, MLS hopes to import younger players and either keep them longer in MLS or sell them at a good price to foreign leagues.
Few teams have regularly fielded four excellent foreigners. But with one less senior slot available, the margin for error will be even narrower.
by Soccer America senior editor Ridge Mahoney