MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis, Chicago forward Josh Wolff and D.C. United midfielder Bobby Convey participated in MLS’s weekly teleconference call Tuesday. Ivan Gazidis Opening remarks: “It’s great to have Josh Wolff and Bobby Convey on the call. These two players are among a group of players who are really going to be the future of our U.S. National Team going forward. We are very proud to have them in our league.” “I don’t think we’ve ever had such an exciting start to the season on the field. We had six great games over the weekend. All of them were exciting. We had some very impressive debuts from some of the newcomers. In D.C., Mark Lisi, Craig Ziadie and Ryan Nelsen came up big and pulled out a 3-2 win over Kansas City. Bobby had a little say in that as well finally getting his first MLS goal. In Los Angeles, Dwayne DeRosario scored in his MLS debut and had six shots on goal as well, leading all players. He’s still only 22 years old and he’s one of the young guard as well. And then there was the little matter of Landon Donovan debuting in that game in the 73rd minute, too. In Miami we had a newcomer, Alex Pineda Chacon, with two goals, picking up MLS Player of the Week award. Ian Bishop also played well in that game, and it was great to see Chris Henderson and Preki doing their thing in a 2-1 win over Colorado. John Spencer, a newcomer for the Rapids, also scored in his debut. Ali Curtis scored in his debut for Tampa Bay and a couple of other players worthy of note: Edson Buddle started and played at forward for 72 minutes for the Columbus Crew, and Roy Lassiter scored in his debut for Kansas City. It was really a great opening weekend for MLS and I’m very proud how the quality of the league continues to escalate year on year. I’ve never seen us come out of the box so strong.” “In other news, the Crew and D.C. are in the Giants Cup tomorrow night. They have slightly different circumstances. D.C. won 3-0 on the road against their Jamaican opponent Arnett Gardens in the first leg, so barring a four goal loss they should, we hope, progress to the semifinals of the tournament. Columbus Crew has an uphill battle against Saprissa. Saprissa is a very strong side and Columbus has a real challenge. They need to win by three goals in order to go through to the semifinals. It should be an exciting game at Crew Stadium.” “The WUSA is opening this weekend. I think this is a tremendous time in U.S. Soccer history, and the fact that we have a women’s professional league is great for soccer. We will be sending a delegation down to the game headed by our Chief Operating Officer Mark Abbott. We’re looking forward to see the Washington Freedom host the Bay Area Cyber Rays on April 14.” Josh Wolff’s Opening Statements: “I would second Ivan’s points about the start of the season. It looks like there is a lot of competition this year and that certainly bodes well for this league. I’m excited as well as by all the players in the league. It’s great to see all the teams get off to a fairly decent start. We play D.C. United this weekend and it seems like each and every time we play D.C. it’s an exciting and entertaining match and that obviously dates back to the 1998 final. We have quite a rivalry going. We’re looking forward to this weekend and it’s at home. Our guys are very excited. We’re going to be going out there to try to get three points. For Bobby, obviously, it hasn’t taken him long to find a spot in this league. He’s going to be one of the players of the future and is certainly a great player at this point. We’re very excited to see the younger talent in the United States progressing in the way that it is.” Bobby Convey’s Opening Statements: “It’s great all the teams have come out pretty strong. Especially for us, we were glad to get a win in our first game especially after last season. We have a new young team and it’s a new season and we have a lot of confidence coming into this year. Hopefully we can keep progressing. Tomorrow we play against Arnett Gardens and we played well against them down in Jamaica. But they’re a good team and we can’t look at the Chicago game already. We still have a game tomorrow before we play Chicago. But it’s a great rivalry between D.C. United and the Fire. We can’t wait to play them. It’s a good test for us right now in our preparation to see how we match up against Chicago who last year was in the final. Hopefully it’s a good game.” Convey on scoring his first MLS goal: “It was a great thing for me to finally get my first goal. It’s only one and hopefully there’s more to come. But it is good for me to finally get the hump off my back and hopefully they’ll keep coming this year.” Convey on not being the youngest player on the team any more: “It’s good for me because now I have someone to hang out with that is my own age (Santino Quaranta). I knew Santino before he came to our team. It was good for him to come here, because he lives close to here. But I’m still a young guy on the team. We just have another young guy now. I’m not treated any different than I was last year.” Gazidis on attendance projections for MLS: “We’re very happy with our opening attendance especially given the weather in Los Angeles and Dallas. We felt we came out of the box very strong. We’re going to look for further improvements this coming weekend. We don’t have a specific goal in mind. Clearly we set for ourselves the target of showing improvement. We’ve seen how over the last four years our attendance has basically been steady within a margin of error but the story has always been MLS attendance falls year after year, even though the attendance has basically been steady. I’m hoping the media will be as willing to say that MLS attendance grows if we show attendance growth. That’s what we’re looking for without setting any specific target.” Gazidis on the quantity of yellow and red cards distributed during opening weekend: “I don’t think you’re seeing a trend. What we’ve been reiterating to our referees during the offseason is the need for them to exercise their judgment. The referees who are refereeing MLS games are the best American referees there are and they got to those positions by exercising good judgment. Our emphasis has been on trusting them to do the right things on the field. As far as directives, there has been one push that the league has made during the offseason and that’s been against player dissent, which we felt was getting to unacceptable levels. We went around to the teams in preseason and spoke with all of our players about that being an issue for us and we got tremendous support from the players. In fact, they agreed that this was an area that we needed to address. So to the extent that there are extra cards being issued for dissent matters, that could be due to the directive. Outside of that, there shouldn’t be any trend one way or the other with respect to the number of cards. You are seeing referees exercising their judgment.” Convey on his experience with the U-17s: “We moved down to Florida into residency a while before the World Championships and it helped me because I got to play day in and day out with good players and I got to go to school at the same time. It benefited me in that I didn’t have to travel all the time with the U-17 National Team, missing school in the process. Whereas when we moved to Florida we got to go to school and play at the same time. Playing at the U-17 World Cup got me used to international games and there were a lot of people there with big crowds. It helps you grow as a player and a person.” Convey on Santino Quaranta and his current situation with the U-17s: “He’s done well. The league thought he was a good prospect for the future and I’m hoping for him to play well with D.C. United. He’s only been here for a little while, so he’s still getting used to playing (with United). With the U-17s, hopefully he can step up and score a few goals.” Gazidis on the perception of competition between MLS and WUSA: “We don’t see them as competition. What we see is growing the soccer pie so that we can all share in it. I think we have slightly different target audiences. For the most part we’re in different locations. In those places where we are in the same location, we’re both promoting soccer and I think we’re going to see advantages coming out of that rather than disadvantages. We don’t view WUSA as competition but as a partner of ours growing the sport and growing the opportunity for all of us.” Gazidis on sponsorship economics as it pertains to MLS and WUSA: “The sponsorship environment is a difficult one at the moment not only within soccer but within all sports. There’s a general tightening there. What you’ll see is companies that get involved with soccer will have a good return from it. Then, they’ll want to be more involved rather than less involved. Having more opportunities to reach the target groups they want through both a men’s league and a women’s league is going to produce opportunities for both of us over the long term. The future is very bright for both of us.” Wolff on how the Chicago Fire has aided his development: “Certainly being with Chicago has helped me progress as a player tremendously. I think going to Bob Bradley and the Chicago Fire staff has allowed me to grow as a player. But being in Nike Project-40 also allowed me to get in a lot of games at a time I wouldn’t be playing in Chicago. And Bob was able to follow me while I was playing in the A-League. And certainly by coming back and getting in some training with Chicago, it certainly helped me out and find my role within the team. Over the last three years our team has been one that has been very attack-oriented and I’ve been able to come in and do some things to help our club win games and now it’s certainly more of a responsibility and opportunity for me to do that day in and day out.” Convey on how his club environment has helped him: “D.C. United definitely has helped me and being a Nike Project-40 Player gives you an opportunity to play in games when you wouldn’t be playing. The more you play, the better you get and the more confidence you get. The main thing for me was playing and through Project-40 and D.C. United I got to play.” Gazidis on the Chicago Fire’s reserve team model: “We’re looking at the model that Chicago has set up. The MetroStars are doing something of their own as well. As we see how that progresses, it could form a model for other teams going forward. I certainly expect it to be a very positive experience for us, the players, and other people who are involved in the project. We’re looking at it very closely and if it goes well as we expect it to, I think it can prove to be a model for other things that we want to do.” Convey on how he approaches the prospect of playing two games in one week: “It’s definitely a game where we are not looking to tie or get out of there easily. We’re taking it as a real game. But we also have a game on Saturday against Chicago, one of the best teams in the league. I take it just like any other game – I’m going out there to win. But I also have to realize that I have a game a couple of days later and I have to be ready for that.” Convey on the effect Marco Etcheverry’s fitness has on United’s success: “Marco is our captain and the heart of the team. When he works, we all work. For him to come back this season and be fit and want to play gives the whole team momentum and helps our team a lot.” Wolff on adjusting to playing in MLS and then World Cup qualifying: “The biggest thing is your don’t get to spend a lot of time with your club team and for me personally I haven’t been able to spend a great deal of time up front with John Wolyniec. He’s had a great preseason. With Hristo [Stoitchkov] being out, him and I are going to have to link up a little bit better and that’s something we need to work on in the next few days and the next few weeks. Part of the responsibility of being with the national team is that you are going to have some time away from your club team. I’ve been with this team for three or four years now and there is an understanding among all of us and for the most part we link up pretty well as a team. When we’re gone there really isn’t a dropoff when we’re missing games with Chicago.” Gazidis on helping clubs compete in international competitions: “This year we’re entering more international competitions than ever before. We have the Giants Cup, the F.C. Champions Cup and the FIFA Club World Championships. We also have the Merconorte Cup that we would like to enter if we can get through the scheduling issues that are involved. We’re reaching out onto the world stage increasingly and trying to pit ourselves against international opposition. We do have to be conscious of the fact that while some of our teams are in this tournament, others are not. We can’t do things for the teams that are in those tournaments that gives them an unfair advantage in MLS play. Ultimately it’s our league and its credibility that is the most important thing and we need a competitive level playing field amongst our teams. The question really is whether there’s anything special we’re doing for those tournaments which does not affect MLS league play. The answer to that is that for the World Club Championship, that’s something we’re going to look at. If the Los Angeles Galaxy feel that there are ways that the league can support them that would significantly help their team, we would look at that. One of the things we have to be careful about is that we want the team that plays in Spain to be a Major League Soccer team made up of Major League Soccer players. We don’t want to lose sight of that fact. I think that Sigi’s feelings have been that it’s important to his team that he’s showing confidence in the players he has to go to Spain and do a great job for him. I’m not sure that Sigi is even looking for short term help for that tournament.” “I think far beyond the money we make on the tournament are the strides we make forward in terms of our credibility on the international stage and more importantly in the United States. The league has reached a level that I believe is very competitive with many leagues around the world. Bear in mind we’ve won two of the last three North American club championships and we’ve also been champions of North and South America and that’s all in a short five-year history. There’s no question when you look at the opening games this year, the level is up again. It’s growing exponentially as we give young players like Bobby and Josh the opportunities to flourish and they’re grabbing them with both hands. I’m convinced we can be competitive on the world stage and I’m looking forward to proving that in the future.” Gazidis on the Los Angeles Galaxy’s playing Argentina’s Boca Juniors: “It’s not something that happens in the natural course of things. The champions of North American and the champions of South America don’t automatically meet. There’s nothing automatically set up. If we can arrange a game like that, it would be tremendous and the league would be behind it 100 percent.” Gazidis on perceived competition for media attention between MLS and the WUSA: “I don’t think either we’re going to eclipse them or they’re going to eclipse us. No doubt there will be some column inches that we lose because of them and some column inches that they lose because of us. But I tend to believe that the overall column inches are going to increase and that the pie is going to get bigger. So I welcome it and I think it’s all good exposure for soccer. I know some people will see competition where it does not exist. What we have is more akin to a partnership than a competitive situation.” Wolff on the spirits of national team after the win against Honduras: “Those three points were just as important as the three points against Mexico. Each game has its own importance. There are eight games left and we have a lot to achieve. The game against Costa Rica is another important game and if we can get three points there it sets up the U.S. nicely in the seven games that will remain. But I think there is a lot of confidence on the team. To get the maximum points from two games is fantastic and I think it says a lot about where U.S. Soccer has come from and where it’s going. We are looking forward to the game in Kansas City and it’s going to be great to be back in the U.S. on our home field and in Kansas City I expect the crowd to be fantastic.” Wolff on status of American soccer players: “Within the soccer community there’s a general knowledge of who we are and what we’re trying to do. In Chicago we have a great fan base and when you’re out and about people do recognize you. It’s not overwhelming but it’s good to see that the fans, the community and the kids know what’s going on and are involved in what we’re doing. It’s not celebrity status but the sport is growing and the community and people are taking notice.” Convey on being a sports star: “It’s the same for me in D.C. People know you because they see you in the newspaper and they see you on the local news. It’s good to see that people know who we are but it’s different compared to other sports where everybody knows who they are. Soccer is growing in the U.S. and there will be soccer stars in the U.S.” Convey on playing against Brazil and the reviews he received: “It was a great opportunity for me. I didn’t even know that I was going to play until right before the game. So I didn’t have time to get nervous. Some people never get to play against the guys that I played against. The last two World Cups I watched these guys on TV, and they were the best players in the world. It was a lot of fun for me to play against them. A great opportunity.” Convey on the bar that has been set for the U-17 squad: “We did well but it was one team and it was one tournament. I hope they do well. I talk to Santino about a bunch of stuff and just told him to keep his head on straight and not to worry about what the team I played on did but just worry about his team and to do better than the last group.” Gazidis on signing U-17 players: “We’re pretty cautious about signing younger players. As with Bobby, it is only in situations where we think there is an exceptional talent. We’re glad that players like Bobby, Edward Johnson, Santino (Quaranta) and Devin Barclay are choosing Major League Soccer. I passionately believe that it’s a great choice for them. I don’t see us going out and actively recruiting those players. That’s not our style. What we are offering is for the very best and the elite of the elite to join us and start their professional soccer adventure with Major League Soccer. I don’t see that group exploding in number but rather MLS continuing to use a very selective process.”