MLS Conference Call MLS Executive Vice President — Ivan Gazidis Kansas City Wizards Goalkeeper — Tony Meola MetroStars Sweeper — Lothar MatthSus Ivan Gazidis’ Opening Comments “To repeat my weekly statement, I’d like to say that while talks are ongoing with respect to the signing of a Mexican player for our team in Los Angeles, there is no comment I can make on those negotiations at the moment. We are working on a number of different fronts, and I think things are progressing positively.” Tony Meola’s Opening Comments “Our season has really turned around compared to last year. That was Coach Gansler’s mission in the offseason, to make sure that the start we got off to last year didn’t happen again. For me its uncharted waters I guess you could say. My first four years in MLS, the teams that I was on started 0-3, 0-3, 0-3 and then last year in Kansas City we were 0-8, so to have ten points right now, it usually takes me eight or nine games to get that. It’s a good feeling to be able to say that we are right at the top of our group. The changes that we’ve made have been super. Bringing in Miklos Molnar up top has been a huge addition for us. When he gets to know the players around him a bit better than he does he’ll be even more effective. Bringing Peter Vermes into the middle of our defense, from a communication and organizational standpoint has been great for us.” Meola on going back to Giants Stadium “I love playing there and have always enjoyed playing there whether it was for the National Team or the MetroStars. It’s always going to be fun in my career to come back here and play. Regardless of where I play, this will always be home and when I’m done with my career this (New York) is where I will live. It’s always going to be a special thing to come back. Hopefully our team can continue to succeed. The one thing we didn’t do last year is play well on the road. We’ve had one road game this year and we didn’t get a goal. We need to learn how to win on the road and hopefully that can start tomorrow night.” Lothar MatthSus Opening Comments “I like the life in the United States. It is very interesting and nice for me and my girlfriend. My daughters from Germany arrived last Friday, and they like New York also. With the results in the first four games though are a problem for me, but we have played good but have lost the games. When I look behind me, I see the last two games against San Jose and Columbus and normally we don’t lose these games. We don’t make the goals, though, and after 90 minutes we have nothing. This is a problem now for the MetroStars, and I hope we can we make it better next game.” MatthSus on his frustration after the loss to Columbus “I don’t like to look behind me, but we have problems. Normally I think this team can play better and I hope we learn from day to day and from practice to practice. When you make a lot of mistakes you normally lose the game. These are the things we must learn, although we don’t have a lot of time for learning. If we lose the next game though, and have the same situation, it will not be nice for me or not too nice for the club. I hope we can learn from day to day, a little bit more. We have a lot of young players on this team now, and we are missing Thomas Dooley and Tab Ramos, two players who are very important for the MetroStars. I remember 20 years ago I was learning every day while I grew up. I hope the players can learn and learn quickly. We must play with the players we have now, we have no Tom Dooley, we have no Tab Ramos with the team now, and it is a difficult situation for the team now.” MatthSus on the MetroStars’ communication problems “Soccer in Europe and the soccer in America is very different. I said that last Saturday that we played with a lot of heart, but not with our heads. I like the American sports. I go to basketball and to hockey. I like the American football, but these are the types of sports where everything goes forward. In soccer, you don’t need to go to the goal every 24 seconds, you don’t need to play forward everytime, you can play back and then switch the ball. It’s soccer, it’s another tactic in soccer than what I have seen in American sports. American people like when you play forward every time, but in soccer you can play back, it’s just different. When it’s close like on the soccer field you must play back and switch the side. We have lost a lot of balls with little mistakes.” MatthSus on his influence over the MetroStars and their play “This is a very difficult situation for me. I have played for the last 16 years for clubs that were very good teams. At Bayern Munich we were in first place or second place. Inter Milan was the same. This is a new situation and I have no problem with the situation. I see that the players like to play better the next game and I hope we understand the language of the coach from the last game. The coach was very relaxed after the games against San Jose and Columbus, but we hope we can win the next game. I hope we can have a better team than last year.” MatthSus on the MetroStars lack of an organizing midfielder “Normally I can play in the midfield, but when the coach wants me to play in the midfield I will play there, it is no problem and I think I can do it. It is important that the team understands my soccer, but like I said before we are missing Tom Dooley and Tab Ramos and when those two players come back I think we can play much better.” Meola on the reaction he expects from the New York fans “I really don’t know. Certainly, my family will be on my side, and that should account for a few people. For me it’s just good to get back home and to be able to play here.” Meola on the current MetroStars “I think if you look at that team on paper, they are a very good team. When you take Tab Ramos and Thomas Dooley out of that lineup, I’d equate it to taking a Preki or a Molnar out of our lineup, and if you did, we might not be in the same spot we’re in right now. It’s not an easy situation, it doesn’t make it any easier being in New York, and I can attest to that. There is certainly a few more outside pressures in New York. This is what we do for a living, this is our job and we have to continue to play. I personally think they are going to be a very good team. When Tab and Dooley get back into the lineup they are going to be a very good team.” Meola on Tab Ramos’ frustration with injuries “I’ve spoken to Tab two or three times a week for the last five years. He’s upset about the way things have gone, but he said he just continues to try and work. He feels that there is some kind of jinx on him, and it’s unfortunate. By the players, he’s regarded as one of the most dangerous guys with the ball in the whole league. That’s really what he is, and it’s been unfortunate what’s happened to him. Their playmaker will be him when he gets on the field. He makes plays from the right midfield like nobody else has ever done, there and with the national team. He’s got a different way of breaking teams down. To be honest, I wish he could be playing tomorrow. I was there a lot of the time he was hurt. I see how hard the guys works, and it’s not a matter of work. It’s just a matter of being a little unlucky.” Meola on the difference in Bob Gansler’s coaching style (compared to 1990) “He’s very different. He allows you to be your own person here, and he doesn’t try to mold everybody into being the same as the guy next to you. In 1990, our team was basically an under-23 team at the World Cup, and we basically needed a little more discipline than maybe another team did. Our team now has some older veterans, guys who have been around, and he lets you be who you want to be and I think that translates into the way we play.” MatthSus on the American mentality of all teams in MLS “I like the mentality when you go forward every time, this is a very nice mentality. You must look for other ways to make good situations for a good cross or a good shot, or a goal. I saw two weeks ago against D.C. United that this is a very good team and this team has very good organization. This team plays very simple, and soccer is a simple sport. We play too quickly and we must play more with the head. When it’s possible we should play forward, we must play forward. I like this, I am an offensive player normally. I am the sweeper but I played for 16 years in the midfield and I like to make goals, but when it’s closed it’s closed, and I most look for other ways. This is important and the team must learn it, but this team is a good organization and it plays good soccer.” MatthSus on resolving the MetroStars’ communication difficulties “My English is not very good, but I understand when a guy says to me ‘Lothar go right’ I can go right, and when I guy says ‘Come back’ I come back, it’s no problem for me. But for the communication it’s important that all players understand one language. This is America and we must speak English, it’s normal and we must learn it. It’s the same for me and for Valencia and Comas. When I play a good ball and I say ‘Comas go right’ and he goes left, I lose the ball. This is a little thing, but with a lot of little things you lose the game. I think it’s important that we all speak one language, and with this team that is English. I hope the MetroStars see this, and give a teacher to Valencia or Comas.” MatthSus on quality of the U.S. National Team “From America I remember the last game against the United States. I remember a very good team that played on a high level against Germany. I have seen other games from the USA. and I think that in a couple of years it will be on the same level as the other big teams in the world.” Gazidis on the arrival of a Mexican player to MLS “I don’t think the player will be arriving until the end of the Mexican season, but I certainly hope we will have an announcement sometime before then, and I’m confident that we will.” Meola on frustration resulting from the lack of fan support in Kansas City “The product has been exciting, I think we’ve scored nine or 10 goals in our three home games. Lamar Hunt has come in and assured us that they will continue to work on the merger between the Chiefs and the Wizards so that we can find out what the best formula is to bring people in. The first two weeks we had to compete with indoor soccer and NCAA basketball in town, and hopefully that will change some things. Winning is usually a good formula for bringing people out, let’s not forget that a year ago this team finished in last in the West, and we probably have to gain the confidence of a lot of people again. The best way to do that is to try and continue to win soccer games.” Meola on the American mentality of always going forward “I think part of that is correct. It happens to be one of the things I really like. I understand Lothar’s soccer language, and if I understand him correctly, he’s saying the MetroStars have to look for other options to get forward. The object of the game is to always get forward, and our team has done a good job of not being one-dimensional. This year we’ve mixed it up, we’ve scored goals off crosses, we’ve scored goals up the middle, and we’ve scored goals off restarts. I think American athletes are very direct. It happens to be the thing I think is the greatest attribute of the American athlete.” MatthSus on communication at Bayern Munich “For me it’s very important that we can speak one language. In Munich and in Germany it was the same with Adolfo. We were speaking German, and he doesn’t understand German. In Germany, they have the same problems. If a player comes from Brazil or from another country and doesn’t speak that language, then we don’t have good communication on the team. Communication is very important, not only on the team, but in life. If we had one language, I think we wouldn’t have so many problems in the world.” MatthSus on the his contributions to MLS “I think I can speak for Hristo (Stoitchkov), by saying that we can help make soccer popular in America. I think that American soccer is very popular in Europe now with names like Hristo Stoitchkov, or Lothar MatthSus or the next one. It’s very important that the world can see that soccer in America is alive now. We play very fast soccer here, and the players are very fit and have good technique. It’s the same level as what I can see in Germany or in Italy or in France. The players are very good here, but the soccer is a team sport and here with the MetroStars we must learn to play with 11 players as a team.”