The following are quotes from the Oct. 26 MLS media teleconference, which featured MLS executive vice president of player relations and operations Ivan Gazidis, D.C. United coach Thomas Rongen, D.C. United defender Jeff Agoos, Columbus Crew coach Tom Fitzgerald and Crew defender Mike Lapper. Fitzgerald Opening Comments: “We are obviously excited to be in the Eastern Conference Finals again this year with D.C. United … “It has shaped up to be tremendous rivalry between these two teams … We have battled it out all year for first and second place with D.C. … Juergen Sommer has completed his surgery on his ACL last Thursday and will be in the recovery mode for the next six months … The rest of the team is trying to prepare for this series and we are looking forward to venturing into D.C. this Sunday.” Lapper Opening Comments: “The best way to say it is that we have come close but we haven’t taken care of business when we play at D.C. … With them having home-field advantage we need to win one of the games … The team atmosphere has been really great … Everyone is upbeat … Everyone wanted D.C. to win the series with Miami because we want to prove ourselves against D.C. … We feel this is the best chance we have had in the past few years.” Rongen Opening Comments: “We are extremely excited where we are at during this particular time of year … It is something that we are accustomed to … We had a tough series against Miami and we didn’t concede a goal in both games … A matchup against Columbus is always an exciting one.” Agoos Opening Comments: “Obviously we know what the past has been about, but every game is different … We can’t rest on what has happened in the past … We have to play for this weekend … Columbus is a quality team and every game against them will be tough … The series is going to be a difficult one.” Agoos on D.C. United’s Excellence: “It is something that we have worked toward every year … We want to get better with every game and every month … It started out a little dicey in the inaugural year with a 16-16 record but we came through in the playoffs … It has been a nice ride from there but we know we can’t rest on that … We want to prove ourselves not only against the clubs in MLS but also the rest of world.” Rongen Coaching an Established Team: “My philosophy is, ‘if it aint broke don’t fix it’ … The previous regime did a great job of laying a solid foundation which continues to be the success of this team … I just have been building upon that.” Fitzgerald on Losing Record at RFK Stadium (0-11): “It is amazing … D.C. just scores more goals than us … It happens in sports throughout the world, and if you look at history and there are places where teams play well and places not so well … We have had some pretty good games at D.C. but have never been able to win … The only thing that we can control are the games in front of us … We are going to go in as prepared as possible and try to beat D.C. at home.” Rongen on Eastern Conference Playoffs: “We knew we were playing against a team (Miami) that had some success late in the season and found a lineup that worked for them and scored some goals against Colorado and Columbus … We felt that we had to play good team defense and good individual defense against Miami and if we were able to keep them to zero goals we would be the winner because we do score goals.” “The Columbus series is a different animal … We expect Columbus to show up … Brian McBride and Stern John are always a handful … They have defended well in the first round not giving up any goals and it is going to be a tight game throughout … It will be the team that makes the least amount of mistakes that wins the series.” Agoos on Looking Toward the Eastern Conference Finals: “Miami was a tough series and they gave us a good run, but we played well defensively … There are some things that we need to improve on before we meet Columbus … The Crew is going to be a tough team to play against and it is always a tough series whether it is in the playoffs or the regular season … A lot of people are making as issue of past and that Columbus has never won at RFK but you can’t rest on that … We need to focus on what’s in front of us.” “I would love to see the team score more goals, but those don’t just come out of thin air … You have got to create it and I don’t think we did a great job in the second game against Miami making those opportunities … We did what we had to do to get through that series … I give a lot of credit to the team.” Agoos on Containing the Columbus Attack: “We are going to hire hit men to take out Stern John and Brian McBride … They are two of the better forwards in the league and have different characteristics that make them dangerous … Brian is good in the air and Stern creates goals out of nothing … If we plan to go to the championship again we have to shut down a lot of what Columbus does and that is a tough challenge for any team.” Rongen on D.C. United Forward Roy Lassiter’s Scoring Slump: “For Roy, it is similar to baseball hitter, they go through some droughts … The key for Roy is to not change anything … He relies on a lot of people around him to provide him with service … With the appropriate service and support in an important series, I have no doubt that Roy can be dangerous.” Fitzgerald On Game Plan Against D.C.: “The unique thing about D.C. is the amount of individual players that can hurt you … More than anything else D.C. is the most complete team in MLS … Even with Richie Williams out on Sunday someone will step in and do the same job or maybe better … They have more depth than any team in the league, so it is very difficult to say that their lineup will change with an injury or two … It becomes a collective issue against D.C. … You need to play as a unit and take the opportunities when you get them.” Agoos on his Performance Over his Career: “Every game and every month and year I try to get better and cut down on the mistakes that I am making … You are always learning as a player and it takes time … I don’t believe that I am doing a whole lot different than last year or the year before … I am happy with where I am and the way the team is playing.” “Bruce (Arena) has been a big part of my growth being that he was my college coach and here … He has been a big part of it and now Thomas has stepped in … “The national team coaches also contributed with Bora (Milutinovic), Steve (Sampson) and Bob Gansler that coached me early … I have always learned from those people and tried to take little bits here and there and melt it down into something that I can understand.” Fitzgerald on Columbus Midfielder Brian Maisonneuve: “Maze has not been 100 percent since he was 12-years-old, which is unfortunate not only for me but for Coach Arena and the National Team … Brian always seems to have little injures that hamper him from his best performances … He is certainly a trooper and fights through all of those … I expect to see him on the field on Sunday for a length of time … We have not seen best performances yet which we are hoping for soon.” Lapper on Columbus Reaching MLS Cup ’99: “Attitude takes you a long way … We want D.C. … We need to prove ourselves against them … Everyone wants a piece of that game and is battling for a starting position … No one is shying away … Our midfield is better than it has been in years … We have tremendous speed on the flanks and that has taken us a long way throughout the season and I think it will help us come Sunday.” Rongen on Changing the MLS Schedule: “I am in favor of a shorter season with about 28 games if we could find a way if we could keep two conferences and allow our teams to play more international games … Twenty-eight would be good combined with our Open Cup schedule and some other conflicts such as Olympic games and World Cup qualifying games … A shorter schedule would be better, but 22-24 is not enough.” Fitzgerald on Changing the MLS Schedule: “I don’t think 20-24 is the answer … We have established ourselves with two conferences and our fans understand that … To change midstream allows people the perception that we don’t know where we are going … We need to keep some consistency there.” Gazidis on the MLS Format: “If you look at the rest of world there are leagues that play a single table where league record is all that counts … It is a bit of an oversimplification … The European Champions League is set up to start with a league type of format that ends in an elimination competition … There are benefits from having a playoff system that matches teams against each other in a way that produces intense competition … An MLS Cup championship game provides us with exposure and benefits and a focal point for our season … It is not the only system.” Fitzgerald on Balancing MLS Play and International Games: “You balance it because the competition because you are looking for your players to be playing at highest level all the time and our league has gotten to the point that we are offering that to our players … International competition is good for our players, good for our fans and I don’t think that it dilutes the league at all … It is more competition that we need to expose ourselves to … Ultimately we want our U.S. National Team to win the World Cup and one of the goals of this league is to improve our players.” Lapper on the Continued Development of Players: “The play has gotten better every year … “The youth players that are coming up through the ranks, namely the Project-40 players are developing and two of them are now starters for us … That helps out a team a lot and gives them experience at a young age.”