The following are quotes from the Oct. 5 MLS media teleconference, which featured MLS Executive Vice President of Player Relations and Operations Ivan Gazidis, Miami Fusion Midfielder Henry Gutierrez, New England Revolution Midfielder John Harkes. Ivan Gazidis Opening Comments: “Spring Training for the 2000 season … Those of you with longer memories will remember in 1998 we took over the sports complex at the Disney Wide World of Sports having a centralized portion of our preseason take place there … Last year in 1999 our teams were scattered to the four winds … This year we are going to have a two-week collective preseason in the Ft. Lauderdale/Boca Raton Area from February 6-19 in 2000 … It will take the form of a mini-tournament with all of the 12 teams participating … Each day from February 10-19 there will be two games at Lockhart Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale … Each team will play in three games … The first two games are East vs. West battles and points will be accrued for placement in to the second round between February 17-19 … The final game of the mini-tournament will be the 19th at Lockhart following third-place game of the doubleheader.” “Obviously we are disappointed in the results of the CONCACAF tournament last week in Las Vegas … I think it is a sign of the progression that we have made as a league that we are so incredibly disappointed … We expect to win these tournaments these days and it’s heartbreaking when we don’t … It was an opportunity to play in games that matter against the world’s best teams in Brazil … We hope that we will have that opportunity in the future and that we will be able to take hold of it with both hands next time around … I think both of our teams played tremendously well under difficult circumstances and we were a bit unlucky … That can be the difference between winning and losing … We look forward to next year.” “We had a very lively debate with the competition committee about potential rule changes and other issues … No resolution was reached and no recommendations were made by the competition committee … Further discussion was required and further discussions will happen over the next few weeks … No timetable for that and we are still in the discussion phase.” Henry Gutierrez Opening Comments: “The team right now is coming off a big win against Columbus … It was probably the most goal output we’ve had all year … We have a big game on Saturday and we are taking it one game at a time … We are feeling extremely good … We are going into it with the playoffs in mind … It is a big challenge ahead of us … We are optimistic … It’s as if the ball is in our park … We take care of Colorado and everything takes care of itself … We are going into it with a lot of confidence right now.” John Harkes Opening Comments: “This season has been a battle with a few ups and downs … We have been trying to find a bit of consistency on the team … Coming in we have had quite a bit of changes which I’m sure everyone is aware of … Steve Nicol has come on board as interim coach in the last four or five days … We were able to produce a result against the MetroStars, keeping us in the hunt … It has been a challenge during the season keeping some consistency with in our game … Unfortunately we had a bad run throughout the season and we are trying to hang on with one point and getting past Miami … We are both very good teams … We haven’t really shown our true colors during the season … Only at times.” “Big build up to the weekend … We’re both coming off of wins and both have a lot of confidence … Miami is at home against Colorado and Colorado wants to come in and play … We have to go to D.C. United, a good team that is very organized … Thomas Rongen has had a lot of good results down there … D.C. is in a very comfortable position … I’m sure that Thomas wants to go in to the playoffs with the last game a good result … They are going to come out and play and put pressure on us … The mood in camp has been very good … The guys are very optimistic … The opportunity is there and it is in our own hands … The guys are pulling together … Steve Nicol has come in and we have a lot of respect for him … Thirteen years at Liverpool … He has won a lot of trophies and knows what it takes to win … We are going through a lot of concentration and discipline as we prepare for Saturday.” Harkes on Improvements of MLS: “I think we have made many improvements since 1996 … I have seen the product not only on the field, but off the field improve … We are in our fourth season now and have come a long a way in short period of time … The success of league will be riding on how long we are here and have a presence … With Don Garber coming in, he has a lot of experience trying to market a product in an area that is unfamiliar … American football in Europe … Hopefully he will get hungry and push that into the marketplace again … There are issues that need to be discussed that Ivan has addressed with the Competition Committee working on changes for next season … I personally, and a lot of the players, want to scrap the shootout … It does nothing for the game or the fans whatsoever … Move forward and continue putting a good product on the field and marketing the players and putting their faces out there.” Gutierrez on Improvements of MLS: “The big key is to get our players to progress and get to the next level … The look of the U.S. National Team since Bruce [Arena] has been quite well so we [the league] are doing the right things on field … Off the field, I’ll leave it up to delegates to take care of that … Sometimes its been a rocky road … As long as we can keep going in the upward motion I think the league will be fine … I think that we need to do anything to keep the players here and make this one of the elite leagues in the world … Instead of going overseas, the players want to stay in their own country … That’s the key.” Harkes on the Expectations of MLS: “I think that one thing that we have fallen short on is youth development … Bruce has given other players opportunities at the National Team level … Within the league itself, within the budget we are working with it is difficult … Developing players is a necessity … We need to build a system like overseas with the reserves of the Revolution kids Under-14s, Under-16s … Eventually I think MLS would like to get to that … Other than that I have had good times in MLS and I have been treated well … This is something that is not going to be successful overnight … It is a building process.” Gutierrez on the Length of the Season: “I don’t think that is long at all … Thirty-two games is not a whole lot of games over a time period that is structured the way it is … When I was in France I was there 11 months out of the year … That’s just the way it is … Thirty-two games is 32 games over 8-9 months, as far as the players are concerned it is not something we even think about … Keeping the fans interested, if they are true diehard soccer fans they are going to want to see more … I have been asked around town if we are going to have exhibition games so they can come watch … I don’t think its too long at all.” Harkes of Keeping the Fans Interest Over the Long Season: “It’s something I was used to playing in Europe for six years … We would have only three or four weeks off … It’s very demanding … Applying to different audience … Over there it’s life or death and it’s part of them for 100 years … The season is fine right now … The only thing is having the final so late in November … We’ll overcome that … The fan base is more educated in terms of the game itself with the help of the ’94 World Cup … More exposure … We need more of a TV deal to get it out to public … Like having an NHL tonight, have a MLS tonight … It’s the awareness that needs to be better … The fans will be fine.” Gutierrez on Miami Team Confidence: “The D.C. match (August 21) we played extremely well as a team and followed a gameplan, even with nine guys on the field … Eventually, some players lost confidence and we started straying away from Ivo Wortmann’s game plan … Once that happened we started giving away silly goals and not being about to score … After that D.C. game we went back to being the Fusion at the beginning of the season … That was in the past … Unfortunately we don’t have the crop that D.C has to be able to put seven other guys on the field in one game … We try to survive with what we have and that’s a good bunch of players as long as we stay confident and stand by our gameplan … We are gaining our confidence back and we are looking for some momentum to go into the Colorado game and end this without any discussion … Back to a team that is attacking and is confident … Hopefully this last win has gotten us on a roll again.” Gazidis on Selling Columbus Crew Forward Stern John to a European Club: “The deal is not imminent … We have been talking with a lot of different teams over time and there has been no secret about that … In terms of the next few days I don’t see anything in that time frame … You could see something in the next few weeks or in the offseason … I don’t see him leaving during this season under any circumstance … Stern wants to look for new challenges and we are not going to stand in his way.” Harkes on the Columbus Lineup against Miami: “We put ourselves in the position to be desperate enough to be blaming other teams for who they put out there on the field … We didn’t enjoy watching it but it was Tom Fitzgerald’s choice to put the team out there that he did … We need to focus on this weekend and what happened in the past.” Harkes on Recommending Playing Overseas: “I can understand why some players would want to go overseas … Certainly the environment is a lot different … Football (soccer) is the No. 1 sport … It’s up to the individual … You need a lot of mental strength to make it there … MLS is trying to keep the players here … It is a difficult situation and can’t be sorted out if unless the individual himself presses the issue and tries to make it overseas … We would like to keep the good players here as much as we could.” Harkes on the U.S. National Team: “My experience with the National Team, nothing is guaranteed … I don’t expect much anymore … I go in and try to contribute the best I can … I enjoyed going down to Mexico for the Confederations Cup …The team played well … You need to just keep plugging away with your club team and hope that you get called in again … If I’m called in to put the shirt on I will … It’s always an honor to represent your country.” Gazidis on MLS International Improvement: “Last year D.C. won this tournament and also the InterAmerican Cup against a very good Brazilian team … The teams they are playing against are the champions in their respective leagues, not even playing average Mexican or Costa Rican opposition, but the very best … They have already proved they can do it … The question is how to make ourselves better … It comes with giving our young players the best environment to improve their game … The most important professional environment in which to play with players with greater experience and skill levels than they have … Not something to happen overnight … We have come an incredibly long way in four years … Our young talent pool is much deeper than it was four years ago … This translates into an increased level of performance at the National Team level … We can measure ourselves in international club competition … The only way to do that is though competitions and we have limited opportunities to do that … The CONCACAF Tournament is one of them … This year we didn’t prove it … Last year we did and next year we hope to prove it.” Harkes on Returning to RFK Stadium: “Coming back to D.C. and playing at RFK Stadium is emotional for me … We were the only ones to walk away from D.C. with a victory … D.C. plays Wednesday and will have played four games in seven days … We’ll have to see if they rest players Wednesday and play a full side on Saturday … With emotional connection and professionalism, I’m sure Thomas [Rongen] wants to play very well … It is something that I am looking forward to … the players are ready.” Harkes on the Transition of Coaches: “Always two things to look at, the response of players … It has happen many times with everyone’s coaching, players traded, moving to different clubs … It’s not routine but it hasn’t upset club too much … The organization has its reasons for dismissing (Zenga) and Beppe [Galderisi] … Steve Nicol hasn’t come in and upset the camp … Sometimes, as in San Jose, after Brian Quinn was dismissed you get a 6-1 result in the first game … It sometimes picks you up and change can do you good.” Gazidis on American Players Returning and Keeping them Here: “The best Costa Rican players do leave Costa Rica and we do have some of them here in MLS … Mexico is a bit different because it is a high-paying league … Mexican players have found that their best remuneration opportunities are at home … Look at the best leagues in the world and there is movement of players in and out of those leagues … It is not the end all of the league’s credibility whether there is movement of players … Our performance over the long term is how we develop young American players … We prefer to keep all best U.S players here … That doesn’t mean we are going to be able to achieve that … Financially and non-financially … Some players want to seek that challenge … We are disappointed with both the U.S. Open Cup and CONCACAF … You can’t say 1998 that it proved that MLS has best team in the Americas or that in the opposite direction in 1999 … It is a longer term proposition than that … We are moving in the right direction … The U.S. National Team ultimately reflects that as well.” Harkes on the Referees: “Whenever you discuss tackling from behind or diving, you want the referees to be consistent … I was brought up with the thought that a referee that is not even noticed is a good referee … There are too many inconsistencies if one team tosses the ball away and a yellow card is given and then the next team does it and nothing is given … In Europe the referees let the players battle it out a bit more … Other side of the coin people will say they are getting hammered from behind … There are always going to questions about any rule, it just needs to be consistent.” Gazidis on Issues Discussed at the Board of Governors Meeting: “We discussed issues that everyone would expect: shootout, how time is kept, the point system … In addition, the experiment with the two referees and unrelated off-field competition … There are ways to encourage our coaches to think strategically on a longer term basis … They tend to be more concerned with short-term issues because job security is not high … But as a league we need to set a framework so that our coaches are inncentivized to think in ways for the league to achieve its long-term strategic goals … Ultimately to prioritize our young U.S. player base and the improvement of the those players.” “The U.S. is a huge market in and growing from soccer … MLS needs to find right ways to capitalize on the market here and to tap the fan base and provide them with what they want to see … FIFA has huge vested interest in seeing soccer succeed here …I think that the 1994 World Cup gave them a clear picture of what soccer can aspire to be … You would have no doubt that we have the investor group that is committed to this league … Not for five years or 10 but for a longer period than that … The investors we have a among the most substantial involved in sports in any field … They are in for next 20 years and longer.” Gutierrez on Edwin Gorter: “Edwin brings experience … He has helped the youth quite a bit … He points them in the right direction and gives them a lot of confidence and makes them play harder and give the effort … He’s a versatile player … On and off [the field] he is unbelievable … He always is on an even kilt and that makes him valuable … He wants to win and you know he is a guy who is going to get it done … He seems rejuvenated and looks forward to the Colorado game and making a run to the playoffs.”