MLS teams have scattered around the globe in search of the perfect preseason preparation to make a run at the league title.

The Revs played ping-pong in a remote Brazilian resort. The Metros visited the Mecca of calcio. The Galaxy, Wizards and Burn flew south for the winter. The Rapids and Fire went to Portugal.

Preseason 2002 again features an exotic mix of foreign locales as teams searched for the vital ingredients: “Competition, fields and economics,” in the words of Rapids general manager Dan Counce.

“Where can you get the best competition for the least amount of money and have good weather and good fields?”

With no MLS-mandated spring training in Florida this season, teams have more flexibility than ever before to plan their preseasons.

San Jose is the only team that has not scheduled a foreign trip.

For the past few years, teams gathered near Fort Lauderdale to train and play each other at Lockhart Stadium in a preseason tournament format.

And preseason in Florida in February can be expensive. One coach said flights and two weeks of hotel rooms, meals, and transportation cost in the range of $65,000, although package deals at the IMG Academy in Bradenton usually cost less.

Revs general manager Todd Smith said the Revs’ visit to Aguas de Lindoia, Brazil, came at a cost “30 to 40 cents on the dollar” of what the team might spend in the United States.

It was economical enough for the team to take a second international trip to Portugal a week after returning to Boston from Brazil.

Representatives of most teams said going abroad is actually cheaper if reasonably priced flights can be arranged because housing and associated costs in Florida can be exorbitant.

“Portugal is one of the cheaper spots in Europe, and you get good weather,” said Counce. “Mexico is a great choice, but you don’t get good competition. They tell you you’re going to play the reserve team and you end up playing 16-year-olds.”

MEXICO, NO MAS. Since the league began operations in 1996, just about every MLS team has traveled to a complex near Guadalajara. Only the Crew will visit Mexico this preseason.

“It’s very isolated,” said Burn coach Mike Jeffries, who took his team to Santiago, Chile, this season. “It’s positive as far as bringing the team together and everything else, but once you get past day 10, or even earlier, it gets very difficult.

“Guys get stir-crazy. Here guys can go outside and walk around the city, although, to be honest, I haven’t given them too much time off.”

Team bonding and chemistry rank high on the list of some coaches, particularly those whose rosters have been revamped.

Many teams – such as the reborn Revs – are in that situation this year because of contraction, yet Kansas City coach Bob Gansler used a trip to Bolivia in 2000 to forge a team he himself had rebuilt.

“We went to one field in pouring rain and, I kid you not, the grass was at least three feet high, and there were cows out there,” said defender Peter Vermes. “We found another place to train.

“We went to Sucre, another world altogether. Way up in the mountains, and it seems the only way you can get in there is by flying.

“Every road is a dirt road, and it looks like every building is made of dried mud. In our hotels the beds were half the size of us, and the showers were so small, you could barely get into them.

“But we dealt with it and played our game. We did well, and after the game Bob told us we were at 9,000 or 10,000 feet. We had no idea we were up that high.”

The Wizards, a 7-25 team in 1999, won MLS Cup 2000.

Many teams schedule their foreign trips after several weeks of domestic training and conditioning, both to break up the monotony and test their players against good opposition.

European and South American trips offer opportunities to play reserve teams of top clubs, although by no means are schedules set in stone.

The Metros visited Coverciano, the spectacular facility maintained by the Italian soccer federation on the outskirts of Florence.

The Italian national teams train at Coverciano, it is where the coaching courses are taught, and it is where angry Fiorentina fans gathered to protest the transfer of Roberto Baggio to Juventus just prior to the 1990 World Cup.

There is a museum of Italian soccer, and photos of famous personalities such as Baggio, Franco Baresi, Guiseppe Bergomi and Paolo Rossi adorn the walls.

“Everything about it is fantastic,” said Metros coach Octavio Zambrano. “For a player or coach, you have everything you need: books and videos of everything about soccer, three manicured fields, a cafeteria, you name it. It is the Mecca of football in this country.”

Ah, but the games were a problem.

“We were supposed to play Pisa, and they canceled,” says Zambrano. “The [Italian] under-20 team was here, and we were supposed to play them, but they broke up early, and we missed them.”

For defender Steve Jolley, the trip was a chance to visit a city he’d always wanted to see and hang with new teammates. He’s had his fill of Florida and the endless conditioning work.

“I take about a week off after our last game, and then I work with a personal trainer five days a week [during the offseason],” says Jolley. “It’s so much easier to stay in shape than to get back into shape.

“I don’t have anything personal against Florida, but this has been great. Me and Brian Kamler went into the city, and I got to see Michaelangelo’s David. We have a lot of new guys, so this a great way to get to know them.”

NOT REALLY A FRIENDLY. In Chile, the Galaxy and Burn have encountered perhaps a bit more competition than the coaches would have liked. Sometimes the opposition includes the referees.

“In our first three games here, we had a penalty kick or a red card against us in each game,” said Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid, whose team is staying in a hotel and trains at the facility of Universidad Catolica. “The refereeing was so biased.

“At one of our games, [goalkeeper] Matt Reis had fans behind the goal spitting at him. You don’t want to see that, obviously, but I think it’s good to play teams in their stadiums with fans there.

“The players are very technical and keep possession so well, our players have to work hard defending, to slide and cover and keep our shape.”

When the Rapids played Sporting Lisbon last year, one of the opponents was U.S. striker Jovan Kirovski. On another occasion, they hit Benfica at exactly the right time.

“Usually teams put their reserve team against us,” says Rapids coach Tim Hankinson. “Depending on the week, they might have some first-team players in the lineup.

“I remember one year Benfica had played Celta Vigo and lost 7-0! Their coach was so angry, he put out his first team against us. That’s great, because you want the best competition possible.

“Sometimes the Second Division games are more competitive because they put out their first team against you.”

As its name implies, the Aguas de Lindoia resort is famed for its soothing waters, although the benefits may not have affected Mamadou Diallo, who forced one game to end prematurely when he brawled with opposing players.

Jay Heaps needed four stitches to close a gash over his eye suffered in another incident.

Unlike the teams staying at Coverciano or the hotels in Santiago, the Revs had limited access to television and telephones.

Cell phones would not work. The players had to line up to use a single phone set aside for guest use, hence the acquisition and furious use of a ping-pong table to pass the hours.

For the Wizards, Gansler has scheduled another South American trip.

“In Bolivia we had to find out who each other is, and it will be very similar this year in going to Argentina,” said Vermes. “He wants to get back to that same type of cohesion.”

If the Revs reach MLS Cup 2002, grouping up to use the phone and peeling Big Momma off foes will have been worth it.

by Soccer America Senior Editor Ridge Mahoney