Orlando Marca
Dale City, Va.
In the news, I heard that D.C. United player Marco Etcheverry was going to leave D.C. and go to Japan. Is this true? If it is, is there a chance of a Peruvian player playing here since they did play very well in the U.S. Cup?
Ridge Mahoney: The league has received several inquiries about Etcheverry, mostly from South American clubs. MLS may not be able to keep him under its current salary restrictions. If a J-League club really wanted El Diablo, I don’t think MLS could afford to retain him.
Unfortunately, most of the top Peruvian players are contracted to Mexican clubs, which are demanding exorbitant prices in negotiations with MLS.
Deanna Beppu
Eugene, Ore.
I’m on the Leicester City mailing list, mostly to get news on Kasey Keller. Anyway, is there anything else to be done to prevent a possible blow-up between Leicester and the USA?
Clearly Kasey’s services are valued on both sides but Steve Sampson doesn’t help the situation by accusing Martin O’Neill (the Leicester boss) of not caring enough about international duty. Although this situation isn’t confined to American players, the Keller problem has certainly caused its fair share of controversy and press coverage in the U.S. I would hate to see Kasey lose his job because of bad blood between O’Neill and Sampson. At which point should club allegiance take priority over the national team? We need Kasey in the premiership, if only to further enhance respect for American players. Outside of better scheduling of matches, there needs to be some agreement that will help both sides achieve their goals and that will relieve Kasey of walking this tightrope act.
Duncan Irving: There’s better scheduling between the European and South Americans, but unfortunately CONCACAF has slipped through the net.
It is extremely hard on the European-based U.S. players, who are busy clocking up air miles as I write this.
And, sadly, it’s the players who get caught in the middle of the situation.
If a player is good enough, he’ll play whether he’s available for one game or 50. I think Sampson made a serious error dropping Keller in favor of Friedel in the first round, when the player, to all intents and purposes, was the innocent party.
However, Leicester and Sampson have worked out an uneasy compromise —
Keller’s available for the club’s cup matches, Sampson gets him the rest of the time. This will be tested very soon, when Leicester plays the League Cup replay against Middlesbrough on April 16 and the U.S. faces Mexico four days later.
Keller told me he’s expecting to play in both games.
Herb Thatcher
Kingston, Wash.
Is it just my paranoid personality or do you think it is possible that John Kerr and the MLS Players Association are being duped by the NFLPA into using the lawsuit to bust the single entity concept? Is this a form of preemptive strike in order to create a less than viable new league and thus minimize any threat to the established professional sports?
Ridge Mahoney: Alan Rothenberg said much the same thing in an interview for the April 14, 1997 issue of Soccer America. Of course, he too is a lawyer. The NFLPA is certainly using this as a test case for its own purposes. It’s ironic that the NFLPA is using soccer players to create more favorable conditions for American football players.
Eric Hinkley
Milpitas, Calif.
The San Jose Clash made it to the playoffs last season and lost in the first round. What are the team’s chances of making it this season with its new players and what other changes will it take for it to make it again?
Ridge Mahoney: I think they need more speed in the back. In their first three games, the Clashers were very vulnerable on the flanks. I’m expecting Ronald Cerritos to beef up the attack, and if Istvan Urbanyi can stabilize the center of midfield, they will be able to control the ball, which will take pressure off their back line. Dave Salzwedel is a good keeper, but most MLS teams are better in goal.
Patrick
Springfield, Mass.
What are your thoughts about Michael Mason? How does he look? Will he be a great player for the U.S. or is he just an average Bundesliga player?
Duncan Irving: He’s on Hamburg’s books, but I don’t think he really qualifies as a proven Bundesliga star. But hey, I’d take him. Look around:
the alternatives are even less attractive.
Ryan Baltz
Hazelwood, Mo.
In SA’s MLS preview issue, the column explaining the yellow card point system includes professional foul and deliberate handball denying a scoring chance, among others, as “four point” fouls. Is this in addition to the red card that should be shown, or is the league taking a soft stand on these fouls?
Ridge Mahoney: According to the MLS league office, red cards do not add to a player’s point accumulation. So if a player commits a professional foul and gets a red card, he is fined and suspended, but the transgression does not add to his point total. If the referee shows a yellow card, he is assessed four points.
This provision also allows a referee the easy way out to administer a caution, even in situations where a red card should be shown.
The obvious inconsistency is if a player gets two yellows in a game and is ejected. Point totals for both yellows count in his point total, and he is suspended and fined. But a vicious foul that warrants a red card does not count in his point total.
I hope the league decrees that a professional foul committed when an attacking player has no other defender between him and the goal is properly punished by a red card. Same for a handball on the goalline or in the penalty area that prevents not a scoring chance, but a goal. MLS should also assess penalty points for red cards.
Tony Williams
Seattle
I was wondering what the MLS expansion committee might look for when selecting a city, and if you think Seattle has a chance of landing a team with the Seattle Sounders around?
Ridge Mahoney: Seattle needs a suitable grass field. U.S. Soccer wanted to play a qualifier in the Kingdome using portable grass trays, but a deal between local officials and the federation couldn’t be reached.
The existence of the Colorado Foxes didn’t prevent MLS from putting a team in Denver. If Seattle can assure the league of a solid fan following, sufficient investment capital, and a proper facility (which could happen if the current stadium initiative passes), it would be an excellent addition to MLS.
Maurice Rayshawn Grant
Indianapolis
My question concerns a recent article that was featured in the March 24 issue of SA. The article in question concerned Manchester United’s victory over Porto in the UEFA Champions League. Before this particular match SA reported that Manchester United would be outmatched and that Porto would be victorious; however, this was not the case. My question is “Why does your magazine not acknowledge when it is profoundly incorrect?” For all practical purposes Man. United was written off as a competitor; however, in the article that was featured 03-24-97 SA acted as if they were bound to defeat Porto. No mention was made to the fact that SA had predicted Manchester’s defeat or the fact that SA was not correct in its analysis of the potential outcome of the match. I think to ensure quality reporting these things should be taken into account.
Duncan Irving: Guilty as charged! I wasn’t impressed with United in the group stage — they looked lost against Juventus and got beaten at home by Fenerbahce. Neither performance promised a particularly great future in this season’s European Cup.
Porto, on the other hand, had played very well in the group matches, particularly against Milan, and I was as surprised as anyone else (not you, obviously) by their pitiful display at Old Trafford.
The story previewing the game was mine, the match report was a Reuters story, an English news service that writes with its domestic audience in mind.
That said, I do not think United will win the European Cup — I’ve just watched Juventus take Ajax to the cleaners in Amsterdam. Even if United beats Dortmund in the second leg to get to Munich, I think the gap in quality between the two teams is great enough to ensure that the European Cup stays in Turin.
That said, I’m donning my sackcloth and ashes, and, in accordance with Soccer America prediction correction policy, I’m off for my flogging. Can’t wait.
Michael J. Wozniak
San Diego, Calif.
Based on the comments from MLS coaches, and the list of draft choices made by both the MLS and the A-League, the players who followed the “coaches line” over the past 3 to 5 years and went on to play college ball are being passed over. A significant number of these players would have loved an opportunity to develop in a “professional” environment. Now, as they graduate, they are being told they aren’t good enough.
1) If MLS is really serious about developing the “American” player, why does it choose to sign additional foreign players, when they could legitimately use the same money to sign 2-3 college players and develop them? It is great to have “name” players on a team. However, I don’t see how a team is ever going to develop an identity, if each year they are buying “new” imported players. I agree that foreign talent is required to upgrade the quality of play, but I find fault with the system when it completely disregards all but 5-6 players per year from 2 to 3 age groups of young men who have looked forward to competing at the highest level, just as those older and those younger (Project 40) are doing. Additionally, to call the A-League “professional” is a joke. Most scholarship collegiate players make more money (tuition, books, housing) than the contracts being offered to them to sign with the league.
2) Again, how do we expect to develop players when the Division 2 league is so grossly underfunded that they are forced to sign local talent, who can live at home and continue to work their part-time job? These players may not be the best available, but the better talent can’t live at even a subsistence level in a new environment on what they are paid.
The American public will quickly catch on to the fact that MLS is only an avenue to keep the national team players in a competitive, team structure so that we might compete at the world level. In order to keep them competitive, we need to surround them with players who actually have grown up playing the game (i.e.: foreign talent). The MLS will continue to cater to the ethnic populations of each city by stocking their teams with players from the predominant ethnic culture, in order to draw those fans. They will continue to deny the American player, except the “elite 22,” and the American public an avenue to play and support professional soccer.
Mike Woitalla: The MLS season has just kicked off and young talent like Jorge Flores (Dallas Burn), Ramiro Corrales (San Jose Clash) and Carlos Parra (MetroStars) are getting experience that is much, much better than they’d be getting had MLS not arrived.
How the quality of MLS improves is indeed a big question, but there is no doubt that young American players are already benefitting, and will continue to do so in the future.
I hope that some Americans still go abroad — in fact Project-40 may include training with foreign clubs — because MLS experience isn’t as good as in Mexico, Germany, Spain or England, where many of our current national team players matured.