MLS announces all-star head coaches
NEW YORK (Tuesday, July 7, 1998) - Major League Soccer announced today that D.C. United Head Coach Bruce Arena and Los Angeles Galaxy Head Coach Octavio Zambrano will coach the two all-star teams at the 1998 MLS All-Star Game in Orlando. Arena will coach the MLS USA squad, and Zambrano will oversee the MLS World All-Stars. The 1998 MLS All-Star Game will take place August 2 at the Florida Citrus Bowl and will be televised live on ABC. Pregame activities begin at 2:30 p.m. (ET), with kickoff scheduled for 2:48 p.m.
The two head coaches, who will face each other this Friday, July 10, at RFK Stadium, were selected based on their respective teams' conference-leading records as of July 5, 1998.
Arena, whose D.C. United club leads the Eastern Conference with a 14-5 record (32 pts.), will be coaching in his second consecutive MLS All-Star Game. Arena's Eastern Conference squad defeated the Western Conference, 5-4, at the 1997 MLS All-Star Game. A winner of two MLS Cup titles, the 46-year-old Arena's 61 wins (including playoffs) are the most in the league's three-year history.
Zambrano, whose Galaxy squad leads the Western Conference with a league-best 15-2 mark (43 pts.), took over the Galaxy head coaching reins midway through the 1997 season. His .718 winning percentage (28-11, including playoffs) is the highest in MLS history. The 40-year-old Zambrano will be making his MLS All-Star debut. He is the second Los Angeles coach to oversee an MLS All-Star team, as former Galaxy head coach Lothar Osiander, currently the head coach of U.S. Pro-40 Select, was the head coach of the 1996 MLS Western Conference All-Star team.
MLS All-Star Head Coaches (year-by-year)
1998
Bruce Arena [MLS USA (D.C. United)]
Octavio Zambrano [MLS World (Los Angeles)]
1997
Bruce Arena [Eastern (D.C. United)]
Ron Newman [Western (Kansas City)]
1996
Thomas Rongen [Eastern (Tampa Bay)]
Lothar Osiander [Western (Los Angeles)]
Featuring a new format which pits the top domestic MLS players against the best international players in the league, the MLS All-Star Game will be preceded by a match featuring the 1996 Summer Olympic Games Champion U.S. Women's National Team vs. Canada. From July 30 to August 2, 1998, Major League Soccer will host four days of events at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando. Events include the Pro Player Dribble, Pass & Shoot National Youth Skills Competition, Kellogg's All-Star Bowl (featuring youth soccer teams from across the country), MLS All-Star 3v3 Tournament, MLS Rock'n Soccer Celebrity game, MLS Soccer Celebration, MLS All-Star Pro Skills Challenge and MLS Sports Celebrity Youth Soccer Clinics.
ALL-STAR STARTERS TO BE ANNOUNCED JULY 16: The starters for the MLS USA and MLS World All-Star teams will be announced on Thursday, June 18. Each team will feature 18 players. The starters for the 1998 MLS All-Star teams were selected by the fans. The seven reserves will be announced later this month. Fan voting was conducted at more than 2,100 Kmarts nationwide, at MLS stadiums and via the league's world wide web site, www.MLSNET.com. Although voting concluded June 28, the tabulation of the ballots from MLS stadiums and Kmarts will not be completed until next week.
MLS QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"I'll have to send Alexi a thank-you card, because he left it right for me, and I just knocked it into the back of the net." Colorado M Marquis White after scoring the game-winner against the MetroStars on July 4.
"It was not a fluke, it was not bad luck. It was an inexcusable defensive error that led to the goal and I take full responsibility for the error and for costing my team a win. After being away at World Cup and seeing how well the guys did, and then come back and cost us a game is very tough to take." MetroStars D Alexi Lalas on the error that led to White's goal.
"It's unbelievable to see this many people here and play in front of this crowd. They were so loud tonight, I know it is a clich้, but having them go nuts all night really does seem like you have an extra guy out there, and it was awesome." Colorado GK Marcus Hahnemann on the club-record 46,722 fans who attended the Rapids 1-0 win over the MetroStars on July 4.
"The U.S. Open Cup is important because it's a tradition in this country. It's the oldest tournament in the United States and it's very important to win it Just the name 'cup' should get us pumped up. In a war, every battle brings motivation." Miami Head Coach Cacho Cordoba on the U.S. Open Cup.
"I don't think the pressure is on me. We're going to have a lot of good times here. More than the bad times, I guarantee you." Dallas M Chad Deering when asked if the pressure is on him to reverse the bad fortunes of the team. (from the Dallas Morning News).
"Instead of traveling 5,000 miles each way, now my family can drive 35 minutes to watch me play." -- Deering on moving from Germany to his hometown of Dallas. (from the Dallas Morning News)
"There's not any love lost between us and Chicago. We've got a good rivalry going." Dallas M Jason Kreis on the budding Chicago-Dallas rivalry. (from the Dallas Morning News)
"(Coach Brian) Quinn kept saying to me, 'Do you want to win?' I went back on my word." San Jose F Eric Wynalda, who swore he would never participate in another shootout after injuring his knee April 5 in the Clash's third shootout loss to open the season, upon scoring the first shootout goal in a 2-1 shootout win over Columbus on July 3. (from the San Jose Mercury News)
"We suggested to the guys that it's a brand new season. I told the guys, 'We've got 16 games left, so let's pretend this is the break and here's where it's going to start.' I think we played that way. We really played like we weren't going to lose. On this level, it's all about overcoming adversity, and only good teams can do that." - New England Head Coach Thomas Rongen after the Revolution broke a nine-game losing streak with a 3-2 win at Tampa bay on July 4 (from the Boston Globe)
U.S. OPEN CUP: With a 3-1 win over the crosstown Chicago Stingers (USISL D3) last night, the Chicago Fire became the first of eight teams to advance to the quarterfinal portion of the 1998 U.S. Open Cup, U.S. Soccer's national championship. Eight MLS teams received byes into round three, where they face six A-League and two USISL D3 squads in the annual competition open to all amateur and professional teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer. The 85-year-old single-elimination tournament, the oldest cup competition in the country and among the oldest in the world, gives amateur clubs a chance to compete against the best teams in the nation.
The Fire defeated the Stingers, 3-1, Monday night at Forest Park Stadium in Arlington Heights, Ill. The Stingers made a 22nd-minute goal stand up until the 80th minute, when the Fire scored the first of three goals in the last 10 minutes. Fire forward Frank Klopas tallied the equalizer, midfielder Diego Gutierrez hit the game-winner with an incredible bicycle kick in the 83rd minute, and Project-40 forward Josh Wolff iced the game three minutes from time to give the Fire the final margin. Chicago advanced on the West side of the Open Cup brackets, with its next opponent determined by a geographical grouping of the quarterfinalists.
The San Jose Clash travels to Texas tonight to face the A-League's El Paso Patriots at 9 p.m. ET, while two other West games will be played tomorrow, July 8: the Nashville Metros (A-League) host the Kansas City Wizards at 8:30 p.m. ET, while the Orange County Zodiac (A-League) travel to Dallas to face the MLS Burn at 8:30 p.m. ET at Old Panther Field in Duncanville, Texas.
On the East side of the Open Cup bracket, the Rochester Rhinos (A-League) host the Columbus Crew tonight at 7:35 p.m. ET at Frontier Field, while three other East games will be played tomorrow: the MetroStars host the Hampton Roads Mariners (A-League) at Kean University in northern New Jersey; the Worcester Wildfire (A-League) travel to Tampa Bay to face the MLS Mutiny at 7:00 p.m. ET at the University of Tampa; and the Miami Fusion host the A-League's Orlando Nighthawks at Lockhart Stadium at 7:30 p.m. in the MLS expansion club's first-ever U.S. Open Cup match.
The East bracket will also be grouped geographically according to the teams who advance, with the 1998 U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinals being played on July 22. The four remaining semifinalists will be paired by a blind draw, with the semifinal games being played on August 4. The U.S. Open Cup championship game will be played on August 26 at a site yet to be determined.
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