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Fire-MetroStars rivalry turns ugly
This week's question | Quote of the week | Game of the week Fans of "Reality TV" got a treat at the end of last Sunday's nationally televised game between the Chicago Fire and the MetroStars. When the Metros' midfielder Roy Myers viciously fouled Chicago's C.J. Brown in the closing minutes, Fire coach Bob Bradley leaped from his bench and turned toward Metros coach Octavio Zambrano in a rage. Not realizing that an ABC camera was rolling right next to him, Bradley yelled, "... especially when I know what the general manager said to the team before the game the other day." Huh? What was Bradley talking about? Bradley wouldn't comment on the specific origin of his dig at Metros GM Nick Sakiewicz. But according to other sources, word had filtered back to Bradley last week that Sakiewicz had told several people before the game (including Chicago GM Peter Wilt) that it was going to be "a war" and "a bloodbath" after the bench-clearing ruckus that had taken place in the teams' last meeting, a 4-1 MetroStars victory. What's more, Bradley was told, Sakiewicz had promised MetroStars players he would cover any fines that resulted from the game.
Well, Bradley heard most of it right. According to MetroStars starter Petter Villegas, Sakiewicz did indeed tell his players that he would cover any fines they received from the league, but that meeting actually took place a month ago in the MetroStars locker room -- and it applied to every game, not just the Chicago match. "Nick told us he wanted us to go in hard and not worry about yellow cards," Villegas said, "and he'll take care of the fines." A second MetroStars player added that Sakiewicz had covered one of his fines earlier in the year. Reached late Wednesday, Sakiewicz denied that he had called such a meeting or that he and the club had covered any of his players' fines this season. "This club does not pay players' fines," he said. "Petter has obviously misunderstood something." Said MLS commish Don Garber, "If it is true, we would fully investigate it and deal with it in the appropriate manner." In the meantime, Sakiewicz lashed out at Bradley for his ABC outburst. "Bob beat us, and he acted like he'd lost," Sakiewicz said. "It was unprofessional and bush league. It's not like the fouls were 30-5 MetroStars. We had 21 and they had 18. Those guys weren't angels either." Perhaps, but it's instructive to note that the only players fined by the league after Sunday's foul-filled clash were MetroStars: Myers, who was dinged for $500 (half for his foul on Brown; half for the red card he earned for dragging down Hristo Stoitchkov in the box); Villegas ($250 for a flagrant foul against Carlos Bocanegra that should probably have been a red card); and Tab Ramos ($250 for seeing red after raking his cleats across Josh Wolff's knee). Villegas told me on Wednesday that he expected all those fines would be covered by Sakiewicz. Back to the ABC incident. On Monday, Sakiewicz left an angry message on Bradley's voice-mail, after which Bradley called to apologize. (He later did the same to Garber.) "I didn't realize the camera was on us, and I should have kept my mouth shut," Bradley says. But .... "I was very angry with a couple of fouls. There will always be hard fouls in a game, but I also saw other times when it was the player's intent to try and hurt the guy. I'm still very angry about what I saw." The bad blood between the Fire and MetroStars traces back to the melee that took place in Giants Stadium on May 27. In that game, Chicago's Ante Razov had gone after the MetroStars' Steve Jolley following a tackle, which spawned an altercation in which, the MetroStars charge, Fire assistant Denis Hamlett threw a punch at Zambrano. At the end of that game Stoitchkov, sporting a bloody lip, turned to Sakiewicz and flashed a "What's this?" expression to the Metros GM. Sakiewicz's reply: "F--- you. 4-1." Just in case we were wondering, Sakiewicz made sure to say on Wednesday that he's not embarrassed about telling his team to play hard. "What do our fans want to see," he cracked, "a bunch of pansies on the field?" No, we don't want to see a bunch of pansies, Nick. But we don't want to see any real violence, either, and that's what Sunday's game approached. Joe-Max, Five Bellies and two continentsThese are busy times for Joe-Max Moore. Last Monday the American sharpshooter scored two goals in a pre-season tuneup for Everton, where he had eight goals in an impressive debut a year ago. On Saturday he'll play against Manchester City, after which he'll jet off to Boston, where he'll join the U.S. for its crucial World Cup qualifier against Barbados next Wednesday. This week U.S. coach Bruce Arena gave every indication Moore would start up front with Brian McBride in the American lineup. "The closer we can get [Moore] to the goal, the better," Arena said. "We need a guy who's going to hunt out goals." Moore says he's finally at 100 percent after injuring his right MCL in a Premiership game on April 8. "When I first injured my knee, I had no idea how long I would be out," he told me Wednesday. "I was hoping to be back for the start of World Cup qualifying, but it kept dragging on. I just didn't realize how badly I had hurt it." Coming to the U.S. won't help Moore in his fight for a starting job at Everton, which opens its season against Leeds United on August 19, the day after Moore rejoins the team in training. There's no doubt, however, that the American expat is fitting in just fine with his teammates. On the bus ride back from a recent preseason trip to Exeter, new teammate Paul Gascoigne handed Moore his cell phone and said, "Joe-Max, say hullo to me friend Five Bellies!" Gazza then introduced Moore to Jimmy (Five Bellies) Gardner, who's famous for ... well, for being Gazza's beer-swilling buddy and tabloid sidekick. "I met the famous Five Bellies!" Moore proclaimed, which seemed fitting, since he's the most noteworthy Yank in the Premiership these days. This week's questionIn light of the theatrics in Chicago on Sunday, we asked 25 MLS players the following question: Name the cleanest team -- and the dirtiest team -- in MLS. The results: Cleanest Team 1. Columbus Crew ...
5
Other teams received a single vote, but my favorite response came from one MLS defender. "Cleanest team?" he wrote. "No such thing." My second favorite response was about San Jose: "That probably explains why they can hardly get out of the cellar each year. They can't catch anyone to kick them." Funny -- that quote's author was a D.C. United player. Dirtiest Team 1. D.C. United ...
7.5
This was definitely a three-team race, with United (the league leader in fouls, with 506) edging out Chicago and the MetroStars at the very end. The most amusing vote, however, went to the player who voted for Kansas City, arguing that the dirtiest team in MLS is "any team with Matt McKeon." As for our man Garth, let him tell you. Garth Lagerwey quote of the weekCleanest team: Dallas Burn "So many nice guys, they are afraid to ask girls out on dates. Good thing most of them are married." Dirtiest team: Chicago Fire "Sure they've been in scraps, but the city of big shoulders loves these kind of bruisers. How else to explain the Bears' continual sellouts despite no playoff appearances in years? The Fire scorches opponents with their tactics the same way Greek fire sunk Xerxes on his attempt to land his army across the Bosporus." Uh, sure, Garth. That's the first thing that came to my mind, too. Game of the week D.C. United (6-14-6) at Dallas Burn (10-12-4). Sat., Aug. 12, 7:30 p.m. ET.
Could things get any uglier for D.C. United? As if the record wasn't bad
enough, as if getting bounced by the Fusion from the U.S. Open Cup (at home!)
wasn't bad enough, you can stick a fork in United if it falls to beat the Burn this
weekend. And what would that leave us with? Five meaningless games from the team
voted by the players as the dirtiest in the league. Strap on the armor,
everybody, this could get
interesting.
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