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Metros' woes

MetroStars soccer soap opera plays on

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Posted: Friday July 30, 1999 02:28 PM

By Michael Lewis, CNN/SI

It would be easy to bash the hapless New York/New Jersey MetroStars in this column.

After all, I could talk about them being the butt of jokes from general managers to coaches to fans around Major League Soccer.

I could mention how the MetroStars lead the league in one dubious category -- five coaches in only four seasons.

Or I could list the entire seventy-something players they have used over the course of four seasons. Sorry, I've lost count.

So, I'm going to talk about the facts concerning what many observers feel should be one of the flagship teams of Major League Soccer, and hopefully give a solution or two to clean up this mess.

Just a reminder for fiction readers: Nothing below is embellished.

The MetroStars are in sixth and last place in the Eastern Conference with a 5-13 record and nine points, the lowest total of any team entering the all-star break in the league's four-year history. They are fortunate They have scored but a league-low 17 goals (less than one a game) and surrendered 35, which is the highest average per match of any team. They are the only team in the league that doesn't have a player with at least five goals.

Over the four MLS seasons, the MetroStars are 48-66, the worst record of any of the original 10 teams.

The most damning numbers of them all are 17 and 3-7. D.C. United striker Roy Lassiter scored almost as many goals (15) as the entire MetroStars' team this season -- 17. But I understand that isn't fair to compare those numbers because Lassiter has played one more game.

The 3-7 is the MetroStars' home record this season -- poorest in the league. They haven't won consecutive matches in regulation at home in almost a year, and they haven't recorded a three-point win on the road since a 2-1 victory over the mighty Miami Fusion on June 7, 1998. But that's another story. You don't have to be a genius to know that if you don't win at home, you don't accrue value points for a playoff berth. You don't have to be a genius to know that if you don't win at home that fans will stay away.

As the soccer ball turns

This season's problems have root in 1998.

With one game remaining in the regular season and the MetroStars mired in a six-game losing streak after reaching a franchise-best 14-11 record, Alfonso Mondelo was fired as coach. His replacement was former U.S. National Team coach Bora Milutinovic, who was brought in not just to try to salvage the playoffs, but to prepare and assess talent for 1999 in the off-season.

Milutinovic took a long time to make up his mind, starting a series of events -- gutting the team not once, but twice -- that have this team reeling. In January, three major deals shook up the team as goalkeeper Tony Meola and defender Alexi Lalas were sent packing to the Kansas City Wizards, forward Giovanni Savarese to the New England Revolution and all-star defender Diego Sonora to D.C. United.

The Savarese trade was a curious deal. It was bad enough the team had dealt away one of its most popular players and its all-time leading scorer. What was even more perplexing was that Bora wavered on a foreign player replacement for several months as the league pushed for a decision. Without a running-mate up front, Eduardo Hurtado, who has a team-high four goals, has become an ineffective head case while enduring one of his worst slumps of his career.

With the team foundering, rebuilding project No. 2 came on June 1 when Colombian defender Arley Palacios and Costa Rican midfielder Roy Myers, whom Bora brought in, were dispatched to the Miami Fusion and Los Angeles Galaxy, respectively, to make roster and salary cap room for new foreign bodies.

Supposedly German international sweeper and captain Lothar Matthaeus was on the verge of joining the team. But the deal -- which is expected to be announced any day now -- fell through at the time because, ironically, a former Cosmos great, Bayern Munich president Franz Beckenbauer, refused to let Matthaeus go.

The MetroStars were left holding the bag, and things got progressively worse. There was the 5-2 home loss to the Dallas Burn in which the MetroStars allowed the visitors to score not once, but twice on 1-on-2 counterattacks off their corner kicks. There was a 6-0 drubbing by the Wizards, which has 22 goals and arguably was the worst team in the league at the time.

The Metrostars' Eduardo Hurtado has become ineffective while enduring one of his worst slumps of his career. Al Bello/Allsport

The league promised marquee players. Instead, the MetroStars received two players who don't have marquee names, at least in this country. It does appear the players -- Colombian forward Henry Zambrano and Serbian midfielder Sasa Curcic -- can make an impact.

Finally, last Saturday, they made their MetroStars' debuts, in a 1-0 home loss to the Fusion. That Saturday game was part of the second of three doubleheaders over a three-day period at Giants Stadium. The MetroStars game was sandwiched between the Gotham Cup (Friday and Sunday), which featured such teams as Fiorentina of Italy and Aston Villa of England.

The Saturday affair, however, which had Mexican champion Toluca playing Atletico Nacional of Colombia, Zambrano's old team, was a different story. Thousands of tickets were given to the Hispanic community and businesses. Earlier in the week, the MetroStars announced that 30,000 tickets had been sold. On Saturday morning, 15,000 tickets were returned to the team, leaving MetroStars management angered and embarrassed. Only 3,000 spectators showed up for the first game, and the MetroStars had only 13,608 for a game in a cavernous stadium that was televised nationally by ABC.

Word is that commissioner Doug Logan was more than a bit perturbed about the abysmal attendance after he heard about the projections.

Wait, soap opera fans -- there's more. Hurtado the head case, by the time you read this, might be on a plane to Switzerland getting ready to play for FC Zurich, which wants to buy his contract from MLS. Yes, it would hurt the MetroStars, who finally have a full complement of foreign players. But how often do you get an offer from a foreign team to buy a player who is in a serious slump? Can't blame the league if it decides to sell him. But that leaves the MetroStars in a lurch once again.

How do you get out of this mess?

Let's start with the coach -- Bora, who has forged an international reputation as a miracle worker, turning national teams into World Cup overachievers (please see Costa Rica in 1990 and the United States in 1994). The only miracle associated with Bora these days is that he still has a job.

Including his short stint last season, the MetroStars have won only twice in regulation under Bora, losing 15 games and winning four shootouts. He also has had trouble communicating with players and the media. Bora might be saved by the fact that the MetroStars are rebuilding and that the team doesn't want to eat the second year of his contract, worth $500,000 a season. Besides, how would it look if Stillitano brings in a sixth coach so soon?

A gregarious individual, Stillitano is universally liked by the media, including yours truly. He is a nice guy, someone you would be proud to call a friend. On the professional end, he returns phone calls immediately and is quotable. But unfortunately, the team hasn't gotten its act together under him.

While not everything that has happened to the MetroStars has been his fault, all of it has transpired under Stillitano's watch.

After four seasons, it's time to clean house and bring in a new management team with a new vision. A lot of people -- fans and media in particular -- have called for both the heads of Bora and Charlie.

Here are two potential replacements for MetroStars investor/operators John Kluge and Stuart Subotnick to consider.

For the coach, bring in someone who is hungry, someone like a Dave Masur, who has become accustomed working with American, ethnic and foreign players at 1996 Division I men's soccer champion St. John's. Masur, however, might not be ready to leave the college ranks -- at least not yet. He's in a great situation at St. John's.

As for GM, why not try Bill Manning from that A-League cradle of general managers, the Minnesota Thunder? Peter Wilt, the general manager of the Chicago Fire, plied his trade there for several years and Manning is young and hungry enough to make an impact in MLS.

Manning, a native New Yorker, just might be a perfect fit for the MetroStars. He starred for the Brooklyn Italians, winners of the 1991 U.S. Open Cup and one of the top semi-pro teams around. He was general manager of the New York Fever (now Staten Island Vipers, which eliminated the MetroStars from the U.S. Open Cup several weeks ago) and the Long Island Rough Riders. He's sharp and a go-getter, and many teams could do a lot worse.

Will the MetroStars owners allow this sorry soap opera to continue, or will they take a bold step toward next century?

Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of Soccer Magazine.

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