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Throw-Ins Thunder host Rhinos for A-League championship
Posted: Friday October 15, 1999 06:50 PM
Not all nice guys finish last. Some finish second some of the time. Take, for instance, Minnesota Thunder coach Buzz Lagos. His team has reached for a league championship brass ring under the United Soccer League umbrella three times this decade, and three times his team has come up just short. You can look it up: In 1994, the Thunder fell to the Greensboro Dynamo in the USISL championship game in a shootout, 2-1, in Greensboro, N.C. In 1995, the Thunder was only six seconds away from overtime before future MLS player Giovanni Savarese scored to lift the Long Island Rough Riders to a 2-1 triumph to win the USISL crown in Uniondale, N.Y. And last year, the Rochester Raging Rhinos showed why they were the most dominant team in the league, recording a 3-1 victory in the A-League championship match in Rochester, N.Y. So, Lagos hopes the fourth time will be the charm for several reasons. One, the Thunder (27-6) is a damn good team. It enters Saturday's showdown with the Rhinos (27-7), the first time an A-League title game will feature a rematch from the previous year's game. And for the first time in its championship tries, the Thunder is playing at home. "In some ways, we're a better team than last year," Lagos said. "We've added several new players. And the core guys who have been with us for years gives us a strong sense of stability and purpose. "I think the players do talk about it [the three near-misses] a bit. Getting into the final series three times was a great accomplishment. No doubt this is the year the guys would like to win it." That Lagos became one of U.S. soccer's coaching treasures is not an accident. He is a self-made coach. Born in Totowa, N.J., -- he won't say his age, only that he is in his late fifties -- Lagos was a basketball player at Providence College before he started playing soccer in his early 20s. He fell in love with the sport. "I had a snack at scoring goals," he said. He got a job as a math teacher at St. Paul Academy in Minneapolis as he continued to pursue his passion. Lagos worked with the Minnesota Kicks of the North American Soccer League in the late seventies and early eighties. He became the first coach in Minnesota to earn an A license. That wasn't enough. He went to England to earn the F.A. coaching badge. He studied for a summer in Montevideo, Uruguay, and watched games at Centenary Stadium, site of the very first World Cup. "It was great," he said. In 1990, he was one of the founding fathers of the Minnesota Thunder, which, like many teams, started out as an amateur organization. Lagos, who once owned 50 percent of the team, now has a 10-percent stake in it. The Thunder slowly evolved and eventually joined the USL and its second-division A-League. Under Lagos, the Thunder has compiled an amazing 162-52-1 record this decade (and 15 of the losses came in 1997). Combined with his high school record of 256-55-35, Lagos' overall record is 421-107-36. In the here-today, gone-tomorrow coaching world of the 1990s, Lagos is a pillar. "Even when you're a part owner, if you're not successful as a coach, you don't last very long," he said. Of course, because of his track record, the question came up whether Lagos would like to coach in MLS. "I would sure like to see MLS come to Minnesota," was his response. His legacy will live beyond his coaching success -- in the form of his two sons -- Gerard and Manny. Manny, who is just coming back from a devastating and career-threatening knee injury, will play for the Tampa Bay Mutiny against the Columbus Crew in the MLS playoffs this weekend. Because of his Thunder responsibilities, Lagos will be forced to watch his son play on television. But he'll get a front-row seat to watch Gerard against the Rhinos on Saturday. "He seems to come through in the playoffs," Lagos said. "He scores clutch goals and plays his best soccer. Come the playoffs, he steps it up." As for Manny, Buzz said, "It's gratifying to see him play again. I feel good for him that things are beginning to click." Thanks to his two talented sons, there is little doubt that Lagos' legacy in the American soccer world is secure. A championship trophy and ring would just be icing on the cake and allow this nice guy to finish first. The A-League verdict: With the two best defensive teams in the league (the Thunder has surrendered a league-low 17 goals, and the Rhinos were next with 20 allowed), this, not surprisingly, will be a defensive game. After all, they have the best defensive players in the league. The Thunder boasts goalkeeper of the year John Swallen, and the Rhinos have the best defender in Scott Schweitzer. Neither team has a player among the top 20 scorers. The Thunder will finally prevail for the tile, 1-0, on a late goal by super-sub Paul Schneider. Gulati's backI have little doubt that Sunil Gulati will turn around the fortunes of the New England Revolution, making the team into a viable side. But making him the head of Kraft Soccer Properties to run the soccer fortunes of teams -- the San Jose Clash is the other -- doesn't look particularly kosher. In his role, Gulati will have the say on the hiring and firing of coaches for both teams and the acquisition of players. And how does he resolve a trade between the two teams? Does he talk to or negotiate with himself? The Clash already raised eyebrows recently when it dealt Jeff Baicher to the Revs for their late-season playoff run. Whether there is or not, one person running the show for two organizations will always raise the suspicion of a conflict of interest or hanky-panky behind the scenes. U.S. soccer, however, thrives on conflict of interests. Philip Anschutz owns three teams in the Western Conference -- Chicago Fire, Los Angeles Galaxy and Colorado Rapids. And Alan Rothenberg once held the three most important titles in American soccer at the same time -- president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, chairman and CEO of the World Cup organizing committee and chairman of Major League Soccer. I guess it goes with the territory. As for the Revs hiring an American coach or a coach who understands an American player, as Gulati said is his preference, the pickings are slim. There are four former MLS coaches in the United States -- Octavio Zambrano, who forged a 37-15 mark before he was bounced by the Galaxy earlier this year, Alfonso Mondelo, who actually had the MetroStars at 14-11 before a six-game losing streak doomed him last season, and a pair of former Clash coaches -- Laurie Calloway and Brian Quinn. Dave Sarachan (D.C. United) probably leads the pack of assistant coaches who would love to get a shot, followed by Mike Jeffries (Chicago), Perry Van Der Beck (Tampa Bay), Fernando Clavijo (MetroStars) and Ralph Perez (Los Angeles Galaxy), among others. Not many coaches want to leave the college ranks. They are either tenured or have lucrative soccer summer camps. You have to wonder if Gulati, one of the sharpest men in soccer worldwide and full of surprises, will make a stunning seelction, such as U.S. Women's National Team coach Tony DiCicco or former women's national coach Anson Dorrance. DiCicco, a native New Englander who resides in Connecticut, is pondering whether he will return to the National Team for the 2000 Olympics. Dorrance has to be considered an outsider because he hasn't coached a men's team in more than a decade. An icon "steps aside"While there were much more talented players than Alexi Lalas, no men's player was more recognizable to the general public than him. Heck, even my father, who isn't much of a sports fan, let alone a soccer fan, knew who he was. Lalas's best moments came under former U.S. National Team coach Bora Milutinovic in games lead up to and in the 1994 World Cup. It seemed "stuff" -- good stuff -- always happened around Lalas. Remember, he scored a goal in that 2-0 upset of England in the U.S. Cup in 1993. And he and Marcelo Balboa were the nucleus of the American backline. His performance opened the door for Lalas to play for Padova in Italy. After an encouraging start, his weaknesses, particularly his lack of speed, were exposed and eventually he returned home -- for the start of MLS in 1996. While he was a four-time all-star and a fan favorite, Lalas never lived up to his hype. He played for three teams in four seasons -- New England, MetroStars and most recently the Kansas City Wizards -- and reached the post-season only once, never performing for a winning side. There were rumblings that Lalas decided to hang up his boots because he received a contract offer from the league that was less than half his contract of $247,500. "I don't know where that comes from," said Richard Motzkin, his agent. "His contract continues for multiple years with significant guarantees. His MLS contract situation had nothing to do with that. "He's walking away from signficiant financial guarantees. It demonstrates why type of character he is. He came to a decision a while ago. He wants a new challenge." The very full mail bag Question from Israel Olivas of Los Cruces, N.M.
Answer: Without polling many players, coaches and officials from the top leagues in the world, it would be very difficult to answer that question. It is generally believed that the quality of MLS is more like the English first division, or the second divsion of the top countries in Europe. In attendance, however, MLS, even at 14,000, does quite well when compared to the top leagues in France, Netherlands, etc. Question from Mike Smith of Chicago
Answer: Klinsmann says he lives somewhere in Orange County and he has said on several occasions that he has retired for good. Besides, he's 35-years-old, and it would be asking a lot for a player known for his movement to do that during the long hot summer months of MLS. Question from B.J. Attarian of Cary, N.C.
Answer: Because CONCACAF has had another competition for cup winners -- the CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup, not unlike the defunct European Cup Winners Cup.
The CONCACAF version has been sporadic through the years.
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