Notebook

MLS gets official underwear, new balls

ATLANTA (CNNSI.com) -- Major League Soccer announced on Friday that Baltimore-based UnderArmour has signed on as the league's "Official Under Garment Supplier."

The company makes clothes with a special microfiber designed to keep athletes from sweating during a workout or game. The multi-year partnership adds MLS to a list of clients that includes Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, USA Baseball, the U.S. Ski Team and 30 National Football League teams.

Meanwhile, it was also announced that Puma will replace Kappa as the official match ball supplier of the league, and replace Nike as the uniform supplier for the Chicago Fire beginning with the 2003 season.

"Puma is a hot consumer brand with a storied soccer heritage, making them a terrific addition to our family of world-class on-field suppliers," said MLS executive vice president Mark Noonan.

The Puma match ball is already used in Europe by the Scottish Football Association, Serie A power Lazio, the Bundesliga's VFB Stuttgart and by France's AS Monaco.

Set to debut on opening day of the 2003 Major League Soccer season, the PUMA Match Ball will be the focus of an online contest prior to the start of the 2003 MLS season on the league's official Web site.

Nicol is golden: Revolution interim coach Steve Nicol was anything but the logical choice for MLS Coach of the Year halfway through August, after beginning the season as an assistant coach and starting his second tenure in New England going 5-10-0 in his first 15 matches. However, after finishing the regular season on a 5-0-1 tear, winning the side's first Eastern Conference title and leading his team to its first MLS Cup final appearance, few could argue with the naming of the well-liked Scotsman as the winner of the 2002 award. Nicol, 41, is the second coach to win the award as an in-season replacement. The first? His counterpart in Sunday's final, Sigi Schmid, in 1999.

Early start for Sigi's men: The Los Angeles Galaxy's day started at 6:30 a.m. local time on Thursday, when the players arrived at the Los Angeles airport for check-in ahead of an 8 a.m. departure. What followed was a three-and-a-half hour trip to Chicago, then a one-hour layover and a three-hour leg from Chicago to Providence -- not including a 20-minute delay before the plane ever got off the runway.

Every member of the team made the cross-country trip for the Galaxy -- including Gavin Glinton (fractured left ankle) and Isaias Bardales (sprained right knee), who are on injured reserve.

Injury-free: The news is positive on midfielder Peter Vagenas, as the midfielder's strained right hamstring is reported to be fully recovered. He is available to start if called upon. Glinton and Bardales are the only other injured players to note.

Having opted for a trip to the gym after arriving Thursday, Los Angeles was to get into the full swing of things Friday afternoon when the club hits the Stevenson Field pitch on the campus of Brown University for its first official training session in Providence at 3 p.m. ET.

On Wednesday, the Galaxy trained at McAllister Field on the campus of the University of Southern California for over an hour under cloudy skies and unseasonably cool temperatures in the low 60s -- the same weather forecasters are predicting for part of MLS Cup 2002 weekend.

Who's the home team: It might feel like home for the Revolution on Sunday, but the Galaxy will look like the home side. As the team with the better regular-season record, Los Angeles will don their home teal-and-gold kits in the championship battle, forcing New England to wear its road whites. In another move of gamesmanship, the Galaxy also exercised their right to use the home bench for Sunday's contest. However, the Galaxy did not take full advantage of the "home-field" advantage -- the Galaxy decided not to kick the Revs out of the home locker room at "The Razor."

Call it a comeback: New England hasn't fared well coming from behind in 2002, going just 1-11-0 when giving up the first goal. However, only one other team has ever come back as far in the standings as the Revs did this year to capture a conference or division title. On Aug. 21 the last-place Revs were an afterthought for the postseason after falling 12 points behind conference co-leaders Chicago and Columbus. But when the Revs came back to tie Columbus for first-place and win the crown via the head-to-head tiebreaker, they equaled the 1999 Los Angeles Galaxy's mark for the largest deficit overcome to win a title. The Galaxy came close to besting their mark this season, as Los Angeles stormed back from an 11-point hole to overtake the San Jose Earthquakes and win the Western Conference

Nicol's New England roots: Nicol has close ties with the New England soccer community, having worked his way through the coaching ranks beginning with the Boston Bulldogs in the D3 Pro League. The former Liverpool player (1981-1995) and Scotland international closed out his playing days with Sheffield Wednesday and Doncaster Rovers in England and moved to America in 1999 to become a player/coach with the Bulldogs. Nicol still maintains a role with Bulldogs owners Mass Pro Soccer (MPS) as the technical director to the senior teams and the MPS Youth Development Academy. In 1999, Nicol replaced Italian legend Walter Zenga and served as interim head coach of the Revolution, winning the final two games to close out the season.

Looking to lose 'interim' status: The fact that Nicol won those final two games of 1999 did not help him to retain the post as ex-U.S. team player Fernando Clavijo was given the nod at the start of 2000. But on May 23, Nicol took over from Clavijo, who led the team to a 2-4-1 start to the 2002 campaign. The former assistant guided the team to a 10-10-1 record to close out 2002, including a 5-0-1 run down the stretch. Nicol is the only coach in Revolution history to post an all-time winning record with the club (12-10-1 in regular season play), and if he returns in 2003 he will need 11 wins to equal the most wins ever by a New England head coach (23 by Thomas Rongen between 1996-'97).

New England cursed?: Does the "curse of the Bambino" extend to soccer? The Boston area has been the home for the Rovers in the United Soccer Association in 1967, three teams in the NASL and the Revolution for the entire history of MLS. None of those major league teams ever won a title over a 14-season span.

In fact, the last title won by a Boston soccer team in any national pro league was a share of the 1975 ASL championship. The Boston Astros split the title with the New York Apollo, when nine overtimes failed to break their tie. The Astros weren't even technically a Boston team by that point, having moved to Worcester during the season. The commissioner who made the decision not to replay the championship game and to split the ASL title was NBA Hall of Famer Bob Cousy.

Massachusetts, however, has seen its teams capture Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup titles dating back to 1917. The Fall River Rovers (1917), Fall River FC (1924, 1927, 1930, 1931), Shawsheen FC (Andover, Mass. in 1925), New Bedford FC (1932) and Ponta Delgada SC (Fall River, Mass. in 1947) have all claimed the U.S. Open Cup since the tournament kicked off in 1914.

MVP seeks redemption: The reigning Scoring Champion and MVP entering the 2002 season, Alex Pineda Chacon, was probably hoping for much better than nine starts and two goals when he joined New England in the offseason. After scoring in the season opener and starting the first six games of the campaign under former head coach Fernando Clavijo, the veteran Pineda Chacon would not figure prominently in the plans of Clavijo's replacement, Steve Nicol.

However, the Honduran, who scored 19 goals in 2001 and led the Miami Fusion to the Supporter's Shield, handled matters in a professional manner. A former law school student in Honduras, Pineda Chacon has expressed his unhappiness at times. If Taylor Twellman is not able to start in the championship game or if the Revolution find themselves in a hole, Pineda Chacon may get the opportunity to redeem himself.

World Cup players cross paths: Four U.S. World Cup players will face off for MLS Cup on Sunday. Cobi Jones (L.A.), Alexi Lalas (L.A.), Juergen Sommer (N.E.) and Carlos Llamosa (N.E.) were teammates on the U.S. national team that battled the MLS All-Stars at the 2002 All-Star Game. Jones ('94, '98, '02), Lalas ('94, '98), Sommer ('94, '98) and Llamosa ('02) are all U.S. World Cup Players, with Jones, Lalas and Sommer being part of the U.S. squad that hosted the tournament in 1994.

Current Los Angeles Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid was an assistant under then U.S. coach Bora Milutinovic at the '94 tournament. Former Revolution coach Fernando Clavijo was also a member of the 1994 World Cup team that was eliminated in the second round against Brazil. Ralph Perez, Galaxy assistant coach, is the only member of either team to be involved in the U.S. effort at the 1990 World Cup when he served as an assistant to head coach Bob Gansler, currently with the Kansas City Wizards.

College connections: UCLA will have the largest representation of any collegiate program at MLS Cup: Six Galaxy players were Bruins at some point in their careers -- plus Sigi Schmid, who coached there for 19 years (1980-1999).

Tyrone Marshall (L.A.), Daouda Kante (N.E.) and Steve Ralston (N.E.) all attended Florida International University and are expected to be direct opponents on the field, with Marshall serving as the Galaxy's left back defending Ralston on the right wing. Kante is the latest of the three to graduate from the Miami-based school. Ralston, who still holds the record of all-time assists (33), was a 1995 graduate. Marshall joined the Golden Panthers for the 1996-'97 season.

Craig Waibel (L.A.) and Joey Franchino (N.E.) both are hard-nosed defenders with common roots at the University of Washington. The Revolution will field three players with connections to the University of Maryland: Taylor Twellman, Leo Cullen, Nick Downing. If Twellman plays, he will be going up against former Terrapin teammate Danny Califf, who was also his teammate on the 1999 under-20 U.S. national team that played at the Youth World Championships. Twellman, Califf and the rest of the under-20s were coached by Schmid, beating both England and Cameroon.

Wolde Harris (N.E.) and reserve Ian Fuller (N.E.) are two former Clemson University strikers; Chris Albright (L.A.) and Marshall Leonard (N.E.) attended the University of Virginia; Alejandro Moreno (L.A.) and Rusty Pierce (N.E.) honed their skills at UNC-Greensboro; while Brian Mullan (L.A.) and Brian Kamler (N.E.) were members of the Creighton program.

St. Louis connection: The soccer tradition of St. Louis will be on display at MLS Cup as the Revolution field three natives of the city, all of whom are starters: Brian Kamler, Steve Ralston and Taylor Twellman. The trio has made a lasting contribution to the squad, with Twellman leading the league in scoring (23g, 6a = 52pts), Ralston leading the league in assists (19) and coming in second behind Twellman on the team in points scored (5g, 19a = 29pts), while Kamler ranked fourth on the team in regular season scoring (2g, 5a = 9pts).

MLS Cup goes international: A combined 50 players and coaches between the Galaxy and Revolution will take the field on Sunday for MLS Cup. In that mix, 14 nations including the U.S. will be represented. The following are the countries in which at least one player or coach from the Revs or Galaxy was born: Jamaica (3), Colombia (2), Mexico (1), Guatemala (1), St. Vincent & The Grenadines (1), El Salvador (1), New Zealand (1), Venezuela (1), Egypt (1), Germany (1), Honduras (1), Mali (1), Palestine (1), Scotland (1). Many of these countries may get to watch their own battle for the most important soccer prize in the U.S. as ESPN International will be showing MLS Cup 2002 to the world on tape delay Monday in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

Two best scorers in CONCACAF: The goal-scoring rivalry that materialized in 2002 between strikers Taylor Twellman (22-years-old, N.E. Revolution) and Carlos Ruiz (23-years-old, L.A. Galaxy) may be just the beginning of a larger scale confrontation between the two on the international stage. "El Pescadito" is a starting forward for the Guatemalan national team, while Twellman is expected to get the opportunity to fight for a spot on what is expected to be a new-look U.S. team that will be looking ahead to the 2006 World Cup.

Guatemala and the United States have done battle during CONCACAF World Cup qualifying for the 1990, 1998 and 2002 World Cups, and the meetings are likely to be renewed when 2006 World Cup qualifying kicks off in two years. Ruiz and Twellman have staked their claim in 2002 as the best forwards in CONCACAF and will get to back it up on the MLS and international stages.

Been there, done that: Revolution defender Carlos Llamosa played on the 1997 and 1999 MLS Cup champion D.C. United squads, defeating the Galaxy 2-0 in Foxboro in 1999. Revs midfielder Brian Kamler was a member of the United team that captured the first two championships in league history (1996, 1997) and although he did not see playing time in either title game, he did earn two rings, including the one in 1996 following United's 3-2 overtime win over the Galaxy.

L.A. on big stage: The Los Angeles Galaxy roster carries 10 players with 17 MLS Cup appearances. When it comes to postseason experience, all but five of the Galaxy's 21 players have tasted the MLS playoffs before, for a combined total of 232 appearances (compared to Revolution's 168 appearances spread among 19 players). Four Revolution players are still without playoff experience, and of the 19 players who have been to the postseason before, six got their first appearance in New England's 2002 run.

In with the new: On May 11, the Revolution opened the new Gillette Stadium by blanking the Dallas Burn 2-0 behind two Taylor Twellman goals. The team enjoyed a 7-7-0 record at their new home, which was built was soccer in mind. At the old Foxboro Stadium, the Revolution compiled a record of 48-40-5 over six seasons. The Galaxy were 4-3-0 during regular season play at the old facility with their last win having come on July 11, 1999 (5-2). Los Angeles also dropped two MLS Cup championship matches at the old Foxboro Stadium, both to D.C. United in 1996 and 1999.

This season the Galaxy, who hold MLS' all-time best road record (51-48-8, the only team above .500), dropped a 3-2 result on May 25. The 17 road goals scored by Sigi Schmid's squad in 2002 is the lowest total in team history, fewer than the previous team low of 24 goals the club netted away from home in the 1997 campaign when the regular season schedule included four extra matches (total of 32).

Worth the wait: Revolution midfielder Steve Ralston is the league's all-time leader in games (204) and minutes played (17,960), but the Oct. 20 championship game will represent his first appearance in a title match in his seven-year career. Jason Kreis (Dallas Burn) and Mark Chung (Colorado Rapids), who round out the top three of the all-time lists in games and minutes played, are now the longest-serving players yet to see an MLS Cup final.

Kraft seeks rare double: Robert Kraft, owner of the NFL's New England Patriots and MLS' New England Revolution, has already tasted a championship win this year with the Patriots winning the Super Bowl in February. If the Revolution capture MLS Cup on Sunday, it would mark a first for a professional sports owner in America. According to preliminary research, only Jerry Buss, whose L.A. Lakers have won three consecutive NBA titles and whose L.A. Sparks are two-time WNBA champions, has achieved anything similar, although those championships came in the same sport. Lamar Hunt, investor-operator of both the Columbus Crew and Kansas City Wizards in MLS, won a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs (1970 Super Bowl IV) and an MLS title with the Wizards (MLS Cup 2000), 30 years apart.

Golden State a soccer hotbed: The state of California is home to one of the greatest soccer-playing populations in America, and that will be manifested at MLS Cup 2002, largely due to the presence of the Los Angeles Galaxy, who have six players born in the Golden State. Of the 15 states represented at MLS Cup, New York is next in line with four natives who will be present at Gillette Stadium. The following is the state-by-state breakdown of the birthplaces of those who will be part of MLS Cup 2002: California (8), New York (4), Missouri (3), Massachusetts (2), Texas (2), Oregon (2), Michigan (2), Georgia (2), New Mexico (1), Pennsylvania (1), Ohio (1), Minnesota (1), New Hampshire (1), Kansas (1) and Washington (1).

U.S. Open Cup final rematch: The Los Angeles Galaxy and New England Revolution have a precedent in championship games, having met just last year in the 2001 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final. The Galaxy's Danny Califf scored the game-winning golden goal in overtime against the Revolution to give the Galaxy a 2-1 win and its first domestic championship. Los Angeles also came away with the Football Confederation (CONCACAF) Champions Cup in January of 2001.

Galaxy shoot for double again: The Galaxy left L.A. on Thursday for an entire week with the hope of bringing back home two championships when the squad returns on October 25. Sigi Schmid's club is looking to become the third MLS team to capture a "double": a conquest of the two major domestic soccer championships -- MLS Cup and the U.S. Open Cup. Last year the club was in a similar position, but came away with only one of the cups, losing to the San Jose Earthquakes in the MLS Cup final and then defeating the Revolution a week later. After Sunday's final, the Galaxy will train in Providence on Monday and then fly to Columbus on Tuesday, where the team will take on the Columbus Crew for the 2002 Open Cup title on Thursday. D.C. United (1996) and the Chicago Fire (1998) are the only teams to have accomplished the feat.

Five competitions, five finals: The Galaxy have been perfect in recent years in reaching championship games. In fact, over the last two years, Los Angeles has qualified for the finals in the five competitions in which it has participated, including two MLS Cups (2001-02), two U.S. Open Cups (2001-02), and one CONCACAF Champions Cup (2001). The Galaxy were not given a chance to defend their Champions Cup title in 2002, having not been invited to enter the event that saw four other MLS clubs participate. Sunday's title game at Foxboro will be the Galaxy's second consecutive appearance, third in four seasons and record fourth trip in the seven-year history of the league.

Worst to first: Sunday's final will mark the third consecutive year that a team which failed to make the postseason in the previous year has advanced to the final. The Kansas City Wizards (2000) and San Jose Earthquakes (2001) both came away with the titles after missing the playoffs a year earlier. The Revolution were close to missing a postseason berth for the fifth year in their seven-year history when they found themselves in last place in the overall league standings as late as August 23 (the regular season concluded on Sept. 22), when they stood seven points behind the MetroStars for the eighth and final berth. Then the club went on a 5-0-1 tear and not only clinched a spot in the playoffs, but also came away with the organization's first Eastern Conference crown.

Best vs. worst: Even in the MLS Cup championship game, that scenario is possible. In fact, the L.A. Galaxy -- four-time MLS Cup finalists -- have compiled the league's best regular-season record over their seven-year history (123-75-16 for a 0.612 winning percentage). The Revolution find themselves on the bottom of the all-time standings with an 85-116-14 record (0.428 winning percentage). The 116 losses is the highest total by any team in league history (the MetroStars are a close second with 115 losses).

True dedication: Revolution fans have never given up on their team. Their all-time average regular season home attendance of 17,849 over 107 home dates is third best in MLS history (the Galaxy lead that category with an average of 20,957). L.A. has been in 10 of the top 15 best-attended postseason games, including seven home games of their own and three MLS Cup title games.

Terry first to ref two finals: The 2002 MLS Referee of the Year Kevin Terry, a veteran of seven MLS seasons, will be the man in the middle for MLS Cup 2002 on Sunday. The native of London has officiated a total of 77 MLS regular season matches since the league's inaugural year in 1996. A FIFA referee since 1997, Terry has officiated several international matches including World Cup Qualifiers. He will become the first man to referee two MLS Cup championship games when he takes the field on Sunday.

"El Pescadito" raises bar in postseason: Galaxy forward Carlos Ruiz has set a new standard of playoff goal scoring with his performances in the 2002 postseason. With seven goals and two assists (total of 16 points) in the five postseason games he has appeared in, "El Pescadito" broke the record for the most goals and points ever scored in a single postseason. The Chicago Fire's Ante Razov registered 14 points on four goals and six assists after playing seven games during the 2000 playoffs, two more than the Galaxy's Guatemalan sensation. Ruiz's seven goals also set another postseason record set by surpassing the six goals netted by Raul Diaz Arce (D.C. United) and Roy Lassiter (Tampa Bay Mutiny) in 1996.

Best scorer in league history?: There are various means to measure the production of a player: points-per-game, goals-per-game and total goals being a few. In the case of the Galaxy's Carlos Ruiz, his 31 goals in 31 games in 2002 MLS play (regular season and playoffs) are the best goal-scoring numbers in league history by a player who has played more than 30 total matches during the course of a season (including postseason). Behind Ruiz in the category are the performances by Roy Lassiter (33 goals in 35 games in 1996 -- 0.94 goals-per-game), Mamadou Diallo (28 goals in 30 games in 2000 -- 0.93 goals-per-game), Stern John (29 goals in 32 games in 1998 -- 0.90 goals-per-game) and Raul Diaz Arce (29 goals in 34 games in 1996 -- 0.85 goals-per-game).

The ex-factor: When the Revolution and Galaxy take the field, there will be four players who can say they once played for the opposition. New England's captain, Joe Franchino, was a member of the Galaxy from 1998 to 2000, although he did not make an appearance at MLS Cup 1999 when the team lost to D.C. United. Another former Galaxy member is Revolution midfielder Daniel Hernandez, who was drafted by L.A. in the 1998 MLS College Draft (18th overall) and made 29 appearances before Sigi Schmid traded him away to the Tampa Bay Mutiny in 1999. Schmid also made the move this year to waive midfielder Winston Griffiths, who made six appearances and scored one goal for Los Angeles before being picked up by New England on July 30. Galaxy defender and U.S. soccer icon Alexi Lalas played for New England in his first two years in the league (1996-'97) and made a total of 55 appearances over the course of the two seasons.

Revolutionary overhaul: The Revolution were tabbed as MLS Cup favorites before the season even started after they had come away with prize talents from the Allocation and Dispersal Drafts in January. Among the players to join New England's ranks were Mamadou Diallo (2000 Scoring Champion), Alex Pineda Chacon (2001 MVP and Scoring Champion), Steve Ralston, Carlos Llamosa, Jim Rooney and Shaker Asad.

However, Diallo was traded away in May and Pineda Chacon has been for the most part relegated to coming off the bench, meaning that the two biggest names of the crop would barely contribute to the effort.

The overhaul went far deeper than the Allocation and Dispersal Drafts. Of the Revolution's 23-man roster, 14 players were acquired in 2002, only five in 2001 and just four others in 2000 (Wolde Harris, Joey Franchino, Rusty Pierce and Juergen Sommer). By comparison, Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid incorporated seven new players in 2002, with the other elements of his 21-man roster coming from moves made every year since 1996 (Cienfuegos and Jones in 1996; Hendrickson and Hartman in 1997; Reis in 1998; Elliott in 1999; and four players each in 2000 and 2001).

Battle royale: The Revolution and Galaxy captured the Eastern and Western Conference titles, respectively, during the regular season. The first time that conference or divisional champions faced off for the Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy was at MLS Cup 1999, when D.C. United and the L.A. Galaxy did battle at Foxboro Stadium as conference winners. In 2000, the first of two seasons with a three-division alignment, the Kansas City Wizards (West champs) and Chicago Fire (Central champs) met in the championship game at RFK Stadium, where the Wizards emerged victorious 1-0.

 

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