After 14 Years, He Should Know His Soccer Teams
In the bedlam of the Chicago Fire locker room Sunday afternoon, one man stood out. He was also on hand 14 years ago, the last time a Chicago soccer team won a national championship.
That would have been the Chicago Sting in 1984. And the Sting’s owner was now-retired banker Lee Stern, whose interest in the sport has never waned.
“What a great group of players,” Stern said. “Nobody believed they could do it. I was talking to a lot of the media this week and they all said, ‘Oh, you’re thinking with your heart.’ I said, ‘I’m thinking with my head. They will beat them.’
“Sure enough they did. I’m very, very proud of them. I’ve seen all the games and it’s been a great thrill for me. And I didn’t have to write any checks.”
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Goalkeeper Zach Thornton won all the plaudits for shutting out the defending champions, but at least one Chicago player remembered a Fire player who was not in Pasadena on Sunday.
Jorge Campos was in Mexico, having returned to play for the Pumas of UNAM before the MLS playoffs began. But defender Francis Okaroh of Nigeria wasn’t about to let the Fire’s missing keeper be forgotten.
“Campos is a fine player and he brought a lot to this team,” Okaroh said. “He figured that Pumas needed him more, but he’s part of this championship that we’ve won. Definitely.”
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Sunday’s attendance of 51,350 ranks MLS Cup ’98 second among the three championship games. MLS Cup ’96 at Foxboro Stadium drew 34,643 in a downpour, and MLS Cup ’97 at RFK Stadium also was played in the rain and attracted 57,431.
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The current and former U.S. national team players on D.C. United each had a view on Washington’s loss, one that caps a difficult year for them.
“People say one is the loneliest number,” said defender Jeff Agoos, “but I think two is. We worked just as hard all year to get back here. It comes down to one game, you don’t get a break here or there, and that’s the whole season. It’s pretty tough.”
Said midfielder John Harkes: “Everyone’s talking about the controversy of their goals, but that’s the game. You deal with it and play on. It wasn’t meant to be, but we can hold our heads up high for making it here three straight years.”
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The end of the MLS season does not mean it is the end of the season for D.C. United.
By winning the CONCACAF Champions Cup this summer and becoming the top team in North and Central America and the Caribbean, Washington advanced to play South American champion Vasco da Gama of Brazil for hemispheric bragging rights.
The first game of the two-game series will be Nov. 14 at RFK Stadium, with the second on Dec. 5 in Florida.
In between, Vasco da Gama flies to Tokyo to play Barcelona of Spain in the Toyota Cup for the mythical world club championship.
