MetroStars Get Bradley
Bob Bradley, the only coach the Chicago Fire has had and the man who led the team to the championship of Major League Soccer and the U.S. Open Cup title in 1998, will be named coach of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars today.
The Fire would not comment Monday on the move but the MetroStars have called a news conference at Madison Square Garden this afternoon amid widespread reports that Bradley, 44, will be returning to his native New Jersey.
The Newark Star-Ledger reported that Bradley would replace Octavio Zambrano, who was fired earlier this month after a league-worst 11-15-2 season.
Bradley, the former Princeton coach who was an assistant under Bruce Arena at D.C. United in 1996 and ’97 before being named Chicago’s coach, has an 82-54-15 record with the Fire and led the team to the playoffs in each of his five seasons.
The Fire and the MetroStars are two of five MLS teams operated by the Anschutz Entertainment Group.
Nicol Worth Keeping
Steve Nicol, the interim coach who took over the New England Revolution in midseason and led the team to the MLS championship game, is expected to be named coach later this week.
The Revolution lost the MLS title game to the Galaxy on Sunday, 1-0 in overtime, but the club’s progress under Nicol, 40, has virtually assured the former Liverpool and Scotland national team player of the position, club officials said.
A Mexican Record
Jose Cardozo, the Paraguayan striker who has been tearing up the Mexican league, broke the single-season record for goals when he scored twice for Toluca in a 6-0 rout of UAG over the weekend.
The twin strikes brought his total to 20 goals in 14 games, bettering the mark of 19 set by Uruguayan striker Sebastian Abreu of Cruz Azul.
“I’m very happy because I owe a lot to Mexican football and Toluca,” Cardozo said. “This team creates a lot of goal chances.”
In another league game of note, Chivas of Guadalajara suffered one of the worst defeats in its history when it was pounded, 7-1, by UNAM, which got a hat trick from Mariano Trujillo.
Venezuela Wins
Goals by Jose Rey and Wilfredo Moreno gave Venezuela a 2-0 victory over Ecuador in front of 28,000 at Olimpico stadium in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday.
The victory kept intact the team’s 18-month record of not being beaten at home under Coach Ricardo Paez, who has revived the country’s soccer fortunes.
2006 Set in Stone
The foundation stone was laid Monday in Munich, Germany, for Allianz Arena, the 66,000-seat stadium that will be one of the centerpieces of the 2006 World Cup and the site of its opening game.
The stadium will be home to both of the city’s Bundesliga teams, Bayern Munich and TSV 1860, whose respective presidents, Franz Beckenbauer and Karl-Heinz Wildmoser, were present at the ceremony.
“We have waited for this moment for a long time,” said Beckenbauer, who also is chairman of Germany’s World Cup organizing committee.
One feature of the stadium, which will cost $275 million and is expected to open in April of 2005, is that its walls will have hundreds of inflatable plastic “cushions,” whose colors can be changed depending on which of Munich’s teams is playing at home.
Champions Crowned
Rosenborg Trondheim, whose success has made it one of Norway’s richest clubs, won its 11th consecutive Norwegian league title.
In Finland, meanwhile, HJK Helsinki clinched its first Finnish league championship since 1997 and its 20th overall.
