Does anyone have an update on Chrono. Last I heard he was trying to get with the Galaxy at a reduced wage. Anything after that?
Here's what we ran on Ted in the January Soccer New England: Ted Chronopoulos played through the 2002 season, appearing in all but one of the campaign’s remaining matches after being traded to the Metrostars. Still, he wasn’t surprised when the team waived him at the first opportunity. “I knew Octavio (Zambrano) was going to make changes no matter what,” he expains, “whether he got fired or not. There were rumors that ten guys were going to get waived. I knew when (Bob) Bradley came in (Bradley replaced Zambrano) I was done, but what are you going to do? That’s the business.” It has been a particularly tough time for Chronopoulos. Once the Revolution’s longest serving player, he suffered through long losing streaks and stormy locker rooms with the Revs before finally being traded. Then, he sat and watched while the team righted itself and made a run all the way to the MLS Cup Final. Meanwhile, things were falling apart with his new club. Asked if it was painful to see the Revs do so well after his departure, he says, “It did hurt in the beginning. I was up in Boston during the Final, and I didn’t go to the game. I watched it on TV, and I was rooting for them to win. The fans really deserve it. They’ve always been there for the team, win or lose.” Still he’s not bitter. “I was happy for the guys what were there,” he says earnestly. “I was there the longest, but after me I think, Joey (Franchino) and Wolde (Harris) and Rusty (Pierce) were there. I was really happy for Juergen (Sommer) even though he wasn’t playing. Those guys took it all in stride and just dug it out. I felt really good for those guys. Not a lot of the others knew how it was before.” Chronopoulos sees big things on the horizon in New England. “Organization wise,” he says, “I think they have one of the best owners. Now they’re trying to transform the team from being the Revolution to being part of the Patriots and that will save them a lot of money. They’re trying to turn things around, so that’s good.” Down in New York it all went wrong for the former Revolution captain. “(Zambrano) wanted to play more offensive. We played a 4-3-3, and basically defended with the back four and one defensive midfielder. The rest of the guys were all offensive. They really had no defensive responsibility, so especially me and Craig Ziadie on the outsides, we were left by ourselves a lot, because the wide guys would never come back, and they weren’t supposed to actually. That was the way we played.” “(Zambrano) wanted us to go forward too,” says Chronopoulos, “and I was like, ‘I’m not going to go forward. We’re going to get killed.’ We scored four goals against New England, and they scored three goals against us. (Zambrano) was pretty pissed after that game. We could easily have lost that one, but that’s the way he wanted to play. You live and die by it, I guess.” Zambrano died by it in the end, yielding the Metrostars reigns to former Chicago Fire coach Bob Bradley. The Metrostars burned out over the final month of the season, giving up far too many goals and losing confidence in their beleaguered coach. Now Chronopoulos is focused on finding a new team. He’s talked with two MLS clubs, through his agent Patrick McCabe, as well as the Pittsburgh Riverhounds of the A-League. Ideally he would stay in MLS, but he knows that everything remains up in the air at the moment. “I’m basically waiting to see what kind of cap room teams have,” he says. “When the draft comes around, January 17th, no one’s really going to make more than $50k in that draft. College players, coming in aren’t going to be making the big money.” Don’t rule out a return to New England for the California born left back. Chronopoulos has a lot of connections here. His wife is from the Boston area, and he has potential business connections with local soccer entrepreneurs who might be interested in bringing a big name to their established clinic business. He’d also be willing to come back and fill a role for the Revs while pursuing other opportunities, including coaching jobs. He had accepted a position on the staff at Northeastern just days before being traded to the Metrostars, and he has recently gotten his ‘B’ License to bolster his coaching resume. This ran as part of an article called "Catching Up with...former Revs Jeff Causey and Ted Chronopoulos." Let me know if you're interested in the Causey half, and I'll post that too.
Let's here the Causey half Interesting article. It helps to remind us that these guys are more than salary and statistics. Please post the post-Revs Causey story... 103 FAN
Thanks! That was great....I worked for the Revs a few years ago. I know exactly what he means when Teddy said "the way it was before" Bless those guys that did stick it through!
Nice article. I wonder whether he'd have a better chance catching on here or LA. In a similar vein, does anyone know whatever happened to Shawn Tsakiris?
George, I'm afraid I'm the guilty party... Here's the Causey half of the piece: On the bubble. In Major League Soccer these days, everyone seems to be ‘on the bubble.’ If you’re not Clint Mathis or Landon Donovan you’re on the trading block. If you made good money last year, chances are the league wants to renegotiate your contract. The old make way for the yound. No one is certain what the future might hold. Jeff Causey and Ted Chronopoulos were rather unfortunate to find themselves on the proverbial bubble when it popped. Causey was dropped by the New England Revolution prior to the 2002 season, and Chronopoulos was traded to New York, where he played out the season and was promptly waived in November. Clearly, Causey’s Revolution exit left a slightly bitter taste in his mouth, as he fell victim to the economics of league contraction and the inconvenience of a long-term injury. “Technically I was still part of the roster,” he explains, “because I was still injured. So I was rehabbing, but at the same time they had two keepers. I knew they were both on guaranteed contracts, so I knew when I was cleared from rehab that I was gone. I had been around the league long enough to know that that was going to happen.” Causey has landed on his feet, and if you tuned into the NCAA Final Four you might have seen him pacing the touchline in front of the Maryland bench. He spent the season as an assistant to the Terrapins head coach Sasho Cirovski. Strangely, Causey didn’t know Cirovski previously. “I got a call in the spring from Sasho,” he says. “He said he had gotten my name from a lot of different people when he was out searching for an assistant. My name kept popping up. He said it was hard to consider a Virginia guy, but he’d heard good things, so we gave it a shot.” Even though Causey’s bubble had recently burst, he wasn’t sure what his next move would be. “At the time I was debating what I wanted to do,” he says. “My wife and I had talked about the day I went into coaching and where I would want to start to look. This came out of the blue, and it happened pretty fast actually.” At 31, the former Virginia stand out might be too young to retire, and he admits he still feels the pull of the player’s locker room. “I’m not sure about playing or coaching at this point,” he says guardedly. “This was a perfect chance to give the coaching thing a chance and see whether or not I enjoyed it and wanted to go on.” As it turns out, Causey had a great time in Maryland. “It ended up being a great experience,” he says, “being with the program and doing as well as we did. We had quite a turn around from last year and went to the Final Four and had more wins than they’ve ever had. The keeper did well, a big improvement from last year, and I was happy to be a part of that turnaround.” Maryland were picked to finish sixth in the ACC and weren’t even ranked in the top 25 at the beginning of the year. They finished by winning the ACC Tournament and polling first in the nation. So Causey’s not going to knock himself out to win another full-time goalkeeping job. If he gets an offer, he’ll certainly consider it, but, “As of right now, he says, “I’m at Maryland. That’s my job.”
Excellent pieces, John, especially the Teddy one. Thanks for posting them! Both guys are class acts, and I wish nothing but the best for both of them.
i understand why teddy is saying this, but i don't think he really thought it thru when he did it. plus, he wasn't around when it happened. maybe he doesn't realize how things shook out in the end. i'd hope that he'd say that it's actually NOT a "good" thing that people who care about soccer and the soccer community were let go and their responsibilities turned over to many that don't know or care about either. but, maybe i'm wrong and teddy meant what he said. as a sideline, do the majority (or any) of the players understand the fan's relationship with the ownership? (this is a serious question, btw). in talking with jurgen sommer last year....he had no clue what ticket prices were and was shocked when i told him. esp. when i said that if he weren't a season ticket holder and wanted to bring his young son (4 yrs i think) to a match on a whim and sit anywhere between the pen boxes that it would be $64 for the both of them. i think many players see their relationship to the owner and their relationship to the fans....but fail to see the owner's relationship to other employees in the company and the fans to the ownership.....pity i think.
I think most players understand that if MLS folds they're back to playing indoor AND outdoor for slave wages. When they get wind of ownership finding new and creative ways to lessen the team's losses they think it's a good thing because it gives them some sense of job security. I'm fairly certain that few of them think of the economics of the game much beyond their own paychecks, and I'd bet you could say that for most of the American workforce.
Great point. The ownership history of the indoor and minor league outdoor teams has always been guys with some money, but never quite enough. Paychecks bouncing and buses refusing to come until paid in advance are common to veterans of the A-League or USISL. That's why for somebody like Chrono, Krafts=success.
I don't think you can really expect players to have the same connection with the fans that they do elsewhere. After all, players here come from all over the country and beyond and are, for the most part, middle class guys with little or no ties to the community. Same goes for the fans. We are mostly suburbanites or marginally lefty world soccer fans who didn't grow up living and dying with Liverpool or River Plate. Everyone's attachments are different from the traditional ones. For the most part crowds at MLS matches are the same people who go to malls and airports and the management treats them that way. The food is the same as at Logan and the goods in the shop are like an upscale mall. Prices are gouging but to the people in the business that is how you treat the US upper middle classes. After all, we buy bottled water don't we? So we have ourselves to blame, to an extent. I'm not saying it is right. In fact, I lament the way the upper Pats/Gillette?Revs management treats the fans. I think it is terrible. But I also am not surprised, given the way the team is marketed. If we had 20,000 supporters with the passion of, say Benifica fans in the stadium every week the various inane policies and prices would be long gone. We are, to a degree, victims of our own passivity. JIM DOW
maybe i'm being a little too critical of the players and perhaps a bit critical (again) of the krafts. however, its almost for the very reasons that you've all listed above that players should understand this mls venture....in its totality. if they don't want to go back to a-league or indoor or coaching colleges or selling insurance, then understanding how this puzzle goes together is vital in my eyes. fans, investors (and their non-playing employees), sponsors/t.v., players themselves, the league office all have their parts to play in the success of this league and everyone should be cognizant of all the other parts. lord knows that most of us here on the boards try to pay attention, to some degree, of all these entities. i'm sure the investor/owners do to a large degree as well. but, the players seem to be somewhat oblivious to a degree. they want to be payed. they want a free market, of somekind, to determine their worth (lawsuit). they want fans to cheer for them.......personally, i think they should understand the system as a whole a bit better. the fans are HUGE in this equation and it doesn't take a whole lot of research to simply understand how we go about supporting this whole thing. that's all. regardless of the length of this thing....i'm not all that riled up about it.
I agree, Reveler, and I thing that 99% of the players do appreciate the fans, and are always willing to do hings like sign autographs, chat with fans, do appearances (which is part of the deal). I remember Chrono doing an appearance at the late, great World Soccer Shop in Faneuil Hall a couple of years ago, where he basically just shot the breeze with fans. There wasn't a great turnout, so there weren't a lot of "groupie" types or the fans who know little more than he's a professional player. He was telling stories about a fan revolt at Panionios (the Greek club where he played pre-Revs) after they lost 3 in a row. Put that in the context of the "annual" 8+ game winless streaks we had for 3 years in a row. Certainly many of the players do understand the big picture. If you've ever talked with guys like Mark Semioli, Dan Calichman, or even John Harkes, yes, they do get it. On the other hand, you get some players, who, just like any random segment of the population, have trouble spelling their own names correctly, so to understand cap-ology, MLS double-speak and Single Entity is really too much to hope for. Tom
i know you're right tom about the players "appreciating" the fans. i don't have a problem with that. i was just suprised that some of the ones i've spoken with have no idea how much tickets cost, etc..... mainly b/c they get comp'd for their families and get special parking etc. i would've just assumed that they knew this kind of stuff. when j.s. says that he'd think twice about taking a 4 yr old b/c they have to pay "adult" prices....then to me, that sends up a red flag. my only "chrono story" was in back in '99...when in front of a few thousand fans on a rainy, mid-week, night-before-school-started evening, the revs came back from an 0:2 line in the last 22 min v k.c. to win 3:2 (g.w.goal by beasley i think). anyway, a friend of a friend snuck a few of us into the "club" after the game. i saw chrono sitting down so i walked up to him to say "hey", knowing he was supposed to personable. the revs just broke a 6 game losing streak with that win and i told him i wanted to say hey, great game, and to tell him that it meant something to the fans to see them fight for that win given their current streak. i don't really like talking to these guys all that much b/c what can you really talk to them about anyway...so i kept it at that. basically, he simply said thanks, but looked at me like i had 2 heads or something and what was i doing by approaching him. (somebody else actually told me what they thought of his reaction). i liked him a bit less after that....but, maybe i did catch him at a bad time for some reason. anyway, i don't think that's indicative of his personality, still wish him the best, and hope there's still a spot out there in mls for him.
Wasn't it King George I who was astonished to see a bar-code reader in a supermarket when he was running for president in '92? The fact that the guy hadn't been in a store since he came back from Beijing in 1976 was one factor that made him President OneTerm. Talk about being out of touch with the masses. Interesting that Sommer had no idea of what the game experience was like for the average fan. So even players making $200,000 have issues of there not being a youth discount? I wonder what he'd say if someone told them that the Revs were the only team without a ticket exchange program? As for Chrono, he was kinda cool to me when I was doing POCM, and he and some others obviously didn't care for some of our satire, but he was never a jerk or anything. Still, he was pleasant to fans at the appearance, and seemed to enjoy talking with fans who could at least talk on a reasonable level, rather than hero-worship. In the locker room, he wasn't the most interesting guy, and it was always better to talk to a guy like Harkes who would say just about anything. Sometimes you could even get Harkes to do a Jim Carrey "Aaaaal-righty then" or imitate a half-dozen English managers only he has heard of. Tom
I think not, at least in the case of Harkes. I remember reading an interview with him at MLSnet.com, and he was so anti-Revolution that I even wrote back to the editor complaining. I believe Harkes was quoted as saying there wasn't a single American-born player on the team. I named, like, eight off the top of my head. He was so negative towards the fans too. It just drove me insane to think that I rooted for him during WC '98. Does anybody else remember that article? Prof
I remember it too, but being anti-Revolution isn't the same as not knowing the big picture. Harkes resented how things went down in NE, but that doesn't mean he's not aware of what US Soccer has to do to survive.
Harkes is a smart guy who sometimes says stupid things. There's a difference between that and a stupid guy who gets lucky and says something smart--even a broken clock is right twice a day. Harkes would say interesting things, although not to the degree of his new boss Hudson. He clearly has a future in the game when he's done playing, whether in the TV booth or in the front office. Tom
I don't think many people realize who all-consuming a task it is to maintain a career as a soccer pro in this country. Competing, training, rehabbing, recuperating, etc., etc. is not only draining, but stressful. There are a hundred guys around to take their place, a league ready to cut their salary any time they have the upper hand, sub-par training facilities in many cases, pressure to play hurt, fans scrutinizing every misplayed ball, ... The players, for the most part, do make all the public appearances the team sets up. And they are better ambassadors for their sport than any other US pro athletes. All this on salaries that in most cases are much less than the peers they grew up with! I don't think it's that the players are out of touch with the fans perspective (and I'm sure they are), the main thing is they are pretty consumed with staying on the MLS treadmill.
excellent point. and it is a bit arrogant (id even say out of touch) to think, that our measly invesment as fans, when compared to, say, throwing your life into a career some how makes us better judges of anyone connected to the league, or magically in touch.