MetroFanatic: What was the plan going into the offseason?
Jeff Agoos: Our goal was to bring in domestic players to fill the positions we felt needed to be strengthened. Unfortunately, within about three weeks we found that plan to be unrealistic because teams are mostly unwilling to give up the domestic players that are good in this league, and even if they might be, you'd be paying an exorbitant amount of compensation for them. We felt that we had to go abroad to bring in new players at the positions we were looking to fill.

MF: As a result of other teams' unwillingness to part with domestic players, do you think it's been easier then to acquire the international slots you've picked up?
JA: Somewhat. Some teams are more willing to part ways with those slots than others. If you go to Toronto, they're not going to be interested, but at Houston with the way they've structured their team it's a different story.

MF: From our point of view, it seems like this year, you were much more decisive in targeting players or making necessary acquisitions to add new players to the team.
JA: Well, Juan was in Chicago for half a year and it took him some time to adapt to the league in terms of who the players were, the level of talent in the league. Then when he came here, it took him some time to evaluate our players; by the time that was done it was halfway through the season, so we didn't bring in any players until the summer. It takes players a long time to assimilate into this league due to the speed and type of play, and plenty of little things like having a driver's license, which can be very important. As a result, Juan Pietravallo, Jorge Rojas, it took a while for those guys to assimilate into the team. Both those guys have had wonderful preseasons, but we knew that if we wanted to get the most bang for our buck, we'd have to bring in players sooner rather than later. The preseason is the best time to make a move.

MF: So you think this activity owes more to being in the second year together with coach Osorio, rather than any change in behavior due to last season's experience?
JA: Absolutely, there's a greater understanding now of what we'd like to accomplish, and how we're going to get there together.

MF: Is there anything in specific that you learned from last season that you can apply to the upcoming season?
JA: The goal is to be in contention for the conference title by midseason. Obviously it matters less how you start than how you finish, as evidenced by last year, but we need to be more consistent. From one to twenty-eight, we weren't very consistent last year. We allowed 48 goals -- 21 to two teams -- and we were usually either up or down without much room inbetween.

MF: Last question -- since the rosters have been compressed, losing four developmental slots and picking up two extra senior slots, have you found it easier to keep or acquire players now that you're not stuck negotiating as many $12,000 to $17,000 salaries?
JA: It's actually been harder, we've had to release players we didn't want to let go because we no longer had room for them. I think this year has been a particularly competitive year to make our roster, and that's a good problem to have.