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Matthaeus, MetroStars ready to part

By Jose Alfredo Flores
USA TODAY

The fabled career of disgruntled Lothar Matthaeus could come to an end Wednesday when officials from the New York/New Jersey MetroStars meet to discuss his case.

''It looks like we will reach a reasonable agreement on separation on Wednesday,'' the 39-year-old German told soccer magazine Kicker in an interview released Monday.

Meanwhile, his MetroStars teammates are having the franchise's best season and are in the middle of a worst-to-first turnaround in one year. Last Major League Soccer season the team finished a league-record worst 7-25 for just 15 points, but now the MetroStars are tied for the league lead with Kansas City at 12-7-2 for 38 points.

With Matthaeus in the lineup the MetroStars are 3-6-1, but they are 9-1-1 in games he has missed because of injury or call-ups to play for the German national team.

''I don't need MetroStars, and they don't need me,'' Matthaeus, who joined the team from Bayern Munich last March, said in the magazine article.

The MetroStars are considering putting Matthaeus on the injured reserve list, depending on what a doctor's diagnosis is of his lower back problems.

Matthaeus has had back problems for more than six years and hurt his spine during Euro 2000 while training with the German national team. He aggravated the injury going for a bicycle kick and landing on his back in the 60th minute in a 1-1 MLS draw June 28 against San Jose. He has not played for the MetroStars since.

MetroStars management, which refused to comment Monday, met with Matthaeus last Thursday. Coach Octavio Zambrano told Matthaeus how disappointed he was to see a picture of him on the front page of a German newspaper lying on a beach with his girlfriend in the French Riviera while his team was in the middle of a playoff run.

Matthaeus' doctor suggested he should go somewhere warm to try to loosen his back and Matthaeus then took up a friend's offer to relax at the St. Tropez beach.

He would not say whether his departure meant the end of his playing days.

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