BRADLEY ENJOYING COMPETITION; TWO COACHES ARE OLD FRIENDS, RIVALS.

Byline: Fred J. Robledo

Chicago coach Bob Bradley bickered, disagreed and challenged D.C. United coach Bruce Arena during two memorable seasons as an assistant on United's back-to-back MLS championships teams.

In the end, though, both were just good pals.

``I think they tried to keep it down to about three arguments a day,'' recalled United midfielder John Harkes.

Bradley, this year's MLS Coach of the Year because of the miracle job he's pulled off with the expansion Fire, isn't going to let the savvy Arena pull a fast one by buttering him up this time, however.

If Chicago can end United's dominating run toward a third consecutive MLS championship in today's title match at the Rose Bowl beginning at 12:30 p.m., a friendly tale the two shared at a luncheon Friday will not repeat itself.

In 1993, when Bradley was voted NCAA Coach of the Year, his Princeton team lost in the national semifinals to Arena's powerful Virginia squad.

All Bradley remembers was how Arena set him up.

``Bruce is very gracious with his comments about me,'' Bradley said. ``He was very big in saying I should be Coach of the Year.

``If you know Bruce and read between the lines, what he's really saying when he says that stuff is, `We're much better than their team and we're going to kick their butts, but Bob's a nice guy, so he should at least have something to go home with.' I survived that day and hopefully somewhere along the lines I'm hoping he can handle that part of it if our team wins.''

Arena's responded by saying, ``I think he's (Bradley) done an absolutely tremendous job with Chicago . . . but I'm glad he was voted MLS Coach of the Year.''

The room erupted in laughter.

All kidding aside, this match pits more than just teacher against student.

It features United's potent attack, behind the magical play-making skills of league MVP Marco Etcheverry, against a defensive-minded man marking team from Chicago that is capable of pulling a huge upset.

Bradley says the path to success will be Chris Armas' ability to contain Etcheverry and Chicago's ability to be patient. Allowing an early goal could be disastrous for the Fire.

``I expect they will come out very hard and press us and try to get an early goal,'' Bradley said. ``Marco is their MVP and a great player. Chris will need to do a great job of keeping Marco in check. You're not going to stop Marco and we're not asking Chris to just follow him around, but Chris needs to make it more difficult for Marco to control the entire game.''

Armas, who marked Etcheverry in the league's inaugural championship in 1996 when he played for the Galaxy, understands this task.

``A guy like that (Etcheverry) you can't give any breathing room to,'' Armas said. ``You just have to mark him tight and hope for the best. You can shut him down for 20 or 30 minutes, but at any time he can beat you.''

In two meetings earlier this season, United handed Chicago 4-1 and 3-1 setbacks. Arena acknowledged he'll face a much better Chicago team this time around.

He also thinks Chicago will do much more than just defend.

``I think they'll play to win, but they will certainly put a priority on defending,'' he said. ``But they're a team that has proven they can score goals. Unless these statistics lie, I don't know how they're third in the league in goals-scoring if they just defend.

``We know that Chicago does a great job of getting players behind the ball. What we need to do is space ourselves better and get everyone involved in the game. If they mark us tight, we've got to draw some fouls and maybe get a few looks at the goals with free kicks.''

In addition to Etcheverry, United has the scoring tandem of Roy Lassiter (18 goals, 8 assists) and Jaime Moreno (16 goals, 11 assists).

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Photo

Photo: D.C. United's Roy Lassiter, left, maneuvers the ball in practice on Friday. United faces the Chicago Fire in the title match at the Rose Bowl today.

Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press