By Michael Lewis – NEW YORK, NY (Oct 1, 2010) US Soccer Players — Returning to Major League Soccer after an eight-year exile, Octavio Zambrano finds himself the No. 2 man under Peter Vermes with the Kansas City Wizards. He feels vindicated after years of unsubstantiated rumors stopped this successful head coach from hooking up with another MLS club.

One of the great MLS mysteries was why couldn't a successful coach such as Zambrano find a job in a League that had been well known for recycling coaches who had gotten lesser results. Zambrano lived and died with his attacking style philosophy. The 1998 Galaxy scored 85 goals, an MLS record that will be difficult to beat. The 2000 MetroStars are considered that franchise's best team in its 15-year history.

Yet, after he was fired by the MetroStars following the 2002 season, the job offers were slim and none. If you didn't not know any better, you would have sworn Zambrano was blacklisted, despite his success.

Zambrano claimed the rumors about why he couldn't pick up with another club were never true.

"Some interent-based information became the rule, especially in a sport like soccer," he said. "it depends on this medium for information, [so] it was easily done. Nobody had the courage or the guys to say something up front. Everything has been said in rumors."

In some respects, the 52-year-old Zambrano is MLS' version of Rip Van Winkle. He has returned to an entirely different world after spending so many years away from the league. But after spending eight years away from the league, most of it in Europe, coaching CS Tiligul-Tiras Tiraspol in Moldova in 2006 and joining FC Tatabánya in the Hungarian First Division in 2008.

"Maybe it was kind of a blessing in disguise," he said. "I got a chance to go to Europe. I was able to do things as a coach I wouldn't have been able to do here."

So Zambrano sees the league from a slightly different perspective, whether it is with stadiums, practice facilities or the style of play. More than half the MLS teams have stadiums they call their own. In the past, using pro or college football stadiums was the norm.

"This is a huge, huge improvement," Zambrano said. "We were always second-class citizens. We couldn't schedule thing when we wanted to do. There are bonafide stadiums. We are able to do things that are more conducive to the way things soccer fans love."

Just as important, teams have their own training facilities. He remembered how the Galaxy would train outside the Rose Bowl.

"The grassy meadow of the Rose Bowl parking lot could not compare with the fields at the Home Depot Center," he said with a laugh. "It's impossible. We used to pick up stuff from the parking lot. There were cans, galss.We used to put it aside so we could have a clean field."

It was similar problems with the MetroStars when they trained at Kean University.

"We had flooded fielded more times than not," he said. "We were really struggling for fields. There were many times where we would have to go out and pick and area that didn't have water. The Kansas City team — the facilities are world-class."

There is a much higher level of sophistication by the fans.

"You can see the public has become more savvy about soccer," Zambrano said. "When we kicked the ball up field, they would cheer. You can see the crowds understand the game. They can see when a good pass is done or when a big mistake is bad."

Zambrano, however, was disappointed that more teams hadn't adopted more of an offensive style like he and other coaches did in the early days of the league.

"There was a better brand of football before," he said. "By all accounts we wanted to go forward and play more of an attacking style of football for the most part. Right now, it's a little bit of a wait-and-see attitude and the tactics are pre-dominant for the defensive side. I say that with a few exceptions. There are teams that do try to play an attacking style and that's great. Maybe that is a good way that some teams do and some team don't. But certainly in the early days most teams tried to do so."

These days Zambrano is trying to turn things around on the Wizards as the lieutenant under general manager and coach Peter Vermes. "Peter is one of the most straight-talking and straight-shooting men I have ever met in the game," he said.

Zambrano called this season "the first year of a probably three-year building process." Only three starters remained from the 2009 KC side – defenders Jimmy Conrad and Michael Harrington and midfielder Davy Arnaud.

The Wizards (9-10-6, 33 points) still have a chance to reach the post-season, albeit a slim one. They're going to have to just about run the table to make it. They're in third place in the Eastern Conference, but are ninth in a race for eight playoff spots. They trail the Seattle Sounders FC (11-9-6, 39) and San Jose Earthquakes (11-8-6, 39) for the final berth. So, Kansas City faces a must-win situation against the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena on Saturday night.

"We're hoping to have a last push and get ourselves into the playoffs because we're a team that deserves to be there," Zambrano said.

He said that the Chicago Fire's 3-0 win over San Jose on Wednesday night certainly helped.

"We have to do our part," he said. "Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of having a team in front of us. We're within reach."

Zambrano said he thought the Wizards could surpass the Sounders because KC has a game in hand and that the Wizards plays Seattle.

"When you put those elements together, it's not that far-fetched to make it to the post season. We have a legitimate chance of making it to the post season."

Zambrano returns to the New York/New Jersey as an opposing coach for the first time since he left the MetroStars in 2002. And if you think that he has any revenge in mind, well, guess again.

"For those fans that dare to think the MetroStars are the Red Bulls, I would say, 'I'm sorry,' they're not," Zambrano said with a laugh. "Come on, anybody who think the MetroStars are the Red Bulls, it's two different worlds."

Zambrano wasn't finished.

"In terms of what these guys have in terms of a stadium, in terms of money to spend and all the backing of the Red Bulls, etc., etc., it's absolutely nothing to do with what we had to do with the MetroStars. We were under extreme, extreme constraints, trying to put something together. When you can snap your fingers and get guys like Marquez and Henry, I mean, that is something… something that us MetroStars coaches could never dream of."

Michael Lewis covers soccer for BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com.