What was different between Chicago Fire's inaugural year and RSL's inaugural year?

[Jose Luis Luviano]

Nowak was out of contract at 1860 Munich. Supposedly, 1860 still wanted him; but Nowak wanted to play in Chicago.

Wynalda was still with the Clash at the beginning of the 1998 season.

Besides, Wynalda was making league maximum salary and the 1996 & 1997 Clash were awful.

I'm not too sure that the expansion draft players did that much for the Fire. CJ Brown came from the Bay Area Seals. Ante Razov was (I think) traded for a 6th round draft choice and a kielbasa to be named later. Chris Armas was "traded" along with Jorge Campos for Kevin Hartman and Danny Pena.

The Fire had experienced European pros and a coach who had experience at winning as Bruce Arena's assistant.

[SoccerPrime]

We tried to get Bruce's assistant but he wasn't interested.