Here's my take on the 8 coaches: Atlanta - Tom Stone - Has had his team in the playoffs three straight seasons! - must be doing something right. Even though he's a screamer - he seems to know how to motivate. Knows how to pick really good players also. However, his team is not peaking at the right time, which is NOW. Boston - Pia Sundhage - Probably the best coach in the league overall. Made Philadelphia a beast, and now Boston. Did exactly what she said she would do, make their defense better, without sacrificing offense. She's a real teacher of the game! Carolina - Jay Entlich - Poor Carolina - went from lousy, to great, to bad luck! I see that Carolina did not renew his contract. Don't know the story there, but with the injuries, it can't be entirely his fault. New York - Tom Sermanni - I think this guy did a great job. He made a team that everyone wanted to play last year into one everyone was concerned about playing this year. Even though they didn't make the playoffs they were a team to be feared. Had Tiffeny had a better year and if Christie Welsh had been healthy all season, things may have been different. BTW - as has already been said elsewhere, Shannon Boxx should be on the WNT, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Philadelphia - Mark Krikorian - What can you say, he was snakebit. No team could have endured the losses they did without paying for it. It was obvious esp. when some of his team started coming back from injuries they started knocking off good teams! He has a knack for picking good players also! San Diego - Omid Namazi - Well, he got them to the playoffs, and their best record so far. Yet, something is missing here. He's got the (supposed) talent (at least on paper) to win it all. Maybe the fact he hasn't coached women before DID play a part. Wagner didn't have the season everyone thought she would have (when everyone suggested she would likely be MVP material). Reality set in. San Jose - Ian Sawyers - What's up with this team? Is it the players, the coach, both? With their personnel you'd think they'd be contenders, but no! Maybe he's not a motivator. Pretinha's injury did hurt them, but not to the extent of other teams. Maybe the Brazilians aren't as good as everyone thinks?! Washington - Jim Gabarra - Can't really say anything good about this guy. Sorry, but he seems to be the most non-communicative, blaming, non-teaching coach in the league. He's got great players he doesn't use, or know how to use. Doesn't seem to know when or how to substitute and uses screwy patterns. Apparently is not much of a motivator either, considering the last two game slide. Well, with that said, my pick for coach of the year is Pia Sundhage - but, only if Boston wins, which they may well do. If it's Atlanta, Tom Stone has to get the nod. If for some reason San Diego or Washington wins, it won't be because of the coach. Other thoughts out there?
Krikorian also leaned too much on Pichon, asking her to carry the whole team on her back. The insistence on using a 4-5-1 formation; the people who weren't drafted vs. who wound up being chosen; broken record time here, but Callie Withers would have been a godsend to our midfield. Letting Zhao Lihong stay in China for the entire year rather than play as many games as humanly possible before she would be called home for WWC duty. Paul
I believe coach of the year is voted on before the finals, isn't it? And let's all be honest, COTY is Pia.
We've got Pia, and you don't! The Boston Breakers' forum tagline says it all. Pia Sundhage should be Coach of the Year. Boston is basically playing the same defenders that they started with in the first season - Sobrero, McCann, and Aldama. Kluegel and Gonzalez joined last year. The team gave up 6 fewer goals than in each of the previous seasons. Take away the Game 2 fiasco and that's 12 fewer goals!!! As someone mentioned, Boston's attack did not suffer appreciably. They did not score as many goals as 2002 (33 compared to 36, an 8% drop), but they scored many when they needed them the most to draw or win games. Boston only lost four games all year. Only three teams beat the Breakers. Only one of those teams is in the semifinals and Boston beat them out for first in the league. Boston enters the playoffs without a loss in their last 10 games - not losing a game in July nor August. G O ... B R E A K E R S ... ! ! !
Re: Re: Let's Talk About the Coaches (Coach of the Year) If the Power had made it in, Sermanni would get more than his share of votes. Unfortunately for us, you're probably right, tomahawk Paul
Re: We've got Pia, and you don't! The 2002 Washington Freedom say hi. In other words, I wouldn't exactly be tooting that particular horn, since you know how they wound up . Paul
Sundhage Your analysis of all 8 coaches is good. The choice for COTY is Sundhage. If Boston makes it to the final and COTY goes to anyone else, it will be a farce. Too much talent for the results he's gotten. No matter what happens this year, Gabarra doesn't deserve a COTY. Agreed, something is missing - not sure what. If the Spirit get to the final, Namazi, incredbly, might be a consideration for COTY. He won't deserve it, but he may be a consideration. Something, but not much. Your typical a-hole coach. But sometimes a-holes are successful. If he makes it to the final and so do the Breakers, the race for COTY will be between Stone and Sundhage. Not entirely but, as usual, he will likely take the fall for the results.
The harsh treatment Omid Namazi is getting on these boards is amazing. The guy had never coached women before and look what he has overcome: 1. No talent on the backline except for an aging Joy Fawcett. Another starter, Tanaka leaves the team after the draft with no way to get additional help. Pia is a great coach, and maybe deserving of COTY but give her Omid's personel and vice versa and this converstion is completely different. 2. Losing Shannon MacMillen early in the year had everyone writing this team off. They finish third without Mac, as well as losing Sullivan and Ouying down the stretch. Pia has a healthy Meinert, Mellgren and Lilly all year. 3. There were three starters from last year starting on Saturday v. WASH. Just how many teams wanted Krzykowski, Conners and Nielsen at the beginning of the season. Daniela, Latham and Branam are revelations, in spite of Wagner's underacheivement. I was at the NCAA Final Four in Austin, and Wagner is the same player in San Diego that she was in Santa Clara. Most of you read the hype but never saw her play, except for on the National Team where she is surrounded by great players. 4. This was by far Julie Foudy's best year, and credit Omid for player her deeper in midfield where she is best suited. Omid never let this team feel sorry themselves, and never brought up the past. He got "the most juice from the lemon" with this bunch and should be a close 2nd to Pia for COTY!
I agree - Namizi is the runner-up for COTY with Sermanni third. Sermanni would certainly get a lot more votes if they had finished better, but it is hard to award COTY to the team that finished seventh, after finishing eigth the year before. Namizi has done a great job, especially helping them to belive in themselves and their teammates. They are dangerous team that plays on emotion, and they can beat Atlanta this weekend.
You're right. Pia just gave the Breakers the confidence they needed on defense especially important after that loss to the Beat early in the season. Namazi has done well. Foudy dominated in midfield against the Freedom. The loss of Mac is beyond words but they've managed to do quite well with Latham and Fleeting. Imagine next year, they play with 3 forwards. Goals galore. Well, Daniela isn't a revelation for us who saw the U-19 tournament. Good and bad sides in action there. That's true about Kryzkowski, Nielsen and Connors(Don't let her leave you, Spirit. It's a bad omen). Nielsen was a solid player at the Power. She shouldn't have been traded but was part of the package. Defense has been pretty good. Joy is rolling along. Pickup is getting better. But overall, no dominate defender. Just imagine a midfield with Boxx and Daniela. That would be something. And that coaching women thing is key. Sure they are all professionals but there is a difference and it's not always easily done.
Coach of the Year (and next US National Team coach -- let's get her before Sweden does!) is an easy, easy, easy call -- Pia Sundhage. Pia is the best defensive tactician in women's soccer. Boston's increased confidence and organization on the back line was the crucial reason for their regular season championship. The Breakers' improvement on defense freed up midfielders for attacks and allowed the team to fully exploit Maren Meinert's genius and Dagny Mellgren's finishing efficiency. Charge fans were the first to see what Pia could do. We weren't surprised by Boston's great season. My second place vote for C of the Y is for Omid Namazi, who has done a very good job with San Diego (especially with the loss of Macmillan). However, he does have two "coaches" on the field in Fawcett and Foudy. I also think Omid needs to find a way for the Spirit to more fully exploit Aly Wagner's skills as a playmaker and distributor of the ball. Two coaches I don't care for: Tom "Old Yeller" Stone of Atlanta, and Jim Gabarra, whose Washington team is the Mia and Abby show without much else going on. While the results preclude him from Coach of the Year consideration, I also would like to tip my hat to Philadelphia's Mark Krikorian. The way this team finished showed what the Charge could have done if they had stayed healthy. And the way they played against Atlanta, Washington and Carolina reflected very well on Coach K's ability to keep the team motivated. Tom Sermanni's New York team improved a lot this year, and they were unlucky to miss the playoffs. He did a good job. Ian Sawyers has good talent at San Jose but not enough good results this year. An incomplete grade for Carolina's Jay Entlich. I think he'll turn out to be a fine coach.
Re: Sundhage What he does deserve is an offer to resign or the pink slip. magiclamp and others have put it best when they say that the team wins in spite of Goobera. Love him or hate him (his constant yelling everytime an opposing player looks at a Beat player is truly pathetic), he has been the league's most consistent coach...3 straight seasons of taking the team to the playoffs.
Stone has a very good eye for talent. The Beat reflect his tough mentallity. He doesn't do enough to instill an attacking style of play into the team. If he doesn't draft/aquire a winger in the offseason, he will drop signicantly in my book. He may actually be on the hot seat this offseason if the Beat come up short again.
Re: Re: Sundhage Stone's been consistent, but I don't know that being consistent is what wins a COTY award. It's a Coach of the Year award for a reason. For that matter, Gabarra's been pretty consistent.
"However, he does have two "coaches" on the field in Fawcett and Foudy." True. I concede that. It's Pia then. Confidence and organization. And it wasn't even all there in the pre-season. It took at really bad loss to turn them around. Well, they did win in the first week.
Re: Re: Re: Sundhage That seems to be the case in most sports: the Coach of the Year is somebody with a team that has improved a lot, not someone who is consistently good year after year. Of course, it's ironic to see the CotY fired two years later when his improvements don't last.
