Considered SLC coaches

[SoccerPrime]

From the Washington Post:
Former United coach Thomas Rongen, who oversees the U.S. under-20 program, has emerged as one of several candidates to coach the expansion Salt Lake City club. Former U.S. World Cup coach Steve Sampson, a Utah native, is also believed to be under strong consideration. .

[Bleacherbutt]

Oh great, an MLS retread and a WC failure. That's just what SLC needs. Not.

Just because you recognize the name it doesn't mean they are a great coach. Hopefully, SLC will dig a little deeper and look at successful A-League and college coaches who want to jump up to D1.

[SoccerPrime]

I heard that the Syracuse coach was considered too. Is he from Salt Lake?

[SLCFan]

I hope it is not Sampson. He has never been successful at the professional or national team level. The rumors regarding his relationship and attitude with his players is also not good. He is great with kids though... he did help setup a successful ODP program and talent finding system in Cal South youth soccer.

[Blitzz Boy]

I was in the west end of the Coliseum when Keller stoned Romario several times and Preki went Top Shelf on Taffarel. And Sampson once signed an autograph for me. And he is a Gringo who has learned Spanish (and learned it a lot better than I have). And he lived in California for a long time.

So I will be a little slow in making up my Sampson Must Die banner.

Our roster is going to have a lot of Chris Carrieri, Steve Shak, Nick Rimando, Ricky Lewis and Santino Quaranta. Maybe we could use a guy who at least has a track record of recognizing young talent?

Rongen has run 3 different teams into the ground.

But if I show up to Rice Eccles next April & see Roy Wegerle, I'll gladly lead the Blood Atonement on Mr 3-6-1 myself.

[jasoncox]

I would rather see them give someone "new" a shot rather that picking up an old retread. I think they should consider former players or current assistant coaches. I've heard Wynalda say that Harkes would be a good fit for a coaching position.

[prk166]

From the Washington Post:
Former United coach Thomas Rongen, who oversees the U.S. under-20 program, has emerged as one of several candidates to coach the expansion Salt Lake City club. Former U.S. World Cup coach Steve Sampson, a Utah native, is also believed to be under strong consideration. .

If the Post wants me to take them seriously, they just stop this tabloid crap. How the heck can a team without a GM be looking at coaches?

That issue asside, why not David Dir? He did a great job in Dallas and only moved on cuz they needed fresh leadership.

[dysko]

If the Post wants me to take them seriously, they just stop this tabloid crap. How the heck can a team without a GM be looking at coaches?


Because Dave Checketts said they were looking for a coach and GM concurrently. Since Checketts is the brain behind the team coming SLC, I would imagine since he said it it can be considered non-tabloid crap.

That being said I do think the Post is crap.

[Bleacherbutt]

That issue asside, why not David Dir?

Too restrictive alcohol laws.

[blitzzfan]

How the heck can a team without a GM be looking at coaches?

I suspect that we may secretly have a GM. We got an I/O without us knowing.

With the rather short jumpstart time before the two drafts and April I would hope that interviews have been happening in the two weeks since the PC.
There is the second half of the MLS and college to scout.

[Lizzie Bee]

I suspect that we may secretly have a GM.

Anybody who thinks they're going to hire the GM the day before the public announcement of it isn't thinking straight... I'd be 99% certain that the team name, colors, and GM are decided and things are just being finalized right now.

[mutinywxgirl]

I'm taking a very strong interest in this team - and I can't explain why ..... it's just exciting to have another new team to watch from its inception. Here's hoping it's a huge success!

[prk166]

Anybody who thinks they're going to hire the GM the day before the public announcement of it isn't thinking straight...

Well, I am blond and Polish. Is that close enough? :)

[Jabinho]

You should also be thinking in terms of what style of play you want and which coaches might bring that.. A more direct attacking style? A "Latin mix" with that like many MLS teams? etc...Of course many coaches will just vary it according to the personel they have but others push their philosophy..

[Sandon Mibut]

I think both Thomas Rongen and Steve Sampson will do a better job than people realize.

In Sampson, you're talking about a guy who has won an NCAA title as a head coach, who was a national team assistant coach for three years, including in a World Cup in which his team made the second round, who then as a head coach took a team to the semis of a Copa America and qualified with relative ease for a World Cup. The guy has like five years of experience as a head coach of a national team and people are dismissing him. He also knows youth soccer and is proven he can win with young talent. If anyone else had that kind of stuff on their resume, most people would be clamoring to hire him.

I know France 98 was a meltdown and he certainyl deserves his share of the blame for that, but he also had a lot of players turn in some very unprofessional behavior during the WC. Sure, maybe that was in response to some mistakes Sampson made so he needs to be held accountable for his share of the blame, but that doesn't mean he can't be successful in MLS.

As for Rongen, you're talking about a guy who twice in four years guided a team to the best regular season record in MLS and who won an MLS Cup. A lot of people like to say he just coached Bruce Arena's team to a title but that dismisses a lot of what it takes to step in and replace a winning coach. Just ask Dominic Kinnear. I admit Rongen comes with a lot of baggage but he also has a lot of wins on his resume. Not just what he did in MLS, but he also won a nationa title as a coach in the A-League in the early 90s and he did very well with the U20 team, which was an injury time goal away from making the semis of last year's World Youth Championship.

Rongen has a great eye for talent and knows how to build a team from scratch. He probably won't be a good long-term coach because his personality seems to wear on teams and after awhile things go south, but for an expansion team, he'd be a very good fit.

Having said that, I don't think Rongen is actually a candidate for this job because it conflicts with his current gig coaching the 20s. The U20 team has CONCACAF qualifying for the World Youth Championship in January and then in June is the even itself. And, this time it's in the Netherlands, the same country Rongen left 25 years ago after washing out of Ajax's youth system.

By takin the Utah job, he'd be passing up a chance to return home triumphantly as a head coach of a youth national team, wearing his MLS championship ring and coaching some of the tournament's brightest young players like Adu, Gaven and Spector. It's a team that has a chance to do very well in the tournament and I'm sure Rongen would like nothing more than to make a great run of it in Holland, in front of family and friends and a soccer community where, as a player, he didn't make it.

I suppose he could do both gigs through June, but the time demands of qualifying and of an expansion team and then the MLS preseason and the preparation for the WYC let alone the MLS regular season, plus the travel, would just be too great. DC United got off to a terrible start in 96 when Arena was also coaching the Olympic team and it wasn't until after the Olympics that the team righted itself and made its run to the championship. It just doesn't work.

So, I don't see Rongen going after the Utah gig. Besides, if he does have a nice run with the U20 team next year, he'll be back in demand and can get an expansion gig in 06 or go after whatever jobs come up when someone gets canned.

But, if he were to take the Utah gig, he'd be a better choice than a lot of people are realizing.

[tabramos10]

Rongen's cool with me, but Sampson I don't think I could ever begin to like. That guy took a 4th goalkeeper to the world cup (only 3 are required) and cut Roy Lassiter, who was the MLS leading scorer that year.
Harkes would be awesome, Caliguiri would be awesome, but I would love to see them dig out some good college coach. Recently retired players I don't think usually do that well as coaches. Novak, for example, I think is a bad coach but for some reason Wynalda and all the analysts like to pretend that he's doing a great job just because they like him. That said, my dream coach for this team would be Tab Ramos.

[CHICO13]

Funny no one's mentioned Ray Hudson yet or John Trask for that matter.

[argo15]

[QUOTE=tabramos10]Rongen's cool with me, but Sampson I don't think I could ever begin to like. That guy took a 4th goalkeeper to the world cup (only 3 are required) and cut Roy Lassiter, who was the MLS leading scorer that year.QUOTE]

4 Goalkeepers? Are you sure? Lassiter? Did he do anything in the run-up it WC '98? I don't recall too much productivity out of him.
I'm not a huge Sampson fan but I think he has had some success, as others have mentioned, and did get us to France with a team that really didn't have much hope of success regardless of the formation he played. The players still have to play the game in whatever system you employ.

[Sandon Mibut]

Rongen's cool with me, but Sampson I don't think I could ever begin to like. That guy took a 4th goalkeeper to the world cup (only 3 are required) and cut Roy Lassiter, who was the MLS leading scorer that year.

OK, say what you will about Sampson, as long as it's accurate. But thr above is just not true.

Steve Sampson took three goalkeepers to France 98. Kasey Keller was No. 1 and started the first two games and Brad Friedel was No. 2 and started the third game. Juergen Sommer, as he was in 94, was the No. 3 GK and didn't play at all. There were no other GKs on the roster.

Here's the US roster from France 98:

Jeff Agoos, Marcelo Balboa, Mike Burns, Chad Deering, Thomas Dooley, Brad Friedel, Frankie Hejduk, Cobi Jones, Kasey Keller, Alexi Lalas, Brian Maisonneuve, Brian McBride, Joe-Max Moore, Eddie Pope, Preki Radosavljevic, Tab Ramos, David Regis, Claudio Reyna, Juergen Sommer, Earnie Stewart, Roy Wegerle, Eric Wynalda.

Sommer, Agoos and Lalas were the only three on the roster that didn't play in France.

As for Lassiter, it was mildly controversial that he was left off but not too much. After a great season in MLS in 96 when he scored 27 goals in 30 games, he fell back to earth in 97 and only had 10 goals in 24 games and before he was traded to DCU early in 98, he was scoreless in six games with the Mutiny. So, he wasn't exactly on fire leading to the World Cup run-up when Sampson was considering players. Lassiter was traded April 28 and Sampson named the squad in mid-to-late May (I forget when exactly).

After the trade, Lassiter caught fire with United, scoring in his first six games and leading to questions about him being included by Sampson in the WC squad.

But, besides having been cold before being traded to DC, Lassiter also hadn't shown much with the national team when SS was giving guys a chance to make the team. Between 96 and when the squad was announced in May of 98, Lassiter made 21 appearances with the nats including 7 starts totaling 915 minutes and scored 3 goals. That's a strike rate of 1 ever 305 minutes, or 3.5 games and I guess Sampson wanted his striker's to be more prolific, especially since Lassiter's last goal for the US was in June of 97.

In otherwords, aside from his late push after the trade, Lassiter really hadn't done much to warrant his inclusion on the side. Now, he was definitely in form when the squad was announced and you could argue that should have been enough or that he would have been a better pick than Wegerle or a broken-down Wynalda, but for the most part, those that blame Sampson for excluding Lassiter are just bashing without taking a harder look at the facts.

but I would love to see them dig out some good college coach. There are several good college coaches who would succeed in MLS but the problem is that in their college environment they have great job security and they'd be risking that to take any MLS job, let alone one with the instability of an expansion team.

Notre Dame's Bobby Clark is, IMO, the most-qualified college coach in terms of being able to succeed as a pro. He's made every college team he's been to a winner and he was a great player as a pro, having played forever in Scotland and for the Scottish national team.

Other good college coaches who might consider the jump are UConn's Ray Reid, UVa's George Gelnovatch, St. John's Dave Masur, Stanford's Brett Simon and Saint Louis' Dan Donnigan. Others may have suggestions for good college coaches who could make it good MLS coaches.

Good luck getting them to leave their secure college gigs.

[numerista]

Sampson's credentials

Santa Clara 1989

Ancient history ... he hasn't coached college soccer since 1990.

Copa America 1995

Sampson arrived at Copa America as a stand-in ... as various players have suggested, the team's success was due as much as anything to relief at being stifled by Bora.

Experience

Experience only helps if you learn from it. His time in Costa Rica was punctuated by personal conflicts with players, much like his meltdown in 1998. While in charge of the Ticos, his results were mediocre at best, and people were openly skeptical about his tactics.

This is nothing against retreads, by the way ... Bob Gansler has proven to be a fine coach in MLS. The thing to remember, however, is that before MLS hired him, Gansler first won an A-League championship. At this point, Sampson has no such recent success to hang his hat on.