Sure it could be much worse and there are obviously much worse coaching situations in MLS. However, don't let the season record fool you. Just like the sCrew coasted to the Supporter's Shield in 2004, we did it this year. We only got it because FC Dallas took a skid and our lead was so great from the first half of the season. To me, our record says that DC United came into the season better prepared than anyone else and took advantage of that. The team then "took their foot off the gas" and add to that some changes in referee interpretations of a foul and a few injuries and we have the second half of the season from hell. Other teams caught up and overtook us in terms of their successes during the season. Nowak et alia (yes, from KP all the way down to our 3rd string goalkeeper) didn't have an answer for the slide. Still haven't found an answer and barely squeeked by a team so horrid that they couldn't score on four open net situations! DC made it through this series because the Red Donkeys are about the worst team I've ever seen play professional football!
Repped. Did some sort of BigSoccer alarm just go off? Because aaronstol just provided incredibly well-written, cogent, thoughtful, and even-handed analysis of a hot-button topic.
OK, here's a response to Wise that is more substantive than my knee-jerk reaction. (BTW, these guys passed both the "are you a real fan" test as well as the soccer knowledge multiple choice test, so I feel comfortable reading their opinions ) DCenters
Your post brings up what I thought was the "American-centric" view that playoffs are the only thing that measure success. Nowak prepared his team to come out of the gate fast, which they did, and put up what turned out to be an insurmountable lead for the Supporters' Shield. Because MLS now rewards the SS winner with one of two berths in the CONCACAF tournament, that was a wise and smart move on Nowak's part. In other words, if obtaining entrance into regional tournaments is a "positive" to DCU management and its fans, then Nowak succeeded in 2006. Wise continues the predictable issue about overplaying Moreno and others, what his column doesn't discuss is whether Nowak had many options. Let's look at the injury report/player form list from 2006. Filomeno - Moreno's understudy is allowed to go back to Argentina Quaranta - 'nuff said Walker - showed the form that got him released by SJ Esky - lingering tendinitis limited his playing time and effectiveness after the midpoint of the season That left Nickell and a hastily impressed Dyachenko to assume the role of relief for Moreno. I think Nowak did as good a job as can be expected in getting a rookie like Dyachenko to play reasonably well for the "varsity." In the midfield what options did Nowak have after Gros/Gomez/Carroll/Olsen/Adu? Mediate - got time and then was thugged MacTavish - showed promise, then injured Olsen - gone to Germany Simms - played for Ben Moose - KPN drafted another "not ready for prime time player" Donnet - a good move Finally defense Prideaux - misses most of the season due to injury J. Carroll - rookie who plays sparingly Wilson - Salt Lake City! then out for the seaon Stokes - 'nuff said Given the injuries and poor form, what else could Nowak have done and win the SS? Or should we build gradually like Sarachan did with Chicago and have the privilege of no SS and watching the rest of the playoffs from the golf course. Nowak got this team into international tournaments in 2 of the 3 years he has been coaching. Pretty damn good if you ask me. However, I am very glad that Wise wrote this column, I just disagree with his emphasis and conclusion. (Edited 1:30 PM 10/30/06)
Totally spot on comment you left on the blog. But I would also add our US Cup failures to the "big game" situations. Griffin, I don't disagree with your points about injuries and suspensions. However, I would have to say that Nowak has not been one to make substitutions or rotations when he has the opportunities. He had some bad luck this year with Mediate and MacTavish. Players that were ready and able to go - and then got injured. But we've been holding some players on the books that DC needed to make a decision about earlier so that we had reserves we could use. The reserve league should be a feeder but right now it seems to be more of a holding place for people not good enough for DC United...
Boy am I having a bad day today. The bit about the test (and the reason for the winking smilie) was an attempt to smooth things over with the folks who wanted to take my head off by having some lighthearted fun at my own expense.
I got it now... How is Bryon Moreno and Okalaja that different than Eric Gregg.... 100 steaks. Got it. Fat joke. I had my earnest hat on a little tight today.
I wouldn't call anything in the US Open Cup as big game. Big joke maybe with its method of home seeding. Until that competition has a proper draw, like any other cup in the world, it's not big game or big time.
I think Wise's most valid point is that of Nowak's tactical inflexibility. The thing that irritates me the most, is that he doesn't make adjustments to our team to accomodate the opposing team's playing style. Yesterday, with Adu's inability to defend against Wynne compounding the pressure placed on Erpen (who was having a horrible game, in any case, struggling with Altidore), it seemed that a logical half-time adjustment would have been to move Josh Gros over to the left back in a 4-4-2, and then have Ben move over to right mid (eventually subbing him out for Donnett). Adu got handled by MW in the first game of the year... The next time we played them JG took MW out of the game completely, and he did the same thing yesterday when Freddy was subbed out.... it should not have taken Nowak 81 minutes to figure this out. There's plenty of other things that PN does right as a coach, but his pig-headedness, like many other coaches who share this same attribute, is his primary weakness, it could eventually lead to his downfall at DC United. I think that's the what Wise was trying to say with this piece. Of course, if we win our next two games, none of this may matter in the end.
I disagree with Wise's column. But I can't believe much of what I'm reading here in this thread. Irrelevant that Wise's column is coverage of soccer or that it came the day after an NFL weekend and big college games (so to get coverage was good), much of the nitpicking I'm reading is, well, nitpicking. 1. Wise is an excellent coloumnist. He had a great rep before coming over to the Washington Post (and in his previous gig did a lot of soccer coverage). When he's written about soccer, I felt his previous articles were intelligent, thought-out, and informed. Let me put it this way: the Washington Post covers soccer better than any other mainstream English-language paper in the USA and Wise is their best columnist from a soccer perspective. To argue "how many games has he gone to?" is just silly. The man certainly watches soccer. Can anyone out there argue that his point praising Nowak for not just playing Adu indicates some degree of understanding of the situation Nowak and Adu were in and what made sense for Adu (and DCU)? Would anyone argue that he has characterized Nowak ("I must break you") incorrectly? Is there anyone out there who believes that journalists don't get together and talk, compare impressions and bounce ideas off of each other? 2. He's not arguing for Nowak to be fired, he never said that. In fact Nowak's contract is up after this season. And Nowak has already been quoted in the post that his return is not a done deal and not a sure thing. The position of the article is that Nowak has taken this group of players as far as he can take them. While they don't tune him out, the team no longer shows up for big games says Wise. That a different coach with a different style might be more effective b/c he would push other buttons. Now I think Nowak can still be a champion this season and beyond. But this position (Nowak is inflexible, players may be run into the ground, he can not get their best when it really matters) is not an unpersuasive position. I disagree with it but it's a smart position that is persuasively argued by Wise. And he implies about earlier examples (think of last year's meltdowns in big games). 3. How can anyone just blow off this column as trash or claim Wise is a no-nothing fool when less than a week ago, Steve Goff writes an article where Nowak talks about "some of us won't be back" and how the decision to return or not is primarily his (Nowak's) and his return isn't a certainty? Does anyone just happen to think this is some kind of wild coincidence? I think what we can take from this is that this team will look very different next season. Maybe it will just mean many new players, maybe a new coach, but there will be big changes. Regardless of our season result.
I like your summation joe. I thought the column was well written, insightful, and from my perspective right.
This may be true. Why not get new players. If Nowak can take a group of under-achievers (which DCU was at the beginning of 2004) and win an MLS cup, why not replace the hard of hearing with a new set of under-achievers. As a fan, I appreciate Nowak's single minded approach to a particular style of soccer and effort. I know when I go to RFK, with very few exceptions, that I will see good attacking soccer from beginning to end. I guess that this can be hard on the lads over the course of a 32 game season, but I enjoy it. I really don't know how teams like New England, who don't show up in the first half of the season because they are saving themselves for the one home playoff game, have any fans at all. I like results (almost) as much as the next guy, but to me entertainment value is very important. So, I think that it would be a disaster to get rid of one of the few coaches in the league produces a side that plays quality soccer from April to October just because he refuses to match other teams cynical tactics in the playoffs (ie. Playing cautiously and kicking the other team off the park just to get a result). BTW the last MLS team to fire a coach when they were in first place ended up with Steve Sampson. Proceed with caution.
Which would be relevant if the discussion was about firing a coach in midseason. But this discussion is about the possibility that after the season, the coach might not be offered a new contract. Apples and oranges.
Mike Wise was hired away from a little newspaper in New York called The Times. Can't say I've ever heard of that paper.
Well, for one thing, Eric Gregg is pushing up daisies while the others are still kicking. Bavetta apparently sees the same doctor that Keith Richards does. He just won't go away.
Thanks, and this is a point I was disappointed Wise didn't address. I also realize now that some of my initial feelings about the column probably reflect my resentment about Kornhole's prior columns. Anybody who says this is "just soccer now being treated like other sports" has not been reading the WaPost for the last decade. It reflects the fact that soccer can still be treated and written about as a novelty sport. When we re-hire Bruce Arena, he turns United into a punchless bore, and no WaPost colunist will call for his head, THAT's when I'll say soccer has arrived. There are now two Post columnists on record as saying either that Nowak should be fired or that his contract shouldn't be renewed. This, my friends, is not "Soccer Has Arrived!" There is no way in hell a pair of Post columnists would call for firing a Redskins, Wizards, Nats, or even Caps coach in similar circumstances (Super Bowl win in year one; coming off best record in league AND a playoff win in year 3), and you guys can call me on that all you want. Wouldn't. Happen. Look how much losing the Nats had to do before the other Boz and other columnists even suggested that it might be time for Frank Robinson to hang it up. Soccer is still a marginal sport, and I'm not sure I wouldn't rather see it ignored by columnists than treated like a curio. No way do I question Wise's knowledge about the team here, but combined with Kornheiser's calls for Nowak's head in both '04 and '05, it reinforces the idea that even among colmnists, there's a different standard for soccer, and that while a Redskins, Caps or Nats coach wil be evaluated based on his record, a United coach will be judged based on whether he's playing the teenage phenom ("Fire the coach"--Anthony Kornheiser, Washington Post) or whether he's properly resting the legacy striker. I'd also add that I think the Real Madrid match was a very big game, and Nowak did a fine job of getting the team ready for that. Otherwise, I thought Wise's examples were fair.
You are correct. That is why this was presented as a BTW (by the way). I would use one of the "smilies" to clue you in to the whimiscal nature of the comment, but I skew to old for them. Thanks for keeping me honest.
He also wrote a column after the Celtic friendly this summer. I wrote him an email saying that it was a bit unfair to deride the attendance when Celtic wasn't playing all their first choice players, and it was a friendly, and he wrote back to me a note saying that he could see my point.