Why do we have a dictatorship running US Soccer. Why is Sunil Gulati running US soccer ? Why is Bob Bradley Coach of USMNT ? Why is is Peter Novak Coach of USMNT u23 ? How are decision made ? Why is it not an open discussion ? Why is US soccer run under a closed door ?
Is it any suprise this Economic lecturer is running US Soccer ? I guess it is Economically positive to not hireJurgen Klinsmann as the successor to Bruce Arena to after a 5-month interview period that left the USMNT dormant ? Is it Economically positive to hire Bob Bradley as USMNT Coach ? Is it Economically positive to hire Peter Novak as USMNT U23 Coach ? What it Positive what has happened to US Soccer since Sunil Gulati has taken over ? I only need 1 positive item. No, a tie against Mexico in the "Home Site" of Texas does not count. While that was an Economic boon to US Soccer Monetary fund from the Mexican contingent it was another poor decision by Gulati.
While I can't really defend Gulati, I'm not really sure who would be right to replace him. In fact, I'm not even really sure what type of person to replace him with. Should it be a long-time US Soccer personality, a business expert, a law-and-order type, someone with great charisma...?
If the Beckham episode taught us anything it was that all that really matters is to have a "scene". Thus I say great Charisma. Imagine a charismatic leader who went crazy on the sideline. Imagine someone who worked in the US Team's best interest instead of some unforeseen monetary interest that goes into someone pocket. While I understand making a profit is important winnng matters. The US loves a winner.......
actually, if the beckham episode has taught us anything, it is that having nothing more than a 'scene' is a major embarrassment.
I like how US Soccer has obfuscated the results of the match. Yes, that is right, the facts nothing but the fact: http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_5570564.html
Well.. we are playing the most challenging soccer that we have ever played. Friendlies against Spain, England, and Argentina sure beat the friendlies we used to play (Guatemala, Jamaica, Latvia). We accepted a bid to the Copa America which everyone wanted us to do. We will be playing in the Confederations Cup. Bradley wasn't my first choice for senior coach (and not Sunil's either) but I do give him credit for breaking in an enormous number of young players and giving them shots with the senior team. Nowak is the U23 coach but in all honesty, that's never been seen as an important team. It ranks below the U20's and the U17's in terms of development because the competition is only every 4 years (as opposed to 2 years for the U20 and U17) and our top players only really play in the Olympics and not for qualifying. Not to say we should take it lightly, but you are never going to find a major coach for this roll because it simply isn't that much work. The U20 and U17's are more important because the players are younger and usually easier to assemble for long camps and a good number of friendlies. The U23 players are usually too busy with clubs or senior national teams to have it be a priority. So your star international coach for Olympics isn't going to take this job. And besides, Nowak had one game and it was a game where we simply didn't finish. That stuff happens all the time in international soccer. It's not like we got outplayed by a minnow. Meanwhile, the U20 team was a success despite not making the semifinals. Never before has a US youth team produced so much talent that is capable of helping the senior team almost immediately (Bradley, Adu, Altidore are ready now and Rogers, Szetella, Subotic, Zimmerman, Seitz, Stugis, McCartey, Zizzo and Arguez are all on the radar. That's good and Rongen is a good guy to have run the show at this level. So I hate to burst your freak-out bubble after one poor result, but things aren't all that bad.
Yea you are right, The US masses have never cared much about the Olympics. Why it is barely on TV and I am sure winning a gold medal in Soccer would not help US Soccer at all. Good Idea we low key that. You did mention one interesting item where is "Szetella" from the U23 team ? He and Freddie pwned in the Under World Cup.
Gulati hired Sundhage and Cabrera, which look like two major positives right now. Rongen is a 50/50. We'll see what happens to the Bradley-Nowak combo. One pretty much have to fire both or keep both. I know what I'd do (in an instant) but Gulati can't seem fidgety 'cos that'll cost him.
Oh yeah.. I forgot how televised Olympic Soccer is. It case you forget, it gets marginal TV coverage. Most people realize that Olympic Soccer (mens) is like Olympic Tennis in that it's way down the totem pole in importance of the sport. Lots of world powers don't even particiapte and those that do frequently don't even have their best U23 players. Danny Szetela is doing the same thing Michael Bradley is doing now. Playing with his club. Danny needs to earn minutes with his club and that should be way more important to him than playing for a week with the U23's. Look, I think the Olympic tournament is nice and we should take it seriously. But we simply aren't going to get a first rate coach for the tournament. The tournament doesn't attract that type of coaching.
You're a guy who knows his stuff (even if I disagree with you occasionally).. wouldn't you give Sunil a major thumbs up for increasing the difficulty of our schedule as opposed to our usual weak friendly schedule? We really seemed to have picked things up tremendously in that department and that's a good thing
I think Gulati deserves defending. He seems to be the guy trying to push us to the next level, to think of ourselves as a major player in the football world. The new U-17 guy and Sundhage seem like good hires. He tried for Klinsmann. We're playing a tougher schedule. The only remaining question, as SFS points out, is the Bradley/Nowak combo. That will sort itself out soon, one way or the other.
To me, it's pretty obvious what Sunil Gulati is up to. He hired Bob Bradley to bring in good players that would have an impact, especially young ones. Just look how he turned around Chivas USA by bringing in new players including now USMNT players Bornstein and Kljestan. Nowak, on the other hand, doesn't necessarily work well with young players, but is an extremely tactical coach. He's there to give tactical instruction to the players and tactical suggestion to BB. One of the reasons we failed in 2006 is b/c we used the same diamond midfield formation over and over again for quite a while. The Czech Rep. and Ghana figured out how to counter our style during the WC even though it seemed we were unstoppable about 14 months prior. BB will bring in the right players and Nowak will find the best formation/tactics to utilize them. If you remember DC United's MLS Cup title in 2005, the 3-5-2 worked great for one whole year. I think the empty bucket will be dropped around October 2009 and we will change the formation. On paper, it sounds like the best possible plan to me. O yea, Sunil got us the Copa America , friendlies against Sweeden in stockholm, Brazil, Switzerland in the Alps(high altitude and hostile environment there), South Africa (where the WC will be held for you newbies), Spain (in Europe), England (at Wembley), and Argentina. Evens so, regardless of how 2010 will turn out: We have integrated many new players b/c of BB/Sunil (Altidore, Adu, Bradley, Edu, Spector (kinda new), Parkhurst, DeMerit, Clark, Feilhaber, Wynne, Findley, Davies, etc. Since, its pretty obvious to me that Dominic Kinnear and Steve Nicol will be coaching the 2014 team (even though a damn long ways away and I wouldnt bet money on it), I think the perfect foundation has been set for a 1st place finish in 2014... as long as Dom and Steve dont lose their minds in the meantime...(we might be forced to hire hackworth and sigi schmidt...*shudder*)
Peter Novak is an idiot and so is Bob Bradley. We need to invest in quality coaches to move the game forward in the US. I am tired of the US coaching attitude of let's start with seven defenders and see where we can adjust in the second half. The US Cuba game was a prime example -- let us put Altidore alone at top. Never mind he is fat and slow and has never been a lateral player. He is goo din the box at times and that is it. The team looked so lost at times in the first half that even Tim Sullivan could not come up with positive words to describe the team most times beyond "Novak will make adjustments at the half". Gulati did the right thing by hiring Pia for WNT. He needs to spend some real money and get a good staff in place before it is too late.
Winning the medal would be great and people would pay some attention (the team didn't get much coverage in 2000, despite a run to the medal rounds). There will NEVER be a "miracle on ice" for US Soccer-- hockey benefitted from politics in so many ways that soccer will never be able to. Sorry-- we are going to have to look for a different way to break through to the mainstream.
try being a revs fan.... we have that douchebag as "president of kraft soccer" I actually once asked our GM (Craig Torenberg) what he did for us? "he's a sounding board for managment on player decisions and he helps negotiate friendlies due to his international ties". Since we don't have many friendlies and one of the most stable rosters in MLS.... I asked what else.... Apparently that's it. He's got a lot on his plate with the USSF
sidefootsitter - give us your thoughts on what you'd do. I've always enjoyed and respected your opinion.
It's a shame that as a nation we couldn't find/pay comeone to run the USSF on a full time basis. We're letting a professor run the show when he's not on campus giving lectures. It's a damn shame i tell you.
While Gulati deserves criticism over the failed courtship of Klinsman and subsequent mis-hiring of Bradley, I'm not going to critique him for Nowak's "creative" line-ups and dubious selections.
JHJr.: Actually, I just wanted to ask you something. Do you have, like, a million or so brothers and sisters?
That's a new one. Oh, my opinion is that you need to ride it out. Nowak is unlikely to be any good but the U-23 squad is the least important. Bradley's future will be decided between this summer's WCQ's and the 2009 Confederations Cup. A point for Gulati (yes, the quality of competition has improved too) - neither Greg Ryan nor John Hackworth was an outright disaster in terms of results but neither was competent enough. Gulati fired them both and then hired the replacements, who seem to be doing a very good job. He was backed into the Bradley/Nowak deal after Klinsmann fell through. And that may have done good for both sides. Laregely unproven, Klinsi is getting some outrageous cash from Bayern and the US could look at a clean slate if Bradwak bites a big one. My feeling is that Klinsmann and whoever he'd have brought in to assist (a Guido Buchwald or a Pierre Littbarski) would have done well enough to qualify but not well enough at the Cup. Hope with Bradwak is that he will suck so much that a real coach will be eventially brought in for the WC and beyond. PS. As one can see, I've given up all hope that Bradwak can bring anything positive to the US Soccer. I can only hope for is that the amound of damage will be contained.
How much soccer coverage was the there of the US mens team in '00 in Sydney? Answer? Not much. The ladies got a ton more love.
He also ejected Hackworth rather quickly after the disaster this past August which was good and decisive. My problem revolves around the decision to hire Bradley. Maybe we couldn't draw a coach worth a damn from outside the US, but Bradley was not the right hire in my view (though I like a few things he's done, like his inclusiveness in hunting down players), and Nowak is appearing at least early to be a disaster for the Olympic squad. Of course some have already forgotten how wretched the US looked in game 2 of U-20 qualifying a year ago. One of the worst U-20 performances I've seen in a long, long time, that game. Of course tuesdays performance might have been the worst in a half decade at least.