[sidspaceman]

There is no harder job in football than being the coach of a foreign national team (just ask Sven Goran Eriksson). The entire population instantly second guesses your every move. Win and you’re a hero, lose, and you become an overnight muppet, burned in effigy in town squares across the land.

http://www.foxsportsworld.com/world/...21031_nick.htm

[Crazy_Yank]

That was a really nice article. It's good to see Sampson finally giving MLS the props it deserved. In that past he's been quoted as saying he believes MLS hurts the national team. As the world cup proved he couldn't have been more wrong. I wish him the best of luck, except when he plays the US.

[flanoverseas]

Originally posted by sidspaceman
There is no harder job in football than being the coach of a foreign national team (just ask Sven Goran Eriksson). The entire population instantly second guesses your every move. Win and you’re a hero, lose, and you become an overnight muppet, burned in effigy in town squares across the land.

http://www.foxsportsworld.com/world/...21031_nick.htm

when did muppet become an insult?

[strider026]

From the article

“The most critical difference between the two sides can be put down to finishing. In ’98 with a little more luck those shots that rattled the woodwork against Iran would’ve gone in and that could’ve made it a totally different match. If you look for instance in the victory against Portugal, everything flew in and we had some luck, like (Landon) Donovan's cross/shot deflecting off Fernando Couto for goal number two."

Interesting recollection. I don't remember us looking good at any game in 98. Although luck is needed in any game that was not the difference between 98 and 02.

[Crazy_Yank]

Originally posted by strider026
From the article

“The most critical difference between the two sides can be put down to finishing. In ’98 with a little more luck those shots that rattled the woodwork against Iran would’ve gone in and that could’ve made it a totally different match. If you look for instance in the victory against Portugal, everything flew in and we had some luck, like (Landon) Donovan's cross/shot deflecting off Fernando Couto for goal number two."

Interesting recollection. I don't remember us looking good at any game in 98. Although luck is needed in any game that was not the difference between 98 and 02.

hehe no kidding. I'd the the most "critical" difference was the quality of the squad. Besides Reyna, who did hte 98 squad have that was even close to being as good as Donovon, Beasley, O'Brien, Mathis, Mastroeni, etc....? Chad "I suck big time" Deering, and Mike "I can't defend a goal post" Burns actually started.

[Stan Collins]

Originally posted by Crazy_Yank
That was a really nice article. It's good to see Sampson finally giving MLS the props it deserved. In that past he's been quoted as saying he believes MLS hurts the national team. As the world cup proved he couldn't have been more wrong. I wish him the best of luck, except when he plays the US.

Sampson said, and I think if you asked him now he'd say the same thing, that MLS hurt the team in '98, not tht it 'hurts' in the general sense.

And he has a point. The players we had on that team had been around since before MLS, and many of them had been playing in Europe, up to their level of competence (meaning that the competition ws alays as good as they were). All their careers, they had been playing in order to contribute. When they came here, they were expected to dominate, which they by and large failed to do.

This left Sampson with two bad choices: 1) Tke the established players who had not been playing up to expectations in club play, or 2) start really depending on some 'younger guard' players (like Eddie Lewis or Chris Armas) who, by the time they had really established themselves in league play, were awful late in the game to get themselves into that position (Arena hd the advantage of being able to try some of these guys at the bottom of the WC cycle, when there was little risk). He usually chose the latter.

This is not to offer a carte blanche excuse for Sampson, who injected Regis into the lineup at a pretty late stage being perhaps overly impressed by his Bundeliga credentials, but Sampson has to take the two mutually exclusive critiques that he both did and did not shake up the lineup enough, and the newness of the league put Sampson into that position. If MLS had been even one year older, there'd have been some more clarity.

I don't think most people when they are critiquing coaches are fully honest with themselves. It's worse on a foreign coach, which is why I wish Sampson luck. He'll need it.

[Various Styles]

"Finally, many of the Hispanic kids who were not getting noticed due to reasons such as economics and location are now they are getting the recognition they deserve, because these are some of the most talented players we have".

I allways liked Steve-O

[MikeLastort2]

Frankly, who gives a crap what Sampson thinks?

[footfetish]

Originally posted by flanoverseas
when did muppet become an insult?

i guess it's an english thing.

[Stan Collins]

Originally posted by MikeLastort2
Frankly, who gives a crap what Sampson thinks?

The Costa Rican Football Federation.