Yeah it's really rough for some of these guys who aren't comfortable speaking English or giving interviews in general. Pipa is a pretty reserved guy, so that environment isn't easy for someone like him.
Gregg Berhalter says nothing has changed regarding international spots/green cards. He didn't elaborate.— Andrew (@AndrewKingCbus) March 2, 2017 I appreciate the effort, anyway.
I'll be honest - with what is being reported it sounds like 3G has little to no confidence in these players. He chooses Trapp as Captain then immediately undercuts the "authority" of the position by creating this ridiculous 'leadership council' Way to show your Captain you have faith in them by saying, "Yeah, you're Captain - but so are these other 5 guys" Then he out and out says that Stuver could wrest the starting job away from Steffan - that Steffan was barely sufficient to land the job. Again, great way to say you believe in your keeper. Christ almighty Gregg...
Or maybe he wants players to think they have to fight for their spots, and not rest on past success like last year?
Telling them that in practice is one thing - but publicly doubting like this is completely different.
If you want to see it as "doubting", fine. GB promoted last year's vice captain to captain, not a shocker. 4 of the top 5 or 6 paid guys on the team are 'leaders', not a shocker. I think that's just you projecting your negative feelings onto the situation. The leadership council is nothing. It's seems, to me, an attempt to try and prevent cliques from getting out of hand.
On the Trapp/council thing: there are VERY few players in the world whose leadership is so amazing that they're the only voice in the locker room. Under Frankie, we also had Guille/Chad/Hesmer/Alejandro. Under Chad, we also had Hesmer/O'Rourke. You're reading far too into this. He didn't say Steffen didn't win the job by a wide margin because Steffen didn't win the job by a wide margin. Any player who isn't clearly better than their backup can lose their job to their backup if they don't play well. I'm excited that Steffen is the starter: that doesn't mean we should stick with him as the #1 if he comes in and looks like total crap for an extended period of time.
No, but to name a Captain and then undercut that position/authority by naming a "leadership council" only serves to further fracture/fragment the team rather than unite them.
The Leadership Council isn't a huge thing, it's just a stupid thing. It's the product of the supposed "culture" that this team built in which their is not a single dominant personality on the team that will grab a player by his neck look him in the eye and demand or inspire more. What we have instead is a rather mild mannered Wil Trapp, a "vice-captain" last year. Not a vocal or demonstrative leader by any means. A kid who actually was captain for a colossally disappointing U-23 team who didn't qualify for the Olympics and quite frankly embarrassed themselves in the way they capitulated at home to Honduras and in the return leg against Colombia. What he lacks in personality and leadership skills, he has in local roots which is equally important. And now he also has the backing of a Leadership Council which is part of the culture that we are building here. Not a tragic decision. Just stupid and meaningless. However, be sure to collect the autographs of all Leadership Council members at Giant Eagle throughout the season. If you upgrade your season tickets early you may also receive a limited edition Homage Leadership Council t-shirt.
Based on what? You think players with big personalities and big voices didn't exist last year? Of course they did. Hello, Parkhurst was our captain, but clearly Kei wasn't scared to run his mouth. You think Finlay and Meram weren't looked to as leaders last year? Finlay, a guy that made MLS all XI (or whatever the hell it's called) in 2015? You think Afful didn't come in and command immediate respect with his play and international experience? Give it a rest Hang Jr. This leadership council is nothing. GB talking about it is nothing. Trapp is the face of the club, for numerous reasons. He was the vice-captain last year. Come on man, give it a rest. With the great shirt sponsorship, the shirts themselves, and a mainly positive preseason, you clearly just need something to bitch about. Give it a game or two before you decide the team is in freefall and the season is over before the end of March.
Based on what the article says - you now have 5 different people acting as pseudo-Captains. I'm sorry you can't parse the difference between having big personalities on a team versus explicitly saying, "if you don't like this guy, follow that one" and making cliques institutionalized.
Cliques are gonna exist, regardless, period. This is a way to better formalize communication between said cliques. Not sure how trying to facilitate team harmony is a bad thing?
Stratifying and fragmenting is the antithesis of harmony - what are you on about?? You don't unify by dividing and splitting. A team has one voice, one direction, not six.
The main thing here is that nobody looks at Trapp and things, "Damn, that guy is a captain. I'm inspired." His captaincy is a product a where he grew up. I'm hard pressed to think of another locker room in the league where Trapp would walk in and he'd immediately be identified as a leader, let alone a candidate for captain. Things like a Leadership Council exist in almost every locker room. Those players tend to emerge or their is a handful of players that have the coaches trust that he also speaks through, and they report back to him. Gregg being Gregg needs to announce it in order to sell to the fanbase and community this bizarre idea of the culture that's being built in the locker room. But, it's also because it's evident that Trapp isn't a natural fit for the captaincy and Gregg knows that. It doesn't necessarily undermine him as CyberSlydr says, but it doesn't take a genius to read between the lines and see this team doesn't have a natural leader.
MLS site has Saravia and Naess not listed as Internationals. That has us at eight: Raitala Mensah Artur Abu Kamara Abubakar Martinez Afful http://www.mlssoccer.com/players?si...iZoOWHm4&form_id=mp7_club_player_filters_form
Naess should be. Saravia isn't here and Durant count while gone on loan. So maybe one guy of the 9 got his green card.
A couple of loan questions: - Are there any restrictions on recalling Saravia from his loan? - Is anyone else out on loan?