Gulati hires the national coaches. Assuming he cares even a little about woso (he probably doesn't much except the fussing going on about pay) he should pick a head coach who has led teams to success. Those coaches SHOULD have demonstrated, through their past teams, a style of play. The national coaches SHOULD dictate a style of play for the entire USSF programming. The YNT coaches should follow. How is that odd?
If, by this, you mean the US youth national teams, it is not odd and probably is happening. If you mean all soccer under the USSF umbrella, which includes all club teams, USSF has tried it, in the Reyna curriculum. It didn't work. The clubs simply aren't willing to bow down to USSF. They have their own ideas.
You're probably right that the YNTs style of play does reflect dictated style of play as determined by USSF. And USSF is selecting the players and the coaches accordingly. If that's the case, I don't want the clubs to bow down to USSF. I want the clubs to lead. USWNT has been setting a very poor example for the YNTs for some time now --- CBA that shields players from competition, past their prime players that use their influence to take up valuable spots on the WNT even though not fully fit, etc. They say one thing and do another. USSF needs to lead by their actions -- their words have very little weight at this point.
Sorry, no I realize the clubs' styles will not necessarily follow the directive of the USSF -that is if they indeed choose one. However, I think it is the intent of the GDA to attempt to support the USSF in style of play. Unfortunately, I believe after watching most of the u17 and u20 wc games -including those involving competition between other nations, that the US players chosen were lacking fundamental technical ability to be able to manage limitations in time and space put on them by highly organized and/or more athletic teams. Poor first touch causing a turnover either directly because the opposition seized possession off the bad touch or resulting in a hurried, poorly weighted or misdirected "pass" (sometimes a hail Mary and not an intentional pass) then in turn resulted in the opposition winning the resultant 50-50 or worse. No matter what style, there needs to be a selection for more technical players and a better focus on developing technique within the US. Doesn't, matter who is in charge of dictating the tactics the players must be technical enough to carry out the dictated game plan. No longer does "heart" and indeed the players were uniformly trying to tackle back and get stuck in, and athleticism (though I thought several players were less than athletic) win games in WoSo. Time to change up the game. If there are to be changes in the coaching/technical staff (pray there is) when would such changes be announced? I would think the new coaches would want to scout the big Christmas week events.