Sport is 90% mental at this level. Our boys are febrile. They don't know how to handle adversity. Anyone can look a world-beater when things are going in your favor.
I’m bothered most by how completely these kids failed the system. Can’t they press lighter? Can’t they possess more backward and side to side? Can’t they use those ponderous insipid midfield passes to better destabilize the other team? Perhaps some woolen underpants to make the other team uncomfortable? I have to say this and I really mean it: a lot of people have to royally $hit the bed in a thousand different ways for anyone let alone kids to play soccer this badly.
It's not a sudden departure for Tab. It's been coming for a while, and I don't think it's even a "US Soccer hates Tab" thing because I think what we've seen shows that they do like him ... but didn't want to hire him as a USMNT coach or Earnie's job. Once Tab didn't get the USMNT job or get the GM job, he was clearly going to look elsewhere. They had several chances to promote him, but they didn't. Part of the reason why Earnie's role was so ill-defined early, and I think part of the reason why he got this "promotion" (which was really just role definition and additional resourcing) was so that Tab didn't have to report to him. Reporting to Earnie would have been an effective demotion -- Tab was youth technical director. If you recall, at first, that wasn't part of Earnie's role. Then, recently, if became so, and viola, Tab is gone. My read is simple: they like Tab, but didn't want him as USMNT coach or GM. Tab wanted to move onto the next stage of his career. This is merely PR managing to Tab heading out. I don't think he was going to stay and suddenly report into a slew of people when he used to have autonomy and report into the top, especially when I'm sure he wanted one of those jobs. There's no doubt Earnie is housecleaning the youth coaches, for better or worse. But I think Tab's unique in that he wasn't going to stand still no matter who was there. Also: Earnie's been clear he wants the US structure to play with a common style of play. So it's neither a GB push nor a conspiracy theory. For better or worse ... it's the plan.
I've seen lots of comments about how it's the "system" that is the problem and the coaches trying to force players into such system. While I would be the last person to try and defend our coaching, at any level, I think way the players are getting off way too easy. And not just this current crop of U17's, but the general U.S. player pool in general. With the exception of the U20's (with a coach everyone bitches about each tournament despite possibly him being the reason for the exception), the U.S. in general has been in a complete funk for nearly the last decade. Go look up how poorly the U17's have done since 2011, with different coaches and long before EGG & Earnie. How many times have the U23's not qualified for the Olympics. The U.S. youth teams, and even the full national team actually did better before MLS youth academies. How is that possible? It's now easier for young kids to be exposed to top quality football, both on TV and live than any other time in history, we have more kids playing it than ever and yet I just witnessed the most un-athletic, and least skilled team in as long as I can remember. Someone please explain how that happens? I'm sure someone will point to other players that should have been there, and maybe there's some of that, but I think it's not jut overall rot in the U.S. system, but a general rot in the mentality of the U.S. player. Something has changed where these kids, and ultimately adults (see U.S. full nats recently) has no drive when it comes to the national team. Getting that pro contract seems to be all that matters. Playing for the National team seems like it is a chore rather than an honor and to me, someone who only real cares about the Nats, that's the greatest tragedy and reason for all the problems.
It's almost like everyone forgot that it took a red card for Tab to get his best lineup on the pitch at the U20 World Cup ... and then he reverted to the worse lineup and lost.
Now cue in two of the teams from our group making semis, one making the final, and the third missing the semis in a shootout.
it is telling to me that they can't get coaches to join the National Team programs- many coaching vacancies...unless it's changed, they're required to move to Chicago. You would think it would be an honor and privilege to advance development of soccer in US and then scout and develop the best of the best. US Soccer needs to wake up, look in the mirror and realize where they've gone wrong. Not convinced it will happen, though. Too many times I see kids overlooked that deserve a shot, yet don't get it because of lack of effective scouting...or they aren't championed by someone who can help get them there.
Great question. One possible answer: The Academy was set up to identify and train individuals, not teams. In theory this makes sense, because both MLS and the USMNT only care about developing a few elite players. Where they screwed up, IMO, was not realizing that a closed system (no outside DA competition, preventing playing for other teams etc) leads to: (1) kids believing they are the “elite” just because they make the roster of a DA team, and (2) even the top players caring more about being identified as a pro rather than learning how to compete and help their team win. The old Cal south Coast League had intense team competition, because the bottom two teams were relegated etc. And many of the players played for multiple teams, including Hispanic leagues and high school. The old system had many flaws, but it did teach players to compete and play for the team, not themselves. Is the new DA system better? I’m still skeptical.
I can explain it. There’s nothing local about the game anymore, or not like when I was growing up playing. Soccer is now run by the smart people, you see. Over licensed blow hards that are the only ones qualified to teach the game. You want to play at a high level at 10? Drop all other sports and join the enlightened( which drives off all the good athletes) because if you don’t, you’ll be left behind forever. There is zero avenue for keeping really good youth athletes that want to play multiple sports around the game longer. An over bureaucratic system from the top down ruining local creativity and ideas. THAT, my friend is killing this game. We were so much better before the word “development”. Now it’s all you ever hear, and it’s a load of bull.
If blown out means losing in extra time by 1 goal to the runner up and by 1 goal to the third place finisher ('17 and '19 respectively), then sure, you can call it a blow out, if you mean getting knocked out on penalties after extra time to the eventual champion ('15), then sure call it a blow out. Freaking ridiculous.
Your read is an interesting one, but I've heard so many negative rumors over the years, it just feels like the fed just wasn't a fan, but didn't have the ammo to fire him because he kept wining Concacaf Qualifying Tournaments, and kept taking the U20's the farthest they'd gone since 2003 and 2007. Hard to fire a guy whose outperformed or equaled pretty much every U20 coach in history, and I say this as someone who was frustrating with his 23's, his 11's, and his starting lineups in critical win or go home games like the loss to Ecuador, where he went away from what accomplished the greatest feat in US U20 History (Beating France).
I'm not sure this Fed cares about perception. Why would that stop them? Maybe they didn't like him, but it does seem like they went out of their way to never have him report to Earnie and finish through the U20 WC. If they wanted him to quite earlier, they could have done more to do so.
this sums up the problem somehow finding a way to defend losing by saying losing is an accomplishment lol. I mean gb lost to an improving canada....argue that as a positive for me that would be great because I would like to be as excited by that loss as I am sure you were. p.s. watch the matches...the us didnt threaten they were dominated its similar to us/canada where canada dominated them and the 2-0 score is misleading as to how bad a beating it was.
We are still waiting, at any level, to see an example of a USA team winning with a soft, passing first, central midfield. From when Beckerman aged out, here is the list of players US coaches at all levels have picked to start as the #6 for their team in meaningful games: Bradley Zelalem Goslin Trapp Durkin Leyva Only one of those players would have been considered a #6 in the mold of Armas, Mastroeni, or Edu. That team had one of the best performances in the past 5 years. The two Tab picked, saw the team play their best after they were injured/suspended. Leyva and Durkin even do the "defensive crouch and hop" that Bradley likes to do while getting no pressure on the ball in Zone 14. It is possible that MLS and MLS Academies are simply producing players that expect yards and time on the ball or opponents to simply caugh up possession. It could be that MLS and the DA are so open in central midfield, that players that can look good with space and time do. Or it could be that American coaches at all levels are enamored with a certain type of midfield set up that just doesn't work in game conditions.
I know that we get caught up with results since it is a results oriented game but, while it is important to pay attention to results at the youth levels, we need to use those results to get us to a point of “Okay - what exactly happened here?” Tactics, at the youth levels is often way, way overrated. You can have the best tactical plan in the world but, if your players aren’t recognizing what is happening quickly and reacting to it proactively and doing it together, the tactics are irrelevant. What we witnessed was a team that had not developed a high level of communication with each other. They wasted too much time and energy because, rather than building off of the movements of each other and making each other more effective, they watched each other passively or, even worse, worked in spite of each other, making runs that conflicted against the ideas of their teammates. When you have this kind of situation, it is hard to talk about the tactics because the team is going to make any tactical plan look bad. It is hard to talk about the talent level of the players because the players are making each other look as bad as possible. It is hard to talk about the mental toughness of the players because mental toughness can actually make you look worse when you are working against your teammates. I am sure that I make people tired of hearing it, but communication is the highest form of the game. The key with national teams, on any level, is to overcome the lack of “face time” that players have with each other and to get them on the same page in spite of the fact that they spend most of the year building communication with other players in other completely different situations. In different countries overcoming this challenge at the international level requires different solutions. One country that is interesting to study is Belgium, who have two dominating cultures who speak two different languages and are often culturally in open conflict with each other. For years, they were cranking out superstars at the professional level while their national teams underachieved spectacularly. It wasn’t until the most recent World Cup in Russia where they finally played like a national team on the level of their talent. So what did Roberto Martinez do differently than what was done previously? I don’t know, but I am pretty sure that it wasn’t clear house at the youth levels, take two years to hire a national coach without going through any process or state that the national coach had to speak one specific language fluently and require him to live in one specific city.
I disagree with your argument well stated. I believe that there is a failure of US Soccer to recognize that a certain nous is absent on the pitch when the system gets in gear. There has to be synergy for great players to produce. Messi never brought the Cup home and is therefore below Maradona in the hearts of his countrymen as GOAT even as we both know that Messi is 2X the player Maradona was. The synergy is not something that can be taught; rather it has to be found in trying out different combinations of players. The players can't do that. A system cannot do that.
Whether they would have let him finish out his contract is hardly a ringing endorsement. There were no signs they were going to extend him. In pro sports, being a lame duck coach is usually not a good idea. Rarely, would anyone say that the management of a pro sports team really wants a coach they are not willing to extend. It is possible they would have extended him if he had moved to Chicago and agreed to play Gregg Ball. We don't know. We do know they were not going to continue with the current arrangement past this contract. In no other place is that considered, "happy with him". Earnie cleared out all the YNT coaches and Tab was simply the last to go.
This is very well written and contains some good points. That said, I’m not sure I completely agree. One of the qualities of a great player is being able to fit into different teams, with different players, in different systems. This takes subtle adjustments in your game and a high soccer IQ. This is where I believe our players fall flat sometimes. The other factor that can rear it’s ugly head is when a managers philosophy just doesn’t fit the players he has but the manager forces a system on them. To be fair to this specific group of players, I still haven’t determined which one I think was the problem. Was it our players inability to adapt to their teammates and make those subtle adjustments needed to be successful, or was it a system mandated from the top that essentially took them out of the tournament before it started? Communication is certainly part of the equation.
I think people are underestimating Tab's role in all of this. There's simply no way that Tab was going to stand still at the Federation in terms of role. He was already U20 coach and Youth Technical Director and I'm pretty sure he didn't report into another soccer person. In short, he owned his domain. I think he likely wanted a promotion and to progress his career, but even if he didn't, once you put the Earnie role into place, standing still wasn't really an option. It could only be an effective demotion. So US Soccer didn't like him enough to be USMNT coach or GM/Full Technical Director over other options. Beyond that, it's speculation. It just reads to me more like a mutual decision than a forcing out. Once he wasn't getting the promo, it was a matter of time for Tab even if US Soccer wanted to keep him, IMO.
Being the one shiny apple in an otherwise rotten orchard is pretty lonely. There seems to be very little freedom within the Fed. Everything seems to run off of policies and processes, which stifles some personalities.
That would be an Argentine view of it (and yours as well). My view is more in line with the Dutch - now also Spanish - view of the game. Personally, I think that the ratio of top players (many) to the success of the Argentina national team (underachievers) says all you need to know about Argentina. They have a top 2 in the world soccer culture accompanied by a coaching culture that is not nearly on the same level in the modern game. That said, I would love it if the US was on that level. We aren’t even close.
He did nothing. Dick Advocaat was Belgian team coach and he sledgehammered a different look by players at the national team. His first call up for the players he used to make a point very clear to the players. Vincent Kompany considered himself to be the big ManCity star with priviliges. So he turned up two days later then he was expected by Advocaat. Dick told Vincent he needed not to unload his suitcase as he could go back from where he came from. Message was, the national team is bigger than the individual player and you're only welcome if you subject to the team. (=fvck off with star attitudes). Kompany apologised for his behaviour and was called up for the next match. This made also clear to the rest that if they wanted to be part of that national team, they better be a unit.
Discipline and respect is definitely important in soccer, but Belgium under Advocaat really never reached the level of communication that they achieved under Martinez. Advocaat may have had a role in creating a disciplined environment, but he was only there for 6 months - 2 qualifiers and 3 friendly matches with mixed results against mediocre teams. Martinez has his weaknesses as a manager, but one thing that he is good at is increasing the level of communication on his teams. To not acknowledge that (“He did nothing.”)is not being realistic. Advocaat is an interesting manager. He has done some really good things in his career, but crediting Martinez’ success to Advocaat is the type of mistake you don’t usually make as a poster. Are you feeling a little under the weather? Can I get you a power bar? Maybe a smoothie?