Porter's record at Akron. Odd, though. Wiki has it at 119 wins. I think, for the record, I trust you more than Wiki in this case.
No one has blinders on and there is no narrative. This gets old to continuously regurgitate the same crap.
I disagree about the narrative. There is a lot of narrating going on in this thread, from both sides of the fence. I mean, let's be honest - this thread could be about a president of the United States for as partisan as people are being.
Nothing partisan about putting things in perspective. The entire club was in shambles. Wanting to fire the coach because of this years performance is the only narrative being pushed.
I'm sorry, I simply disagree. The non-soccer operations half of the front office was in shambles, sure. But the on-the-field organization was up and running throughout the Saga and ownership change, with an acting GM/TD in Pat Onsted holding down the fort until Porter and Bez were officially announced. Porter was announced as head coach on January 4th, giving him the entire preseason to prepare for the upcoming campaign with a solidly mid-table team. I don't want to speak for anyone else, so my contention is this: Caleb Porter, when the wheels started to fall off in the early months of this season, should have been taking more proactive actions to right the ship. Good coaches, in my opinion, find ways to win when faced with adversity - be it injuries or schedule congestion or absentee ownership or the Minnesota wind. Caleb Porter did not do that, but instead made excuses and placed blame elsewhere (some of which was not entirely undeserved) while in the process of losing 13 of 16 matches. That's not a narrative, it's my opinion of a coach's role and responsibility. In my world, success is measured by results and Caleb Porter has not achieved the desired results.
As is your right. Look, I’m not a Porter fan and have no reason to want him to stay other than I don’t think he has been given an opportunity to succeed. I would have no problem if they decided to let him go tomorrow, either. But if you think the turmoil in the FO didn’t play a huge part in the on-field product being bad, it’s you that is wrong. And that’s not opinion, it’s fact.
I'm not blind to the fact that the Soccer Operations half of the FO ran at subsistence level from the day that Berhalter cleaned out his office to (probably) a couple weeks after the Porter/Bez hire. But, let's not forget that Columbus Crew SC's 2019 season started with 4 wins out of 6 matches, before going on the infamous 1 for 16 game streak. To me, that says that Porter got his guys ready for the season properly, and then shit hit the fan and Porter wasn't able to adapt. The FO turmoil has nothing to do with a mid-season 1 for 16 slump, that's on the players (who we all agree are subpar at best) and the coach. Bez did his job by bringing in reinforcements as best he could, but Porter...
But again... a coach who’s had an abbreviated off-season/preseason is going to be more susceptible to that. Porter may have been able to figure out plan A, but not had enough time to figure out plan B. A guy who’s been here longer would have had a better idea of what the bench players are capable of (or NOT capable of) and thus had a better idea of what buttons to push and when to push them. The off-season chaos permeated everywhere. When we get into next season, the most likely result we’re going to see is that the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. To use a card game analogy, Porter may have misplayed his hand and lost a couple of tricks, but his cards were never going to be good enough to make his bid.
Go back and read the game threads for those 4 wins. We were happy with the results but the writing was on the wall. I don’t think anyone expected to drop as far as we did, but no one thought we were going to win the shield, either.
You have called Porter a coward more than once in this thread and in some of the game threads. It's not a possibility. It's a reality just as you've called Higuain a cadaver more than once. Philly must be rubbing off on you. Before I forget, the Revs lost again. They have won one out of their last 6. Maybe they should fire Bruce.
4 wins including 2 against a woeful New England team under Friedel and one in rain-soaked slip and slide conditions at home against Atlanta. The only decent win was against Dallas who for some reason decided it would be good for them to let us play and control the game. I'm not sure how many of us were ready to anoint the Crew as a top 3 team.
I was raised in South Jersey. When people talk about their sports teams they focus on the quality of performance of their teams. Look, if you honestly want to make an argument that Higuain is near a top ten midfielder in this league, feel free. If he's that good, it only makes Porter's results as head coach even more depressing. After all, if as you said the first four wins are not impressive, then its another strike against Porter that he hasn't been able to utilize such a dynamic player. Or it could be that Higuain is completely past it. And if I stated that Porter was a coward for refusing to sit him, or play the youth then I'll own that. As said before and more often throughout this thread his choices have been driven by vanity. By hubris. Choices made out of hubris and vanity and often times driven by perception and fear, in other words cowardice. As stated earlier, you learn a lot more about a man when he is down or the odds against him. We've learned nothing positive about Porter this season. These are lessons that US Soccer and Portland already know. For whatever reason Columbus chooses denial. Sure, maybe. They probably would want a more statistically significant sample size than six games. He took one of the leagues worst teams, and vaulted them into playoff position. They stand two points above the line with a game in hand on their closest chasers They have 2 losses in their last 6, on the road the the Eastern Conference leaders and at home to a historic LAFC side. As far as a "gotcha" this isn't near your best work. That said, if New England ends the season poorly and throws away this playoff spot Arena's job should certainly be in question. It's really not that hard to hold consistent values when looking at coaches in this manner. They are hired for results. Period.
You don't need to put words in my mound. I've seen the decline of Higuain. I also respect our current players by not calling them cadavers. I don't think he should come back next year with his age and the injury he just had. Look at that. We have one in our last nine, on the road against the same conference leaders and by the same margins. You have no problem ignoring the nine game stretch but want to ignore the 6 games because "it's meaningless" and they're still above the line. I figured they'd have first place clinched with the Arena and Bou combo based on where they were at the beginning of August.
Higuain could gain more respect for me by not coming back next year. Or if he comes back taking a salary commensurate of what he has left to offer the team, which is very little. How silly. You don't need to put words in my mouth (or mound, or what have you). I never claimed Arena's Revs would be in first place. This is a straw man, Dennis, and you know that. What Arena has done is lead a team that was behind the Crew into rather comfortable playoff position, despite a stretch in their last 6 games which they have won only one, lost two, and drawn three. What Caleb Porter and Columbus Crew have done in this 9 game stretch is......consolidate their hold on 11th place in the East. They've done this in large part because they failed to gain more than 6 points from four games against the last place and 10th place teams surrounding them in the East. Again, coaching matters....
Again, players matter..... If Zardes makes his tap-ins, we are fighting for a playoff spot. Considering the long losing streak, that's really incredible. You could even say Porter, once Bez, Doc and the Haslems got control and started bringing in new players, put the team in position to overcome a historic losing streak. If only the players could execute. We have been through this time and time again Hang. You put the emphasis on coaching when your players fail. I'll let you get your condescending, name calling final word.
Can you guys literally just have an actual pissing match? It would work out better and be over quicker.
No worries. The insipid analysis in the Berhalter thread led me to finally put him on ignore. There just isn't anything added to the discussion. It's the same excuses no matter what the team, coach, or game. Indeed, it is meaningless. And besides, I head to the airport in an hour to be in Portugal for 10 days. So, I may not even be around when we are mercifully finally mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Hopefully someone can mark the occasion here with the appropriate mixture of mourning and relief that this uninspired, horrible, season from hell has reached it's miserable conclusion.
More on the players , Injury to Higuain helped this team . The other injures made line up shuffles and Goal keeping between Steffen & Room equated to no chance
You're the one playing with meaningless numbers and now try to justify the lack of execution of this team you seem to compare us to. The Revs had 8 points with Friedel before he got fired. Interim coach Lapper gave them 3 in his only game. Arena took over the team with 11 points. We were at 16 giving him a 5 point difference to make up. We also were in the middle of our 15 game stretch where we won 1 game. We're 8 points behind and they have a game in hand. A 13 point turnaround when your challenger is getting 4 points in 15 matches isn't too difficult to accomplish. In the last nine games, they've picked up 2 of the 13 points so either Arena's magic is fading or Porter is finally getting the players he needed to be competitive. Or maybe it's both. Coaching puts players in the right place to execute. Zardes didn't. That's 5-6 points in 3 games from opportunities missed inside the 6 yard box. I'm not ready to write a guy off with the season we've had even if there are things that I would have done differently. The one thing we on these boards don't see is what's happening on the training camp. Why haven't we seen Opoku? Why hasn't Romario Williams been the choice over Hamilton in the last couple of matches? Why didn't Niko play more and ended up traded to Houston? There's a saying which is mostly used when a successful coach gets fired. It goes by "What have you done for me lately?" and I'm going to use that for now in seeing out the year and keeping an eye on the first half of the next one. By the way, would you have chosen Arena to coach the Crew over GBS or Porter?
The fast start to the season saw only 1 injured defender ( Valenzuela) and had Steffen in goal but we were unimpressed because we played good defense and scored on set pieces. Our offense of dysfunction was from the previous regime. Porter had trashy players we did not upgrade the roster . Last time GB took us to the Cup we made no changes and what happened to that team ? Ownership and GB ( the Director not the coach ) caused a losing season with a inadequate roster which is the exact recipe this disaster season had. Yes Porter has not coached his best and he is not a elite MLS coach but he is a good coach and he should be judged next year for results. No matter who was coach this year was a free pass to a rebuilding project