And, there's no two ways about it, Steve Nicol, Matt Driver and John Murphy deserve, at the very least, a return engagement in 2003.
under the guidelines set forth in the age old addage "if it ain't broke...don't fix it"...can we at least wait until we see if the revs make the playoffs?
I believe the opposite should be done. Since the Revs have a tradition of shedding 7/8 of the team every year we should refer to the entire organization as "interim."
look, i'm not saying i don't want him signed up. just saying, out of superstition more than anything else, can it wait until after this game? .....let's keep everything juuuuuuust the way it is until sunday. ooookie-dooookie?
I don't believe we should drop the interim. This team was favored to be at the top of table in the beginning of the season. they are doing better than at the start, but I don't think the coaching staff has much to do with it. None of them are good coaches. There credentials (minus steve's playing days) are somewhat pathetic for coaches at the highest division. They should be evaluated at the end of the year, but believe there are better coaches with better credentials out there. If the rev are serious they would spend some serious time looking for the right people to lead this team, and let steve coach an a-league team and the assistants go coach bad div 3 teams or pdl teams. They should be in the playoffs with the team they have or had.
aren't you the same people who said 6-8 weeks ago "Fire Nicol", and that he had no business coaching. This is what I have been trying to say, you give Nicol the players he wants, give him a little time, and presto, we have a 5 game unbeaten streak and fighting for the Conference title. A little fact to prove my point, he is the only Revs coach with a winnig record. FC who?
Be specific. Brother man, proof please that I wrote that - Don't bother to look because you won't find it. I think Nicol's had pretty good support from the majority here.
I'm just addressing that to those who doubted Nicol and wanted him fired. I'm not at all saying that every Revs fan on the boards said at one point of time that they wanted Nicol fired, but they are out there, and I bet most have changed their minds.
Good grief! The Revs win a few games against weak teams (needing some major good breaks to do it) and all of a sudden Nicol is a great coach? Please, try to keep some sense of perspective here. This team has yet to beat anyone good and yet to show they can overcome even a single goal deficit. Perhaps they will but until they do all that can be said in Nicol's favor is that he kept the team from giving up and he has been able to fashion something that works inspite of losing (or giving away) some key players. The futility of repeated coaching changes is also a factor in his favor. On the other hand, at least so far he is wedded to a low risk bunkered down style of soccer depending on rigid organization at the expense of creativity or free flowing play. Obviously against incompetent opposition this can work (provided they don't score first) and it is a worldwide approach by under-skilled teams to keep themselves in the game against more skilled teams but is it something we want to strive for? Is it something we want to pay to watch? Will this team's persona become "try not to lose and hope to get lucky"? Are we certain a different coach would have been even less successful with the players on hand to start the season? How would have Yallop done? How about Bradley? Probably Nicol has earned a chance to do it his way next season with a remanned team of his design. Just as likely we may come to regret it.
socdoc, I roughly agree with the gist of your post. However, they have come back from a goal deficit to win a game. In fact, it was the game that started their present streak, @ Chicago 8/24. From MLSnet.com: August 24, 2002 1 2 F New England 0 2 2 Chicago 0 1 1 Scoring Summary: CHI--Curtin (Razov) 50 NE --Harris (Twellman, Griffiths) 65 NE --Kante (Ralston) 89 As for the importance of playing with flair and "creativity", I think it is overhyped. If it were gymnastics or ice skating, then the creativity would be important because the outcome of the competition is decided by someone's subjective interpretation of the participant's "creativity". However, soccer is decided by an objective measure of number of goals scored. Sure, as fans, we might want to see some magical play from time to time, but I leave the stadium much happier after an ugly win than a brilliantly played loss, which in turn is, in fact, better than an ugly loss, but is bitter nonetheless. The object of soccer is to score more goals than the opposing team and if you can do that by pounding it down the middle or the wing in a very direct style, then do it until they stop you. If the Lakers have Shaq in the middle against some guy who can't handle him, would the Lakers be smart to run fancy, entertaining plays, when simply getting the ball to Shaq down low will suffice and win them the game? If the Steelers can get yards and points by running their three bruising backs up the middle all game, would they be smart to have Cordell make a bunch of passes because the fans would be better entertained by passes? Basketball games are won or loss on the boards (ugly) and football is won or loss on the line of scrimmage (ugly). People like to call soccer the beautiful game, and it sure can be, but it is won or loss in the ugly trenches. Now as for Nicol, he seems to be a winner and has convinced a losing team that they are winners and that is a big plus for him. The players seem to respect and trust him. If he had the "creative" talent on the team, I think we would see him use it when it would give us the best chance to win a game, but he ain't got it (let's not kid ourselves about APC). I would be pleased if they sign him up for next year before or immediately after the Revs' season ends.
I wouldn't hesitate to bring back Nicol, but the Revos aren't about to change anything now. a.) They haven't got to the playoffs - yet (Nicol should get another shot, even if they don't make it). b.) They have to a hire a new GM, or technical director, or whatever they're going to call it. That person will have to have a say in who the new "permanent" coach is going to be. Nicol deserves the shot, and he'll probably get it now even if he ain't Gulati's boy. I doubt it'll happen anytime real soon.
JMMUSA8 is right and so is ftruscot. If you could build a team on aesthetics, FC would have been coach of the year. Say what you want about the guy - he always favored flowing, attractive, attacking soccer. SN's unspoken message is that you have to be organized and be able to cope with whatever the other team throws at you before you try to get fancy. Socdoc, don't you think more creativity will come out of continuity alone? Not to mention another strong striker. Now if we could only get a guy like Graziani .
Wait till the end of the season. Yes, he's done a good/great job, but why the distraction now to what has been a great run? Let the team keep their eye on the target in front of them and let's keep this discussion until later.
In regard to JMMUSA8's supposition that the eople here were demanding Nicol's head, there was certainly a strong call from some people for Nicol to be canned and I don't see them here asking for him to be retained. I think the people wanting to keep him are the people who wanted to be patient when this team couldn't beat deuce high. Frankly, I'm somewhat convinced. Back in August, I was thinking he wasn't the man for the job, but after taking over the reins and dealing with changes in personnel and injuries, I think he's done pretty well. Remember, FC's first year? The team won only due to heart and an incredible Wolde. At least this last run has been a bit more than that and Twellman's goals don't seem to come out of nowhere like Wolde's did. Dan
Y'know it strikes me that watching a team interchange between strikers, midfielders and overlapping backs as the Revs have in the last weeks may not be flowing with the fluency of Figo, Zizou, Robbie Carlos and Raul but Harris, Ralston, Twellman, Heaps and Cullen are doing a reasonable job of playing attractive football. We are what we have got and I don't see the product Steve Nicol is putting out as either bland or unskilled. That said, tomorrow will likely be ugly given what is at stake and who isn't playing. But this shouldn't serve to obscure that the team has been getting better and better in the buildup department. JIM DOW
Bump. Okay, I'll bite. Seven weeks ago I said that the Revs pretty much didn't have a chance (of making the playoffs) and that Steve Nicols probably wasn't the best choice as next year's coach. Proven wrong on both counts.