I guess having an ex- players boys club beats the old whatever the heck they were. We’ll see of course.
"Modern administrative structure" and centralizing everything to a single city in a country of 3.5 million square miles and over 330 million people doesn't seem to click.
Quite frankly there’s a stronger argument to be made for 3 different federations given the size and population as opposed to concentrating everything in a city that’s inhospitable for 5 months out of the year. Good luck attracting top talent to USSF if you mandate people live in Chicago.
Yes. During Klinsmann's tenure following the massively disappointing '15 Gold Cup run and losing to Mexico and Costa Rica in the hex, people blamed Gulati. Same situation happened with... you know... Arena. Applying organizational layers seems to cover Cordeiro now as Stewart is the "fall back" guy.
Inhospitable? How soft are you? It was 61 degrees on Christmas in Chicago. These weather arguments are a little tiring.
28 degrees now. So it’s not a crazy adjective. Fabulous city, and I always love visiting. But for those of us from warmer and less windy climates it can be a bit harsh.
First week of January was in the 50s. This is the coldest weather Chicago has had all month. I'll admit it's pretty unpredictable, but not unmanageable. The Upper Midwest and Great plains are far, far worse for snow and cold. Minneapolis would be a much harder place. It's fair for people that are used to warmer climates to have a preference, but knocking 5 months out of the year in Chicago is a little much IMO.
The weather here sucks usually from December to mid April, our outlier of a Xmas notwithstanding. It was also -30 for a high in January of 2019 (as long as we’re citing outliers) and it was like 2 degrees this weekend. If you were some Spanish coach that USSF wanted to hire would you rather live in Northbrook or Southern California?
Hell, it's colder than that today in Louisville, Kentucky. Not that it's usually colder in Louisville, nor that 28 degrees isn't unusually warm in Chicago. But Chicago is one of the great American cities, regardless of the weather in winter. I think Chicago is amazing, but I wouldn't want to work there on account of my profession (carpenter). If I worked in an office, I wouldn't give a single shit if I had to deal with the Chicago winter. Now, if there was some like-for-like job available in San Diego or Austin, then sure Chicago would probably drop down the list.
I agree and admitted the weather was unpredictable. My issue is with your description of 5 months being a write off. I would say 2-3 would be more realistic. March has averages in the 40's and April is well into the 50's. You can play in those temps. And yes it's likely a prospect might be attracted to Southern California rather than Northbrook, but, while climate might be on SoCal's side, location [not central US, far from Europe and New England] and cost are not.
I love my city, but I'm saying that it's stupid for an organization in this particular country of all places to mandate that anyone who works for USSF has to live around here. It's not like this is where the national stadium or national training center is. It's stupid and arbitrary and unnecessarily limiting.
It's not a matter of whether or not you can play in those temps; it's miserable to live here half the year. It's not even the cold, it's the relentless, depressing gray AND cold leading up to the 72 hours of spring we've been getting lately before launching full on into summer. In a hypothetical world where someone like Mauricio Pochettino wants to work for us, and we can hire him because we discover he's like a distant relative of the Berhalters, we're going to be like "Sorry Poch, gotta live in Buffalo Grove"? Regardless, we're probably on the same page regarding the fed's requirement being dumb.
"Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here!" - Dante Alighieri... wait, I don't think Dante was talking about BigSoccer, though...
You can't use that here, that's DC United Forum's tag line. "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate."
Given the temporary and part-time nature of the youth positions, it didn't make sense to require the coaches to live in Chicago. But for mid to high-level executives, of course you want them to be at the headquarters. Below that, there aren't that many people, and "operations" in soccer is really MLS and the youth programs, not the USSF. If the point is that Chicago should not be the headquarters, then where? NY and LA are expensive and are not that attractive to a lot of people. Dallas? For every Chicago hater I can find a Dallas hater.
I'm sure Chicagoland native Brian McBride is in my camp. So there is that. Also, I think by now you know I disagree that the city is miserable half the year. Although, the frozen slush mixture all over the place sucks right now. I swear this will be over, because we both agree the requirement is archaic. However, it shocks me that you are thinking we would send Poch to Buffalo Grove. Can't we encourage candidates to live in the actual city like Gold Coast or South Loop? No need to be glass half empty.
Knowing how USSF can mess anything up, I just assume that we’d make Poch rent a room at McBride’s house or something.
Oh I’m sure of it. It’s too laughably dumb and backward-thinking to be anything other that intentional.
Pretty much everything i have been trying to foreshadow on these boards was just shown in the Japan Game. Nobody is worried of a Ferriera type of player as a single #9. After the Uruguay game, the signs were there. Teams will focus on pressing the United States, if they have no fear of capable FW's. Long is not good enough for this team anymore let alone start. He had very poor moments even in 2018- 2019 vs Venezuela and Italy that cost us several goals. Tell me something, how does the two players Borussia Dortmund had real interest in (Pefok and Mihailovic) can't get into this team? One of them is a force on the top team in the Bundesliga, the other had a Donovan- level insane run of form in MLS with a 63% finishing rate before a temporary ankle injury. Who also was just wanted right away by a team that sits near the top of the Eredivise. This is one coaches system vs bringing your best all-around players. In 2018, Croatia went to the World Cup Final with their best players and just hired new coach for the tournament. McBride is one of my favorite players and personalities (great guy), but he needs to step in here. This is not a fire Berhalter right away post. This is the pressure needs to be back on the Berhalter again. When the pressure was on, he put the best team possible on the field and we were flying (USA 2-0 Win over Mexico in Nov. 2021 WCQ). When the pressure was off, He gravitated to his system, and favored players who were not good enough. This was causing the worst results in years a (i.e. 3-0 loss Mexico and a 2-0 loss to Canada in 2019). For McBride, it's now in his hands.