MLS coaches (current and potential) and coaching thread

Wouldn't want to panic and overreact. What's needed is continuity. Give the players time to gel.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/mcintyres-23-thoughts-galaxy-closing-jason-kreis-sources-190904500.html

If the LAG do hire Kreis I'll be very disappointed. It's like they have no plan, no vision.

"So, who's some of the usual names we could consider?" "Porter?" "Nah, I didn't like his sideline antics when we played the Timbers." "How 'bout Kreis, he won at RSL?" "Yeah, but that was back in '09, and what has he done since?" "No matter, his heart bleeds MLS through and through, and that's what we want here." "What about going beyond the usual suspects? Look at what Atlanta United did." "Darn it, we can't waste any more time. We need to get somebody right now, and Kreis is interested, so there's our man."

 

Kreis, ugh...

Another old war horse of the old Mls Carousel... at that rate keep Kinnear

 

The sad thing is that you could argue that Kreis is their best hire since Arena. Clearly a better choice than Onalfo and I'd take him over the Schmid hire though reasonable people can disagree on that one.

​

Media types love to hand out MLS managerial posts as rewards for being a nice guy. I didn't see anything from Sarachan's stint with the NT that indicated he would be successful in MLS in 2019 or beyond. It was once possible to have success with a simplistic tactical plan and a lot of motivation & man-management, but those days are coming to a close.

 

So Kries could take over after Kinnear is fired for getting of to a horrible start.

 

Kreis couldn't handle Pirlo, so how the hell is he going to handle someone who has bought a church as a retirement home.

 

All this talk of new coaches being hired, as bad as some of these guys might seem, at least they've coached a team at a higher level than the Orange Slice League. The last time the Revs hired a head coach who actually coached a pro team was Steve Nicol. Before him, the only one was Thomas Rongen, who they poached from league-owned Tampa Bay, who didn't think the reigning MLS Coach of the Year was worth more than $75,000. That was probably the last time Kraft Soccer ever outbid anyone.

 

Damn, and I thought the Rapids were bad.

 

Between NE, Colorado and Chicago, we can have our own race to the bottom. At least someone will win something.

As far as Revs head coaches go, it is pretty astonishing when you think about it. Their first coach was Frank Stapleton, who was a pretty good player--leading scorer for Ireland in his day, played mostly with Arsenal, also with Man U. He had never coached a pro team before, and was heading to Boston on a flight from Ireland. He was on the same plane as then-GM Brian O'Donovan, who was more of a business manager than what we tend to think of as a GM. He was not a "soccer guy," despite having an accent.

He didn't work out, so the next year they poached Thomas Rongen from Tampa. It seemed like a great move at the time, and the Revs were better. But he wanted to leave the team mid-season 1998 to be an "assistant" to Steve Sampson at the World Cup. The Krafts, showing their unyielding commitment to excellence with their sawker team, said, sure, have a nice time. The team tanked and he was replaced by Walter Zenga as player-coach. He knew the game inside and out, but never coached before.

When he was fired after not making the 1999 playoffs, they hired Fernando Clavijo, who was a Metros assistant coach. At least he was a coach with a pro team, although not the head man. After a crappy 2001 playoff-less season, they brought in Steve Nicol as his assistant, when the A-League Boston Bulldogs folded. Even Stevie Wonder could see that he was the next coach waiting in the wings, should Clavijo get off to a bad start. And by May, that was exactly what happened.

Nicol's successor was Jay Heaps, whose post-playing day job was some kind of financial guy at Fidelity, and moonlighted in the broadcast booth. He went to Dook, and coach K gave him a reference, so that was all the qualifications the Krafts needed. Heaps' successor was Brad Friedel, who had coached various yute teams, but never on the pro level.

So there you have it. No relevant prior experience needed to coach the Revs! At least your guy was in charge of an international side who once finished ahead of Italy and won crucial World Cup qualifyers against powerhouses like Guam, Vanuatu, and the Fiji!

 

Coached is a bit of an overstatement for Nicol.

He was promoted at a Notts County team that was already doomed to relegation because the owner, who had already started asset stripping, didn't want to pay an extra salary. His record was won 4, drawn 7, lost 9.

 

Well, Nicol also coached the Boston Bulldogs, who were at the second tier. I forget what alphabet soup league they were in, but in terms of the actual level of play, it was one step below MLS. I'd have no problem if they hired a guy who coached at a lower level. I mean that guys Savarese (whom the Krafts interviewed) did a pretty decent job with Portland in his first year.

But then again, can you really call the Cosmos a "lower-level" team?

 

Yes.

Gleefully.

 

But, but, but Pele used to play for them! He's the Ferenc Puskas of South America!

 

Did he outbid anyone? Tampa was league owned, after all.

Kraft Soccer might have been in charge in San Jose when they hired Frank Yallop. I believe they inherited Lothar Osiander. San Jose was Yallop's only prior head coaching experience was with the MLS Nike Pro-40 team. Which is hard to count.

 

OK, maybe "outbid" isn't the right word, but Rongen was making $75k, built a very good team from scratch and won the Coach of the Year honors. He thought he deserved a raise, and if they had a real owner, he probably would have given him one, but you know, budgets and all that. Meanwhile, the Revs offered him $150,000 to move, so....