This is the first time that an American Soccer Coach has been hired outside of his country to my knowledge. Costa Rica obviously never saw the 1998 World Cup. Their loss. http://www.concacaf.com/news/article.page/984
Sampson was actually a hell of a coach for us.....he just freaked out a few months before the WC and changed everything that got them to where they were......could have been so different if he just followed through with what he started. With that said, I think he has probably learned from it and will be a good fit with the Costa Rican team....plus, it doesnt' hurt that other countries are taking a chance on an American coach.
People can make all the snide comments about 98 and how Costa Rica is doomed and all that, but in the big picture, this is really big news. Think about it - an American-born Anglo has been hired to coach a foreign national team of a country that played in the World Cup this year. A few years ago, the idea of a US-born and raised coach coaching outside of the US at any level, let alone a national team, would simply have been unheard of. Now, we have a CONCACAF rival - and the one that finished FIRST in qualifying the last time out - hiring a Gringo to lead its national team. That, is progress. And, while I disagree with a lot of what Sampson did in 98 (I will never forgive him for his loyalty to Mike Burns) I think he'll do well with the Ticos. Unlike a lot of the national team coaches in CONCACAF, he's been through the qualifying wars and been through them successfully. He's organized, experienced and and knows the region very well, especially the new bad-ass on the CONCACAF block, which just happens to be the country he's lived in all his life and used to coach. Think he won't have his team up for the qualifiers against the US so he can poke it to Rothenberg and all the people who gave up on him after the disaster in France? I'll be surprised if the same 3 teams aren't representing CONCACAF in Germany.
in related news.... burns and wegerle just applied for costa rican citizenship under assumed names....
I say what I did on another post about Samspon. I don't hold him toatlly responsible for the US disgrace in '98. The reason I don't like him is that I don't trust, never have never will. He's just always came across as a prick with power. I hope he fails at Coasta Rica.
I know we think we are projected to be quite solid in 2006 but how are the other nations looking? I don't know if Costa Rica will qualify though. Costa Rica was very close to getting eliminated in the first round this year. Mexico, Guatemala, Hondura, US, and Costa Rica are probably the 5 best teams in the region, but is Sampson gonna have enough to work with to qualify in a rather tough region to qualify? I dunno. 7 of Costa Ricas 10 field player starters in the first game of the cup will be 31 or younger at the time of the next cup. So Sampson should have something to work with.
is Sampson gonna have enough to work with to qualify in a rather tough region to qualify? The TFC is very Irregular there is no telling when x club will play good or just plain suck ass... Jamaica in 97 was very good compared to their 01 participation, same thing can be said about Mexico. As of now i think only the USMNT will be the most solid because they have a young squad and will keep their coach. Mexico and Costa Rica will have new coaches and theres no telling how good or bad they can be. Honduras also doesnt have a coach and i doubt Guatemala has one..
I agree. It's certainly a good day for US soccer. Moreover, if anyone wants to knock him for the WC98 debacle, he/She also has to give Sampson credit for getting that draw in Mexico City. I think he will do just fine in next WCQ.
Thanks Todd. I have been trying to figure out why I hate Steve Sampson so much and you just helped me realize something. I don't hate him because he was a sucky coach for the US, well until the WC anyway. I hate him because I felt he had prepared the team well enough to make our mark on the World Cup stage in 1998, then screwed up all the good preparation he had managed. Not that I was expecting to make the quarters back then, but I thought we would advance from our group. The whole Harkes thing is pretty ridiculous as well, and not even cutting him from the team. The idea of naming someone "captain for life" just seems beyond ludicrous to me. The guy had our hopes sky high, then turned us all, well me anyway, into weeping, distraught patriots as I/we watched the last few minutes of the US-Iran game tick away. Thanks for the memories Steve. I can't wait to play your Ticos.
WC qualifying and the WC itself are two different competitions with significantly different requirements for success. Some coaches prove more effective in one than in the other. SS was an excellent WC quals coach, but not such a good tourney coach. But he's had over four years to reflect on what what happened in France. Maybe he's figured a few things out, maybe not. We'll have to wait to see, but most reasonable adults reach some sensible conclusions when they've had some time to think about things that they could have done differently. OTOH, sometimes people just grow bitter and blame others for everything. Unless you know him personally, we have no way of knowing how he's dealt with 98. We'll get an idea during WC quals, but we won't really be able to tell unless he also takes the Ticos to Germany. Not too long ago, a coach of any halfway decent Latin American national team would've been fired if his team lost to the gringos. The US has come a long way and SS had a fair amount to do with that. Blame him for some terrible mistakes, but don't forget to credit him for some very meaningful achievements as well. And don't assume that he hasn't learned any lessons.
Costa Rica is a damn good side. Think about it.... They finished 1st in CONCACAF qualifying. At the World Cup they beat China, drew with Turkey, and lost to Brazil (scoring 2 goals on the champs). That is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it is quite excellent. I think Brazil and Turkey were the 2 best teams in the tournament. Shame that Costa Rica had to have both of them in their group. At the end of the day, Costa Rica were probably just as good as the United States, but had a tougher group. I wish Steve the best of luck. I hope he has learned from his mistakes.
It should be pointed out that under Steve Sampson the US... *Shutout and tied Mexico in a WC qualifier in Mexico City. *Qualified for the World Cup with a game to spare. *Beat Brazil 1-0 in the Gold Cup. *Beat Costa Rica twice in qualifying. *Shutout and tied Jamaica in Kingston the year they made the World Cup. *Beat Argentina 3-0 at Copa America... Just a few miles across the Argentine border in Uruguay so it was practically a road game. *Beat Chile 2-1 in Copa America. *Beat Mexico in PKs after 120 minutes of scoreless soccer to reach the Copa America semis. *Beat Nigeria (3-2), Mexico (4-0), Saudi Arabia (4-3), Scotland (2-1), Ireland (2-1), Israel (2-1), Sweden (1-0) and Austria (3-0) in friendlies. *Finished 26-22-14 overall as head coach. On its own, it's a pretty good list of accomplishments. It's even better when you consider the player pool he had to deal with. Remember, in the last game before SS took over, the US capped Ante Razov, who was still at UCLA. Basically, he started coaching the US in an era when college players, indoor players and minor leaguers still got called in and capped by the national team. Hell, for the first year of his tenure he didn't even have a domestic first division to draw upon and many of his Euro-based players spent long stretches riding pine. (Everyone forgets that when Lalas, Harkes and Waldo came back to MLS, they had become bench guys at their respective clubs.) I mean, look at some of the players he used in key games. John Kerr played in Copa America. Brian Bliss, god bless him, played some games for Sampson. So did Zak Ibsen, Mike Lapper, Steve Pittman, Lawrence Lozzano, Peter Vermes, Mark Dodd and Steve Trittschuh. While most of those guys had decent careers, it wasn't like Sampson had a really deep and experienced talent pool in the prime of their careers. I'm not forgetting the debacle of France. Sampson should be blamed for that. But aside from that, he had a very nice run as coach of the national team, all things considered and I wish him well in his new endeavor... except when the Ticos play the US, of course.
Sampson was a damn good coach and we ALL loved him until, for reasons we will never know, kicked the heart and soul off the team, and completely changed his strategy of 4 years 30 days before the cup.
Although we have a pretty heated rivalry with Costa Rica, I think it will diminish a little bit now and fans of both squads will be friendly and more approachable. I'm also hoping that when we have games in Saprissa, the atmosphere won't be so anti-american. It kinda all depends on how Sampson handles the rivalry I think.
Sampson will do well there, and this makes things tougher for us. The rivalry will lessen? Are you kidding?
Nope, I'm not. There's too many level-headed U.S. fans out there that feel bad for the guy because of the terrible job he did in WC98. I, for one, will be on of the fans booing. However, the others may not take that course of action. For example, here in Philly a couple years ago, J.D. Drew wanted more money from the phillies and on his return trip with the cardinals he got booed the ENTIRE game. USMNT fans are completely different from Philly fans(and some others for that matter). They majority are not going to jeer Sampson.
I always defend Sampson, and I hope he succeeds, but m vann's hit some nails on the head here. Well put.
Look at Sandon's list and you'll see Sampson oversaw a dramatic period in the rise of US Soccer in the 90's. It looks to me like a natural progression from Gansler to Bora to Steve and onto the success we had this year. So we had a bad World Cup. We were due. This World Cup team learned a lot from it. That's what happens. But Sampson should get a lot of credit for where we are today.
The rivalry will increase not diminish. The US is the top of CONCACAF right now, so everybody will try to get us. On top of that, Steve Sampson would love to beat the US and get back at all his nay-sayers. And of course the US will want to beat Costa Rica, because ....well... Steve Sampson.
All good points, but Nixon did a lot of things as President before the break-in, Bill Buckner was a decent fielding first baseman for most of his career, Garo Yepremian only threw one career interception, and Chris Webber did a lot of things at Michigan besides call time-out. France '98 is Sampson's legacy.