The Next Technical Director

Discussion in 'USA Men: News & Analysis' started by VBCity72, Feb 10, 2018.

  1. Borrachin

    Borrachin Member+

    Feb 28, 2006
    Houston
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    If we are going to hire an American, why do we have to wait until after the World Cup and will waste these 6-8 months. If we don't hire an American, guy better be a committed serious coach and not a guy that will leave when a better offer comes.
     
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  2. truefan420

    truefan420 Member+

    May 30, 2010
    oakland
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I have a feeling they don't sign an American but request an American be his assisnt with an eye for him to replace him after the cycle. I suspect we don't see another two cycle coach for some time.
     
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  3. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
  4. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Onoe of the things they said JK did:

    Retaining the Belgian consulting firm Double PASS to conduct an external audit of U.S. Soccer’s youth national teams, the Development Academy program, and USSDA clubs. (Double PASS conducted similar audits in Germany and Belgium during the past decade with the aim of improving their academies and national teams.)

    Anybody ever see that report?
     
  5. neems

    neems Member+

    Liverpool FC
    United States
    Apr 14, 2009
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thrown out with all the other foreign tricks
     
  6. bsky22

    bsky22 Member+

    Dec 8, 2003
    I am unaware of any findings being released. I can’t find it, but recall seeing in the last couple of months that second audits were planned to see to see improvements made. Anyone have any details on this?
     
  7. manfromgallifrey91

    Swansea City
    United States
    Jul 24, 2015
    Wyoming, USA
    Club:
    Southampton FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    https://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2016/02/08/us-soccer-double-pass-youth-academy-development
    That was the last real big thing that came of it and I stopped following it after reading it, because near the end it talks about a report that was shown in secret. Pretty much confirmed they were never going to release anything(not that I thought they would, I did think some more writers would get a hold of a report or two). I know there were reports, I believe on ASN last year, where there were more audits. But I wouldn't look for results to be made public, which means they probably have a lot of work to do. If you haven't read this before though, it is a good read.
     
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  8. bsky22

    bsky22 Member+

    Dec 8, 2003
    It is sad that this isn’t being done transparently, hopefully the the process is happening within those circles. It isn’t surprising that they aren’t released given that we assume they aren’t good or even worse. The only hope would be after making big progress, they would decide to release and market the accomplishment... or better yet, communicating to teams that they have a few years to make changes. No need to embarrass anyone without a chance to fix major issues.

    I’m wondering if I heard about follow up audits on a podcast since I can’t find it searching the Internet. I don’t usually listen, but did after Gonzalez changed to Mexico and the election. I look when I have time.
     
  9. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    The link above, extract:

    Before setting foot on a training ground, though, Double PASS had to know exactly what it needed to assess. Its general model is based on eight areas of evaluation
    : strategic and financial planning; organizational structure and decision-
    sion-making; talent identification and development; support staff, including medical, social and educational; technical staff; internal and external communication : facilities; productivit
    y, or effectiveness of the club

    The USMNT should expand the capacity and authority of its technical department, headed by the technical director who would conduct internal audit of all the above, reporting to the President, even if the GM has a lot of responsibility for operations.

    The Technical Department should be store of institutional knowledge for the team.

    While the USMNT manager working under the GM might have his own people do some talent identification, there should be a more permanent body independent of GM/Team manager who are responsible for the widest reach of USSF.
     
  10. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    I guess the thing that struck me about Double Pass study was the emphasis on development at club which we see in Europe. The problem with transfering that to States is the geographical distances between MLS cities.

    So, like I've been saying, expansion to 60 MLS clubs sounds about right.
     
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  11. Baysider

    Baysider Member+

    Jul 16, 2004
    Santa Monica
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Not sure what you're asking for here. The doublePASS audit was for the academies (or at least the quarter that agreed to it) not the national teams. Are you suggesting that the USSF should do an internal audit of the U-whatever problems or reproduce what doublePass did and do another external audit of the academies. If the latter, it might be cheaper to have doublePASS do it again than for the USSF to hire people for external auditing.
     
  12. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    No. And that is precisely the point.

    b.t.w., you say Double Pass was strictly prohibited from reviewing the national team. Huh....any reason? I'm curious....

    Here is how the article linked above opens:

    The company that helped turn Germany into a world champion and Belgium into the current top-ranked team in the world is now working with the United States. Double PASS, an offshoot of the University of Brussels Department of Sport Management, is a group of the most detailed football auditors on the planet. By mid-2017, every Major League Soccer franchise and each member of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy will go through its process, which started in August 2.........

    Just about everybody gets reviewed, but not the National Team, the seed bed of future MLS fans, the gateway drug of soccer, if you will.

    So, Double Pass makes Germany #1. And Belgium #1. But they are prohibited from reviewing the USMNT.

    And you conclude that it would be a bad idea to have an internal review because Double Pass would be cheaper. But we already paid Double Pass to do a review. But not the USMNT.
     
  13. Andreu Josep

    Andreu Josep Member

    May 23, 2016
    Club:
    Hercules Alicante
    There is a new podcast that will discuss systems change for NGBs.
    Rethinking Football discusses player development with current professionals, players, world-renowned scouts, professional football academy directors, coaches and others. We will use Spain's model and compare it to other national governing bodies in other countries. At the end of each podcast, we will update our Theory of Change to improve player development worldwide, using indicators, best practices and our own research, along with the opinions and expertise of our guests. .Here is the first episode: https://www.prospectsss.com/rfs1e1/
     
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  14. Andreu Josep

    Andreu Josep Member

    May 23, 2016
    Club:
    Hercules Alicante
    This may be a better approach. I think someone like Bielsa would be a great national coach. The USMNT (youth through senior) need discipline and need to develop a culture of measurement.
     
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  15. Baysider

    Baysider Member+

    Jul 16, 2004
    Santa Monica
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    You're imagining things here. I never said anything about being "strictly forbidden" from reviewing the national team. DP was paid to review the academy system (at least those that agreed) presumably with the idea if the academies improved, the USMNT would as well. If you wanted to pay them to review the USMNT or anything else, I'm sure they would.

    You were the one calling for the USSF to do an internal audit. That would mean the USSF using their own people to review the USSF. These reviews of the academies (and/or the USSF) would make much more sense done externally because of outside independence and expertise and it is likely cheaper than the USSF building up a full-time internal group.
     
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  16. Dr.Phil

    Dr.Phil Member+

    Jan 18, 2004
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Klinsmann head coach with Kries as the assistant
     
  17. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
  18. manfromgallifrey91

    Swansea City
    United States
    Jul 24, 2015
    Wyoming, USA
    Club:
    Southampton FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Maybe a podcast. I wasn't able to find it either. But I do remember them talking about it.
     
  19. schrutebuck

    schrutebuck Member+

    Jul 26, 2007
    largegarlic and Pl@ymaker repped this.
  20. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    MLS is being very careful about keeping the technical director under the GM's (MLS', i.o.w.) direction.

    The idea is obviously to make MLS a safe haven money preserver in all instances, even putting the national team at its disposal, even if the public is ill-served.

    They should just get it right from the get-go. They'll save themselves a lot of problems and make a lot more money at the same time.

    They seem so scared of success.
     
  21. largegarlic

    largegarlic Member+

    Jul 2, 2007
    This article from the MLS website expands on the scope of the TD position. It seems like the TD will be limited to hiring/firing the senior national team coaches, and that's it. No control of youth national teams, and no control of youth development generally.

    I still think that's an improvement over Gulati handling those responsibilities, but this isn't really what I was imagining or hoping for out of the new position. Is this sort of TD even a full time job? What would they even do after they hire a new coach?
     
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  22. butters59

    butters59 Member+

    Feb 22, 2013
    I actually like that. Youth teams should have their own TD or whatever it's called.
    Someone like Boca goes to senior team while someone like Hugo supervises all U-XX teams.
     
  23. Patrick167

    Patrick167 Member+

    Dortmund
    United States
    May 4, 2017
    Doesn't seem like there is a 40 hr, 52 week job there at all. It almost seems like this was something made up to help Cordeiro (or Carter) get elected. "Don't worry about their lack of soccer experience, we are hiring GMs to handle all that anyway."

    Seems like a waste of money to have a full time GM that just does something every 4 years if they do it right. What people had imagined was someone to oversee the entire technical side of the men's game at USSF.

    Does De Klose in Mexico only work with the senior team?
     
  24. largegarlic

    largegarlic Member+

    Jul 2, 2007
    I agree in theory. However, the article says that Ramos will retain control of all the U-XX teams, and he won't have any mandate to do anything about youth development outside of that context. Not that Ramos is the worst, but he's seemingly content with the old standby coaches like Williams and Hackworth. So, it's starting to seem like Cordeiro is pretty much aiming for keeping the status quo, just with, say, Garth Lagerway brought in to hire the new USMNT coach.

    I was hoping for more a Germany in the early 2000s top-to-bottom reassessment and re-structuring of the game in the country.
     
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  25. Excellency

    Excellency Member+

    LA Galaxy
    United States
    Nov 4, 2011
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    I think what we need is a Technical Department that reports to the Pres. of USSF which employs some different types than the ones sitting in US Soccer. Basically think of it as "staff" while the various teams are production divisions and the GM "runs" those production divisions with their coaching staff and the GM runs the daily business end, as in making deals with hotels airlines, FIFA, refs, stadiums, ticket agents, on and on, etc.

    In this way we can separate out and concentrate on one particular place that is independent of the old incestuous relationships and discuss how we want to organize that department and what it should be responsible for and what its duties should be. In general I see it more as the "engineering" division or product development. The TD would be titular head and report to President of USSF, not the GM.

    Speaking of GM, I found this fun timeline of their 85 years of design. They were the first to create such a department when they hired Mr. Earl
    . http://www.carbodydesign.com/2012/06/gm-design-the-timeline/

    Extract:
    Earl’s entry into the auto industry doomed rival Henry Ford’s “the customer can have it any color he wants as long as it is black” motto. Among Earl’s numerous accomplishments are the development of concept cars; the yearly model changeover; the vehicle tailfins of the 1950s; the traveling Motorama auto shows and the development of the iconic Corvette. Earl also is credited with hiring the industry’s first female automotive designers.
     

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