You and I are twin sons of a different mother on this topic. It seems obvious what they're doing and why its a good thing. I don't get the impatience and cynicism, (Nor do I understand why directly following a high priced European coach turning into a disaster why some people still believe that it's axiomatic that anything less than trying the same again is wrong. But I digress.)
It's easy to see how failing to qualify has not been some cleansing event. Just the opposite - it's put us further into a quagmire. For example: Many people seem to fault this GM position for not having the kind of anti-bureaucratic autonomy, or power anyway, that Sunil had. Isn't that why it was created? Are we trying to improve the system/structure - or are we just trying to make sure the coaching decisions are made by "real soccer people." Ok great, Stewart played in World Cups and grew up in Holland and coached in the club system there. Obviously that's the stuff that puts his resume in the running. But we all know of godlike players who sucked at coaching/managing and impressive coaches/managers with humble playing resumes. IMO it's silly to suggest Sunil didn't have enough soccer knowledge to hire a national team coach. He tragically screwed up with Klinsi - but not because Sunil didn't know soccer. Germany and Bayern Munich hired Klinsmann too, and Earnie Stewart can't hold a candle to the soccer experience of suits like Beckenbauer and Rummenigge. So yeah, Earnie wore cleats and Sunil didn't. But being a former solid player with a European birthplace doesn't mean you're a visionary soccer leader / politician or good at soccer H.R. Sunil's experience inside and outside the US meant he had a depth of familiarity with US grassroots soccer, US pro soccer, international leagues (he hired every international player for the first few years of MLS), the actual day-to-day workings of running national teams, qualifications and World Cups and the guts of the business, he got to work closely with great soccer minds for decades, and he had the best seat in the house for more top tier international competitions than we've even DVR'd. All because he was addicted to the game. It's a big mistake, IMO, to believe Stewart is a genuine soccer guy and Sunil was/is not. On top of that, Sunil's actually brilliant. Stewart? Fingers crossed. Let's hope he gets lucky.
I mostly agree. Last cycle we essentially had Gulati operating as GM (with some help from Flynn), and we had Klinsmann and Arena as coaches, who were both probably bad fits for different reasons. Now, we'll have Stewart as the GM, and, say, Berhalter as the coach. That is a substantial improvement from last cycle, even if I wish there would have been more of a radical change given the magnitude of the failure.
brazil did awesome with dunga lol....the coach is clearly the most important thing.... usmnt coudlve done way better than they did with JK under a competent coach....usmnt success under jurgen was despite him, not b/c of him. coach matters A LOT. the most important piece by far.
People have the right to be impatient when it takes 8+ months of near radio silence to find a GM. Then start the search for a new head coach. People say they may already have a list, but at that point what the hell is the point of transparency? I also hardly think its unreasonable to want a coach with a proven winning ability and good reputation. If that’s from overseas so be it. We aren’t exactly growing Bradley and Arena coaches on trees in this country. None of our youth coaches have done anything of note for a decade.
Coach matters but no way is it the most important piece, and certainly not By far. There is a very good reason the best teams that win things have the best players far, far more often than the best coach.
Never suggested that anyone doesn't have that right. I just don't get it (translated: I don't agree with it.) Also, why would you expect transparency especially at this stage of the search process? Telling the public too much can be counter productive. As for youth coaches, Hugo Perez was doing some really good things. JK bounced him without explanation. I'd love to see him back in some capacity. By the way - not arguing with you. Just a different opinion. But I understand why you are reacting the way you are. It's reasonable frustration. I'm just not there with you
Good post. The magnitude of the failure part is tricky. There are two ways to think about this: The magnitude is incredible. The unthinkable happened and there were some really entrenched systemic failures at work here. Also, the magnitude is Dempsey hitting a post or tow US players NOT getting in each other's way on the last gasp corner or Panama not getting credit for that goal. The margin was small and we would have had time to get right before the cup The thing is, both are true. All I know is that I don't want to live through that again...
ill give you mine- hes inbred. same for porter, or ramos, or most mls names that pop up. theyve only coached in mls or with the national team, all on the same coaching tree as arena and bradley. i personally like berhalter. my list has always been oscar pereja, berhalter, question mark (question mark being unrelated to mls/us soccer). and hopefully someday cherundolo. but just taking berhalter and vermes- all other things being equal- berhalter learned as an assistant and coached overseas. thats the entire argument. we need new ideas. we need to expand our thinking beyond fight hard, outwork, underdog, etc. that has been, and should be, a huge part of our identity but we need more. we have to grow american coaching because however small some portion of our player pool has outgrown that oversimplified underdog role. we need american coaches in the bundisliga, not just players. we need coaches in england, france, portugal. the best news we could get about us soccer right now is caleb porter taking an assistant spot at an ajax, or a stuttgart. but until that happens, until our coaching remotely catches up to our players (and assuming its not an outright "foreign" hire) an american who coached hammarsby will have to do. thats my argument. i want an american coach, but i dont want only an american coach.
Sunil did not simply screw up with Klinsmann, he screwed up multiple times with multiple coaches going back to Bradley at the conclusion of the 2010 cycle, then switching to Klinsmann mid 2014, not parting ways with Klinsmann after the WC and culminating in the stupid scenario we only just learned of where the decision was made to bring Bruce in prior to the Centenario, but because of Sunil's genius leadership, we were too dependent on Dan Flynn and didn't make the change until after two disastrous games into qualifying. I am willing to entertain all kinds of excuses and mitigating factors for everyone else involved in this debacle, but there are zero excuses for Sunil, he was the one constant in the whole cascading avalanche of problems and bad decisions. His legacy is the inexcusable failure of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. Who knows if this position and Stewart in particular will pan out, but trying a different process for hiring coaches after Sunil's repeated screw ups is definitely an improvement.
I agree the GM position and Ernie in particular makes sense. We did however already follow our high priced European disaster with a budget domestic disaster, so trepidation on all fronts is justifiably warranted. Time for a sensible mid range priced South American disaster?
Bielsa is the sort of man who does what others just purport to do: he's revered not as a tactician, but as the man who can revolutionize a soccer culture. He did it for Velez, for Chile, for Athletic. El Loco's influence grows after he's gone, because what he does is training the right people to be even better than he is. As a manager, his honors are not impressive. But it's as an educator, as a philosopher, there he leaves his most profound impact. We'd be blessed to get him for a couple of years. Not going to happen though, he needs total and absolute control for the short period he stays in a place to sow the seeds.
I don't think Tata is a good idea for US coach and can no way excuse Klinsmann. But I co-sign your cynicism and catholic finger-pointing.
Could you tell us what the screw up looks like so we will know ahead of time. Is hiring Stewart a screw up or will it depend on how the team performs? If Klinsmann had been fired before Copa100 would we have done as well as we did? Would we have made it out of WCQ Group and even made it to the HEX?
pretty sure i covered inbreeding. but my last line, our of context, does make me want to clarify- i want a highly qualified (meaning more than strictly mls) american coach ideally, which we dont have. but i think berhalter is the closest we do. short of that i want whoever the coach is to have substantial familiarity with american soccer (hence pereja being my choice- i was arguing berhalter v vermes). i guess osorio fits that as well, but im not sure how effective ill be supressing my hatred of mexican soccer and preemptively i dont see tata as a good choice. unless its opening an argentine-american pipeline im not aware of. he cant just bring in an almiron and a martinez. i dont see him as all that impressive tactically, i would say it would be similar to klinsmann in being more a cult of personality situation. the big picture question im torn on is average american coach (vermes, vanney) or foreign coach with no american ties whatsoever (bielsa, etc). in all honesty klinsmann was such a disaster i think i lean average american.
hypothetically, if pep guardiola were hired, became a naturalized us citizen with american flag tattoos on his face he should be fired for taking us to a fourth place finish in a gold cup on american soil. thats the beginning and end of my feelings on the end of the klinsmann era. that is BY FAR the most embarrasing, unacceptable result in us soccer history. nothing after that matters. he should have been fired before the stadium was cleared.
Agreed - but it wasn't as bad as the red wedding. Our latest, most in-depth account of the WC 2014 cuts is creepy to read. Confirmed for me that he needed to be pried from the wheel before deliberately steering into a tree.
yet his vote will be the most important because the board knows that the GM is not expected to work well with a Team Manager he doesn't support. The best solution would have been to have an independent /tech Dept reporting to /Flynn which sits down with Stewart and hashes out why this or that manager wouldn't is a bad risk and why somebody else would be more attractive before making a recommendation to the board. As things stand, who will gainsay Stewart's recommendation to the board? Berhalter has a brother high up in USSF and Earnie is a bud of Berhalter. Flynn has nowhere he can refer, for a dissenting opinion.
The good news with Berhalter is that he always seemed like somebody who wanted to fix the problem and get going. The bad news was that he usually identified the wrong problem to fix. As an aside to think about here: Earnie is starting Aug 1. They will probably take Berhalter on at the end of the MLS season. I.o.w., for the autumn friendlies,( all quite important unless you are one of many in the manana club, ) we see more Sarachan 4141 with Trapp and Miazga getting blamed for the goals our midfield were at fault for. Then the new coach comes in and fixes the wrong problem and before you know it the Gold Cup looms..
My problem is that Arena had no time or margin for error. We do not know what he would have done if he had secured a spot. The evidence of 2002 suggests he would have quickly incorporate young players. 2006, not so much. While he really screwed up with his T&T line up, I think it's a different sort of disaster. I wonder if Tata could be a good coach for us? Yes, the attacking, pressing and speed would go well, but his squad rotation is non-existent. Would he burn out a the team in a tournament? What can he do if he doesn't have the guys to fit his vision? The Latin American guy I wanted was Jose Pekerman. But, there is an argument to be made that MLS guys like Berhalter, March and Vermes are far more tactically sophisticated than anyone coaching in MLS eight to ten years ago. (Bradley was good, but he is better now than he was then.)
I wonder how many games Berhalter coached at Crew without Higuaín in CAM. Gregg has been head coach at Crew since Nov 6, 2013. Higuaín has been there since Aug 19 2012 with 162 appearances. Do the math.
Where is the fire Ernie Stewart thread? Man BS is really slacking since we didn't make the world cup.