Tony G. saved Ellis' butt IMO with his defensive prowess. The great thing about Vlatko is that he has a wonderful defensive mind. I think the most important thing for him will be picking the right mix of players, and he'll certainly need some help doing that.
Well his first game is coming up too fast for him to make many changes. After that, I hope and expect him to start a youth movement. I want to see many new faces from the youth teams. We are flat out too old to keep going. My major concern is that if he is strong enough to stop calling in past stars after the next game? Even lilly had to be turned away at a point and I think Lloyd and yes, Pino are also on the far side of the mountain too. Morgan has to be replaced with her prego condition too and im not sure who will do that. Press is hot n cold. Heath should be done too
He is coming from a totally different mind set than Jill, IMO. Vlatko is not from the Jill Ellis, April Heinrichs "Circle of Friends". It will be interesting what he does and how he goes about it.
I think Vlatko gets a full cycle. He should, the Olympics and early friendlies simply aren't that important in the grand scheme of things. Read some of what Ellis said about how dumb it is to get all excited about results too early in the four-year cycle. This is particularly true if there's going to be a need to bring in a significant number of younger players. It will take the full cycle to see which ones are going to pan out and then give them enough playing time to be fully functional as a group at the 2023 World Cup. Remember, the US just did something that's only been done once before (by Germany), which is to win the Cup twice in a row. No country ever has done it three times. I don't believe Dorrance was fired, and I don't think that's what the poster meant. I think he stepped down. And I don't think others on the coaching staff "saved" Ellis. She brought them on board and they worked as a team; and she was smart enough to do it that way.
Not everybody agrees that the Macedonians were Greek. See the famous Athenian orator, Demosthenes, talking about Philip, the father of Alexander: "He is not only no Greek, nor related to the Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that can be named with honor, but a pestilent knave from Macedonia, whence it was never yet possible to buy a decent slave." True, Philip and Alexander united the Greek city states -- but a lot of the Greeks, and probably the majority, were not happy about being conquered by the Macedonians. To my mind, Alexander was, for all practical purposes, Greek. Maybe Philip, his father, was not. Demosthenes reminds me of the White Nationalists in the present day U.S. who deny that a large portion of our population are "real Americans." But if Philip wasn't Greek, he wasn't Slavic either -- because the Slavs as a historical people didn't exist in the 4th century BC.
Yes, this! I can't imagine any peoples ever happy about being conquered, and the Greeks, who were and are known to be independent thinkers probably hated the idea of uniting under one ruler. I always say, Greeks didn't invent democracy, it came about as a natural consequence of the fact that they all have different opinions. If you put 100 Greek senators in a hall, you'll have 100 different opinions. It's why, till this day, Greece has like 27 parties on their voting ballots, instead of the 2-3 we see here in the good ol' USA.
whose in New York that week in here, anybody from that area? I don't think I noted anyone from here regulars, that is, that is from the New York area.
That wasn't a clear post, but as cpthomas said, Dorrance wasn't fired. He decided to step down to spend more time with his UNC team and time with family. He also pretty much got to name his successor, Dicicco (who had been his goalkeeper/assistant coach).
I've been in northern Greece and Macedonia -- and been subjected to barrages of opinion about the burning question of whether Alexander the Great was Greek or not. Americans shrug off history; for Europeans, and maybe especially the people in the Balkans, history is urgent and important, even though Alexander was born 2,375 years ago. Anyway, Vlatko should avoid saying the word "Alexander" because any use of the word will offend somebody. (I exaggerate, but only a little.)
Fair enough, I suppose, but then why should anyone bother to have an opinion on hiring anyone, unless they've coached a national team before? By logical extension, we should only hire people who've coached a national team before but how do you get to coach a national team if you've never coached one before? Which only shows how frustrating a point you made in the first place.
Let them start with a UNT-team, basicly the same skill set needed as for a full WNT. If they good at Club-level and UNT-level they are good enough to try for full NT.
It's a thought, but I don't think it's practical. I don't see how the Federation can ask an NWSL head coach to go back to a youth team. At NWSL, they're already coaching senior national team players. It seems ideal to have a coach with both professional club experience and international but in reality there seems to be two different, disparate, paths to becoming national team coach. It would also severely limit the candidate pool to expect them to have experience in both. Not sure about Sweden or Europe generally but in the US that would limit the candidate pool to zero, wouldn't it? That may go for past as well as present
I think a scenario where someone coaches as an assistant for a couple years might work, but I'm with you on needing to prove yourself on that front to begin with.
Coaching a UNT isn't really a full-time job, buy could be hard to do with at the same time as the current NWSL-schedule. In US possible but not here, realy. As example our current WNT Coach: 1993–1995 Upsala IF men 1996 BKV Norrtälje men 1997–1998 Bälinge IF women 2000–2002 Enköpings SK (assistant coach) men 2002–2004 Sweden U16/U17 UMNT 2005–2008 Helsingborgs IF (assistant coach) men 2009–2016 BK Häcken men 2017– Sweden Women A bit light on the women coaching, but the was the best two years in Bälinge history. Well the most recent Swedish WNT coaches (and I think the ones before them and most MNT ones to) did some years coaching UNT when they was fairly new at coaching, normaly after some years as head coaches in the lower levels or assiting at top level but before geting head coach positions at the top tier. It is lacking from Pia Sundhages English Wikipedia but she did coach Swedish UNTs (as the same time as clubs) before moving to assistant club coach job in the US. The Swedish Wikipedia have them but do not have which years she did it. It may be a bit harder with a bigger country (area wise) and a more clannish National soccer federation.
The lesson here is that the added variable of coaching both men's and women's teams expands the possibility of getting a mix of club and international experience in your resume. It's an interesting point.
Lil retired repeatedly, and kept getting called back; the powers that be wanted her showing the young'uns what it takes. Her extended career was not a matter of her ambitions but her loyalty for several years there...
Thing is, the Macedonians spoke Greek, or a dialect thereof-- Greeks could understand them, where the very word "barbarians"--taken from the Greek-- literally means "people who make incomprehensible noises." But Macedonians were a decidedly inferior, insignificant form of ersatz Greeks-- rather like Irish immigrants in the US in the 19th century.
Funny, but no. I think I would need a one-on-one interview, rather than a press conference. Two areas I would like to explore: The structural. How the new coach sees his role, his relationship with Kate Markgraf, how much he will (or will not) be involved with the pro teams, the U-teams, the college teams, the development academies, scouting US players overseas, etc. Does he have a broad vision of his role, or will he focus more narrowly on the WNT and the Olympics (and the distant World Cup)? The coming storm. Oft discussed is whether the WNT should aspire to a higher level of play. Higher than two World Cup Championships in a row, some might ask. But yes. How can we maintain our current advantages while promoting advancements in technical and tactical ability, at every level of the women's game in the US?
From: VlatkoTo: You, the Best Fans in the World#OneNationOneTeam pic.twitter.com/VLv7ZuQR2q— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) October 28, 2019