I'm going to puke severely if there aren't changes. It was totally unacceptable the individual and overall team performance. If USSF thinks that was acceptable, they are idiots and have their head up their collective arsh.
Considering how tight the good old boy network is in USA soccer, he will have a new job shortly after leaving.
Considering how deep it is, I'm sure they'll have someone of Hackworth's caliber to fill his current job.
Gers, voros or somebody: Does anybody know what the evaluation process is like in USSF following an event like this? I would be interested to know what type of timetable we would be looking at to make changes or to even confirm the incumbents. Anyone?
Official A: "Congratulations John, you continued the US's unprecedented run of not only qualifying for every U-17 championship, but you once again made the 2nd round of games. Of course, you came up against a very formidable opponent in the multi-time World Cup and European Championship winning Germans- but your kids fought valiently, and it was very close. We know Germany was a harsh opponent (look what they did to England!), and as a growing soccer country, you represented us well. Carry on for a couple more cycles John! We are right behind you! Now, let me go back to scheduling months in advance the next US Men's national team friendly at Columbus Crew stadium vs. Haiti" Blecccccchhhhhhhhhh (me barfing at the lack of competency at USSF HQ)
You get to coach a team in extended live-in training and then give up 97 goals to Tunisia and Tajikistan. Surely Sunil Gulati would not tolerate such failure! Which reminds me: Who can fire Sunil? Really, I want to know. A fish rots from the head down. Don't get me wrong, he seems like a very intelligent guy who tries really hard and has the best intentions. I'm just not a fan of his work w/MLS and it irritates me that he's the guy who makes all these USSF decisions until further notice.
I don't think Sunil was the one who hired Hackworth or Rongen. But now it's his job to hire competent coaches for all levels and so far he is 0 for 1, with Nowak still not yet at bat. As I said in another Hackworth related thread, this is going to present a major chalenge for Gulati because he has to follow a certain formula - going 1-3/0-3 is either good enough or it isn't and it's much harder to keep some coaches while letting others go for the same performance. And his main measurement is Bob Bradley 'cos no one really follows the U-17's anyway. On the other hand, if all teams begin to sputter - USMNT, U-20, U-17, US -23 - he'll be under an increasing rpessure to do something and, with the Olympics and WCQ coming up and U-17's and U-20's in 2009, he may not want to tackle all the problems at once.
There's no real need to single out the USA or soccer in that. When you've hit the Dilbert principle (rising to the level of your incompetence), there are very few walks of life where there isn't a soft landing a level down. (See: Andrulis, Greg). And that's not necessarily wrong, as a guy like Hackworth may do fine somewhere with a slightly easier job.
Very true. Maybe there is a level of soccer where it doesn't matter whether you can coach basic movement into your players, checking in to help out a teammate under pressure, getting open instead of spectating, etc. In fact, I think I know what level that is: U-8. He can teach good dribbling to the kids at a club in the U-8 age group.
Yeah, but it was still Sunil's fault. Everything bad in US soccer is, from Landon's hairline to TFC's artificial surface to Beckham's injury. I was not happy with Bradley's hiring, and I still would be surprised if it looks like a good hire in July 2010, but for the love of God, the man won the Gold Cup in fine fashion. And there's nothing else to judge him on. It makes no sense to bash Sunil for hiring BB. Alot of people do this. It's one thing to have a GUESS as to how he WILL do. But it's another, quite silly thing to pass judgment NOW, and from there start bashing the guy who hired him. And this is a good example of one of the things wrong with bigsoccer. Many, many posters make PREjudgments, and then are locked into positions they are afraid to back down from, so they have to pollute all kinds of threads with OT justifications of their prejudgments, and they are incapable of reassessing those prejudgments.
Two things on Bradley - A) They did not win the Gold Cup in a great fashion, although they did have a very good final game (but some very average ones along the way) and they stunk in Venezuela. Now, you may think they would have stunk at Copa due to the players selected and regardless of Bob's tactical moves but I am holding him at least partually culpable for the weak showing there. B) His tactical moves can be judged while making allowance for the limited availability of players and he doesn't pass muster in that regard either. Now, back to Hackworthless.
My memory is getting bad here, but I could have sworn that the US was BY FAR the most impressive team leading up to the semifinal. We were dominant in the group, and we beat Mexico in front of a hostile crowd. The sport is hard. We aren't going to win every game 4-0.
No, but they should have eeked out more than 2:1's over Panama and (barely) over Canada. Wins over T&T's C-squad, Salvador and Guatemala were also largely unimpressive. 2:1 over Mexico was fine with me.
Repped for that. The re-cycling of proven failures goes on in England all the time and seems to have washed onto these shores too.
US was "good enough" in the Gold Cup. They could have played a lot better. 2nd half against Mexico was the best attacking soccer they have played in a long time. What is the big deal with a youth coach? Do you think they make that big of a difference? Is one person going to turn an average player into a FIFA player of the year?
with a population base of 300 million the USA should be able to beat Carjackistan at just about everything except the ammount of hairy underarm women per capita....
That is not the expectation nor the charge. Hackworth was expected to select the best available players not average ones for the Academy and then to help them to maximize their skills, to teach them tactics and to help them to learn to care for their bodies. If he had done those things the USA U-17 should have been expected to do better then 1 win (vs 10 man Belgium) & 3 losses in the U-17 WC Tournament. He failed and should be shown the door!
Except poplulation doesn't matter. If you look at the number of 15-17 year olds that play soccer in this country, it's considerably lower than most countries. England has a population of 70 million. They should be able to beat an impoverished country like North Korea.
It's always been a factor in the US pro-sport system. It's true with the NFL, MLB, the NBA, the NHL and so on. But those are more or less closed systems. Soccer, on the other hand, is worldwide.
And I think we're going wrong if we're picking over Sunil's coaching selections anyway, rather than pointing out this is a job he should probably be delegating. That DT idea strikes as a pretty good one--one that should have been implemented a bit faster.
Eh. Give or take 20 million. Who is counting? If he could do all those things he would be a league making $. Was not the team considered to be a rather average? Yoda thinks one player a team does not make. It could be a down crop for the U17s. Who could then become the best professionals we ever had. The best teams in the world fail all the time in selecting young talent. If you want him fired because you think he cannot do the job then fine. But if you want him fired because the team is underperforming you need to reconsider the goals of a youth program. Bad results does not mean a failed program. In reality you only need one or two of these guys to become national team starters for success.