Bob has a lengthy interview with the guys at MLS and talks a little about the state of US soccer currently. First video interview since the late 2017 debacle and is a little less than an hour long: I always find myself giving US MNT coaches the benefit of the doubt. That includes both Bradley and Klinsmann. I remember the vitriol the man received during his tenure, but couldn’t identify with many of those views. He’s usually a reserved, careful speaker about his point of view but in this one he opens up a bit and I thought it was newsworthy for USA fans. His rip on Alexi captures my personal annoyance with the obnoxious TV personality and I enjoyed that. However, he is mostly diplomatic and echos many of the reasonable opinions I read on these forums when addressing the state of US soccer.
Thank you for posting. Long but worth viewing. One of my takeaways is that Bradley and his coaching brethren know soccer, and that fans and journalists should acknowledge that they know nothing, and consequently should be more respectful of coaches. I think that is one of his key messages.
Yes, I think the core of your statement is best described in the railroad track analogy he mentions. I personally played my whole life and have followed the sport before it was a “thing” so I personally don’t like any dismissive tone to that degree, but I understand clearly Bob’s problem with people overstepping their own comprehension. It’s pretty clear BigSoccer is both a gift and curse to someone like Bob.
Completely agree with Bradley that what US Soccer needs most are better coaches and better coach education. Also loved that he called out Athletic Bilbao’s special connection with its community. And agree that the Promotion/Relegation evangelists are misguided in believing it will solve all US problems. Or that it is even an important part of addressing current issues.
Now we know where Michael gets his arrogance. Fans may not know much in BB eyes; but many, many fans knew that starting Rico Clark against Ghana was sheer stupidity.
The thing is they do know more than us. It's just they don't know everything or even as much as they think they do. It's that last part that makes them fail as they should be constantly pushing to learn even more and not rest on their laurels.
Jeez, that sounds a lot like Klinsmann. "You people know nothing, why should I have to respond to results on the field that clearly were not a coaching problem? Someone pays me $2M per year to coach, so clearly I know more than you, and therefore am not required to respond to someone who knows nothing." That comes right out of the Belicheck school of media management. When in doubt, disdain. Edited to say, I grow very weary of anything Bradley. As much as they know about soccer, they could do with a little media nous. The comments seem very tone deaf to what has been going on in the US Soccer fans perspective.
Super frustrating interview. I like Bob and think he is a good coach in a general sense and an absolutely phenomenal coach if just comparing him to his peers in the domestic landscape and I absolutely appreciate his willingness to try himself abroad. On the other hand, the whole gist of it that fans and media know nothing and he has been part of it since before it was trendy is everything that is currently wrong with US soccer imo. The insular nature of it all, the lack of new people with new ideas and the arrogant, dismissive nature of the communication from the establishment, particularly during and after a total and complete epic meltdown. What very little critical media and fan interaction that exists in the US is even of the most mild available in any sport anywhere ffs. If fans and media, (many of whom also played and followed the game for decades), are so ignorant then shouldn't the attitude be to educate, explain decisions and be open and cooperative? He says repeatedly in the interview that he does not like the dialogue since Trinidad, everything is superficial, then he goes on to give absolutely nothing of any depth or nuance. He says we need better coaches. That's it, no how, no why, no ideas, nothing about the instruction, curriculum, costs, etc. Everything else is just pro/rel won't work, pay to play is fine because sometimes some rich people help out the less fortunate and his report on the state of US Soccer would be the same after Trinidad as it was before... nothing about what he would put in said report of course.
Agree with both of you, the gap between lifelong fan/volunteer/player and "professional" coach is way closer in the US than many countries. I mean, if you've been around for the last 20 years, how many UK or European rejects have you encountered over the years? The skill gap lessens even more from a management and organization perspective. That could be arguable, but there is lot of talent in the US. I do think Bob is right about some fans/commentators being pretentious. However, he should also highlight that many coaches and so called "leaders" are proving to be as well.
In other words, shut up and let the "experts" expert. LOL. he chose the wrong profession if he really feels that way. There is no competency test to get a fan card. Plus there are many coaches in the world who would school Double B so maybe he should shut up too!
So on one hand our two top coaches of all time are saying they and our other experts are the people who really know what they're doing, everything is mostly fine with our system and approach to the game, people criticizing are phonies. Yet on the other hand these experts couldn't even qualify for the WC and admit Pulisic is the only current player who would start for our '02 team, a team btw which was produced with a fraction of the resources we currently have. Bob btw previously came out as a proponent of pro/rel. Interesting his stance changed now that he's on LAFC's payroll. The owner when I was in Chicago was Phil Anschutz who is now the owner at the (LA) Galaxy. so when you are around a guy like Mr Anschutz and you see what he has put into the game then when you want to have a real discussion going forward about how to put promotion and relegation in place it still has to be done with respect to him. Can that happen? I hope so. I think that would be great for the game. I don’t think I’d be here in Europe if I wasn’t a purist in many ways. I still love promotion-relegation. I love things that do things the right way.
The media in soccer are still in the revolutionary phase of US Soccer business when oligarchs like Anschutz could say with some credibility "we must all hang together or we shall certainly hang separately". You know what they say about revolutions - they devour their children. Media really have to have a rethink of how they handle the product and please don't look to other sports for clichés unless failure is the objective. I've never figured out why media in USA sports have to show pictures of themselves in suits and headphones all the time, especially when they are so ugly to begin with. They could pan to urinals in the rest rooms for anything more photogenic. I think Bradley will be up there in terms of MLS manager ladder but I don't see him scoring many goals on his present course so it may take some time. I'm surprised Bob didn't want to talk about Trinidad when he himself was prominently on display in camp running up to the disaster, if I remember correctly. Am I to assume he would be so modest had we qualified?
Greg Berhalter, Jeff Agoos, Eddie Lewis, Frankie Hejduk, Pablo Mastroeni, David Regis, and Josh Wolff all started a '02 WC match. We have plenty of current pool members who could have started for that team, on the basis of profile.
He's not wrong about fans generally knowing nothing - of course players and coaches are more knowledgeable. But first of all, this doesn't put players and coaches above criticism, and more importantly - it's not actually a problem worth discussing. Fans in every sport - and every entertainment medium - and really any arena within the public sphere - are going to be critical and biased and unfair and unbalanced and loudmouthed about things they don't know. That's not ever going to change. But fortunately, it turns out that fans actually have very little impact on the events themselves and don't actually impact the coaching or direction in any way. So the best and most professional response in 99.9% of cases is to just ignore them - because it really doesn't matter one bit. The professional approach - and the most reasonable approach - is to take any fan criticism in stride and put it completely out of mind. There are times when coaches and players do complain about fans - and it never turns out for the better. Which is why I'm disappointed Bob even brings it up in the interview. A mature professional approach would be to completely ignore it - because it's not something that even needs to be stated. "Coaches know better than the fans, fans shouldn't be respected as much as coaches" - that's a statement that's not only completely obvious, but also entirely irrelevant. And here's the real danger: That you might decide that (a) the fans are criticizing you, (b) the fans are not as qualified as you, therefore (c) you have nothing to be criticized for. Now that's very dangerous thinking. Which is complaining about "da haterzzz" is something best left to divas.
US coaches are some of the worst in the sport globally. Somehow our “leaders” in NCAA, Amateur club, and MLS are enough to get us to be competitive. This is a joke and the inside “conversations” are self destructive.
When Schweinsteiger came over to the Fire he was asked what he thought he could bring and he started out by pointing out that Americans might know a lot about basketball and baseball and other sports but they don't know soccer. I think he got that broadly right.
If someone's opinion about the quality of our system or our coaching changes because of one goal then that is a shallow opinion. Our system is poor and has huge problems and the tactical instruction and understanding of our coaches is especially bad (they are the products of the earlier versions of our system when it was even worse). If we had qualified for the WC that would still be true. There are pro/rel fanatics, absolute zealots who can't conceive that it's not the answer to any question. England invented it over a century ago because they had all these leagues and needed a way to sort teams after a merger. Their pyramid has the most money and resulting competition. Their football became rather shit because a lot of it was based on outdated, incorrect ideas on how to play the game. Interestingly enough actually knowing how to play is important to the on field product. They have had to import foreign players and managers and now seem to be catching up in the tactical quality of soccer and on the production of youth talent. We should go to pro/rel but until we have a sufficient number of people who actually know the game we will still have a poor on field product.
I will disagree with this from a business perspective. I think MLS is missing a dramatic focal point to the season. From a marketing and engagement perspective pro/rel is the most exciting draw for a casual fan. As the top aligns itself the bottom struggles and fights to stay afloat. I watch the EPL for the relegation. Battles not the top 4. MLS owners should work hard to gain partial ownership of the AFL teams in the 2nd division and make their bread coming and going. But I like to make money, maybe that's just me.
I guess if it took the loss to Trinidad for someone to come their conclusion, they may be a be slow and their opinion may be shallow, but that doesn’t make it not true.what is much more damning about the discussion is that Federations president and the coach of the team have tried to make the conversation just about that game and the deep hole he inherited. I couldn’t listen to more than 15 mins, but it sure didn’t sound like Bob’s October 5th would have been as strongly negative as the situation is. For being one of the experts, I’d think he’d have better solutions than “we need to be better”. I don’t see the need to call people fanatics and zealots necessary and seems to come from the same insecurity and immature place of those in power in US soccer. Pro/rel isn’t a silver bullet and one doesn’t exist, but to say that it isn’t an answer to any question is completely wrong. Further, to argue that England has pro/rel and look at how bad they are is at least as shallow as the one goal vs Trinidad argument.
Reyna nailed this already. Our coaches are ignorant and arrogant. They are arrogant precisely because they are ignorant. When I see Hackwörth field his wishbone offense for the U17, i cringe. When I see Tab unleash his 4-3-3 against a Ghana team that literally just pushes them aside I just sigh. So little progress at every single level. Coaching needs to get better but first the current coaches need to go. The mentality needs to change and in such things it's best to be a Stalinist. Remove the officers. Promote what's left.
For me it comes down to the same old arrogance. We're all well aware that most sports fans are clueless. Just listen to sports talk radio call in's for five minutes. That being said, we also all know that the professionals if not as blind and as incompetent often are nearly as much, and sometimes a damn site worse. As a DC Sports fan I can tell you that any DC sports fan that knew anything about Cerrato, was screaming bloody murder when he was hired (I was), any DC sports fan that had a functioning cerebral cortex, was apoplectic when we traded the rights to the 5th overall pick in 2009, for 1 year of Mike Miller and Randy Foye (the most popular target for the fan base was Steph Curry), and just as incensed when the team drafted Jan Vesely instead of the rumored Kawai Leonard, Caps fans melted down, and were ready to burn the rink down when they heard we'd traded top draft pick Fillip Forsberg for non-entity Martin Erat and the 2 goals as a capital he scored in two years. Meanwhile the Forsberg are halfwit GM traded for a paperclip and two bubble gum wrappers contended for rookie of the year honors before becoming an all star and leading the Predators to the Stanley Cup Finals, while future Hall of Famer and perennial all stars like Ovy and Backstrom haven't lead the Caps to a conference final let alone a Stanley cup final. One can go on and on and on, destroying RG3's career and his knee, being the only team in the NFL that famed economist and draft researcher Richard Thaler refuses to work for (after the team hired him, then completely ignored his research findings and botched several drafts in a row while nearly all the successful teams in the league have followed it). I could fill 15 aircraft carriers with write ups on all the hideous moves my favorite sports teams have made since I've been following them. We've all seen it in action, hell we can see it right now: Pats fans screamed bloody murder about the horrific Garoppolo trade, and they were right and it might (probably not) cost the Patriots a trip to the Super Bowl. Intelligent Browns fans realize the team fired the only people in place that actually did know what they were doing, kept the idiot that had completely mismanaged the team, and hired a failed incompetent, but "connected" fired former GM to replace Sashi Brown, the halfwit that blew up the Chiefs cap, and botched all their drafts, to replace the guys that have brought in more young talent, and more tradable assets than any Browns F.O. combined in the past 30 years. The short sighted see 1-31 and assume it's the GM's fault, but the math geeks see a 5 share of expected wins based on talent base, team health, assets and situation. They also see that the grand plan rebuilt both lines, and provided weapons in the passing game for the QB they'd draft in the much ballyhooed 2018 QB class. Now some hack GM, and incompetent owner will corral all the credit for having rebuilt the browns when it is entirely the product of the work of Brown and Paul Depodesta that provided them with the assets to rebuild the team and land them 2 top five picks to address QB and Saquon Barkley or the second best defensive player in the draft, to go with a giant pile of picks after that. I could go on and on and I have. To sum up, Bob, the reasonable among us know that there a tons of things we aren't aware of, tons of things we lack nuance on, tons of details we lack. Heck even some of us realize that when decisions on lineups, and call ins are confusing, it could relate to practice play and chemistry in as much as it could relate performance on the field (I've always felt that most of the decisions in support of players that are baffling to me are almost certainly the byproduct of what we don't see in practices and meetings as what we do see on the field). However we also know that SUM and MLS managed to get a key qualifier moved to a totally unacceptable venue. We know that zero Californians made the U-'17 World Cup team which is a flat out impossibility if you're doing your job in scouting. We know that outreach into Latin-American Communities is a joke at best, and an abomination at worst, and that those who rock the boat at all, always seem to get canned (see Hugo Perez and Wilmer Cabrera) while total hacks who are connected always can find an opportunity with the fed (see Rongen, and Hackworth). We know that it makes no sense to start an old overrate lineup with no changes in a qualifier on a Tuesday, following a qualifier on a Friday, no matter how dominating the Friday performance. We know when players are playing piggyback, instead of soccer, and then are walking around the field while down 2-0 to a rec league T&T team there's a problem. We know that the system in place rewards loyalty and connection, and punishes a lack there of, from positions at the fed, to coaching staff, to players being called in and started, over players not called in and not started. We know the system is broken. And now we know that Bob is a part of the problem and not the solution and worst of all, we know that essentially every single contender for taking over the fed is totally lacking in one or more areas essential to turning this ship around before it goes full titanic. We've got populists, corporatists, and half-wits: what we don't have is any legit answer to the manifold problems we have to rectify, and when the choice is between an insider that will bring more of the same, or a broker in chaos that will burn everything down, and build nothing in its place, there's really no answer at all.
Can't ever question Bob's courage but his team at swansea was a train wreck. He couldn't get his lineups right, he didn't defend his defenders, he didn't set the team out to succeed. It seems more than just the fans need a reminder of just where they stand in the world of soccer.
I once spoke to someone claiming to have insider knowledge about that decision. They said that Bob's hand was forced. The source would not say if it was because another player refused to play, or if there was some kind of injury, or some kind of instruction from someone else within US Soccer. Only that Bob did not have a choice. Take that as you will.