There was no "brokered deal" with the Leadership council. He took input from his coaching staff -- there was no team or leadership council vote. It's not ridiculous for team leaders to stand up, accept an apology and reiterate what needs to be done to prove it. Again, he didn't. People persist with this even when it has been disavowed by basically everyone.
But we were prepared to do it, because he wasn't meeting the standards of the group, and the group was prepared to do it as well. We=staff The group=leadership council. Where did I say vote?
Why else would he go to “the group” and tell them that this guy is going to apologize to you? Like I’ve said, I admire his willingness to grind through it in order to get to where he wanted to be, which is Gio on the team. I just don’t think having teammates involved in that level of discussion is good for cohesion long-term.
I'm not surprised he got feedback from his leadership council on how the players were feeling. I think that's actually a good sign of leadership. But saying brokered deal make it sound like he was bartering to keep Gio in the team instead of just discussing what they thought. I've managed many a team, and there's plenty of times I've asked the people who work for me what's important to them or how they are feeling about the situation. I'd never consider that "brokering a deal." There's just a lot of desperate attempts to make everything Berhalter does wrong. Remember, if he asks the players anything about Gio, he's a weak leader. But if he doesn't listen to them about how they want to play or take feedback, he's arrogant and unyielding. Blah, blah, blah. Seems to me that he has a good dialogue set up with most of the team, and if it hadn't gotten out (which IS partially on him) and Gio's parents hadn't been nutjobs, this would have worked out pretty darn well for a tough situation.
Except he specifically says “the group” was prepared to do it as well. You’ve mentioned before that cliques would be a bad thing for team chemistry and I agree. Seems like one sure way to make cliques happen is having a significant number of guys opining on discipline at a level that would have career impacts to their teammates. Captains are valuable because they have a certain credibility that coaches don’t. Talking to them about discipline of that nature erodes that credibility. It seems clear that Gregg has earned a lot of trust from the team. They appreciate his honesty and having a say in the team. Many a great coach walks that line. I just wish he had said “and I think the group would have supported the decision”.
Leadership tends to be lonely for a reason. I respect and admire leaders that work hard to be inclusive, open and willing to empower others. It’s a fine line and it’s hard. That’s why it pays so good. I suspect Gregg may have ceded too much, but like I said it’s a fine line and isn’t easy.
Ben White: sent home for England. No parents, no gnashing of teeth or Secret Leadership Presentations... just "Hey Ben, go home." That's how you handle this if you're professional. It's not that tough a situation. I have never said Berhalter does everything wrong. I think he is just an average Manager, and basically clueless when it comes to adaptation or building an attack. And, I think some of his other shortcomings really came to the surface in this deal. For those reasons, I hope we get a new manager.
People would have criticized that relentlessly. English fans are used to this thing, and Ben White's not particularly good. The shit show during the World Cup if Reyna had been sent home would have been a nightmare, and fans would scream that Berhalter screwed it up doing it that way. This is one of those things where it is easy to criticize no matter what happens and our fanbase has shown it will criticize everything.
Folks in the penny section should really listen to Yedlin. Berhalter would have been wise to do the same instead of trying to use it as a case study to crow about his leadership abilities. “On the inside it wasn't as bad as the media's making it out to be,” Inter Miami's Yedlin told MLSsoccer.com at media day in reference to the controversy around Reyna’s reported lack of effort during World Cup training sessions after being told by coach Gregg Berhalter that his role at the tournament would be limited. “I know a lot of people that may be writing about us or whatever haven't played on a team before, or on a high-level team. But it happens all the time where sometimes they'll have a player, or players, that for whatever reason aren’t on it, and people talk to them, and then move on. “Like, that's what happened. There was literally no bad blood, nothing. It was fine. We just moved on with it, and that was it, that was the end of it. And so it was, I think, blown up a lot bigger than it actually was.” https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/there-really-is-no-ceiling-zimmerman-yedlin-on-state-of-usmnt
Gogorath: What are you complaining about? BigSoccer: Whadda you got? Edit: “Johnny : You think you're too good for me. Nobody's too good for me! Anybody thinks they're too good for me, I make sure I knock 'em over sometime. Right now, I could slap you around to show you how good you are and tomorrow, I'm someplace else and I don't even know you or nothing.” Marlon Brando - The Wild One
Dude, the entire US Soccer Community on BigSoccer and Twitter should take a listen to Yedlin!!! He's talking to us, not Berhalter! Berhalter made one mistake...a small one IMHO. And that was to assume a private talk would remain private.
Yes it is. The public apology is a response to the criticism that it wasn't acceptable, to double down on said criticism after an apology and an admission of ones mistakes is a perfectly executed technique to build resentment and distrust. It's beyond idiotic. I'm just hoping that it was not nearly as bad as it sounded, because if it was as bad as Berhalter made it sound, it was incomprehensibly stupid and self-defeating. People act like we're robots instead of animals with emotions, both good and bad, both poorly regulated and well regulated. We are animals, and we have good and bad moments. You should be trying to build bridges after the apology, not double down on what brought him up in the first place which he's already given his mea culpa for. The responses surprise me, it's like no one here has actually seen people behave and interact with others after something like this has happened, especially males. It's not a mystery. Young males that are treated like this often (not always) get resentful, angry, bitter and distrustful. It's not rocket science and it aint all of them, but it's a textbook way to generate these feelings in people, especially young people.
Considering Yedlin was a part of the team from '14-'22, I imagine he knows plenty about internal divisions. This has been what I have been wondering about and talked about in a post I deleted before posting before my most recent. Basically, maybe this is a situation where the way Berhalter described it made it sound far worse, far more shame, shame, shame than it actually was. It seems like both Yedlin and Ream have argued that it was not some gigantic thing, it was just a "get your ----- together" thing that became more of a story because of how inexplicable his minutes were. I can live with that, because I've been on more than enough teams to understand how players relate and communicate with one another, as positional cohorts, starters, teammates, and w/their assistants and head coach etc. I tend to think that what Berhalter describes, which sounds pretty god awful, wasn't really what the experience was, which was simpler (teammates just hashing crap out in a constructive way, hopefully).
Of course Yedlin thinks it was no big deal. If he thought it was a big deal he might have to evaluate his role in it.
We've gone back and forth on this. I think we just envision how it went down differently. I don't think it is absurd for people to come back to an apology with a requirement or standard of action. Lots of people spend a lot of time apologizing and then repeating. That's not an apology.
I’m pretty sure it’s been reported that Yedlin was one of the first to confront Reyna about his lack of effort.
None of us were there so we have no idea how it went down. But Yedlin was reported to have played a part and that is why I said to view his opinion of how big or small of a deal it was with a grain of salt.
But Ream didn't think it was a big deal either and he's seen plenty of insanity in the EPL. I could be wrong, because honestly, if it was no big deal, why did it get so bad the brass voted over ejecting him? Maybe that's a part of the story that's false though? I don't know, I'll just say that it could be worse than he says or it could be better and we have no way of knowing. Basically at this point, things will go 1 of 2 ways: Its done, we're good, Reyna is Reyna, but never indulges that again. or There is a sourness, Reyna's personality/temperament may or may not rub people the wrong way, and there's always friction until finally he bails on the team or gets ejected from it. Seems like it goes one way or the other, I'd put it 95/5 it goes the former rather than the latter.
It blows my mind that some folks here just can't grasp that the Reyna parents called the USSF DURING the world cup about their son’s playing time on the MENS national team. They threatened (according to Berhalter’s quote) to bring down the coach with harmful information. That’s nuts and has nothing to do with the internals of the team. As Yedlin says, Gio’s issue was dealt with, no bad blood, they worked through the crap as a team and all was good. Concurrently, Gio’s parents are threatening to bring down the coach over their son’s playing time. The above alone is bat-sh*t crazy that any nation’s National Team is dealing with parents’ threats to the coach because of son’s playing time. Unbelievable For me, that’s the true scandal and that is definitely what the USSF has gone on record that they are investigating (as well as actions from all parties after the world cup). Regardless of this scandal or not, Gregg needed/needs to go. He is a mediocre coach in my opinion, he ran his team into the ground during group games. He didn’t adjust to Holland, no offense was generated throughout qualifying and during WC blah blah. He’s gotta go!
I'm not sure it matters, but it does make me laugh; Apparently Gio scored a 93' game winner today. Hopefully he has a long and storied career, and this event is a footnote.
uhh, Claudio himself said he did reach out during the world cup. So, while not admitting to the threat, it is a remote confirmation. I mean, contact was made, man. This was all before this stupid conference. Am I only one that thinks this is just nuts? Parents of the our MENS national team reaching out to the USSF officials during the biggest tournament for the USSF MENS side? Is this normal? These are MEN, not U8 players. Alright, I’m going back to lurking around here until the USSF investigation results are published.