Foreign coaches have allegiances to European federations for economic reasons. We will get a team of Euroleague robots selected for their status, not their impact on our team. Everybody will applaud and we will go down like olde England in the quadrennial "interlull". Absent the burden of qualification, this cycle sets up as a great cycle for experimentation and search for a tactical flexiblity and soccer intelligence. We need somebody willing to gore sacred cows and that guy is likely to be born in the USA.
"For me I am not really biased on whether it needs to be a European coach or an American coach...". Sounds like a very smart sentiment to me. I hope that USSF takes the same attitude and finds the best available manager to lead the best pool we have ever had.
Most others who will be at WC will have their "best pool ever" as well. Generally, athletes tend to improve, managers tend to improve, the sport tends to improve, over time. It's an illusion to say we will do better because our pool is better. What matters is how good we are relative to the teams who will oppose us. We performed somewhat badly in 2022 in Qatar altho we did some things well in concacaf. Having said that, our concacaf success was accomplished on home soil. We did not do well abroad. The main problem for me in Qatar was our midfield which lacked balance. The progressive passing of McKennie and Musah was about as bad as it gets in terms of peer comparisons. Neither one was known for assists. How much of this was down to Berhatler? I'd say 50% for lack of a scientific way of apportioning blame among players and coaching. Why didn't guys like Pulisic or Weah complain? I think that may have had to do with Berhalter's coaching which brooked no dissent. It's really important to counter the self congratulation in media like twitter where guys like McKennie can get views and interject how great his performance was in Qatar. It wasn't. One of the problems we will face early cycle is replacing legacy guys like McKennie before they get stuck in sacred cow status and drag down the 2026 cycle as well.
I must have missed when the problem with the USMNT was Weston McKennie. Or when we found another 8 to replace him in order to phase him off the roster.
For the poster you’re responding to, McKennie has always been the problem. I think that poster would gladly replace him with an injured Ledezma. Or the current Claudio Reyna. Or a warm bucket of hamster vomit.
On the other hand, the next manager will have more than 3 years to whittle down our massive pool of superstars and supporting cast to 23 to 26. Plenty of time to get to know the key players.
Did Weston really say "We put on a performance at the World Cup that everyone was actually happy with..."? Was he referring to Depay, Blind and Dumphries?
Dude, Berhalter played McKennie as our 10; McKennie has 5 assists in 96 games with Juventus. I don't know where Ledezma or Hamster vomit fits into the picture and I'd rather you not explain it to me. I know that Gio has 2 winning goals in his last two games in the Bundesliga. But, hey, goals and assists v. Hamster vomit. I mean, there's no comparison. Hamster vomit wins every time on BS.
The problem is that you simply can't get past your insane dislike for McKennie. Every poster who visits BS more than once a year knows this. But you have to turn every discussion into another of your personal bash McKennie threads. You may or may not actually have some good things to say but I can't tell because of your incessant rants on McKennie.
But if he doesn't fit in with the players, if the chemistry is just crap then there is no fixing it. Let me give an example. We know Marsch will be respected by the players because he is close to the current American context and currently coaches MNT players. Caleb Porter, otoh, is a no go because he rarely plays Americans and often rubs people the wrong way. That is easy to figure out. @RevsRule says that he wants a European coach with no ties to the current context and no biases. Figuring out if the proposed coach will mesh well with the current players is harder. It is not an ASAP thing.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/the-pola...will-help-shape-the-2026-usmnt-170050250.html TL;DR - Sportsology is best at setting up a winning and stable head office culture and process then it is at picking a coach or manager. Expect this to take a long time while USSF has a lot of meetings figuring out what they need and want and only then getting actual warm bodies.
It's beyond petty and childish at this stage. I hate the ignore thing but he's so close. I used to laugh out loud at his posts now I tend to not read them.
I found this interesting He also believes communication is “a non-negotiable,” but on the subject of language barriers, which arise frequently in soccer, he said: “I do think having an overbias to a particular narrow language set as the only operating model reduces the market of talent. If you find someone that you like who doesn’t have the language skill set, I think you can supplement them in intelligent hires around them.” I think the overall review of organizational structure and looking to implement best practices from other federations around the world is a good thing. But you’re right that it will lead to delay in filling the sporting director job. Sportsology does have a mixed record when it comes to actually picking people, but at least for the sporting director job, the pool of likely candidates is fairly small. I don’t see alot of foreign candidates being interested in the role and you’re mostly just look at the best of MLS (and the random American whose gone abroad like Dane Murphy).
Kind of a side note, but is the author, Henry Bushnell, new to the soccer journalism scene? I don't think I've read anything of his in the past, but over the past few months, I've read a couple pretty good articles from him. He seems to have actual, harder to find details in his works (e.g., Sportsology's track record) and gives an evenhanded analysis.
I've been thinking about how hard the coaching search will be in the sense that it's not clear at all what the ideal qualifications are for the job. Maybe 6 months ago, I preferred an accomplished Euro guy, but as we've discussed a bunch here, when you look at the resumes of the coaches of teams who did well in Qatar, they're not very distinguished prior to national team success. So, how do you tell who will actually be successful, if prior success doesn't necessarily matter?
No, he's been around for at least five or so years, maybe longer. Is better known for his basketball stuff, though, I think. He's a very good journalist, one of the very best in sports.
McKennie jumping into Berhalters arms after that, I think NL goal against Mexico, told you where he stood with Berhalter. I believe him, but I also don't care, it's time to move on.
He’s been writing about it over the last couple years at least I think. He had a very good article during qualifying about what how the site location process for qualifying games work, who at US Soccer is involved, what factors go into it, and who the main decision makers are.
Excerpt dealing with criteria for certain hires, my bolded: When we advise a team on hiring a head coach, general manager or sporting director, there are four key themes which are crucial for any successful appointment,” Manhire told ESPN in 2021. “ One. Are they coachable and prepared to take ideas from staff or ownership? Two. Are they self-reflective and open to change in terms of their approach? Three. Are they open-minded to feedback and prepared to get uncomfortable in order to progress? Four. Do they know what they are and what they are not? Basically, are they able to give staff, experts in their field, the autonomy to deliver?” I feel like Berhalter flunked items 3 and 4. I think Berhalter was ok on theme 2 (self-reflection as a source of change). Theme 1? Dunno.