Are you angry at Sunil Gulati (head of the US Soccer Federation), or the Federation itself, for how they've handled the coaching situation of the Women's National Team leading up to the World Cup? Should he, or the Federation, be feeling some pressure? (of course we know some wicked people are absolutely delighted with how they've handled it!)
I'm upset there are still some who believe Gulati is more competent with his handling of the men's side.
Ironic that on the men's side he gives total control to a coach who's done nothing to deserve it, then lets that coach run off our best-ever player who still has much to give. Meanwhile on the women's side he lets the players, some of whom have little to nothing left to give, install a puppet coach who'll let them run the show. Sigh.
The disappointment surrounding the Brazil tournament, for me at least, is that the team is clearly regressing in comparison to that Algarve team that ultimately cost Sermanni his job. Obviously players must take some the responsibility, but so should Ellis. The lineups and subs used in the Brazil game yesterday were the sign of a coach who is out of her depth. She has an embarrassment of riches and can't figure out how to use the players or inspire them enough to pick themselves up when they're playing poorly. Clips of the sideline show Gustavsson giving direction while Ellis sits with a perplexed look on her face. Mexico's men team hired Miguel Herrera in October 2013, 8 months before the 2014 World Cup, and the team looked like a completely different than they did from the one that floundered to the playoff against New Zealand in qualifying. Do I think Ellis will be fired? Nope. (Maybe she'll resign!) I hope the players can pull a Mexico and transform themselves in spite of her.
Wishful thinking on Sunil's part that the current core group of players could win it all in 2015 with any coach he selected after firing Tom S. IMO, the responsibility for the poor play on the field is all on Sunil.
I voted not angry but disappointed, just because I have very low expectations for US Soccer's handling of the USWNT to begin with. Not worth wasting the energy on the anger to me. They have been coasting on past laurels for 15 years. Olympic golds are in spite of, not because, their efforts. WWC results are what they are and are fair reflection of performance. One of the 3-4 best teams in the world on paper, not the best, and haven't been the best coaches for a long time. Team seems to be a mess with no clear philosophy of play, a formation the players either aren't bought into or wrong for the talent.
in early polling, 57% say they're angry at Gulati and the Fed's handling of the coaching situation, 28% say they're very disappointed or concerned. Only (1) person has said they're neither angry nor disappointed.
I am not angry because I expect no better. Prof. Gulati has bigger fish to fry, so I doubly expect next-to-nothing from his attention span.
What exactly is Gulati supposed to do? It's simple to say that he should fire the coach or he should hire someone else. What is the alternative, does he form a coaching search committee? If so, who does he pick. I wouldn't pick any of the current players or any of the past players who are now media with the exception of Hamm who seems to not define herself from her playing days.
He did form a search committee when he fired Ryan and hired Pia. A couple former players were on the committee (Hamm?) There was a Five person search committe again including Hamm with Sermanni. Same cast of characters. http://www.king5.com/story/sports/2014/08/03/13181330/ He didn't form a committe when he hired April's buddy Jillian.
Perhaps. Sorry. But it turns out people like you may be the least of my worries in designing a poll. See below! What's worse than having wicked people take a poll?! People who have such control of their damn emotions to be almost non-human. Criminey. So the biggest expression of disapproval in the poll is to say "No"???!!! How do I explain those results? "Well, see, we may have included a few Vulcans in our sample..." *** early polling numbers: 47.4% very angry 5.3% somewhat angry 31.6 % not angry but very disappointed /concerned That's 88%+ showing significant concern or outright disapproval
Just realized, reading this, that Gilmoy and I see this the same way. I'm in good company. I guess we're both connected to reality. My life's philosophy: Accept and Respond. I also think that all these reactions are way premature. Let's see how the WWC comes out.
I stand corrected. There was a search committee. http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2014/05/16/20/57/140516-quote-sheet-sunil-gulati-jill-ellis So, Flynn, the $611K financial director of the USSF, who by his own admission has no soccer knowledge -- he reports to Sunil. April, who is Jill's best friend and eats Christmas dinner with Jill and her family, (Papa John Ellis was hired as a consultant by Sunil/ the Kraft Group when he was involved at New England and they are friends. And Sunil, who also knows nothing of coaching and is now in his FIFA fat cat internship.
Depends whether you think we've got a shot to escape from that group with current coaching structure, I guess. FWIW, we all saw this regime coming from years away, so all we can do is hope, but...sheesh. Tough not to be angry or frustrated (and feel bad for Sermanni who was pretty much an innocent victim).
I am not convinced Tom Sermanni could have won Canada 2015 nor am I convinced the Jill Ellis cant win it. At the end of the day the US has a lot of talented players and they will determine if they win or not regardless of the coach. What I am convinced of is Sermanni would have improved the program if given the chance. I dont have the same faith in his replacement.
This has been said before here at BigSoccer and also reported by a handful of soccer news media outlets, regarding the family / friend connections between Gulati, Heinrichs, Jillian Ellis and her father, John. It isn't scurrilous, these comments, as far as I can tell. And it wouldn't be irresponsible on the part of the major soccer news outlets to be reporting on this in the wake of the firing of Sermanni and hiring of Jillian Ellis, or in the context of the national team's struggles. Indeed, if true (and I have no reason to think it isn't), it would be quite surprising that the news media (that part of it at least that has any interest in US soccer) didn't latch onto it. I'm a UCLA guy and I liked Jill Ellis as coach. If this kind of overly close personal connection played more of a role in hiring a coach for the US than it should've, then I'm personally more sad than mad. But I absolutely understand why others would be mad which is why I've given them opportunities to make their feelings known in the admittedly insular confines of the BigSoccer Women's Forum. But if somehow we can encourage journalists to pay closer attention to a potential problem, I'm all for it. Readers, commenters, fans here with good intentions seem to be proven right that Jill was given an inside track to the head coaching job. I didn't believe them and I owe it to them to give them a chance to be heard as far as it is within my powers. *** parenthetically, I've been commenting on the US Coach 2.0 thread about what my Elo-rating finding has shown and I'll mention it here. My latest estimate shows the US team performed at a 2140 rating level under Tom Sermanni. That's compared to its current 2158 FIFA rating and its rating of 2209 when he took over. Under Jill Ellis, I estimate the US performance rating at 1974. To put this in some context, compare these ratings with the current FIFA ratings: Germany 2176 France 2091 Japan 2084 Sweden 2000 England 1984 North Korea 1981 Brazil 1968 Canada 1962 Australia 1957 roughly speaking, we can use the Elo scale to estimate the likelihood of advancing in a knockout game: 70 pt rating differential = .599 probability for the higher-rated team 100 pt = .640 150 pt =.703 200 pt = .760 300 pt = .849
Given the price of being frozen out by the federation (& FIFA by extension) and the perks of playing ball, I'm confused by your surprise...look how tough it's been to get the media to really go after the corruption around World Cup bids (and how many small fry guys had careers damaged along the way).
Very true, of course. I guess I was thinking there should be someone. Or maybe it has to wait for a disastrous World Cup to prompt some finger-pointing. The general consensus on how the team appears to be struggling to find its form is of course going to be the main impetus for any pointed criticism at this stage of preparation. But the objective data on performance ratings should bolster the cause for alarm because there hasn't been anything like this (that I can see) for either the US or Germany in recent years, even in supposed rebuilding years. Germany, after their quarterfinal exit in 2011, maintained a pretty steady performance rating after the World Cup through the end of 2012 -- off the top of my head I think it was 2168. In 2013, the Euro year, they took a dip in results and performance ratings, which I estimated at 2099. Still, that's nothing like dipping below 2000. Frankly, that's reasonable cause for alarm. And in 2014, Germany rebounded with a performance rating around 2200.
One thing that does anger me about the whole thing is that anonymous source who talked to Steve Goff, the Washington Post writer, after Sermanni was fired. That was as direct and specific information we got as anything. It still is, as far as I know. While I'm not specifically angry with Goff -- he wouldn't be the first nor will he be the last journalist who gets used by a source with an agenda -- I'd be bugged if he wasn't bothered by it. What does he think of this source now? Has he gone back and asked this source, well, how did that work out? I think Mr Goff owes women's soccer fans a little bit of follow-up journalism. Maybe he even owes it to himself. And his source.
Im not sure Sermanni communicated well with the team so he may have had a vision but felt he didnt have to explain it. What he brought to the team was competition for positions and a willingness to try and change their comfort zone in matches by changing the tempo they played at attempting to have the midfield pass the ball around instead of rushing into attack. He also tried different defensive approaches. Mostly he evaluated talent and tried a lot of players. Did he install the new offense that would guarantee a cup? No and I can see them being frustrated with that and a bit that he was still evaluating into the second year. (And if that's the case the team shouldnt be too happy with Ellis still looking at players in the January camp.) As to Algarve...other than a general shrug I dont get the big deal. They had a draw against Japan that required a comeback and a long goal by Miyama. They lost to Sweden with the only goal being a diving header. Neither of those matches should have raised an eyebrow. The Denmark match was awful. Whether Sermanni didnt take them seriously enough or was more interested in testing his young players than the result is unknown. What I will say is he should have made sure he beat Denmark regardless. Still how was that any worse than a draw against China and having ur defense shredded by Brazil. The only difference is Denmark is a hell of a lot better than Argentina.