Anyone who reads the threads and thinks differently to this turd is a "stalker", apparently. Good grief. EDIT: In all my years on BS, this is now only the 2nd person I've ignored.
Chicago is a great international city and not a long flight from warm weather.I doubt it was a big negative.
Man, everybody at FCD really needs games to pay attention to. Even the social media guys are in mid-year form without anything to do........ Whenever and wherever we see Reggie Cannon, he seems like he's having the best time. Imagine editing a highlight of "Soccer Tennis" to an unnecessarily dramatic soundtrack.We could never. pic.twitter.com/tRGAwWozI1— FC Dallas (@FCDallas) August 4, 2020
Not for the head coach, for sure. Youth coaches don't get paid well, so the cost of living seems to have been some issue with some people, but that's more of a pay issues. One of the youth coaches who made a comment about being forced to move to expensive Chicago then took a job with New England, for example. I think the bigger dynamic is what moving to Chicago represented. A lot of coaches do national team jobs because they are much, much, lower workload than club coaches. It's a break from the 24/7 grind of a club job. Yes, you do do some work when the team isn't in, but I'd bet a huge percentage of national team coaches are not working a 40 hour week when teams aren't in camp. And a club job is much more than 40 hours. Moving to Chicago was part of a larger job responsibility that included interaction with the GM/Director (more oversight, which no manager loves), youth coaches (more work) and a larger role in the organization. Earnie's been tasked with building a structure and system that will outlast individuals. US Soccer learned that hiring a charismatic visionary doesn't always work, but it also always falls apart when that person leaves if you don't systematize things. Part of the USMNT coach is to play a role in that work, and that's not a normal responsibility. A lot of national team coaches want to live where they live, watch some film, jet in for a couple of weeks of 24/7 work and then chill. Moving to Chicago means a different job. I'm not saying Berhalter was the ideal man for the job, but I do think when people criticize things like the English requirement (which could have been gotten around) or the Chicago requirement, they are missing out on the why. OTOH, I do agree there's a lack of imagination there on both requirements: remote work is a thing, if frustrating at times in terms of collaboration; and if you've ever seen Matias Almeyda's translator, you wonder if you could have made one or the other work.
There is no shortage of court certified Spanish interpreters in this country. I'd bet that a lot of them would rather hang out at a soccer field than the court house. These people do a great job of word for word live translation.
So the why that everyone is missing when we criticize the language and living restrictions is that Gregg is building something bigger than simply coaching? They are building institutions within the entire organization that will outlast them? This is a coaching job that involves MORE responsibility than the average international job? Well fu@k me, Gregg (and Earnie) are even less qualified for that than anything else. Between Earnie, McBride and GGG prior to their hiring by our federation we have a whopping zero experience in coaching or administration in the international game at any level. Z E R O. Why? Why are we of all people, who are late to the game that has been being played and successfully managed for over 100 years, wherein highly successful models exist with well worn best practices and a multitude of available and experienced personnel, so unbelievably arrogant to think that we will reinvent the wheel with people who have a track record of minimal success at second rate levels? You say that proven international teams and managers do it one way, but we are going to do it a whole other way and that is a positive? Why? In your post you have essentially crystallized and condensed everything wrong with the USSF and the hiring of the unqualified Berhalter. Both of the arbitrary stipulations that you are attempting to justify and present as reasonable are indefensibly idiotic. Coming off of a catastrophic failure of epic proportions that is unequivocally down to bad coaching (we had more than enough talent to qualify), we are going to create arbitrary limitations, one of which eliminates half of the coaches based on something as absurd as linguistics, which again has proven secondary to the quality of actual coaching over the century this game has been being played and the other that essentially eliminates anyone successful enough to be unwilling to be an underling and yes man to the federation and have them dictate your life. Furthermore you make erroneous and unsubstantiated claims about the work ethic of all other international coaches, implying that Berhalter works harder and brings more energy and man hours to the job and that he is more willing to invest in the development of the entire program, which is absolute bullsh!t. Berhalter had zero international experience at any level whatsoever, nor did Stewart, so how can you contend that either are the right men for the job to build a system within our program? Again Berhalter has never been successful anywhere ever, or won a single god damned thing, he has been at best medicore. We are to celebrate the enshrinement of mediocrity as an institution within our program? Total bullsh!t. There are a multitude of better coaches than Berhalter that have actual experience coaching within the ranks of international federations and who have actually built successful systems within national teams, a guy like Hansi Flick would have been approachable after the world cup. Or for this absurd allegation that we are implementing a "Dutch style", how about we hire any of the multitude of people on either the administrative or coaching fronts who have actually done so successfully before within the KNVB? Every other international coach works as hard or harder than Berhalter, but I will just use Tata Martino as a counterpoint here to highlight the absolute stupidity of hiring Berhalter and not even interviewing a vastly superior coach, let alone all of the other ones that were available. Before having a job at all Martino developed a comprehensive dossier on every MLS team and spent hours simply discussing the game with club officials: https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/ex-...tino-atlanta-united/oixwpso82n7k1kp158jlvfwp5 Martino works harder than Berhalter, is more dedicated to the game, has a better work ethic. Even if he worked half as many hours he would deliver twice the end product. He has not only extensive international coaching experience, a vastly superior resume, has actually won things in the game of soccer, he is a better teacher and has experience building real lasting systems, legacies of institutionalizing best practices, identities and transitioning coaching knowledge as well as mentoring both receiving from the feet of Bielsa and providing mentorship to a multitude of successful assistants, which would all be exactly the things you are saying somehow land on Berhalter, when in fact the exact opposite is true, who has ever emerged from the Berhalter coaching tree? With a more qualified coach at the helm we could have had domestic options learning and soaking up knowledge to eventually take the reins and build in useful and effective institutional knowledge. Instead we have the blind leading the blind in Berhalter and the same tired coaching staff underneath him, or completely vacant coaching positions at the youth level. To what end, for Josh Wolff to lead us into 2026? Maybe this all works out in the end, I hope so. But to label any of it as something other than a giant gamble motivated by hubris and nepotism is inaccurate. They have pissed on our collective heads with this hiring process and told us it was raining. Particularly in light of what happened in 2018 every single decision by this brain trust should be met with skepticism and doubt, rather than cheer leading and optimism, they have earned nothing more at any level.
Chicago is a great city and if you have money, better than about 95% of places in the USA. The weather isn't LA but it's not Barrow, Alaska either. Believe me, Florida summers can get every bit as old as Chicago winters. However, I do think it's completely foolish to ask every national team staff member to reside in Chicago, especially in a country as large and diverse as the United States. It really limits your pool and when your pool is already as shallow as it is given the language requirement, you need to make these jobs desirable and accessible so if some guy in Arizona is the best candidate and wants the job but doesn't want to relocate his family, you can't turn him down based on some arbitrary criteria. Especially in the covid world where we've all had to learn just how capable we can be when working from home, this requirement should absolutely go out the window. It's just a symptom of a bigger problem with USSF always lacking imagination. Considering the fan base is probably one of the more progressive, forward-thinking groups of sports fans, it's amazing how stuck in the past they are as an organization. That trickles all the way down to most state associations as well. Now, has anyone heard if Mason Toye is recovered enough to play in the semifinal? I was excited to see how he progressed in the offseason but haven't had much chance because of his injury.
No idea. What about my post makes you think I'm commenting on that all? My point was I can see the reasoning behind the requirements. Even if I don't think they were absolutely necessary. Most folks are looking only at national team performance and I think US Soccer, for better or worse, was looking for something more.
Dude, you are so angry. Chill. I'm not defending the hire. I'm merely commenting that some of the job requirements are not insane. I said "A lot." Not every. Now who's making unsubstantiated claims? You have provided a nice story on Tata working hard (I would have been more than happy with Tata!). Now please provide substantiation of Berhalter's lesser work ethic AND EVERY OTHER NATIONAL TEAM COACH in the WORLD. I find it hilarious you call me out for making unsubstantiated claims that I didn't make ... and then proceed to make an absurd, hyperbolic claim you absolutely can't substantiate in any way. By the way, while I love Tata Martino and would have gladly taken him for the USMNT, it's absolutely worth noting he said this: His reason for leaving his club job? Too long of a grind, too much time away from Argentina. He explicitly said that the work was less with national teams. There was also some reporting at the time that his wife didn't want to be in an English-speaking country anymore. He's also lasted four years exactly once (with Paraguay, though) with any team he's coached. If Tata was going to be the US coach, he'd likely have done it from Argentina. He speaks English, but not incredibly well -- several of the Atlanta United players commented that it was helpful when DeBoer first came in. That's all relatively easy to overcome. But all I'm doing here is explaining some of the mindset I see. I manage a team, and I've been trying to be more open to remote work (obviously have to now), but one thing COVID has made clear is how much you lose in certain lines of work. It's a trade-off -- one you make for great talent, but try not to. The anger level is pretty undeserved here.
This is the crux of it. Sure, a disaster happened, it never should have happened. But let's move on, and make some good decisions that show we've learned from said disaster and are doing legitimate things to fix it, so it never happens again. Yet, they basically just doubled down on the stupidity. I'm pretty apolitical in general, but it reminds me of the GOP and their big analysis after Romney got slaughtered. Let's figure out what went wrong, how to modernize, how to appeal to various demographics. Just kidding, we'll go with trump!!! We missed the WC when we shouldn't have? Ok, let's figure it out, let's make some changes...just kidding, let's interview two people, then hire the brother of our COO. And so many people still somehow want to rationalize it. Insanity cannot be rationalized.
Furthermore, let's wait a full year after everyone knows who the hire is going to be to announce the hire. The best thing we could do after a colossal failure was to go interim for 18 months while we wait to announce the hire of a nobody. Right. I give Jay's Brother zero "he needs time" slack. He knew for a year that the job was his, and allowed the Fed to string it along.
I am not angry at all, calm down dude, stop with the caps. I was making the unsubstantiated claims about Berhalter simply to point out how ridiculous your argument based entirely on your unsubstantiated claims was, I think you get the point now, Berhalter is not unique in that or really any other regard. I don't care about Tata particularly as I said, we interviewed no one and settled on a mediocre neophyte who was Jay Berhalter's brother. There was a multitude of more qualified candidates who should have been interviewed, they were not. These supposed job requirements are insane and moreover, they were simply invented after the fact in order to pretend that the only candidate they had all along, made some sort of sense, it didn't and neither do the job requirements. Most of the people criticizing these absurd policies also have jobs, employees, coworkers and responsibilities and are factoring all that in when they criticize said policies. Again, why are we doing outlandish new things with people who have no experience running a national team program, rather than following tried and true methods with competent professionals? Berhalter is unqualified for this supposed job of being more than a coach, as is Stewart. The hiring process was a sham and everything these people do should be viewed critically instead of with rose colored glasses and a best case scenario assumption. What you mistake for anger is the well earned exasperation of paying attention to the clown show that is our federation and attempts to rationalize and justify their idiocy.
I have no idea if SB/ES will be ultimately successful or failures but don't a lot of international coaches come from club backgrounds even on very good national teams and a lot of them do very well? I find that an odd criticism because the alternative is that every national team coach comes from ... what youth national team coaching or being an assistant to a national team coach. I think we will be fine with or despite Berhalter because of the talent rising but a guy who played internationally in several countries and for the US National team probably is a decent hire on at least the knowing what do do with a national team. If he fails it will be because he's not a good coach overall not because he \'s so much better with club teams.
Interesting that Berhalter who says he is desperate for a left foot in the defense doesnt tap Villafana who bedeviled him in the MLS Cup final and is playing pretty good right now. He will be 31 in Sep
Curtin now saying Portland making things difficult in the middle - ...um.....if you think of Blanco doing what Aaronson does for Philly, notice how Blanco always picks the ball up wide whereas Curtin has Aaronson playing under the two fwds - almost always.
Aaronson is magic w/ the ball right now. Probably deserved a goal contribution tonight. As I typed this he just made a brilliant turn, weaving run, and slip pass but was robbed of an assist. But it's almost as if he's trying not to get open. He drifts toward defenders instead of trying to get in behind them or step up in front. Also behind them when they're between him and the ball. You also have teammates, who really look for him (Santos) or are jealous of him (Bedoya). So when he should get it, sometimes he just doesn't. And they should lean toward getting the ball into his feet, cuz he makes things happen.
Just an excellent sequence from Aaronson. Phew pic.twitter.com/m5jhxhfc9Y— Sanjiv (@USMNTvideos) August 6, 2020 Should have counted. Refs have too much influence on the game. We're not watching to see you & players not competing to have them decide it. Let them determine who wins. That said, he let a handball go on the other end, on a shot targeted to be on goal. Should have been a pk. So PDX could have won anyway, but that may not have happened if Philly weren't gambling down a goal still.
Should have indeed been a goal. Aaronson was fantastic on that run and that long pass at Wooten's feet was also pretty nice. He made so many runs tonight that were not picked out. IMO, coach should have sent him to the line on that PK... He is their best offensive player and I am confident that he would have at least put it on target. In the end, all of his touches weren't fantastic but he makes things happen. They need to feed him more. According to the announcers this may have been his last game in a Philly uni. He needs to go to a Euro Team that will play him... or I would rather that he just stick around. Williamson had a very good night as well. Still not sold on him at the NT level but he is an integral part of a very good team. Ebobisse scores again. At this point I have seen enough to say that he is a better option than Zardes.
Again, the Klinsmann skinny diamond is going to lack width. Look at how Blanco affected the game as opposed to Aaronson. He will not have done himself any harm with tonites performance because Euro scouts understand that stuff. I'm not saying Curtin has his lineup worng because I think Philly has what they have and that's it. A BL team in Germany may have different plans. He should go in the August window imo.
Certainly a nice sequence there...did they have a better view of the offside on the telecast? Because from the slow mo on that highlight, looks to me like it was a good call... Would still like to see a league do a preseason or trial without offside, though...i agree it's too reliant on refs. But even when it's not, what the hell do I care if the strikers hand is an inch last the defender? Goals are hard enough, an inch or foot here or there shouldn't matter. Wish they could keep the rule but somehow less strict (yes, likely not possible, but I can dream).
in practice, the strange thing about the off side rule is that they are supposed to give the dubious call in favor of the attacker but they do the opposite. The average viewer looks at the instant when the replay stops the vid and thinks that is the image they are supposed to judge on. Actually, there is no way of knowing when aaronson actually released the ball. Look up the term "judder". https://www.isovideo.com/video_judd...erceives judder varies, but it is related to:
Aaronson created a number of good scoring chances. Portland's depth told in the 2nd half, as their superior energy carried the play. The Union were carved open on the regular, but Portland tended to overelaborate around the area. They could've been made to pay as Philly perked up in the last 20 minutes. Williamson was excellent. Had a couple of key interventions. Was strong on the ball. Covered a lot of ground. His passing when under pressure has been a standout quality this tournament. He and Sands look ready for caps in central midfield. Ebobisse. 4 goals in 401 minutes of tournament action. Showed a sweet touch and good hold-up play. Too bad he had been subbed by the time the game opened up. Villafana was surprisingly good in defending. Not suggesting he get more caps.
Williamson had been excellent for USYNTs. It's really surprising that it took him this long to break thru. I mean, he scored some crackers at the U20 level.