Walker Zimmerman on Stewart, McBride: "Earnie was very considerate to bring a couple guys aside the night before the announcement, expressed his thanks to us, our relationships with him & inform us of the news... they embody that passion for US Soccer. That's never been in doubt"— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) January 27, 2023
Lets see here.... McBride quits, Ernie quits. Can GB be far behind? Ernie screwed around a long time before naming GB the coach. GB has not done that well and we had trouble qualifying and trouble getting out of the group stage. We are deeper than we ever have been and yet, cant score goals. We are stuck with GBs system which doesnt work. He takes a team to the WC that has a high number of players that dont belong there but that GB likes. So now we're involved with an issue around GB. The sharks are in the water for GB's blood and I think McBride and Ernie dont like how its going. With Ernie and McBride gone... somebody else will have to pull GBs plug and I hope they do it soon. So do it already! Let's find a real coach, one that doesnt have a list of favs. One were people have to win a spot and that can actually be used. I dont have a name in mind but I really hope they find one that is better than GB was. One that makes EVERY player earn a spot. I for one, wont miss GB at all!
If only The Mayor of Hannover had a few more years. Anyone watch/listen to The Crack podcase? In this interview, Gooch and Beas talk about how they always thought Cherundolo would go to the front office, and The Mayor confirms that the German system's psych eval. process said his personality and skills were well suited for both front office or coach. Then again, Cherundolo worked his way up the very regimented 7-year German pro coaching accreditation process, so he's probably got a good "outsider" perspective too. Gooch even says "...man, I feel Stevie's German!". And Beas says "...I think you forget that Stevie's American...". That interview is fascinating and fun. Love seeing that generation talk together.
If GB is smart, he pulls himself out of the running, gets a job somewhere and moves on with his life. It is interesting how Gio's mom seems to have contributed to extreme damage to Greg but, maybe, contributed also to a big shakeup in US Soccer AND who knows what is going on with Claudio in Austin. I have to wonder if she intended to f things up that broadly? It still feels to me like her actions were disproportionate to GBs "impact" on Gio's career. In fact, Gio doesn't seem to have missed a beat and is JUST FINE back at Dortmund.
Berhalter is not the US coach and has no contract with USSF. Earnie did a careful coaching search, made a selection, and then waited until Berhalter's contract with Columbus had expired.
I think Cherundolo has the highest potential ceiling of any MLS candidate. He’s still very early in his coaching career, so there might be a learning curve. But you also have a good test next summer at the Copa America and can pull the plug then if he flames out.
But the focus now should be on a sporting director, and that maybe shouldn't be someone who was a USA player - but someone with a good background of helping build solid sporting organizations. Hudson isn't some great coach but he can competently handle selecting and coaching a team through a Nations League window or two. Not worth rushing any selections with such an important appointment(s) to be made.
My sense is Steve also has the highest potential ceiling. His time and experience in Germany puts him in the higher echelon for me.
the last time we were in this position i wanted to hire pareja as sd and acting manager while a legit search was undertaken. christophe galtier was my "big swing" choice for manager, but that ship has sailed (and its doubtful it was possible then). im still on board for pareja sd/interim manager- though id just as soon hire matarazzo right away (as manager).
Cindy says, "We would love to have a sporting director in place prior to the Women's World Cup, but we're not putting definitive timelines on this...." as she goes on to explain how important it is to conduct the Sporting Director search properly. So hiring a Sporting Director by summer is optimistic. That said, rumors are swirling that US Soccer is talking to some head coaching candidates, even though it seems out of synch with what they're saying about the Sporting Director being integral to the head coach vetting and hiring process.
Prez Cindy thinks it would be great if we could have a SD in place by the Women's World Cup (in other words, after the Gold Cup). Not the manager, the Sporting Director. If that's so, then maybe we have a coach in place by the September friendly window. But probably not. I'm getting a really bad feeling about this. I'm not sure she and Batson are the right people to conduct this. The men's game was run by soccer people through the World Cup, and now it isn't...
My guess is it’s not US Soccer talking to the coaching candidates, but that it’s Sportsology. That way whenever the sporting director is hired they can be presented with a list of pre-vetted candidates who are interesting in the job to work off. Which should save a bunch of time for the coaching search itself.
Cindy Parlow Cone is a "soccer person", though. I agree with your interpretation of the timeline, as suggested by Cindy's statements. I also agree with @gomichigan24's interpretation that the coaching search is likely being conducted by Sportsology, and that they'll have a good list ready for whoever assumes the Sporting Director role this summer. That said, if they don't settle on a Sporting Director before the end of the European league season then they'll likely miss out on some of the candidates on the Sportsology list. The longer the position goes unfilled, the shorter that list will get as available coaches take other jobs that open up. They need to pick up the pace and get an SD hired in the next two months so that whoever that is has a reasonable chance to further interview coaching candidates and get one signed this summer. Otherwise, we may end up with one of the MLS coaching options by default. That's not to say that one of the MLS candidates wouldn't be the best, but the SD needs to have a broader list than just the MLS guys to choose from.
We need a management person making management decisions, a soccer person making soccer decisions, and a business person making business decisions. When you try to mix these roles up, the end result is usually bad. Oh, and they all need to talk to each other while staying in their lane.
Agree but I would add good before each of those. Hopefully the firm looking can actually tell who is good and not pick based on reputation or whatever else gets poor people selected.
Pretty good article on Stewart and his tenure Earnie Stewart speaks with @YahooSports about his time at U.S. Soccer, his USMNT World Cup takeaways, and his vision for the future.That vision, and his work as sporting director, were much broader than many realized:https://t.co/dOkfRwVkT6— Henry Bushnell (@HenryBushnell) February 20, 2023
That's a good article, for sure. Gives a lot more insight into what Stewart was doing as Sporting Director, and gives a good outline for what the next one will inherit and, hopefully, continue to work on. The most important point I read from the article is that Stewart was working to unify, or at least bring a working order to, the various youth soccer organizations in the US. Reading between the lines, he was trying to work on making talent ID and development more uniform as opposed to the current free-for-all in youth soccer. And, importantly, he was working from a mindset of trying to produce more creative players within this framework before they are 12 years old and enter into the academy system.
It’s really the sort of work that’s fairly thankless to undertake and despite Stewart’s optimism I don’t know that it’s something the next sporting director will want to undertake. It’s also definitely something that probably won’t fall under the responsibilities of a GM if we end up rethinking the structure of USSF.
And that article is why I'm so bummed that Earnie is gone. We had someone who understand and had excelled in one of the best developmental environments in the World (The Netherlands), had also built a or the top academy in the US currently, and had a passion for improving US soccer to the point that he was willing to attack the youth league politics -- which are notoriously problematic -- and we lost him. I struggle to think of a non-American who would ever bite off that work, and I can't think of another American with his experience and knowledge.
I also totally agree that the next frontier of improving youth development is at the younger ages. Doing it right -- with the right teaching but allowing for creativity and fun and play -- is probably harder than teaching driven teenagers. But the latter is somewhat on autopilot now - ~40 or so professional academies and growing with people employed who often know player development very well themselves don't need a ton of handholding.
I do think this article combined with how u 17 has looked so far and how the u 20 has done does make ya look at the youth sector and makes ya realize how good Ernie and how people like Varas and Seguares have done with the youth teams has gone overlooked. Now part of that is due to the youth teams veins inactive a bit longer than maybe we liked but i do think too much focus is on thr discord with Berhalter