Unless I missed it, I haven’t seen a thread on Anthony Hudson…. Now, I should preface that I don’t think Anthony Hudson should be the head coach AND I think we should try to select a new coach soon. That said, man, Anthony Hudson has, so far, knocked it out of the park for being an interim manager. The call ups, the subs, the dual national recruiting, the coherent game planning, the player management, and even the creative approach to the game. Honest to God, so far, I would give him an A+ rating, thus far, in his brief stint as a manager. And all for a role where he’s going to get shown the door once someone better comes along. Thank you, Hudson, for that. At the same time, even if I don’t think Hudson should be the full time manager, he has had to earn some place in US Soccer somewhere. Personally, I hope that he remains on as an assistant coach, or let him take over the Olympic team, or something honorable.
He's been fine for the situation. I'm skeptical because Sampson had a lot of early success just loosening the reigns after Bora and got a big bump from the players enjoying that. But it eventually went south with some questionable tactics and chaos in player relationships. Hudson could have a successful run and still not be up to it, especially over time and against better teams. But happy that he's given some deserving players chances and is letting them play a bit. If we get Balogun during his time in charge and start coming up with some new ways to attack his time will turn out much better than expected.
I would add as a positive, that Anthony Hudson has never been part of the "good ol' boys club". All aspects of that past corruption have to be wiped clean.
I think he's proof that you don't necessarily need to be a genius with this group. And you don't need to over-complicate things. It's a group that at this point, at its core, is kind of self sustaining. We just need someone who will put the best guys in their best positions and maintain that positivity and collectiveness within the group. I'd have no qualms if Hudson proved himself and won the job. I do have fears that some big name is going to come in, because they're a big name, and clear house and try to start from scratch. We don't need that.
This is really troubling for a Rapids fan to have to say, but the core group of players of the USMT seem to play so much better under Hudson than they ever did under Berhalter. Under Gregg, they always seemed to be afraid of making the wrong pass, of not playing the genius-guy's system. Now, with Hudson, there's so much more creativity and willingness to allow the players to show their talents. And the strangest thing is that when Anthony Hudson was in Colorado, the Rapids were a sluggish, over-controlled mess of a team. I guess coaches can change.
Hudson has a chance if USSF somehow moves with the speed of molasses and doesn't hire a technical director for a few more months, and then Hudson has qualified the US for the Nations League final and leads the team to a decisive victory. It's not impossible, but I'm skeptical.
At the rate that major European coaches are falling, it's going to be hard for him to keep it, if is what USSF wants. But he's doing well.
I like what Hudson has done with the team thus far. But good grief its hardly fair to either coach to compare him to what Berhalter did. Apples and oranges.
The '98 group had largely aged out by the time of the Cup. And the whole Wynalda vs Harkes thing was not Sampson's fault. If we need to go domestic, I will not mind seeing a Curtin/Hudson combo.
The double standards in this thread are breathtaking. We lost to Serbia and drew with Colombia (no goals) under Hudson. He’s now 1-1-1. I have no complaints about what he’s done so far, and thought he handled last night well, but he hasn’t coached in any games that are meaningful and challenging yet, and he only has one impressive result. The El Salvador game will be his first one that has any real meaning.
I like what Hudson is doing. He knows he's an interim manager with no real shot at the full-time job. He could be mailing it in. There's no reason for him to care about integrating new and young players, for instance. But he seems to be doing a good job, and the players seem to like playing with the group right now. If he keeps doing well with the group, he'll parlay that into another opportunity. Heck, maybe the Olympic coach for us.
I’m not sure the players are being given the instruction to play more free so much as there is leadership vacuum so they’re doing what they want. My guess is most national team players would rather win 7-1 than keep a 1-0 clean sheet at Grenada. But I’m pretty sure Berhalter would have been coaching for the clean sheet last night.
It was Grenada but that is the most free flowing attacking group I have seen one of our managers put out there in a long time. Let's see how he does against better comp, but I like the fact that he doesn't seem to have any prejudices against certain players like GB had and he appears to be urging them to attack not afraid to make mistakes and not possessing for possessions sake. All steps forward..
Pepi did say earlier this week that Hudson allows more freedom in the final 3rd. I also know that in the past Gregg had described something about his offense was designed to give strikers a tap in. But also in listening to Hudson talk I think it's clear he knows he's the interim guy but also is using this opportunity to show he's grown to get future opportunities
Its easy to come across as a proponent of "free flowing attacking play" when the opponent lets you do whatever the hell you want. I mean, Berhalter smushed CONCACAF minnows. Do people remember 7-0 versus T&T? 7-0 versus Cuba? 6-1 versus Martinique? Come on....................
I think the thing in Hudson is that he was bad in Colorado but he’s had some success at the national team level. When he left New Zealand they were calling him the best coach they had ever had. And even coaching Bahrain he had good success compared to how they usually do. Plus he gets to build on what’s already been established and there’s no need to tear things up and start from scratch. None of that means he should be under consideration for the full time position, but he’s definitely fine as an interim coach. Longer term I wouldn’t mind the next coach keeping him on as an assistant for continuity purposes. And if he shows well in upcoming games I think you have to give some consideration as to giving him the Olympic team.
I thought the fluidity of the attack against Serbia and Colombia was impressive, especially for January Camp matches. There's no double standard in judging the quality of the play under Hudson vs under GGG. El Salvador under Hugo Perez have posted a 0-0 draw, and 0-1 loss against Berhalter's US. Though outmanned, El Salvador has outplayed the US. The upcoming match will represent a good test for Hudson. Getting a blowout win while playing fluid, attacking soccer against El Sal would represent a departure.
Depends on the style of coach rather than the size of the name. A Pep would clean house. An Ancelotti wouldn't.
This was a game against Grenada with a set up you probably wouldn't want to try against a good team. Hudson's track record is not great, and while he may have learned over the last couple of years, there's literally nothing I've seen that overrides his run at Colorado and how he reacted there. I also find it odd that there's some people here suggesting Hudson who also claim US Soccer is simply not ambitious enough.
0.5 PPG and 0.5 goals per game during January camp against Serbia and Colombia C teams from their domestic leagues... but hey at least Pulisic destroyed almost 200 ranked Grenada? Is Anthony Hudson's MLS career relevant here, or only his three games with the USMNT? Because Hudson was pretty much the worst MLS coach over the last decade... like right there at the bottom with Jaap Stam: xPoints per game Points per game For points, I'm a bit surprised to see Frank de Boer so high, considering how he left Atlanta. Brad Friedel just didn't have enough motivation from the fans in the parking lot. pic.twitter.com/PYH0eu0wvW— Eliot McKinley (@etmckinley) April 22, 2022
100% agree. (Although it was Grenada) What I particularly love about Hudson is that he picks his XI based on merit, rather than some slow-to-change pecking order. To wit: it took Berhalter 9-12 months to incorporate Jedi, Yunus, Aaronson, and Weah as starters...well after BigSoccer fandom had been screaming for their inclusion By contrast, Hudson... immediately deployed Reyna as a CAM, another 9-12 months after much of BigSoccer had screamed for it during 2022. didn't hesitate to start Pepi (why he didn't go to Qatar and Jordan Morris did is a mystery) last night, made sure that Trusty, Zendejas, Booth saw the field. With Berhalter, we would have seen some combo of Roldan and Lletget in the midfield last night.
Man, between the factual inaccuracies and the complete lack of any idea about how context affects decisions, people are just going nuts. Yunus Musah was an immediate starter once Berhalter recruited him, and only didn't play during the Nations League window in the middle of a cap-tying discussion. Aaronson? Should Aaronson even be a full starter now? He also started his first match for the US in Feb of 2020 and started the first window of WCQ. Weah was injured right up into WCQ, then came off the bench for one window before grabbing a starting role. Reyna was injured literally this entire time. He only played backup minutes. Berhalter had a MASSIVE number of debuts. Like massive. It's the first FIFA window of a new cycle. It is not exactly a hard thing to try new players. There's so many narratives about Berhalter it's ridiculous. So ridiculous it is making people think Anthony Hudson is a good coach.
I liked having Weston play deeper and more defensively. Weston isn't cut out to be an attacking player at the international level. He gives you some attacking capability, but that should be a bonus not his primary role.