What success at LA? He took over a team in 04 that was talented,though they were on a poor run at the time, and completely dismantled them in the off season. He brought in such amazing players as Naldo, Pando, Chinchilla and Umana and created a mediocre team that barely limped into the playoffs with a .500 record. In said playoffs, Donovan just took control and brought home the cup. I can't take ALL credit away from Sampson, true, but in 04 and 05 he was extremely mediocre at best. His half season in 06 was truely abysmal, and that cannot be argued against by anyone. Saying he has success at LA really annoys me.
Umana and Chinchilla are directly Sampson signings, as he coached them during his time at Costa Rica. The rest I can't say without guess work, but Sampson's player selection policy through his career has been shoddy at best. I think he is responsible for most if not all of those trades/signings. He wanted players to fit his "method", however flawed, and that's the reason for the turn over, regardless of who actually scouted them.
The LA Gals fired Sigi and hired Sampson to be their coach because he speaks Spanish fluently and because they were scared to death at the arrival of the Chivas. They thought the arrival of CHIVAS USA would take away from their Hispanic fan base....... they then fired him and Chivas hires him....only in the MLS.....LOL!
That was my first thought. Harkes always seems to have trouble hiding his personal biases on the air.
Nick Rimando is awesome. The picture is just a joke based on the resemblance that Sachin pointed out.
Sampson is definitely worthy of another shot. Even if he has a mediocre regular season, I'll be interested to see if he can work the playoff magic again (or if it was all due to Landon).
It's amazing to me how much John Harkes has skated on the 1998 debacle. From the time he got dropped in January or February until Sampson was fired in June or July, the guy was a cancer to the national team, dividing the locker room into factions that were basically "his boys from '94" and earlier and "the newer players." Yes, Sampson made a mess of it, but Harkes provided a huge assist with his utter lack of professionalism.
I see your point. And yet, I quickly dismiss it. DC is looking for a new coach. If some poster defends one of the candidates as having a better track record than Lalas, I shall be forced to kill him.
Stop with this reasonable and fact based discussion. This is a thread to post SOS. Besides, BS posters should be happy. Now they can say that they could coach in MLS if Sampson can...
Harkes will never recover from that and understandably so. Sampson did mess up World Cup 98, but it wasn't the 3-6-1 that caused Mike Burns to let the ball go between him and the post. One of the problems with Sampson was the 90 generation turning on him, one of the problems with Sampson was that Dooley sucked by 98 and many of the other "stars" from 94 were not in good health/form, and another problem was that he was not a good manager of personalities. I hope he surprises some people at Chivas USA. However, where are the head coaching jobs for...Richie Williams (did DC or Red Bull or someone hire him?), John Spencer, Marco Etcheverry, or Oscar Pareja?