If I were Kevin Payne, I would undertake the following actions Monday morning. Many of these changes will not be cheap. Some will seem harsh. But it is what needs to be done. They represent a short-term fix of change and new energy and a long-term plan for rebuilding the team. 1. Fire Ray Hudson. Thank him for his efforts and tell him that you have a much more important task for him. He will be announced on Wednesday as the new commentator for ESPN's Soccer Saturday -- tell him Anschutz would like him to become the Dick Vitale of MLS, winning over the 16-30 year old age bracket with his enthusiasm for the support. To lessen the blow, make it clear that he can be based in Florida and tell him that Mr. Anshutz has agreed to build an air conditioned dog house for Punky. 2. Fire John Trask. Politely tell him that you'll be happy to provide recommendations as he searches for a new position. 3. Fire Hristo Stoichkov as an assistant coach and release him as a player. When Hristo asks why, tell him that while he was a great player in 1994 and certainly had some moments of brilliance here in MLS, but he has now become a complete and utter jackass and it is an embarrasment to see him associated with DC United in any way. Tell him that when he kicks the ball over Alecko's head and then yells at him for not getting it, he's made it clear he needs to seek mental help. 4. Hire Curt Onalfo as head coach. Why Curt? 1. He knows the team. 2. He is available and can start on Monday. 3. He prepared the team for the Unity Matches in 2001 after Rongen's non contract-renewal had been annoucned and received much praise from veteran players for his excellent job preparing the team in TACTICS for the game -- it is clear right now that the pieces are there with this team, but the tactics are not. 4. When released by Hudson, Arena immediately hired him as his assistant. Whose opinion do you trust more? 5. Announce that in addition to Marco Etcheverry having surgery that afternoon, he has also been named as a player/assistant coach. He will take over the Stoichkov role of spot playing time -- he will continue to play, but likely will not continue to start. Also announce the creation of the Marco Etcheverry / DC United Youth Academy and Soccer School. 6. Sit down with Bobby Convey and make it clear that when Etcheverry retires at the end of the season, you expect to hand him the Number 10 Shirt. He has the rest of the season to prove that he deserves it. Tell him that you do not want him to go to Europe but you want to build DC United around him. 7. As a backup plan, begin searching for other possible attacking midfielders who might be available next year -- plan to use the allocation you recieve upon Marcos retirement on a new attacking mid if Convey doesn't rise to the challenge. 8. Sit down with Ryan Nelsen and tell him you don't want him to go to Europe. Tell him you see him as the second cog as a great center midfield and you want to build the team around him and Convey. Tell him to expect a big pay raise at the end of the season. Hand Ryan the captain's arm band. 9. Call God. Remind him that it is late May and it should not be so fricking cold. Also mention that it would be nice if it didn't rain every single Saturday night. 10. Call a team meeting and ask Coach Arena to introduce Curt as the new coach. Tell them he has been hired effective immediately and note that there is two weeks before before the next game and that you believe Curt can help the team turn the corner. Then make them go outside and spend the rest of the afternoon shooting the ball from outside the eighteen.
I like it, but I would make one change. Rather than using Marco's allocation on yet another midfielder, I'd immediately start looking for somebody whose only purpose is to score goals. Dante Washington, Azeem Azam, Tyson Nunez... who cares! Just get a player on this team that can put the ball in the net.
Two things: 1). Kevin Payne is no longer the President and GM of DC United. The responsibility of firing the coaching staff would belong to Dave Kasper and/or Steven Zack. 2). Bruce Arena should not, in any way, be involved with the running of this team. I don't care about his history here. I don't care that he lies nearby. It's not his job, and the very notion of him doing anything with United other than evaluating its players for the national team would make it impossible for the coaching staff to get their job done.
Re: Re: A Plan of Action (R Implied) Doesn't matter. So was Sarachan when Chicago hired him, and Yallop was under contract to us when SJ hired him. Assistant coaches generally have in their contract the right to be approached by other teams looking for head coaches.
Quietside, I couldn't agree more. I would add one further step to your plan: 11. Tell Ben Olsen that if he doesn't rediscover how to play the ball forward and QUICKLY, he'll find his a$$ on the bench in no time.
I wouldn't be so sure of this. In fact, I'd bet money that the hiring and firing of coaches within AEG is up to Kevin Payne, particulalrly at DCU. Steven Zack is very good at what he does - witness the team record in season ticket numbers despite the team being in the toiled since the century started - but he is not a soccer guy. Not that Kevin really is but he has more juice than Zack whose responsibilities on this team are excusively on the business side. As for Kasper, I've never really understood what he did since Ray scouts and brings in the players. But, Kasper didn't hire Ray - Payne did - and I would be very surprised if he has the juice to fire him. Again, that would be Payne.
Just for the sake of argument, if all of these things happened, wouldn't we still have to pay their contracts for the remainder of the season? Anyone know how long their contracts are for and if they're guaranteed?
Boy, there is nothing like fickle fans aren't there? Full blown panic is what is being suggested here.. Do you not think for one moment that everyone involved with this team (players and coaches) isn't disgusted with what is going on? Just look at Hudson's face.. He is racked with pain.. If you think the firing of Hudson will all of a sudden remedy this situation, then by all means fire him,, But I would like to ask you when in history has this method (knee jerk panic) been a consistent and successful tactic to turning around a season? For crying out loud, we are 6 games into a 30 game season.. We only need to surpass one team in our division for it to be a monumental improvement over prior seasons... I think for most of us, the expectations put on this team after the big trade and the draft picks was a bit too high and now your blaming the entire infastructure of United for doing the things that needed to be done in the first place.. You can't have it both ways.. A lot of knowledgable posters have said on record that this team will struggle out of the gate and then find their legs as the season progresses.. Nothing really has changed from that only that this team has not actually won a match yet, which in itself is dissapointing, but they have improved their overall play from last season where we wouldn't have come close to drawing some of these matches we have so far... Let see how the rest of MLS does when their superstars are gone for long stretches of time during the season... The following is a list of players that most likely will be gone for a good long time with the Confeds Cup and the US Cup preperations... I'd love to see how these teams fare with these key players missing... Metrostars: Clint Mathis Eddie Pope Tim Howard Columbus: Brian McBride Frankie Hejduk Kyle Martino Jeff Cunningham New England: Taylor Twellman Adin Brown Chicago: Zach Thornton Chris Armas DeMarcus Beasley Ante Razov Kelly Gray Carlos Bocanegra Los Angeles: Cobi Jones Sasha Victorine Dan Califf Kansas City: Nick Garcia Chris Klein Josh Wolff Dallas: Nobody really going to be missing any time here.. Colorado: Pablo Mastroeni San Jose: Landon Donovan Richard Mulrooney Jeff Agoos Ramiro Corrales I think it's safe to say that only really Dallas, Colorado and possibly New England will not feel many losses over the summer.. As for United, we know that we will be missing Convey, Nelsen and probably Rimando and maybe Olsen (but based on recent play, I'd highly doubt it)... Yes, that is quite a few players but I can gaurantee our depth is much better suited to handle those losses than say San Jose or the Metrostars for example..
Quietside, I, too, couldn't agree more. I especially like the part about Hristo on his way out. That guy is out to lunch as a player! What was Hudson thinking when he hired Hristo? Also, Etch would make a much better Assistant Coach, but I believe Etch not yet ready for bench... he's too damn good on the field and nobody, absolutely nobody, can fully replace Marco now! I, too, would add one further step to your plan: 11. To Nick the Goalie: one more ball goes through your legs, one more, even close to your legs, at any time in season, you are going to be selling hotdogs on the upper level at RFK!
Good. They're aware there's a problem. That's a start. Without even going into other sports and other countries, I can name two instances. In 1999, Sigi replaced Zambrano and took the Galaxy to MLS Cup. Ditto with Nicol and Clavijo last year. And I'm not trying to show you up, Cweedchop, but that statement's a bit disingenuous from someone who called for Rongen's head at every conceivable opportunity. A team that we are two points behind even though we have played one more game than they have. As I said last week, you only need to look at how the team we traded with has adjusted to see where the blame lies. Is that our new plan, to make our move after all the other teams have lost their players? Maybe we should intentionally lose so that ours don't called up. Then, when we're the only team with a full compliment of players, we make our move. Seriously, though, I don't care how the other teams deal with losing players. That's an issue for their fans. Yes, that is quite a few players but I can gaurantee our depth is much better suited to handle those losses than say San Jose or the Metrostars for example.. [/B][/QUOTE] So you're saying that losing our two of our best players this year (Convey and Nelsen) will not hurt our team? As for the other team, San Jose, maybe. Metros, no. Injuries and call-ups don't seem to faze Bradley too much. But San Jose has had a good start to the season (in which they were expected to be horrible) so that dropping some points, especially in the weaker West, might not do them too much harm. We are not in that sort of position.
At this point, I whole-heartedly agree with canning Hristo and moving Marco into his place. I would however give Benny the arm-band, to push him. Also, go ahead and start the Academy now, or I should say as soon as Marco gets out of the leg splint. Mark
Assume crash position! Nobody doubts this. The only thing in doubt is whether they're able to do anything about it. Feeling bad about the situation just doesn't help us get goals and win games. It's a nice sentiment though. Here's the thing: this really isn't panic. What do folks want? 1) Bench Etch. They've wanted this for years now. 2) Fire Hudson. First, this isn't serious. Really, we all know it isn't. We've got no good alternatives and it's just not gonna happen. Second, folks have been skeptical of him from the start. So this is hardly a change of opinion. It's merely a solification of an old one. 3) Bench/Cut Stoichkov. He's a bit player on the team - hardly someone supposedly central. Why is benching or cutting your second or third string forward panic? 4) Give Convey the reins. That's something folks have wanted for ages. Again, it's not a panic change but a solidification of an old opinion. In short, what people are calling for here is pretty much what they've been calling for the last several years. I fail to see how anyone can call that panic? We have 4 points. The most points you can get in 6 games is 18. That means we've pissed away 14 points so far. That's 15% of all the points we can get this season. Passing one team in our division would get us into the playoffs but getting to the playoffs is a foolish way of measuring a team's success in MLS. 80% of the teams make the playoffs. As I've said before, we all know what good soccer looks like. We all know we're not playing it. That and not whether or not we make the playoffs is the best measure for gauging how this team is doing. This is MLS. It's completely reasonable for a team to make huge changes in the off-season and come out guns blazing. Hell, it's completely possible for a team to be created in the off-season and win the Cup.
I have sent the following in a pvt message to Zack: Boy do you guys have a problem! Maybe the Caps would buy his contract, if he can skate. His behavior does NOTHING for DC United, NOTHING! His productivity in league play is nil, except annoying refs and inciting trouble. He is rapidly getting United a reputation, one we don't need after the 2 unfortunate incidents already this pre/season. Time to deal him, waive him, or just plain fire him. Put Marco in his place, and buy someone whom knows how to play like a man, not a spoiled 16 year old. Mark PS, feel free to forward this to Hudson and Stoichkov.
Let's look at MLS coaching changes in mid-season (or at least, not in the off-season). 1. Zenga to Nicols: no real impact. 2. Mondelo to Van Der Beck: everyone bailed out. 3. Osiander to Oz: they had been a finalist before, stopped scoring goals at the start of the season and under Oz, did score more. 4. Oz to Sigi: well, they'd been a finalist before (under Lothar and Oz). A couple years late they won a championship. 5. Firmani to (well, there are a series of Metro mid-season changes here....Bora, Parerra, Quieroz) that never seemed to pay off. 6. Rongen to Zenga. No success there. 7. Clavijo to Nicol: until the last month of the season, we were ahead of them in the standings. I know I'm leaving out a few, but I think CweedChop's point is well taken--changing coaching once the season is started has rarely had a positive impact that year for the club in MLS. Also, I think we need to look at how some of these possibilities could play out in other directions. --Etcheverry is benched. PO'ed, he doesn't retire next year (either going to another league or forcing DCU to cut him) which means no allocation is gained. --Ryan Nelsen is signed to a big contract--then misses 2 months of the 2004 MLS season b/c of WCQ. --DCU shuffles all of their midfielders (creating more chaos) and the strikers still don't finish. --Curt Onalfo says "no." Or, Bruce Arena says "no--I need my assistant with Confed Cup and Gold Cup going this summer AND WCQ starting in the fall--you can't have him." (I believe that Arena had the ability to deny Sarachan's release. He ended up going to Chicago b/c he indicated he wanted to be a head man and was willing to wait until AFTER the WC). --After seeing the team changed in the off-season and then chaos (coaching/personnel turnover) again during the season, Bobby Convey, Santino Quaranta both insist upon leaving for Europe, feeling that they want no part of an unstable organization. --B/c of the cap challenges on the team, the YS allocation for not making the playoffs isn't used for a player but to defray salary expenses of a player currently on the team. Look, no-one loves watching 1-1, 0-0 soccer. But turning Marco into the scapegoat won't work--he's contributed but there are teams with no A-mid who score goals (Colorado and NE come to mind). And if you look at how well the team has played (even with the horrid Metro result), I think there are about 3-4 sides at the moment that are playing worse than DCU or have 1 game that's better and than 2-3 that are worse than what we've done this season. In short, we've got to score some goals but I think the pieces are there.
This was done with two games left in the season, and it was done solely to finish out the season as the Bulldogs, whom Nicol was coaching, had already finished theirs. Major understatement in the first statement. The Galaxy started out 1997 with a 3-9 record when they fired Osiander. They finished out the year 13-7 under Zambrano. And Zambrano never took them to an MLS Cup. Quieroz replaced Firmani 8 games in. Parriera lasted the entire 1997 season. Bora replaced Mondelo with one game left in 1998 (it was after they lost to us 5-0 in Jersey) and lasted through the entire 1999 season. That hardly constitute a "series." Rongen was fired with six games left in the season. It was not a mid-season firing. Regardless, they won the division and got to the Cup. A signifcant omission is Gansler replacing Newman early in 1999. They still lost a lot, but that had a lot to do with Meola being injured for much of the season and they wound up winning the Cup the next year. To be fair, Hudson replacing Wortmann in 2000 had a similar impact on the Fusion. Andrulis replacing Fitzgerald early in 2001 was a considerable improvement to their fortunes (as was Fitz when he replaced Liekoski near the end of 1996), as well. Looks to be more like 50-50. For every Nicol there's an Ivo Wortmann. It depends on who is available to replace him and I don't think there is anybody who can change our fortunes.
Look, All good points and counterpoints are being made on this subject.. I think the bottom line here is that for right now, none of the moves suggested by the thread starter are going to happen.. I know the poster in some way was being facecious but also there is a serious ring of truth in all that he was saying as well.. My my contention is the constant wanting of change of players, coaches or whomever to right the ship.. I think we are all frustrated over the slow start along with the rotten 3 previous seasons.. Continued changes to coaching and players most likely will not remedy the current situation.. We are going to have to live and die with what we currently have available.. We might be able to sign a Dante Washington type player to help with goal scoring in the near future, but what will we all have to say when Dante inevitably falls prey to the same scoring slump the rest of United are in? What crutch do we have to lean on then? Lanky (Dave), I don't disagree with your counter points on my arguments, but I will say one thing in my defense.. Though I was quite vociferious in the wanting of Rongen's removal, I was then and still am now putting most of the blame on the players.. In the end, it's about the players on the field and I like the current United squad as it stands.. I just don't think it shows great judgement to always crave constant change when things don't go according to plan, especially this early in the season.. With that being said, if after 15 to 18 games have elapsed and we are still afflicted with goal scoring woes, then that's a different story.. Then serious consideration should be made for a coaching change.. Unitl then though, I choose to stay in the minority and support Ray Hudson.
I will agree that there is a serious difference between what you and I both think of this team.. I preach patience, you do not.... You go with your A-League strikers, I'll take the ones in MLS thank you.. These guys are in the A-League for a reason, they suck..
There are a LOT of instances where a new head coach has turned a season around on the spot. Look at the Colorado Avs for one that happened in the NHL just this year. I'm not generally an advocate for firing the coach (I gave Rongen all of 2001 before agreeing it was time), but Hudsn SO (so so so so) clearly just doesn't know what he's doing that it's time for him to go. Jefe was 100% right about Ray getting stone cold lucky in Miami. He just had so much more talent than anyone else that his team won in spite of him.
I agree. It is about the players and I like the squad, too. On a pure talent level, I think we have the best squad in the league. However, what must be remembered is that these were the players that Ray specifically went after, draft, allocation, discovery, etc. What I'm noticing out of Hudson is an inability to adapt within a game. Last night, there was a big hole in the center of midfield where Nelsen used to be, and KC repeatedly plowed through it. Instead of plugging that hole by making, say, a Namoff for Esky switch, he waits until Bobby gets clocked to put in Hristo, because he's always the first guy off the bench. So now our only central midfielder is Marco and he's certainly not going to play defense, though I think Stewart and Dema helped out there in the overtime period.
On the coaching switch mini-thread, a few more thoughts. 1. Let's confine the argument to MLS. If we start to introduce other sports (baseball, etc.) then the universe is endless for examples and it's all anecdotal. Even if we look at soccer, for every example of a Detmar Cramer taking over Bayern Munich, we have a Howard Wilkinson taking over Sunderland. 2. The issue (at least as I understand it) isn't: did the team get a better coach. I absolutely believe that Columbus upgraded when they ditched Liekhoski for Fitzgerald and then Fitz with Andrulis. The issue (at least as I thought it) was: how successful is it to switch coaches in MLS once the season has started. Metros definitely brought in Bora b/c they thought he'd make a difference in the playoffs (he didn't). Miami (with Wortman) was a playoff team the year before he got canned. The examples with LA--they were a playoff team both years (Osiander and then the year he was canned for Oz). I never had high regard for Newman and respect Gansler. But that team didn't make the playoffs by canning Newman once the season started. MLS (b/c of the cap, the small salary, the lack of reserves) is a situation where you make your bed and then you have to lay in it. For instance, if Rongen had been fired several games in 2002 and Hudson hired in game 10, our team wouldn't have been that different in terms of personnel I think. When a coach comes in after the season has started, they don't have a lto of options. The team has been built. 3. As for the A-league striker deal, Ching may have been with Seattle or Portland last year but the year before he was with LA wasn't he? I'd point out that DCU's record with A-league striker talent (Simmonds, Hayes, Burke) has been less than stellar. I won't deny that there is a lot of talent in the A-leagues. But don't forget, DCU has several A-league invitees in camp this spring down in Florida. Other guys (Leighton O'Brien for one) were given trials after last season ended. We're all frustrated. DCU has always had a heritage of attack-minded soccer. Now we struggle to get an own-goal. 3 years out of the playoffs. That's a lot of frustration. But this team needs a chance to come togther. And this is really the first team that is truly Hudson's (last year's really wasn't--he felt compelled to give Pope, Williams, Moreno, Etcheverry, Olsen, Amman, ATC a chance to prove they could still do it).
Didn't Gavin Glinton also spend some time in the minors in the last few years? He didn't look too shabby either this weekend.