Just finished reading that. Very nice piece. Only issue I have is with the second to last graph, where he compares Earnie to Ray Borque and John Elway (long-suffering due to lack of trophy)... a bit of a stretch. That said, this is the type of person I knew we were acquiring... I think we all had hoped he'd produce more points, but if we win on Sunday I think the team will point to his role as being crucial (hell, even getting to this point for me is enough). The other thought: Seems to me that Earnie is going to make an outstanding coach. I'm not sure if he's enough of a disciplinarian, but everything I've ever read/heard about him is that he's an amazing mentor/teacher. This article certainly cements that notion.
I'm going to miss Earnie. He's going to leave on a real loud note, however, and that's a good thing. He's one of the most professional people you'll ever meet. GM
luckily all the MLS teams have such great coaching staffs already, because otherwise they might one day get desperate and ask someone like Stewart to be a head coach instead of the Andrulis/Rongen/etc merry-go-round.
I would love for him to return to the States to start his coaching career, we need more people like him in our coaching pool, those who have competed at the highest level and know what it takes to get there.
Hell no. Earnie, stay in Holland. We don't need your respected, knowledgable, professional type coaching FC Dallas or Colorado, or, ugh, the Metros. We here in DC like our coach just fine, and would rather that other not teams not have competent coaches. We'd much prefer that they recycle AndrulisRongenHankinsonDir.
How about this: Earnie comes back to DC to take over for Nowak when Pitor goes to coach the USMNT after Germany 2006?
Its a shame he is going back to Holland next year - he would make a great assistant at the side of Peter - versus the disaster that was Hristo.
Agreed, I have been saying most of the year that if Earnie could come back as a player-coach, that would be a very good thing. As it is, I think Soehn will be ready for a head coaching job soon as he has been coaching for a bit and has always been on a staff that has won.
I found this part pretty interesting; "A few players really put their heart on the line and said what the group felt," said Stewart. "From there on, Peter and Tom (Soehn) and Mark (Simpson) did a fantastic job with that, as they accepted criticism and gave us some of their own. We worked out our differences at that point, and everything from there saw us jelling and jelling even more as the season went on. I think that was the turning point for us." We'd all heard about that meeting after the Chicago game, but I was surprised to here that there was appearantly so much discontent within the team. Though I also think it speaks to the new attitude within the club to keep these sorts of issues out of the public eye, which means that it can be dealt with easier and everyone can move on. Sounds like in the hands of a different coaching staff (Hudson, Trask) it could have escalated into a very bad situation that could have derailed the season. Full credit to Nowak, Soehn, Simpson and the player to iron out their differences and improve the play on the field. Cherno
Great article. I thought the same thing - coach of the future. A year ago I was with my twins, then age 6 and we ran into him at Dulles. I brought my twins over and introduced them. Earnie was so kind in that exchange. But the best part was when my son gets introduced to him, the first thing my son says: "I nutmegged my dad." Earnie looked at me and we had a good laugh.