I think you overstate your case here (we did make the playoffs a few times and won a USOC during that stretch) but I do agree that the FO and much of the press seems to be giving the players a pass. This, I agree with.
I was going to move on from this discussion, but after talking with my son (who's playing for--or at least training with--a semipro team in Europe right now) I've come back to being a little dismayed at how the club made a big point of bringing in a very young coach with a particular style he wanted to implement, and then seemed to just step aside and let him flounder while not helping him acclimate to the very different sporting culture here.
speculation can be what it is. You will not succeed trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. please don't take my position as a support of the Soccer FO (different than the real estate FO). they did not give Losada the players to succeed in his system. far from it. however Losada kept pushing that square peg as hard as he could. that is why he is gone. I am actually in favor of the high press, in the first and last 10 minutes of each half. hell even Liverpool does not high press for the full 90, they use it tactically, maybe a lesson there for Losada to learn................
Yeah, that whole 'It's a results-oriented business' thing is truer--and sometimes harsher--than we always recognize. Hopefully he WILL learn. He's young, he's ambitious, and he's got a vision. If he adds a bit of tactical flexibility and better man-management to his toolbox, he could be a successful manager with a long career.
The FO did this for our benefit. The trauma to a fanbase that moved from a losing team to a winning team is heartbreaking. It's like the bends when a diver is brought up to fast. The FO has saved us/
Its hard to see why you would bring in Losada UNLESS you wanted to play his style which he advertised clearly. That said, its hard to see why he would not change his style UNLESS he was inflexible or incapable of changing/had no plan b. The team might have been able to pull off a variant of Losada-ball with Paredes and Arriola, but certainly not with a Loudon-centric team. In fact, I'm hard pressed to see what "style" would fit this misshapen group. They can't play fast (Etienne seemed in a different gear from our mids and backs), they don't hold the ball enough or have enough consistent ball skills to play pretty (Flores is no Etcheverry), and the midfield/forwards aren't the types to play a "tough"/physical style. Add to that the tactical creativity that is Ashton ball. What could go wrong?
The FO clearly wants to play the likes of Estrada and Flores and other losers who don't deserve to be on the field. Those are the kind of issues that likely caused friction and aren't being discussed. It's a shame Estrada had the world's laziest header goal, he got a free reset on his 'lazy ass bum' timer.
Hasn't Flores (and several others I could name) played himself out of the lineup by now? How much more evidence do you need?
Do we even have a full roster? I know we started the season with less than the max. I guess the draft picks and homegrowns fill it out, but still, this team.