I think that was probably more the case when USSF was running the Development academy, which they were during Klinnsman's tenure and the beginning part of Stewart's tenure. USSF probably less influence on that sort of stuff now that MLS has taken things over.
Onyewu could turn out to be a good choice. He came up through Bradenton and then played in Belgium, Italy and I think France so would be well versed on international and development in different regions. He was a national team stalwart so knows what is needed for the players and the type of coach needed. Since he played all over he should know how to talk to other GM's and coaches for releases. Now that is not to say that he would be the best choice but he has a similar profile to many of the other countries GM and it now seems the position is not and especially desirable one that the best club GM's are mooning for.
Onyewu played in France, Belgium, England, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the US. There is no other American player that trotted the globe in the best leagues like he did. I'm not saying that is a qualification for the SD position, but it is impressive. Also, I came across this when I searched for Onyewu's complete playing history: Aside from Onyewu's extensive playing history in top leagues, Charlie Davies notes his ability to speak a bunch of languages (and seems to think that counts for a lot). Davies likes Onyewu for the position, and it seems that Conrad agrees. Davies also throws out John Thorrington's name as another good candidate.
Thorrington seems like one of the best MLS options, but he also falls into the category of guys I’d be worried wouldn’t take the job.
The national Style Of Play (possession oriented 4-3-3) was designed and implemented by then YTD Claudio Reyna and rolled out in 2011 before Klinsmann was ever hired. I have posted this before over the years, but I will post it again because there is this revisionism created that it was a Earnie Stewart creation. Klinsmann to his credit, signed on 100% to Reyna's work and much of the infrastructure and coaching education was implemented during his 5 year tenure. Caleb Porter was selected as the U23 Olympic Qualifying coached based on his background and experience with an attacking 4-3-3. Tab Ramos got the U20 gig for the same reason It is not at all clear to me what exactly Earnie did except to build a large hierarchical organization with him at the top. Do we really need a SD, and separate GMs for the women's and men's programs?
I don't remember every age group using that style before Earnie. I do remember the U17's with Reyna changing to that style and looking worse but by the time that group was U20's they seemed a lot better although it's never exactly the same players. Also don't know if Earnie also had instructions on how to play with that formation or if it's up to each coach. the idea was to be able to move up to the next level and already know how to play each position so that it was an easier transition.
I don't know what Earnie did but here is what Youth Technical Director Claudio did back in 2011. Rollout: Document: https://cdn3.sportngin.com/attachments/document/0057/0845/U.S._Soccer_Coaching_Curriculum.pdf
Onyewu is just as qualified as McBride was when he was hired as general manager. I realize sporting director isn't quite the same job. In fact, one could argue that Onyewu is MORE qualified as he's spent time in some front offices. This job is very different from an MLS front office job anyway. Club GMs may not be interested in this role. Several of those guys have already reportedly turned down the gig. In fact, Onyewu seems just like the kind of guy that we can get for the role. People think of him as this brute because of the physical way he played. But the guy speaks 5 languages and has a degree in international business. From a distance he seems very bright. McBride had a degree in secondary education.
I think Stewart did a ton and it was McBride who was left without a ton to do. They are also very much rethinking their structure in terms of needing both a sporting director and GM for both teams. There’s a good chance that the next person gets the GM role and then there’s another person who takes some of the Stewart responsibilities like referee education that don’t really fit in as a part of the GM’s responsibilities.
If the US is looking for someone inside the US then I actually feel Bob Bradley could be good. Aside from his time as USMNT coach, he's obviously tied into US Soccer culture, he's coached clubs outside the US and he's Also coached the Egypt National Team. He has a wealth of experience and I think as a sporting director he'd probably do a good job and would bring WAY more varied experience than Onyewu. Pretty solid past history for experience: Played at Princeton Coached in the NCAA Coached the USMNT Coached in MLS Coached Egyptian National Team Coached in Norway Coached in France Coached in England (although not extremely successful at all) Back to MLS with LAFC and Toronto FC where he's sporting director and head coach. Regardless his record as a coach that's probably more experience both domestically and internationally than pretty much anybody within the US Soccer system. I think he could be worth a look
It's going to be someone from the US, or somehow very tied to US Soccer. It's just not a super attractive position no matter how they define it, and much more than the coach, it involves navigating a lot of American institutions and politics in additive to the work with other Feds and foreign clubs. Bradley could be very good at a lot of the job. I would be a bit concerned with having a very strong-willed former coach in the role over the new head coach. In some cases that could be an asset. In other cases, there could be an unproductive clashing of egos and ideas.
In regards to the last portion of your statement, I agree. But Bradley is mid-60s and perhaps at his stage in his career it would be a good statement or ending position. One thing about Bradley is tough play, he did very good getting LAFC up and going and has been good with Toronto FC. I had never thought of him before but the more I do and I look at his resume I think it may be hard to find anyone with that much experience. If you want to bring in Onyewu and think down the road he'd be excellent, then perhaps Bradley in Earnie's role and Onyewu in a hybrid position as his 2nd with McBride's role plus some other responsibilities. Also, Bradley wouldn't be too tied into Berhalter as I think I read before that GGG was only 16 or so when he had any connection with Bob and it didn't seem like the two were close at all.
Bradley fits in a lot of ways. He has strong credibility at home and abroad. He's shown the desire to play a more skilled, controlling game, possessive game, but he also made many pragmatic choices as a coach based on who was at his disposable. He's perhaps the most successful US coach in terms of all experiences. I know he also has played a role in youth player development as well. When the youth standards and the DA were first being created, Bradley is mentioned as one of the people who basically whipped a lot of the youth teams into compliance. I don't think the way he did was well-liked, but he did get some things done. Is he the guy to influence everyone from MLS to AYSO now in terms of youth development? Maybe? He's got the cred but he definitely plays it one way, and that doesn't always work. Like everyone as they age, he's getting a little stuck in his ways now, and he relies too much on players who were good once but aren't now. My concern with the coach is this: I don't know if he can stay out of the coach's way. I think a high profile coach isn't going to love Bradley there if Bradley can't be hands off -- and I don't know if he can. And a younger coach who might be more open to feedback ... I don't know if Bradley can help himself. And I think he's past his peak there. I'm not really sure how this is relevant. Berhalter isn't coming back. I'd imagine that Bob and Gregg would actually get along swimmingly -- similar tactical outlook and Berhalter is a team player. But he's not coming back. Bradley is USSF royalty, though. If your point is not an insider, Bradley is far more an insider than Berhalter was. But we're not going to avoid that with this hire. There's far too many stakeholders that won't want a non-American and someone with no USSF history in this role. In fact, if we want a clean slate at coach, it might be an internal compromise to say this role has to be American if they want to go foreign. And that'd be fine, I think. I don't think you are getting someone qualified who is foreign anyway. I just don't want Carlos Bocanegra.
If he were actually done with coaching someone like Bob Bradley would be very comparable to the sorts of people who are getting equivalent positions for other national teams. I don’t think he wants to step away from coaching quite yet though.
I don’t think Berhalter is coming back, but he and Bradley go way back. I saw an interview where Bradley said he used to coach him and give him rides home when Berhalter was 16 and on the New Jersey ODP team. One other thing I’ll note that Bradley was pretty good at while national team coach was dual national recruiting. Which I think is a good attribute for the sporting director/GM to have.
I appreciate everyone's opinions, good stuff! When stepping back it just seems Bradley would be the best fit of experience through US Soccer at every single level plus not only the USMNT but a foreign national team and foreign coaching. He's coached at every single level of the US including college, youth national teams and senior team, MLS and foreign. hard to beat that from anyone else in the US. In fact, I don't think anyone else has that at all? He is stubborn, and he'd have to want the job. But he's 65 yrs old so this would be at least a commitment until he's 69 or so. In truth, it would seem a very fitting position for someone to retire with his background rather than just Toronto FC. Anyway, just a thought and a name to throw out there.
For those of us not intimately familiar with Earnie's work with USSF, could you describe exactly what is in that "a ton"?
I'm not sure why we are doubting Earnie's work. He is a well known, well regarded sporting director. Good professional work doesn't have to always be apparent or flashy. Per Earnie, in his exit interview he didn't go in trying to reinvent the wheel: "The way I look at a sporting director role, or technical director role, is not so much me coming in or a sporting director coming in and then, ‘This is the way I’m going to do things.’ What we do is translate the thoughts of the organization and where they want to go," It seems that his main concern was to formalize the USSF's desired play style in order to provide the groundwork for future sustainability. Apparently, there was a lot of work needed in formalizing the style play: "what that style of play needs to look like, roles and responsibilities, data collection around that, so that we can finally get to some KPIs [key performance indicators] .... then we can actually start, hopefully in the future, making some different choices, or better choices, around players that are moving up the pathway into our [national teams]. " Beyond that, I know that he was involved in transferring the DA to MLS hands (were it should be). Also, naming Mikey Varas to the U-20s and supporting him in the most eye-pleasing qualification I have seen in the last 20 years.
I'm a huge Stewart fan, all the way back to his time at AZ when he revitalized Jozy's career and developed AJ. Stewart was the one who called bullshit on the revisionism that AJ was hurt going into WC2014. Not doubting his work, just asking what did he actually do. What were his concrete accomplishments. The Style of Play was formalized in 2011, 7 years before Earnie was ever hired. I'm just trying to understand what the role really entails so I could participate in a sane discussion on good replacement candidates.
He did alot with referee education for instance. He was primarily responsible for hiring youth coaches for instance, but it seems like they outsourced some of that to McBride towards the end. He was also responsible for far more than the USMNT. The GM of the women’s team reported to him and he was also responsible for all the other teams USSF fields (futsal, beach soccer, etc). He did transition the DA to MLS, but he was definitely trying to do alot of work on youth development and trying to align principles of play. Some of that included all the stuff he talks about in his exit interview. He was also responsible for things like analytics and what not. He also was in charge of all the coaching education that USSF does. He was basically at the top of the pyramid for all things the USSF did that was related to soccer and the next person may have a role limited to just the USMNT and they may create a separate position to handle all his other responsibilities.
I saw the style of play documentation. The curriculum was formalized, yes. Good work certainly. But it was just the start and I am sure that Klinsman, Romijn, Ramos, Stewart, etc continued with working on fine tuning this. What Stewart focused on were the Key Performance Indicators. Further formalization if you wish me to be more precise.
If I were to sum up the USSF timeline on style of play it was like this Reyna: We need to go the route of European football development and use their style. Klinsmann: Here is what we do in Germany. Let's integrate it. Stewart: Here is what we do in Holland. Let's integrate it.
I'm really surprised that no one has really mentioned Thorrington, at least not much more than in passing. He's done a very credible job running the soccer side of LAFC since their inception.
If you hire Bradley for this job be prepared to update his list of accomplishments to include the bolded text.