That's a good question, and to be honest, I don't have an answer. It's worth a try in the friendlies, though. And a lot depends on who is healthy and in form.
Is there a coach out there with international experience we should hire who isn’t Southgate or Renard?
Someone has been stumping for Kasper Hjulmand, and I think that's not a bad call. I liked his Denmark teams. Of course, he's Danish, so I have no idea if he'd be interested.
As far as profile, Matarazzo is a very safe candidate. He's fully European trained. Not beholden to MLS in any way. Yet, he's also quite arguably the top American coach. There's not much anyone can argue about. I'm anxiously waiting for a relatively peaceful time in these boards.
And his contract was recently extended for Denmark so I don’t think he’s leaving his native country for us. Our opportunity would be whenever he’s finished with Denmark. Though he may just prefer the club game at that point.
I just don't think this is remotely analogous. The problem w/the former coach was the attack was ghastly and it was in both major tournaments: '21 Olympics: Shut out by Sweden Pounded crap NZ 6-0 Shut out again by Australia 2-0 over the Dutch (the only decent attacking game of the tourney) 0-1 loss to Canada in Semifinals. 4-3 Bronze match after knocked out of Gold Contention. You look at that, and I don't know if you agree w/me, and I can't see the xG #'s, but I see them getting zero against Sweden, zero against Australia and zero against Canada. 3 of their five matches before they're knocked into the Bronze match are matches where they produced nada in terms of goals. Move forward two years, and it's the same old same old: WWC '23 3-0 over Vietnam, okay, not great, but 3 is 3. 1-1 vs Netherlands, yeesh, other than a Horan anger header off a set piece, that's it. 0-0 vs Portugal, and Portugal hit post, nearly knocking us out in group stage. Shut out again vs Sweden in knockouts. When I look at that, I see nine matches other than the bronze medal match we know players aren't going to be as committed to, so lets look at the 9 matches at the olympics and WC where they were contending for a trophy or gold medal. They were shut out in 6 of the 9 matches. Zero goals produced in 6 of 9. In the other 3 you have a nice 2-0 knockout win over the Dutch, a 1-1 draw with the Dutch two years later, and a 3-0 win over Vietnam. I think that's the story of his failed tenure. He could not figure out how to produce an attack that was goal dangerous ever. I know that's why I bet heavy on us to lose and someone else (England, Spain and France were my teams if memory serves) to win. You could just see at the Olympics they were largely awful, in the friendlies, she believes, all that crap, they generally sucked. They sucked in the run up to the cup. They just could not produce goals, period. I don't think that was Rapinoe's fault (although she didn't help AT ALL and was well past it), the whole thing was flat out broken, period, all cycle and injuries (Macario and Swanson) only made what was already a problem far worse. I get that people want to put this on culture issues, or aging icons refusing to hanging it up, but the bigger reasons were: #1 the same developmental catastrophe w/birth years of 1989-1995, seemed to start hitting the womens team with birth years beginning in around 1992 or 1993 (the U20 Womens team, which was dominant with the 1982ish to 1992ish era, totally fell apart w/the ensuing generations, the U17's have sucked consistently ever since the inaugural semifinal run 12 years ago (so 1995s or there abouts). #2 the coach could not build an attack ever, w/what he was given. The new coach seems to have figured out the attack, even if she still has the problem of youth development sputtering compared to previous eras (how much is sputtering, and how much is the world catching up is open to question, but UEFA can only send so many teams to the U20 WC, and we've still been trash in 3 of the past 4 tournaments, like god awful bad, and at the U17 level, even worse).
How many times can I say Bert Van Marwjink!?! Took Holland to the WC final in 2010, got KSA qualified in 2018 and then had a blow up with the admin so quit and got hired by Australia to take them to the cup. There different teams, at least 2 different styles of play, has done a small nation with no traveling, big nation with lots of travel and small nation with loads of players playing outside the nation. 72 years old, battle hardened, ready for "one more job"!
I don't know if that is the important thing for Pellegrino. He ruled himself out last time because he was about to land the Hoffenheim position. Now there is a shakeup in the club and he is probably the next to go. It's just timing and getting the next paycheck.
I don’t know that he’d be interested (but he said he’s open to managing internationally), but if we were going to go for a Dutch manager with international experience wouldn’t the first choice be Louis Van Gaal?
We committed to an entirely direct-at-all-costs kick and run onto offense. It didn't help that many of our better offensive players were hurt, but the gameplan was single minded and fairly easy to deal with. There's no doubt Hayes is better, IMO. But I am just pointing out that everything is not roses and sunshine yet. While we did beat Germany fairly handily in the group, I would not be shocked to see their next two games be drag out affairs. And if we don't end up with the Gold, the process will be a better, but the results won't be there yet.
No!! We need a guy who has done a lot with a little. I would do Guus first. We keep acting like we are Belgium before it's great generation and maybe we are but I think we are further behind than that and need to get a guy who has international experience like trying to get KSA to qualify. What is the American fascination with big names? Do you really think we are the girl with the biggest tits in the room? Cause I sure as hell don't!!
And he did nothing notable with Australia, Saudi Arabia, and UAE at the international level which would be more of a demonstration of doing more with less. Versus getting to the finals with the Netherlands who has one of the more talented teams in the world. And we also have the respective club careers where Van Gaal is very clear superior.
He qualified with KSA, that is an achievement and then on short notice he had Aus. My concern is we need a guy who has experience doing more with less.
What we want is someone who has a lot of experience doing more with less at the World Cup. I just don’t see it. He took one of the historically elite teams to the World Cup final. Great run but not that different from someone like Southgate. He also flamed out with UAE pretty badly in addition to failing to make it out of the group with Australia. It’s very much not an example of doing more with less.
It also perhaps came down to one of the biggest ways a coach can impact the result - player selection. He was always in a rough place between generations - choose too many old players and he runs the risk of players who just can’t really perform at that level any more or young players that aren’t quite ready. He wasn’t great but his deck was stacked against him. It was interesting to hear her rationale for not rotating and it makes me wonder if she’s mates with the England coach.
Per the Monday edition of Kicker, Hoffenheim coach Pellegrino Matarazzo disputes Bild’s assertion that the Italian-American would gladly accept an offer to take over the USA men’s team.“These are false statements. I have never said I would like to leave our club.” #TSG #USMNT— Derek Rae (@RaeComm) August 5, 2024
So qualifying with KSA is child's play? Literally after he left they were in the wilderness until Renard showed up. UAE is a blow up with admin every coach has that from LVG to JK. Run down all of LVGs excellent work on the international level. What about Mattzie? Henry? Viera? You see my point? You have a half cycle and people want to hire a club coach with no international experience? Don't you think considering the time constraints and pressure of hosting an experienced person on the international level and those unique challenges should factor in. But no a person totally new to international football and coaching a mid tier nation with its players scattered amongst 6 time zones is totally the move.
He did a poor job for the Netherlands. Bild is somewhere between People Magazine and National Enquirer.
Of the last eight World Cups Saudi Arabia has qualified for 6 of them (one less than us). So no qualifying them for the World Cup is not a massive accomplishment. And yes UAE is not a good team but you’d at least like to see him show some improvement there which he didn’t (compared to say Panama under Thomas Christianson). It’s not as if a coach hasn’t showed up with no international experience in a two year window and not figured it out. See Naglesmann. Or even better see Klinsmann with Germany. You want the person who is the better coach before you want international experience. If what we’re looking for is someone based on that we might as well just hire Southgate.