They'll pick some rando off the streets of London and he'll take us to quarterfinal glory. Disney will make a movie out of it.
Just curious, why is it not "te aburrís" given that these are Argentines? (For the rest I just figured you weren't accentuating them to show the presence or absence of voseo.)
I didn't want to over-do it. Also, those two have spent a long time in Europe (Spain) and don't talk like that any more.
Starting to come around to the idea that hiring a club coach just isn't a good strategy. Either hire a proven international coach or give a shot to an upcoming youth guy. Who was the u20 coach again from the last world cup? I think Argentina had it right. If course... didn't hurt that they had the greatest on field coach in history lol
We didn't fire Gregg Berhalter to name Mikey Varas, Marko Mitrovic, or some current USYNT coach. I know that Spain and Argentina have had recent success advancing their youth coaches. .............Crocker hasn't spoken to the media a lot about the search, but he has said some things. None of those guys fit the description. We'll be fine. Really. I know everyone on the boards wants the new coach NOW. Better to get it right than be in a hurry.
You have to fire one coach to hire another one. And just about any new coach would be better than Berhalter at this point. He lost to Panama, T&T, & got pure luck against Jamaica. Old Berhalter would have been better, and was better, than that. Let alone Varas, who showed superior tactical acumen & player selection under his circumstances. It matters little it was w/ the u20's. He's now drawing from some of the same players. McBride said he was the most knowledgeable coach he'd ever interviewed. He'd be a fine hire.
I also thought Varas was good with the U20's but don't forget he was an assistant to Luchi Gonzalez who probably also is very knowledgeable but has shown he's not ready to coach at an MLS level. So putting Varas in charge based on one youth tournament is kind of insane. Had he led them for years and won some international tournaments etc I'd feel differently. Let's see what he does as an interim and go from there. As of right now I think he'd help a new foreign coach a lot as an assistant who knows these players well.
I approve of Varas because he really got the offense going for the U-20s. I don't think he will get hired but that's what we need.
I fully realize this is more of a rhetorical question (and he had Messi, which obviously is a very important variable), but what was the overall rationale for hiring Scaloni? He had something like six matches managing the U18/20 Argentine teams and was an assistant to Sampaoli on what had to be considered a failed 2018 World Cup campaign for Argentina. I sure don't know if Varas would be a good coach for the senior team, but to be completely honest his track record with the U20s was more accomplished than that of Scaloni with his youth teams. Bottom line for me is that I'm not necessarily going to hold a coach up solely based on past records (at least to a reasonable degree).
You could argue employing a manager with no int'l or US experience is insane then. Varas succeeded in a parallel job. Pochettino hasn't. Never been a US or int'l coach. Luchi wasn't ever an int'l coach. Might have done well. Tab did, then struggled in Houston. Apples to oranges. With every manager you're trying to weigh strengths & weaknesses. You're not going to find a guy who is proven in this specific job by nature, so it's a matter of what you weight to make a projection. It's only a guy like Thierry Henry I look at & wonder what has he done anywhere that would warrant it. Other than that, I could see a rationale w/ Varas, Pochettino, Dolo, Nancy, Vieira, etc. They can all make their cases against one another, except for say a Vieira vs. Pochettino, but we don't know if we can afford Poch or he's serious.
I think this simply highlights how much the people doing the hiring are working on a different data set than fans. Even besides an often better understanding of publicly available info, in Scaloni's case, they know the person, have worked with them, have references from people who have, can talk to Scaloni about his plans and how he'd handle things, etc. If Varas were to get hired, it won't be largely on results; it'd be on the thousands of hours he's worked at US Soccer and what he did there. I don't think he will be, but none of us really have any idea.
I actually find it wild to think that Argentina with all of those good to great coaches around the world mad less of a fuss than our fans would if a similar coach like Varas was named.
The approach to Pochettino should tell us how ambitious Crocker is being. Heck, the approach to Klopp's representation already told us that. The idea here is that with the World Cup approaching, now is the time for the USSF to be ambitious. Crocker has spoken about the salary not being an issue. Varas does not in any way, shape, or form fit the description of the person Crocker has outlined. A guy like de la Fuente of Spain came thru their youth teams. But he'd been in the industry for 20 years before that in places like Sevilla and Bilbao. Very highly regarded in the coaching community I guess. One of his jobs in the Spanish federation was coaching education. One of his pupils was Argentina boss Scaloni. A very interesting hire by Spain. Sort of a professor type that was more of a behind the scenes industry leader. How Spain coach Luis de la Fuente operates on three hours of sleep a night at Euro 2024 - The Athletic (nytimes.com) Meanwhile, De la Fuente was never really considered for a coaching job in La Liga, nor did he push for one. His personality and way of working fit better at Las Rozas. Few there considered him a likely senior international manager, until then-federation president Luis Rubiales wanted a change after a disastrous World Cup 2022 under Luis Enrique’s very personal and combative style of leadership. De la Fuente’s style was quite the opposite; he was also available and affordable,............................
That's more likely the USSFs fault though, that it took as long as it did to hire Gregg the first time left a lot of fans angry. For me, you have to vet, get to know the manager, hear his ideals, etc. That all takes time. On the other hand this hire is much less about 2030s cycle if it were 2024. So it shouldn't honestly take 2 months to make a hire. You do your interviews, top 10 or so, shouldn't take more than 2 weeks. Do your final round in a week, and then work out contracts which should also take a week. A month is plenty of time if they had an idea of who to contact (and by Crockers statements, he did). Very little reason to wait through September friendlies unless the guy is employed through January. So I would hope by the end of the month there will be a coach in place. Definitely no later than mid September. Plus Crocker needs to talk a little more, or have some peons do some interviews just to keep fans satisfied. Don't really have to say anything other than were looking, but it keeps the questions of why aren't they updating us away.
I think this hire is only about 2024. And if you hire a guy like Pochettino, its going to be BIG money for a year and a half (by the time he starts in the job in earnest). Then after WC26, its a return to the Cherudnolo or Nancy type. I really do think we could have hired a guy already if we wanted one in that category. Crocker is out there trying to go big.
Ha! good question. No way to know since it hasn't happened. Did Argentina fans go crazy? I know Diego did but he was a pretty terrible coach so not sure if that made any difference.
No. Definitely not When the God Maradona said the following, it effected how the appointment was viewed. When Lionel Scaloni was appointed as Argentina manager, Diego Maradona said:"Scaloni is a good guy, but he can't even direct traffic. The problem is tomorrow he becomes a coach and says 'I want to go to the World Cup'. You can go to the World Cup of motorcycling, not football."— Zach Lowy (@ZachLowy) December 18, 2022
To be fair he was named the interim coach first and there was not initially the intention he be under consideration for the full time gig. It’d be like if we hired Varas as interim and the team looks awesome this fall. He’s not coming from the same place at that point.
Exactly how Southgate ended up with England as well. He was the U21 coach, was named interim after Big Sam's issues, then got the job on a permanent basis. For me, there's just no real correlation whatsoever in terms what makes a good international manager. You look at people like Southgate, Scaloni, and de la Fuente. Then you look at someone like Flick who seemed like he was a grand slam hire for Germany (long-time national assistant, won everything with Bayern), and he was a complete crash and burn. Deschamps was a good, but not great, club manager. Lopetegui ran wild with Spain but has had a mixed bag of results as a club manager. Hiring a NBA head coach might be the only other major sport where it just seems like it's such a crap shoot for who eventually becomes a really good head coach. You really have to be on the money with your assessments and be willing to look places that don't seem to be ideal spots for finding a good head coach.
This reddit thread is mixed on Scaloni, but overall most Argentinian fans just seem more chill about that US fan reaction to even a rumor of an MLS coach. https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/cjx8bh/afa_confirms_scaloni_as_the_argentina_nt_coach/
International football is basically cup-style competition. The profile of a good candidate from the club side would be someone who has had repeated success in cup competitions----wining multiple cups or going deep a bunch of times. Gregg was always a weak candidate in such regards. No one in the US youth set-up fits the profile of a good candidate for the senior job. The current Spain coach had actually won some important titles at youth level. The equivalent for a US side would be making semis.
Still much not higher than the level of twitter rumor but maybe something happening tomorrow? Big day for US Soccer tomorrow, multiple folks telling us. Time to move forward!— The Yanks Are Coming (@YanksAreComing) August 14, 2024