I think after you’ve done the outreach to foreign options, the preference in terms of coaches with US ties goes 1) Matarazzo, 2) Nancy, 3) Cherundolo. Knowing that Matarazzo probably isn’t interested and Nancy is an open question.
Serious question: After last night’s debacle, do we think the US Federation initiated a search for a new coach? Has someone been assigned to begin putting together a shortlist of candidates? Or are they waiting to see what happens on Monday? If we bow out of the tournament on Monday, what are Gregg’s chances of staying in the role? Frankly, the odds of us making it through the group stage feel very low… I’m just wondering if the Fed has pushed the panic button or whether Gregg is locked in as coach no matter what happens.
My worry about Nancy comes from an article a couple months ago on mlssoccer.com when Columbus was in the midst of their CCL run. The players interviewed talked about how much video they watch and how many reps they do in training to get their positioning down and to understand their passing options in any possible situation. So, while it does result in beautiful and effective play, I worry there might not be enough training time at the international level for Nancy to work.
1) Matarazzo (best American coach out there and its not even close). 2) Nancy (best MLS coach) 3) Cherundolo (national team legend and MLS Cup Winning Coach) 4) Wagner (coached at the top level across Europe) 5) Herve Renard (good international coach with two Afcon Titles)
I'm really unsure how it will go if we're eliminated on Monday. There is definitely a case to fire him in that situation (I would), but I wonder if the Fed would see the red card as a mitigating factor and might be worried about the finances, if they have to pay him and another coach, and could talk themselves into letting him stay on.
If they don’t make a change because they don’t want to pay for it I will literally be done with them, that’s not trying to win that’s something else non sports related. Of course that would never get out to the public anyway so no worries.
Wonder how the equal pay implication figures into the possibility of paying two MNT coaches at the same time, as G's contract thru 2026 would still be on the books.
Mitigating shitigating... he should be fired that very night if we get grouped. I'd also like him to be fired if we get knocked out in the quarters. But the Fed is run by dipshits, tech bros, and antisoccer people soooo...
Yeah, the problem is you and me both know very little about who was asked or reached out to, whose reps said no immediately or whatever. Right? That's why I asked that direct question, which you ignored, in the hopes that if you have some great info that I don't know please share it! I'm asking where this feeling of yours is coming from, and you're offering nothing. And can we please move away form the Steve Sampson example? I don't know why you keep using his name, the reasoning and process that put him in charge has nothing to do with 2018, 2022 or 2024. So to sum up: - your list is devoid of fairly crucial context of those guys' employment - you have no solid evidence for what you seem to be saying in here - you haven't responded to my question, posed to you directly and with no ambiguity top managers don't want to take the US job... do you have any evidence which refutes this statement?
The saddest thing is, we’re about to be likely to blow a chance to make a true impression on the global stage at the next World Cup, playing at home, with our best ever generation of players (on paper, at least), because we are unwilling to part with a coach who is unable to maximize the talent that he has
I wish i could rep this twice, or more. I think we should fire Gregg right now and not wait for another failure. As far as his replacement(s) I do not really care at this time. Just get the biggest part of the problem as far from the team as possible. Oh, as far as those mentioning the equal pay thing: I do not think that extends to coaches as they are management not workers.
I’m sure Crocker is always evaluating as you should in his position but there’s no way they’ve actually made a decision on his future and won’t until the tournament is over. It’s also true that if post tournament he wants to fire Berhalter it won’t happen immediately. USSF is a bureaucracy and has processes that they have to go through like board sign off which won’t be immediate. And they’d have to negotiate the details of Berhalter’s exit/severance. So don’t expect anything immediate even if the decision will ultimately be to fire him.
I don’t know if any of that’s true, but I don’t want to risk finding out it is, so far it’s not promising.
Being in corporate America, I suspect you are exactly right. That said, if we bow out on Monday, I’m in the camp of letting him go that day. Since last night, I have admittedly become a bit overzealous, but feel such conviction that Gregg’s tenure should end immediately. Gregg has had some commendable successes. But sticking with him after this failed tournament would be a dire mistake.
If we bow out Monday I hope Gregg does the honorable thing and resigns. I also hope Crocker already has a short list of candidates.
We have never offered a reasonable group of top managers competitive terms and support that they receive from other countries ... do you have ANY evidence which refutes this statement??!! (I added more exclamation points AND capitals to be even MORE self-assured!!) The "evidence" of course is that countries *smaller* than the US, and clubs in *less prestigious* leagues have hired coaches that are "better" - on paper - than Sampson, Arena, Bradley, or Beerholder (again, Jurgen is the one coach that one can almost, sorta claim had a pedigree that made them "elite-adjacent" but only if you squint.) So either we are less attractive to coach than Colombia, or maybe, just maybe, *we* (our soccer overlords) didn't really try that hard/weren't willing to allow the coach the leeway they required (which, I think is really the core of the problem.) So I leave you with MORE ITALICS and CAPS and EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so there.
They have never been willing to do what would have to be done to really get one, however. "...along with a couple of others..." This is the crux of our *disagreement* here. What is a *serious* attempt. A "couple" of candidates - and if it doesn't work, let the Gold Cup guy take it? Or a multi-year, focused undertaking that really works and battles to find, entice, come to terms with, and elevate the program through the hiring of top coaches in the world (as coach or TD or both would be fine with me, btw.) This has become kind of a silly back and forth and I'm going to try to leave it here, but I still think it's pretty clear that, outside of Jurgen, who ticked the "kinda american" as well as "euro-cool" boxes, there has not really been a serious, focused, properly funded and committed initiative to hire a top coach over the past cycles. And of course I'm not in the room. Maybe the offers have been serious and competitive, maybe the wooing has been seductive and appealing, maybe the requisite control and assurances have been given... but I'm pretty dubious.
How do you know they’ve never made a serious attempt? What even counts as a serious attempt? If you offer the job to someone and they say no or they decline to even talk about it what are they supposed to do? I think Earnie Stewart very much wanted to hire an American coach, but Gulati was very much enamored with the idea of the big name foreign cosch.
As I said, I was not in the room. I do not "know." The only *evidence* I have is better coaches have been hired by what many would consider less *soccer sexy* countries or clubs and the amount of waffling/equivocating from various Fed folks over the years in regards what a USMNT coach *must* have. I've also been involved, at times, in relatively high-profile, big-money candidate searches where an organization was looking to attract a "bigger" candidate than they could expect. Those have been big time, full-on charm offensives. Like a long, long date night. Now, they aren't footie, and the worlds are not in any way analogous, but there is little I've seen/read from US officials over the years that have led me to believe there has been a real, serious, committed initiative. And, the added evidence is... we got Sampson, Arena, Bradley and Beerholder... so there's that.