Nowak: Return of the Fools' King

Here is a post from a local youth forum regarding the issues of MLS and Peter Nowak's coaching attitude. To those "fair weather" fans who are always happy with a win despite an empty stadium, this is very relevant:



"Local soccer" with your remark:

"When Arena was coaching DC United played an attractive possession oriented game..."

If it was so attractive, why did DC United not sell out their home games?

You would think that a "National professional champion" (3x) would be the easiest sell in the book, but during the championship years (when I was part of MLS) and the years soon after, DC United could not attract over 15,000 (and many of those were given tickets).

You credit Arena for basically doing NOTHING for local soccer. Possession soccer, yes, Winning, yes, but when a youth team wins state cup but none of it's players make the national team, what has that team done for it's area and future generations? NOTHING.

Arena created nothing. No exciting players came from his era. MLS has been a development arena for American college players, yes, (and that was a good thing up to a point) but my retort to you was that your feelings toward soccer and knowledge during those early MLS years show you know little of what their mission was then and what it is supposed to be now:

That is, MLS exists to:

1. Develop the "American" player with a quest to have a top pool of players that can WIN (not just compete) the World Cup in 2010. You heard me correct in your head, WIN IT 6 years from now!

2. To sell tickets to games. Turninig in profits after 5 years.

Well, they have a team than can "compete" on the World stage and maybe with Freddy they have a shot at winning it. But until I see some world class defenders, fullbacks and attacking midfielders to compliment Adu, Beasley, Donovan, and Wolff they will fall short of that goal. BIG TIME.

But my concern is the 2nd goal of the mission: Selling tickets so that when we watch soccer, there is an excitng atmosphere that demands to be entertained.

As you say, the product is poor. Well, we have had 30 years to right the wrongs of the NASL, but these same people and their cronies after 8 years, going 9, of operation have still got it wrong. They hire people who think that a winning mentality with disciplined soccer is the way to attract the masses. WRONG!! WRONG!!! WRONG!!!

You can have a losing record in this 10 team league and still make the play offs, so NO, winning is not important.

Fans have voted with their absence that they are NOT impressed with winning records.

20 million youth soccer families registered in this country and less than 1 million attend a season of games. Disgraceful!

Millions of foreigners reside here and love the game from their homelands but cannot lift a finger to switch on an MLS game, never mind pay to watch one at 10 different venues. WHY?

Everytime we have an event like "opening day" this or that on national TV, we screw it all up with average to boring peformances and wonder why nobody wants to buy the rights to soccer games unless they are foreign teams.

It is all about ENTERTAINMENT and if you do not see this and understand this, then you are worse off than I imagined.

Freddy Adu is the entertainment master of the game in America today. Only fearful and controlled coaching can "hurt" him. That coaching has hurt American soccer for decades and is one of the main reasons why inner city soccer still lacks full-time clubs/facilities where millions of kids can play freely, creatively and all day instead of hanging out on street corners. The future of America's success lies in nurturing this untouched, uncorrupted market of "entertainers."

Even now under John Harkes, DC United's youth system is built just for middle class kids to play Super Y League over the summer and pay almost $1000 for the privilige.

Harkes wants to build a system modeled on the European system of academies. Hahahaha, well UEFA have stated that the academy system in Europe has failed. That fewer creative players come from European teams because of the lack of daily "street soccer" in their societies. The youth are too structured and it reflects in the generation of players that they are developing despite the millions of dollars on state of the art facilities and well paid coaches.

Look at the coaches hired to work with the DCU Super Y kids: None of them have developed a player from 6 years old to adult in their lives, and never worked in the inner city or with Hispanic kids and nurtured their enthusiasm to be a quality player. Sure, they can show you a history of B.S. championships, but ask them where they got their players from. How many D4 travel or rec teams did they coach and develop to be ODP stars or college level players?

It is easy to manage talented athletes and experienced players but try nurturing raw players from the grassroots, now that is coaching, and MLS has ignored this group for too long.

Imagine. 25,000 came to RFK to see Freddy. People drove 8 hours or flew from the West Coast to be at the game. All just because of him.

Now imagine a team of Freddies, or a league of Freddies. That is what MLS and US Soccer has failed us with. That is why Nowak is a fool like Hudson, Rongen and Arena before him. That is why you do not get it and sadly, may never get the chance to get it.

The masses will only come when the product is brilliant. When the players are great entertainers. Those entertainers are not in college today and are not in any middle class travel youth system.

But there is a club in America that is working on nurturing these future greats and there are programs scattered with minimal funding that just might develop another Freddy. They are just not linked in to the system of fools yet. But their time will come, whether by 2010 remains to be seen.

 

The points made from the post in the youth forum follow a thread that explains:

1. Freddy Adu should have started Saturday to promote the personalities and romance of the game on National and International TV

2. That Peter Nowak is neither a good a coach or a bad coach because he won a game. But rather a fool for not "promoting" the game by starting Freddy and playing a more attacking style of soccer (following fools like Hudson, Rongen and Arena). It is HIS responsibilty to please his public. Winning is not enough.

3. If Nowak loses next week, will those "fair weather" fans then come on here and bash him?

4. That the lack of major investment in inner city youth soccer in America has left out a market of great athletes who could be great soccer players of the future, given a chance in the system run by fools (MLS and US Soccer).

5. That UEFA has criticized the lack of creative players in their academies due to no street soccer and thus John Harkes' vision of a DC United Academy based on European models is flawed and ignorant.

6. That one Freddy is not enough to win the World Cup in 2010 but that we need a league of Freddies and they are not going to be found in college.

7. That MLS (professional soccer in America) is not about winning but entertaining. If you can have a losing record and qualify for play offs, then winning has little to do with it. 15,000 (but for for double headers and play offs) demonstrates that DC United is not entertaining its public even after 3 MLS titles.

8. Nowak is a novice and thinks that discipline and controlled soccer is the way forward, when hundreds of coaches in America have tried this and gained nothing. It is time for a NEW philosophy: To abandon this fear of losing and open the floodgates and pick players who can create with flair and imagination and speed and let them play fluent combination soccer and show great moves. We need this style to be our entertainment, not a style where we are begging for a player to score from his one chance. If our players are happy and confident, it will show in their game and we will enjoy watching.

Of course, there were hundreds that left RFK happy Saturday because it was a decent performance with 2 good goals and a few other chances and they won. There were thousands more that were bored. I was certainly one of them and I agree that coaches in MLS do not get it. We lost millions on Saturday.

 

If you do not think that an international media represents millions then I pity you that you do not see the significance.

I know of at least 12 countries' media folk that were very eager to see how Freddy played on his debut and while he did not set the stage alight, they were more disappointed in his lack of a start.

While this country continues to promote average athletes like Olson (remember how he was supposed to be your saviour?), Albright & AJ Wood (how did they ever get to start in pro soccer?) and Convey (he was supposed to be the best 16 year old ever, right?) and leave the real deals like Adu sitting on the bench because of coaching ego and blind idealogy (win at all costs), then we will see more and more people leave MLS and go to other countries to play and experience the game.


Adu will start soon, score goals and thrill the public. But we lost a great opportunity to let him excite the masses Saturday (instead of the 15-18,000 you can expect at RFK this season) and get them fixed.

Freddy was eager to play and he lost that adrenalin the longer the game wore on. He even said to the media how he was disappointed to not play earlier in the game. Says it all.

 

Wow, Serie Zed, if that game excited you, I bet you love watching golf, chess, fishing as just a few of your leisure activities.

Thank goodness people like you do not go to English Premier League games.