Who do you think is responsible for the never say die attitude? The most significant impact a coach or any leader can have is on the attitude and motivation of his players or followers. I'll take a leader who can motivate players any day over a tactical expert. The coach doesn't have to have all the answers. When you have everyone motivated, then they not only play hard but they are also making extra effort to solve the problems and find the answers with the coach. You acknowledge the '03 Metros have a never say die attitude, but it's worth looking at the objective numbers to confirm it. The Metros haven't lost a game by more than one goal all year. Even Saturday, when we all agree they were lousy, they still only lost by a goal. Maybe the Revs suck, but they beat the Fire 5 - 1 a couple weeks ago.
Anyone who thought Chicago was going to stink either doesn't pay attention or doesn't know soccer. Last year, the whole team was injured and/or missing for the World Cup. They had to plug guys like Billy Walsh and Dave Vaudreuil into the lineup just to field a team.
THANK YOU! God, it blows my mind when people say "The Fire have come out of nowhere!" Every time Mark Connelly writes that I want to stab him in the neck. Going into the season they had the best defender, the best defensive midfielder, the best flank midfielder, and one of the best forwards in the league. They also retained all of their key role players (Brown, Whitfield, Marsch, Curtin). That's 8 of 10 field players whose name you can write into the lineup every day. As for the last two - Ralph, Williams and Mapp - Peter Wilt and Sarachan deserve major kudos for getting them into the team. But even if they hadn't contributed anything, Chicago was still going to be one of the top five teams in the league. Can you say that about Metro? No way.
Bradley took an expansion team and coached them to the MLS Cup in the first season. Chicago has been a contender every year since. New York is now in second place in the conference where they have been the worst team in the league for multiple seasons. I don't see how you can second guess Bradley. I would love to have him as the Rapid's manager if you're sick of him. We'll trade for Hanki.
It's hard to fault Bradley on any player moves, but his decision to start Arena over Addo (costing the Metros a potential 8 points) stinks more than Matt Bryant's botched squib-kick last night.
That I think is the only decision that I can fault Bradley on right now. I think I and others on this board have overestimated the team that we have here. This team has MANY limitations, and until the rookies that Bradley chose, fill out, or he finds some discoveries, we will still have those holes. They are lack of quality fullback play. I am very surprised by the lack of quality of Digi. I thought he was a steal. A player who was able to go to Germany on a contract, even after injury, seemed like a quality pickup. He has been alrite at best. However, can you blame him for picking him up? I think a lot of people have already forgotten the unprofessional attitude of the team in general. IT WAS A JOKE. OZ was a joke. Anyone who thinks he should have stayed forgets how many chances he wasted. The whole Andy Williams mess is ridiculous. How can anyone argue that Williams would have been better for this team then Gueverra??? I do not understand that, and will never be able to. Andy, is a player who has been on almost half the teams in MLS for a reason. Now...I think Bradley has to reanalyze the strengths of this team going into this weekends game. Opposing teams have been able to really probe our weaknesses. Specifically, our fullbacks, and the lack of fluidity in the midfield. They have also been able to take advantage of Wolyniec, by forcing people to give him the ball. Wolyniec, while have a pretty good season in terms of goals, is horrendous on the ball, and destroys any combination plays he's involved in. I have to single out Richie at this point. At the start of the season, I was supporting him, because of the way he hustled, and that he was reallying helping out in the midfield. He was doing this by laying out good balls, and not going for much. As the season has gone on though, his levfel of play has digressed dramatically. It has resulted in the fact that he can't connect with anyone in the midfield. I am not sure how to cope with this problem. Maybe a midfield of Clark, Lisi, Gaven, and Amado. Can Gaven take it though???? Moreno was well worth the fact that Pope is our centerback (the best American defender EVER, PERIOD). He was well worth the risk, because of potential. I think that deal worked out well for both teams. We'll see how Jusko works out, because to me he is going to make or break the season. He is going ot hopefully give us that extra push that will convert near wins like the NE and Chicago matches, into ties or victories. He will also hopefully be another player who can hold onto the ball, and relieve the pressure off of Amado and Clint. We'll see. However, I'm excited to see how this team will react. Last year we fell apart because OZ is the worst coach in MLS. This year, I think we are going to strive. We won't catch Chicago, but we will hold onto the second spot.
He's clearly doing better than OZ was last year and does have a good eye for young talent to develop. He's also brought in Walker. And the attitude is markedly improved, that does go to coaching. However, why is it we never seem to have any consistent outside attack options. We seem to always drive the ball up the middle. It looks like we are always missing either the left or right midfield. I swear it looks like he plays three center mids and just tells one to wander the field. Yeah, I like him, but think the above is so obvious and have seen it in too many games
Have to agree with the assesment of tactical strategy of Bob always forcing things to the middle. Other than Digi overlapping we never seem to go wide as you described. We do play with heart but also never make runs into space, not counting Woly going offsides. We definitley need to make us of the width of the field and open space better as we do look boring at times offensively. Our goal appears to be to keep the game at 0-0 or 1-0 at best. Hopefully we adjust as it is obvious teams are ready for our "shove it up" the middle ofense.
Would be nice if we have midfielders that can score goals and create like Brad Davis and Mark Chung, never mind Andy Williams. The Defenders we have now have more creative skills than our mids( other than Amado of course). Maybe drop Mathis at Mid and play Jusko with Magee up top for some more help for Amado in the future if Jusko works out.
Bob's a god. He won the mls cup with an expansion team. What more could you need? ;-) That's one of the reasons for his reputation. Another is, as you point out, spotting talent on the cheap. I think he's done well with NY given that it's his first year. He'll really prove his metal when he gets to further mold the team to his liking next year, especially when he has to make up for not having Clint.
Yeah, he had a great record in MLS for the mil he cost. The Ultimate Mercenary. Pretty sad organization when you point to the Queiroz Era and a first-round playoff exit as your moment in the sun.
Every coach has their strong suits and their weaknesses. At the professional level the main thing is putting a good team on the field in the shortest amount of time. Putting a team that plays a good game takes a long time for most coaches. Arena and Bradley have a gift for doing it fast. -------------- People like that new coach from chicago. he has done a nice job no doubt about it. What's working for him and why? He is a defensive minded coach which is a good thing to me. He plays on a narrow field. When the opponent has the ball his spacing of far sided players is wider that most teams would play on defense. Most coaches Bradley included jam up ball side to a few yards past the middle of the field. So that leaves the far side flank players open to receive a pass. The chicago coach does not leave far side players open to receive a pass. The far side players are close enough to the far side players to challenge them when they see that pass. he can do that because the field is narrow. So the spacing of the players is not to far from each other even doing that. Also they play a 3-5-2 Of the 5 mids you can consider 4 of them defensive. So we are talking a lot of defensive minded players of the 11 includes the keeper 8 players maybe even 9. Their left wing is a complete wing plays defense and can attack and score. Their real attack comes from just the forward positions, and that left wing. That is 3 players for Chicago to win they have to be great on attack. This year they are so they are winning. Stop one of the two strikers and stop that left wing from attacking. You can beat them. Not that much genius coaching, but it is smart and it works. Kind of like Brazil when they won in 94. There attack was Romario and babeto supported by a team of defensive minded players. Players get hurt? Defensive minded players to replace them are a dime a dozen. Just have to make sure the two strikers whatever 2 you have on the field can do something with the ball. They don't even need a good play maker because there 3 guys can create their own shots. ------------- Metrostar strikers are not that good. They can't create their own chances need a pass to get them a shot. That also includes Mathis. They do not have at least one wing that is dangerous on attack and can bring the ball up by themselves. Weakness with the team from the beginning is at the wing mid positions. That weakness is still there and the two striker positions. Mathis is a good over all player and maybe the polish player will help. But the wing mids are still a problem. Bradley has done a great job with the new players. he has always done a great job with young players. As a college coach and when he coach youth clubs. I would love to see bradley coach the Under 17 team some day. He would be 10 times better then Ellenger no doubt about that. Richie
People can criticize whoever they want, but if they are going to do so they need to explain (a) what they honestly expected from this team back in January before the Superdraft, and (b) how Bob has failed in delivering those expectations. IMO, the goals for Bob at the beginning of the season should have been: 1. Make the playoffs. 2. Advance in the playoffs to MLS Cup. 3. Advance in / win the USOC. 4. Build for the future. 5. Breathe some life into this moribund club. How's he doing? 1. Still not clinched and we're looking shaky lately, but we control our destiny. 2. Who knows? 3. Back in the semis with a home game against DCU between us and our first Cup final ever. 4. We are consistently playing the youngest starting lineups in the league, and we are still improving. 5. Octavio who? Bora who? Say this about the '03 Metro -- they care a hell of a lot more about each other and about what they're doing on the field than the last edition. There's a passion here that I've never seen from this club. I'd say that while it's not some wildly successful season right now, he's accomplishing the goals.
OBie could not help but notice the picture of Jerry lewis. What an entertainer he was live. My best memories of him was after he broke up with Martin. He would visit all the NYC movie theathers that would show his moves in a 2 day time period. He would perform live for a half hour before the actual movie started. He was funny as hell live better then the movies he made. Just a little trip down memory lane. Richie
Vistula you are off the mark here, Queiroz didn't pick his players . The team was given to him to save from disaster, he got them into the playoffs and we lost by one painful goal to DC. Might have been a late penalty i am not certain, but that team actualy played good soccer. I can take a loss anytime with a smile on my face if i know the team played good and gave their best. I probably shouldn't ask this but have you seen the Metros last game ? It is not that they lost that hurts, but how they played. cheers
Oh, how quickly we forget. That Quieroz team lost 4 in a row down the stretch. Bradley's team is yet to lose 2 in a row. But they sure played good soccer back in the day!
Dan wasn't that in the metros first season, it was like 7 years ago right or so, point i was making is that Bradley picked his team Queiroz didn't. Now for me that is a coach who can work with what he is given and make something out of nothing.
Bradley v. Arena .......... are you kidding me??!!! Someone earlier tried to compare BB to Bruce Arena. Please everyone ......... let's stop the hype. I think that too much is being made of taking an expansion team to MLS cup. this isn't baseball or American football. this is soccer, and MLS had only been in existence for 2 years. There was not the type of league in which you need forever to win right now. Hell, Chivas might win the title next year. The bottom line is you have to look at what Bruce won in 3 years with DC. He won MLS Cup twice (and was in the final all 3 years). He won the U.S. Open Cup. He won the Concacaf Champions Cup in a final against Mexican Super-Campeon Toluca in his last season 98, and then went on to win the InterAmerican Cup against the South American Representative/Champion from Brazil, Vasco da Gama, in a 2 legged final. add to that fact that he got us farther in the World Cup then we've ever gotten and if not for the missed handball against Germany and some very unlucky bounces at the end, we would have been in the semis! trust me, i hope that BB is good, because it seems that everyone has crowned him as Bruces' heir apparent, but I'm just saying that it's a long way to step into Arena's shoes at this point.
The Core of Queiroz' team. Tony Meola Peter Vermes Nicola Caricola Roberto Donadoni (still on Italian national team) Tab Ramos (US national team) Giovanni Savarese Not saying Queiroz stepped into a gold mine, but compared to MLS teams in that era, he had pretty good talent. He acquired a 3-5 team. They finished 15-17. So, yeah, he went 12-12. He also had ample opportunity to make trades but elected not to. If you recall, he did acquire Manny Lagos and Antony De Avila...also picked up some guys like Rob Johnson along the way. So by the time he'd coached a dozen games, it was as much his team as this current Metro team is Bob's team.
Originally Metro were picked not to finish at the top two of the East, let alone make the playoffs. And look at where they are now. Bob Bradley had a horrid start in 1998 for the Chicago Fire and they win the Double by beating DC United in the MLS Cup Final and Winning the US Open Cup Final against the Columbus Crew. So in my opinion this has been a tremendous feat that Bradley did for the Fire. Can he do it with Metro? I believe he can. Remember everyone, no one gave the Metro a chance to sniff the playoffs, let alone another chance to sniff the the US Open Cup Semi-Finals. The crap that is no team work and everyone acting like immature babies is no longer been seen at the Swamp. True that I miss Brad Davis and he has scored 5 beautiful goals for the Dallas Burn. I still trust Bradley with how our side will play this coming Saturday. They may have blinked against the Revs, but Bob will not allow them to make that same mistake against the Crew. Also he will have the boys prepared once again for DC when they kick there buts at the Open Cup Semi-Finals
absolutely we are happy to have Bradley and i felt our luck will change when i heard he will be our coach. I honestly belive that for the long term he is the right choice and will be good for us. Having said that we have to question some of his decisions. Maybe some of you can explain why did he make two defensive substitutions when we were down at 2-1.. Pat Noonan scores the second goal in the 72 minute. Bob decides to take Clark out and put in Jacob LeBlanc that is 77 minute and then got in another defender as if we needed it in Chris Leitch 80 minute for Craig Ziadie . Now i ask does it make any sesnse to you. He had on the bench Edgar Bartolomeu, Juan Forchetti, Jose Galvan, Paul Grafer, Mike Nugent, Tim Regan
Three possible schools of thought: 1. They were "message" substitutions for Ziadie and Clark that their positions on the team are not as secure as they think. In other words the message was: your paly tonight stunk and I have other hungry players willing to take your place. 2. The two defensive substitutions allowed Pope to go forward. 3. Last Saturday night, Bob Bradley was channeling the spirit of OZ. All three are equally plausible.