Bob Bradley is a defensive coordinator. He lacks the ability to build and inspire a potent offense. However, Peter Nowak, a world class creative midfielder in his prime, was able to fill this void while serving as the Nats assistant coach. The two made a competent coaching pair. Without Nowak, Bradley is not good enough.
Nowak took on the Nats assistant coach position in Dec 2006. During his time, the Nats record was 24-8-4, including the Gold Cup championship. January 20 United States 3-1 Denmark February 7 United States 2-0 Mexico March 25 United States 3-1 Ecuador March 28 United States 0-0 Guatemala June 2 United States 4-1 China June 7 United States 1-0 Guatemala June 9 United States 2-0 Trinidad and Tobago June 12 United States 4-0 El Salvador June 16 United States 2-1 Panama June 21 United States 2-1 Canada June 24 United States 2-1 Mexico June 28 United States 1-4 Argentina July 2 United States 1-3 Paraguay July 5 United States 0-1 Colombia August 22 Sweden 1-0 United States September 9 United States 2-4 Brazil October 17 Switzerland 0-1 United States November 17 South Africa 0-1 United States January 19 United States 2-0 Sweden February 6 United States 2-2 Mexico March 26 Poland 0-3 United States May 28 England 2-0 United States June 4 Spain 1-0 United States June 8 United States 0-0 Argentina June 15 United States 8-0 Barbados June 21 Barbados 0-1 United States August 21 Guatemala 0-1 United States September 6 Cuba 0-1 United States September 10 United States 3-0 Trinidad and Tobago October 11 United States 6-1 Cuba October 15 Trinidad and Tobago 2-1 United States November 19 United States 2-0 Guatemala January 24 United States 3-2 Sweden February 11 United States 2-0 Mexico March 28 El Salvador 2-2 United States April 1 United States 3-0 Trinidad and Tobago Since Nowak resigned in May, the US has turned out poor performance after poor performance: June 3 Costa Rica 3-1 United States April 1 United States 2-1 Honduras (a comeback victory) April 1 United States 1-3 Italy April 18 Brazil 3- United States 0
I was thinking about Novak as well. I think Peter added alot without having a clue what goes on in the locker room.
Really? Did he make the trip to Costa Rica? What exactly was he coordinating the defense to do that night?
Well he is a bad defensive coordinator. Who is the team's offensive coordinator? How many minutes has it been since we scored a goal from the run of play?
By stating that Bradley is a "defensive coordinator", I'm not arguing that he is a defensive genius and that, as a poster suggests, the Nats will never get scored on. I'm simply saying that defensive tactics are his specialty. Just look at how many matches Bob used to experiment with fitting two defensive midfielders onto the field. I think Nowak makes a HUGE difference. He was not only a world class player in his prime, but a world class creative midfielder, which are far and few between. To argue that having a great #10 in the coaching staff, particularly for a country that has never produced a #10 and doesn't look to do it anytime soon, has no impact on the teams offensive performance is absurd. Bob Bradley never even played professional soccer, and you are arguing that having arguably the best ever Polish playmaker as the assistant coach makes no difference? Would having Zidane or Figo giving the Nats feedback in the training camps about how to launch counter attacks, time runs, or maintain possession not matter either? To argue that is to not understand how significant a coach is to a teams success...Just look at how quickly Hiddink turned around Chelsea... The US Nats can not maintain possession of the ball to save their life. The fact that we only let Brazil score 3 goals on us in a match in which we had zero possession really doesn't bode that poorly for the Nats defensive. This has not been a consistent problem, particularly against CONCACAF competition. It is a problem that has shown up since the Costa Rica match, a month after Nowak left the coaching staff.
Also, Nowak does not hate Adu. Nowak hated being pressured into starting a kid over proven veteran players because of commercial and media interest. The last time we saw Adu shine was in the Olympics, where he was coached by Peter Nowak.