List them here: My favorite WC coaching blunder is: WC Argentina 1978: Brazilian coach Claudio Coutinho decides to take with him to Argentina midfielder CHICAO (a rough working class midfielder) and leave at home 23 year old FALCAO already a legend in Brazil. Hidden reason: FALCAO played in southern Brazil and not in the Rio & Sao Paulo area where the media has enormous pressure on coaches to select local players. This would have been like not taking Ronaldinho Gaucho to Japan/Korea, except that this time the coach himself Scolari was a Gaucho.This still happens in Brazil to an extent. Falcao would be a key player in the 1982 "dream team" but by 1986 even though he was called up he was on the brink of retirement. So we only got Falcao at 1 WC at his prime. Thanks Coutinho!
Bielsa leaving Saviola at home and believing that playing 2 center forwards would initiate armageddon. Glenn Hoddle playing Beckham as a wingback. Portugal underestimating for the US Not only a 3-6-1, but also not taking Eddie Lewis, starting Deering, and just playing players out of position.
I dont think this was a coaching Blunder. Luis Hernandez was dropped from the Mexican National Team by Aguirre when he took over. Mexico played their remaining qualifiers and even Copa America without LH. Just before the Worldo Cup Aguirre called in Gabriel Caballero an Argentine midfielder whom he had coached at Pachuca. Caballero had just received his Mexican Citizenship and Luis Hernandez started an anti Caballero campaign. A few months before the start of the World Cup there were some players that were forced into the team two of them being Jorge Campos and Luis Hernandez. From the begining it was Clear that LH was never part of Aguirres squad and only received PT because of the higher ups. This affected Francisco Palencia which had been a key player in Mexicos qualification process, LH got more PT than Palencia.. I honestly dont think Aguirre had anything to do with the two substitutions that were made against the USMNT. The second sub was Alberto Garcia Aspe which retired right after the WC. Im not saying Mexico threw the game, but the FMF has been known to force players or substitutions before. In WC94 Coach Mejia Baron wasnt allowed to sub in Hugo Sanchez in the match against Bulgaria while Luis Roberto Alves Zague sucked balls and played every game. Now you must ask how do i know about Hugol in 94. Well in the second half or in the extra halfs, Mejia Baron sends Hugo to warm Up. A few minutes later you can see him talking in a cell phone and after that Hugo goes back to the bench.
Many teams have succesfully used that formation, Just ask Argentina.. I think the US squad had more problems than just the coaching which was decent IMO. Besides Yugoslavia and Germany were better teams.
Various Styles is absolutely right. (Did I just say that! ) 3-6-1 has come to symbolize everything that went wrong with the US team in '98 but the reality is that team was f'd up from top to bottom. The biggest blunder that I've seen, I have to think, was Portugal under-estimating the US in 2002. That was just plain dumb.
Holland 2002, they didn't qualify. Not qualifying is the biggest blunder. After that the ball bounces very strange.
Alf Ramsey taking Bobby Charlton and Martin Peters off against Germany in the 1970 World Cup quarters because, at 2-0, he believed the game won and wanted to rest these two key players for the semis. Germany score twice in ten minutes to level it and Gerd Muller buries the winner in extra-time. Could have won that World Cup. Biggest blunder of them all. Seriously ... there are none bigger.
I would of loved to have been a fly on the wall in that locker room before the game! Possible conversation: "The only players who might cause problems are Lalas and Reyna" - or something to that effect
In addition to Sampson's ludicrous formation (not so much a ludicrous formation, but ludicrous for the players we had) his decision to cloister the players off like they were in a monastery.
yup, that and Sampson's 1998 formation as well as his efforts to disrupt team unity. Mick's calling out his best player before the tournament was also pretty dumb
Steve Sampson was the worst thing to happen to American soccer. He alone botched '98 and made our boys prove themselves all over again in qualifying for 2002 and then in the WC. What a jackass.
1.Sampson installed the 3-6-1 just before the cup and we weren't even close to being ready to play it. 2.Yugoslavia and Germany were better.Iran?We should have played better in that match also. 3.Roy Wegerle trying to hold off three or four defenders while attempting to possess a long ball should have sent a few signs that this isn't going to work. It wasn't the biggest coaching blunder in WC history at all.But it should be noted. And every WC team has problems other than coaching.It's just being the first team to ever take 32nd place makes them all stand out a little bit more,don'tcha think?
antonio oliveira...not to get rid of credit from the USa..but poerugal played like ************ because he started baia...jprge costa, and figo(injured)....he also didnt start rui costa in the s korean game instead of joao pinto..i have full confidence that he would ahve made a huge difference
Daniel Pasarella, Argentina's coach in 1988, barred Redondo, who was a very good player from the team because he wouldn't cut his hair. Pasarella was a good coach in other respects, but I personally think that was dumb. And wasn't there another coach that forbid his players to have sex?
Me thinks you mean 1998, Anyhoo Redondo was the one who took himself out of the National team. I remeber seeing the press conference and he gave many reasons including fatugue.
D'oh! Yeah, I meant 1998. I guess the haircut stuff was propaganda, I recall seeing articles about it. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v20/n15/hami01_.html After all, had not his arch-foe, Passarella, Argentina's team-boss, dropped one of his major stars, Redondo, because the player refused to make an appointment with the barber? Not that I believe everything I read in the papers
How about starting Ronaldo, who had had pre-game convulsions in the locker room, in the 1998 final against France? The bigger question is just whose decision was that anyway?
How about Sven picking the 46 year old Teddy Sheringham, a player so slow that Dame Thora Hird, 96, beat him in a celebrity charity 100 metre sprint with a time of 4 hours, 32 minutes and 12 seconds ahead of Matt Jansen ?. This showed itself in the Brazil game when we were trying to equalise. Instead of a pacy, creative forward that had scored about 10-12 goals in the league after the Worthington cup final, and set people up (Jansen), he had an, old, slow has-been living on former glories (Sheringham).