Where do we go from here?
In 1998, Steve Sampson resigned pretty much immediately after the cup. Will Bruce Arena do so as well? Actually he doesn’t have to because his contract ends at the end of the cup. But what is the way forward? There are actually some startling similarities between the situation in 1998 following the cup and 2006. But there are striking similarities before the cup as well.
I’m not going to go for the obvious ones that BigSoccer posters have gone around in circle(jerk)s over for weeks regarding easy friendly opponents and odd formations, but deeper things.
First of all, I want to say: Steve Sampson is not as bad a coach as you think. Okay, maybe he is NOW but he wasn’t in 1995-97 when he took over the National Team Program. Before 1998 ruined him. He had an amazing record as the coach of the USA. Spectacular results and stunning showings given the dearth of talent that he had compared to the present day.
USA 4 Mexico 0
USA 3 Argentina 0
USA 0 Brazil 1
(Yes, it was a loss. But this semifinal of the Copa America marked a huge change in mentality for U.S. soccer. We attacked and actually forced Brazil to play defensively against us.)
USA 0 Mexico 0 (in the Azteca, down a man)
USA 1 Brazil 0
These results restored belief in not only the American player, but the American coach. Gansler hadn’t exactly excelled in Italy in 1990, and Bora was brought in to make the USA ‘respectable.’ Steve Sampson proved that an American coach could get the best out of American players as well. Ironically, he wasn’t even supposed to be the US coach. The US had already signed a gentleman’s agreement with Carlos Alberto Pereira after USA94, but the USSF ended up giving the job to Sampson. Almost all of that good will and belief was undone, however by finishing last in France98.
When the search began for a replacement in 1998, the thinking was we needed an outsider. It had been shown that American Coaches just couldn’t cut it at the international level. Arena was far from first choice for the position, but his success at DC and UVA combined with others’ disinterest led to him getting the job. He picked up stunning results as well and restored faith in the program.
3-0 over Germany
1-0 over Argenitna
Three 2-0 wins over Mexico
3-2 over Portugal.
But now that hard work has been undone again by a poor showing at the World Cup, and once again, people say we need a foreign coach. MLS coaches just can’t cut it at the international level.
Bull.
Sorry, but I don’t believe that for a minute. MLS coaches know MLS players, how they play and how they think. That’s a very important think in this job. More importantly, MLS coaches know the place of soccer in the US and the critical role that the National Team plays in that place. It’s a critical piece of knowledge that I don’t trust anyone from outside the system to understand without at least a year or two to get there.
Realistically, what the coach of the USA needs is time. A great coach like Guus Hiddink would do a short-run job for us. Look at what he did for South Korea in 2002 or Australia this year. Yeah, he’d get us short-term success, but where would that leave us after he left? Look at where South Korea ended up this year. Outplayed badly by France even though they got the draw and well beaten by the Swiss. Not a great showing by any means.
No, we need tenure. Can we get someone who could provide us with both? Certainly the US Soccer Federation has enough money to entice someone into the job, but can the prestige (or lack thereof) hold on to a great coach? If we somehow manage to get Scolari to come to the US job, would he stay with us when England come knocking after a failure at Euro 2008? Somehow, I think the draw of more money and a short-term glory job would be a bit too much for someone like him to want to stay with the USA and where would that leave us?
Where do we go from here? I don’t know. Who can we get? Who do we want? These questions will have to wait until after the World Cup to be sure, but we know that whoever we end up choosing, we have to support the decision and give them time.
I will leave you with the thoughts of the second-most successful US coach of all time:
“The next coach needs to go about his business, especially in the next two years prior to qualifying, where results are less important than exposing players to the international level. But that's going to be very difficult because this is a results-oriented society with commitment to sponsors and their desire to having a winning product.”
''The key for me has always been, whether it's an American or a foreigner - everyone must support him. I'm a firm believer the U.S. will never win a world championship without an American coach in charge, because there are too many cultural nuances that play a part in a team's success.”
-Steve Sampson, upon his resignation, July 1998.
I’m not going to go for the obvious ones that BigSoccer posters have gone around in circle(jerk)s over for weeks regarding easy friendly opponents and odd formations, but deeper things.
First of all, I want to say: Steve Sampson is not as bad a coach as you think. Okay, maybe he is NOW but he wasn’t in 1995-97 when he took over the National Team Program. Before 1998 ruined him. He had an amazing record as the coach of the USA. Spectacular results and stunning showings given the dearth of talent that he had compared to the present day.
USA 4 Mexico 0
USA 3 Argentina 0
USA 0 Brazil 1
(Yes, it was a loss. But this semifinal of the Copa America marked a huge change in mentality for U.S. soccer. We attacked and actually forced Brazil to play defensively against us.)
USA 0 Mexico 0 (in the Azteca, down a man)
USA 1 Brazil 0
These results restored belief in not only the American player, but the American coach. Gansler hadn’t exactly excelled in Italy in 1990, and Bora was brought in to make the USA ‘respectable.’ Steve Sampson proved that an American coach could get the best out of American players as well. Ironically, he wasn’t even supposed to be the US coach. The US had already signed a gentleman’s agreement with Carlos Alberto Pereira after USA94, but the USSF ended up giving the job to Sampson. Almost all of that good will and belief was undone, however by finishing last in France98.
When the search began for a replacement in 1998, the thinking was we needed an outsider. It had been shown that American Coaches just couldn’t cut it at the international level. Arena was far from first choice for the position, but his success at DC and UVA combined with others’ disinterest led to him getting the job. He picked up stunning results as well and restored faith in the program.
3-0 over Germany
1-0 over Argenitna
Three 2-0 wins over Mexico
3-2 over Portugal.
But now that hard work has been undone again by a poor showing at the World Cup, and once again, people say we need a foreign coach. MLS coaches just can’t cut it at the international level.
Bull.
Sorry, but I don’t believe that for a minute. MLS coaches know MLS players, how they play and how they think. That’s a very important think in this job. More importantly, MLS coaches know the place of soccer in the US and the critical role that the National Team plays in that place. It’s a critical piece of knowledge that I don’t trust anyone from outside the system to understand without at least a year or two to get there.
Realistically, what the coach of the USA needs is time. A great coach like Guus Hiddink would do a short-run job for us. Look at what he did for South Korea in 2002 or Australia this year. Yeah, he’d get us short-term success, but where would that leave us after he left? Look at where South Korea ended up this year. Outplayed badly by France even though they got the draw and well beaten by the Swiss. Not a great showing by any means.
No, we need tenure. Can we get someone who could provide us with both? Certainly the US Soccer Federation has enough money to entice someone into the job, but can the prestige (or lack thereof) hold on to a great coach? If we somehow manage to get Scolari to come to the US job, would he stay with us when England come knocking after a failure at Euro 2008? Somehow, I think the draw of more money and a short-term glory job would be a bit too much for someone like him to want to stay with the USA and where would that leave us?
Where do we go from here? I don’t know. Who can we get? Who do we want? These questions will have to wait until after the World Cup to be sure, but we know that whoever we end up choosing, we have to support the decision and give them time.
I will leave you with the thoughts of the second-most successful US coach of all time:
“The next coach needs to go about his business, especially in the next two years prior to qualifying, where results are less important than exposing players to the international level. But that's going to be very difficult because this is a results-oriented society with commitment to sponsors and their desire to having a winning product.”
''The key for me has always been, whether it's an American or a foreigner - everyone must support him. I'm a firm believer the U.S. will never win a world championship without an American coach in charge, because there are too many cultural nuances that play a part in a team's success.”
-Steve Sampson, upon his resignation, July 1998.
posted by Zathras at 7:28 AM
1 Comments:
Actually, I think Arena's contract is up the end of Dec 2006.
Not sure if I buy the MLS angle though. There is some merit to concerns that the MLS is not preparing our team for play on the international level. An international coach may bring more of that insight to the team that an MLS coach may not be able to.
That said, I agree with you about tenure - they need to find someone they feel will stick around. Bruce had 8 years which was a good run at it. Hopefully we'll find someone willing to stay just as long.
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