A Novel Argument for an American Coach

Jeff Bradley, writing this time on USSoccerplayers.com makes what has to be the most novel argument I've yet read for hiring an American - or, an "American-bred" coach - to coach the U.S. national team. It's not a bad argument either. What is it?

"The shambolic state of American soccer would drive a foreign coach crazy, therefore, let's hire a Yank."

Or, in his phrasing:

"When you examine it closely, [former coach, Bruce] Arena did a great job coaching the U.S. because it was his dream job, and he believed in the American player. He was patriotic about the whole thing. He was willing to deal with a difficult system. He was willing to do whatever it was going to take. In short, he was the perfect American soccer coach."

"Mostly because he was American."

"Now, it's time to find the best American (born or bred) coach out there. A guy who will: look at the job as a dream job and not a stepping stone to something bigger and better. Not a guy who will throw up his hands when he's watching a mid-July afternoon game in Houston or Dallas and wonder what the heck it is he's watching."


I think I paraphrased that fairly...

Is Bradley's assessment correct? Possibly. It depends on the take we want to take toward developing the U.S. team. If the plan is to let the team grow organically along with Major League Soccer, an American coach should do nicely; so long as FIFA keeps allotting three World Cup spaces to our region (CONCACAF), qualifying for the finals shouldn't be that difficult. But if we want to gamble and take a stab at accelerating the technical and tactical development level of the American game, a foreign coach makes more sense; even on this path, we should still qualify for the Cup every four years.

Without claiming strong sympathies in either direction, I'm still leaning toward DC United's Peter Nowak for some dang reason.

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2 comments:

D said...

No, you can't have him. He's ours.

The Manly Ferry said...

Gimme, gimme, gimme!

Seriously, he seems a smart one. I think he'd do pretty well wherever he goes. Assuming he is a major part of DC's success (Jeff Bradley seems to think he is), speaking as a Revolution fan, I'd sure like to see him get the call.