Top Stories

Kick TV: Jimmy Conrad interviews Sunil Gulati


[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh7L6kovr1w]

Comments

  1. Gulati made a very strong point when he brought up the fact that the next generation of coaches are going to have a major impact on early player development. More specifically, he said that the guys who played in the 70s and 80s and are coaching now will have a large impact on player development in the future. He was wrong about those 70s and 80s guys making a large impact, those guys (and gals) have already coached A LOT, and have helped America develop a tendency to play a classless kick and run, do-everything-as-fast-and-reckless-as-possible-to-score-a-goal-and-win-in-the-moment style. Many of these coaches are so blind to technical talent, or in love with players who can only make adrenaline-pumping tackles and runs (because that’s American, f yea, and the ignorant game they were raised on) that the players who are actually talented and play a classier game don’t get time (because their more skillful, efficient style of play makes them appear to be lazy compared to their teammates who can run real fast, pass fitness tests, and tackle hard). Many of today’s young competitive American youth have already played more soccer by age 15 than their future college coaches (raised in the 70s and 80s) did their whole lives. Players brought up in the 90s and 10s, by playing so much more legit competitive soccer at the youth ranks, and having much more exposure to the international game are the ones who are going to change the game in America.

    As always, fantastic work Jimmy Conrad.

    Reply
  2. I sometimes wonder if Sunil knows the first thing about kicking around a ball… No doubt the man is sharp as a tack but can he play and does he have intense passion for the sport?

    Reply
    • dan,

      From a Washington Post article in 2010:

      “”The highest-paid USSF official is chief executive Dan Flynn at $646,066. President Sunil Gulati, whose full-time job is teaching at Columbia University, is not compensated by the USSF.
      As a tax-exempt, non-profit organization, the USSF is required to release its financial statement annually. “

      This suggests that he either he doesn’t get paid anything or more likely his compensation is funneled through some other body besides the USSF.

      Sunil is the President but only has one vote on their board. I believe there are 13 or 14 other voting members.

      Which means he is a figurehead who is not all powerful.

      The point is it doesn’t sound like a dream gig for someone who doesn’t love soccer.

      As for this horse manure that he needs to have been a good player, I notice Michael Jordan is an awesome NBA executive.

      Reply
  3. I like to think I was the Messi or Ronaldo 8 year old America missed out on that Gulati talked about. Man I was good back then

    Reply
      • What’s the “etc.”? There was Rossi, and then there was Subotic…what other majorly talented dual-nationality players has the US missed out on?

      • Rossi never was going to play for us, he was Italian at heart, but another dual national who could of played for us may of been Hangeland.

      • Had Freddy Adu’s mother immigrated to France as many Ghanaians do, Freddy would have been that level. Instead he really is the missed great soccer talent that our domestic league and coaches failed to develop properly. The irony is that he wasn’t missed but overhyped.

      • I think the point Conrad and Gulati were trying to put out there was that the country is so big and the scouting network so small that there was possibly a few supremely talented young players who never got the coaching they required to excel or never got discovered and simply faded off into the distance.

Leave a Comment