Top Stories

SBI Question of the Day: Who would you pick to coach the USMNT?

1 Shares

The U.S. Men’s National Team is still without a permanent head coach, but general manager Earnie Stewart insists an official appointment is coming soon, potentially be the end of the month.

Gregg Berhalter of the Columbus Crew is reportedly the leading candidate, but there are several good candidates in the mix? All signs point to Stewart bringing in an American name rather than outsourcing the job to foreign talent.

Let’s forget what seems likely for a second, and think about what you would do? If you were thrust into the USMNT general manager position, who would you hire to lead the team into the future?

Plenty of names have been thrown around in addition to Berhalter. Tab Ramos, currently in charge of the U-20 team would be a fine fit based on his experiences with the youth sides. Oscar Pareja of FC Dallas also has experience with American youth thanks to his club’s excellent academy system. Jesse Marsch, former New York Red Bulls coach, has recently gained some experience abroad since his move to RB Leipzig and may have some valuable insight for the team. Finally, Sporting Kansas City’s Peter Vermes has been one of the more successful coaches in MLS and could carry that over to the National Team.

Perhaps you like the way things are going with current interim boss Dave Sarachan and you want him to stick around to run the team permanently.

Perhaps you don’t like any of them and want someone else entirely.

Who would you hire if you were choosing the next USMNT coach? Cast your vote here, and if you don’t like any of the candidates listed, let us know who you would give the job to.

[polldaddy poll=10140506]

Comments

      • All things considered though, the “conventional” way to do this is to log back out of the account, and then change your name back to “Ivan”. Nonetheless, I admire your commitment to consensus-building. Good Job!

  1. You can not say you want creative, assertive, decisive soccer and run your program with blatantly flaccid apathy……

    I’m not throwing rocks at Ramos or Berhalter….. they may well do a fine job. I think Sarachan has done a good job given the circumstances. All top managers started somewhere. Hopefully they end up earning the keys to a National Program retroactively.

    That said…. just F’n wow….. it is absolutely mind-boggling that US Soccer could hold the team in directionless limbo with a band-aid interim… to take OVER A YEAR… to hire a youth coach or guy with no international experience, zero outside demand that was sitting on your back porch… and would have taken the job in a second. Even more unacceptable is that this is the response to one of the greatest failures in the history of the program. Pathetic. We have talent and I have hope. Hope that Stewart, whoever the selection is and our youth can break out of, reject the stench of mediocrity that preceded them.

    Reply
  2. Are we seriously saying this is the best we can do, with our ambitions, and a year to search? Or even 3 months under the GM? It comes across unambitious, but more pointedly, I am lost at why you would need much of a search at all if we were really this unambitious and chasing after people this obvious. How could this have not been done last November, or within a matter of days in August? Obvious names, cheap, no effort.

    Reply
    • I mean, Stewart made some big display of canvassing the constituents to learn what the position needed, sounds like there were quite a few candidates, and then the end result of the elaborate mechanism and getting a GM in place to guide it, are the brother of a USSF executive, and the U20 coach.

      Reply
    • Because its actually what the fans demanded. It couldn’t have been done last November because no one would have accepted a replacement by Gulati on his way out and few would have accepted it not knowing who would take over and whether they would be fired by the new guy. That meant February at the earliest, but when the candidate who ran on the “I’m keeping my hands off” won it meant someone had to be hired to hire a new coach. The hiring of the GM took awhile with from most reports no one actually wanting the thankless job, which included little power and much responsibility. The biggest question is why Stewart took so long to leave Philadelphia? You have to begin to wonder on the financial abilities of US Soccer given that they didn’t pay a buyout for Stewart and seemingly were unable or unwilling to buy out a current employed manager. Has the loss of WC revenue, terrible attendance, payouts to Bradley and Jk not to coach, and decreasing add revenue crippled them financially?

      Reply
    • You know he doesn’t like fly around to every development academy and workout the players right? I think what Tab does on a daily basis for the Youth set up could be passed on to someone else without much trouble.

      Reply
    • They are already risking the youth development system as more than one YNT coaching slot has been left open while we do the senior team coaching search. They were literally told, you can’t go find the youth coaches until this neverending saga ends. You only get so many years of YNT.

      Reply
  3. The biggest mistake was not letting Ramos take over the “caretaker position” he did good with the younger guys so in a youth movement why not let some who has worked with them take over. Dave has done nothing but stagnate the process of a system which isn’t his fault entirely. Our youth teams constantly compete with other nations around the world if u look back over the last few years, he isn’t the blame for further development because some are stuck in shitty situations at home or abroad but he has gotten the best out of them.

    Reply
    • As I understand it he was not going to accept “interim.” The price of admission to that ride was going to be hiring him full time, which was at odds with both how they wanted to handle the coaching search to begin (caretaker then coach) and how it evolved (we’re not even hiring him til the presidential election, etc.).

      Reply
  4. Lets look at it this way.

    We want to compete in a real competition not friendlies with the Germanys, Italys, Argentinas, Brazils, Frances of the world right? So if this list of potential manager was given to a fan group from those countries what do you think they would think of the names on that list. What acheivements do any of these names have other than some varied success in a lower tier league like MLS?

    Obviously, we are not the level of those nations but we should be aspiring to hire a NT manager of that caliber rather than setting our sites on managers that would be completely laughed at the idea they’d ever manage one of those nations based on their level of managing experience.

    That said. I applaud Jesse Marsch for going to RB Lepzig to expand his coaching resume and experience. Development of coaching talent is just as important to our future NT success as is developing player talent. Jesse’s move is a big step towards that. I like how the Red Bulls play and of the names on the list Marsch would be the only one I’d be okay with, however, that’s after he’s managed at higher level than MLS which he is now pursuing it seems so good on him.

    Reply
    • Bullshit.
      The only way to compete with the Germanys, Italys, Argentinas, Brazils, Frances of the world is to develop players like the Germanys, Italys, Argentinas, Brazils, Frances of the world. A good coach can help you win a random game against the Germanys, Italys, Argentinas, Brazils, Frances of the world but won’t bring you to their level. You need good players for that.

      Reply
      • Go talk to the YNT about player development. I agree to the premise that a significant part of senior team success stems from the quality of players developed earlier on. But in terms of the senior NT you have a job to do and here are the current players at your disposal. Do your best with them. I don’t think ebbs and flows in development should ever get so bad Panama sneaks in ahead of us.

      • Thank you Captain Obvious. I think you mistook my point which is we should not be setting our sites on MLS level manafers but aspiring for a higher level of managerial experience and success. A MLS Cup or playoff appearance is not a high level of managerial success given the low level of league competition.

    • Lame. I have never cared once what “fan groups” from established soccer countries think of us or our coaches. Cut the inferiority complex.

      Reply
      • First off I’m an Atlanta and MLS fan. No inferiority complex rather a reality complex, MLS is many rungs below the level of play and sophistication in tactics of a top 5 euro league or even the Brazilian or Argentine league’s even if we have more money.

        We should be mandating our best players to seek out and play regular club minutes at the highest levels of competition, which right now is not MLS.

        We should be pushing for most of our NT roster being made up of euro club level players. It only makes sense to want a manager who also has managed in europe if our best players are also playing there.

        If I’m a Pulisic or Mckennie or Brooks I just don’t think a Berhalter or Ramos as a coach with there lack of experience outside coaching in the US will hold water with that level of player. They need a manager who has the experience and managerial success they could respect.

    • Amen to the primary thrust that if we are ambitious to that level the choices under consideration are not worthy of that ambition. There are some serious coaches out there without jobs, what we’re doing is settling. ESPN pointed out the other night that if it’s Berhalter he’s the least winning of the long tenured MLS coaches.

      Reply
    • My thing is that Berhalter and Sarachan are not even to the level of Arena or Bradley before them, who make some fanboys grumble. They at least won MLS or college or CONCACAF CL before getting “promoted.”

      Reply
      • Just curious, IV… Have you seen how Columbus play much?

        Berhalter has instituted the best combination of style of play and winning culture on a much smaller budget than most other teams in the league.

      • dL: I have seen them play, but that’s besides the point. My point is he objectively is meh relative to other long tenured MLS coaches. My point is that if you are some secret program builder over time the arc should bend towards you. The one final he made he got beat by Portland and Porter who were budget at the time just the same.

        I feel like the budget thing becomes this anti-science excuse for all manner of self serving subjective optimism. Ranieri won EPL with Leicester. SAF won SPL and Europe with Aberdeen. Mourinho won Europe with Porto. I think what’s sneaking in here is the bias of low expectations.

      • I think the coach should demonstrate high familiarity with our players or be from here. I think an outside coach who really wanted the job could do his homework and be worthy of the job.

        But to me what I want more than anything is a demonstrated history of winning. Not “plucky small clubhood.” Winning. There is actually some history — Moyes comes to mind, and he’s even thrown in his hat here — of coaches perceived as punching above their weight — but not actually getting trophies with their small clubs — who when given the big jobs basically churn out the same midtable type results. Oh, but Everton is a smaller club, he’ll be better with ManU’s roster. And then he ends up same table spot.

      • IV: To prove your point that budget doesn’t matter you went all the way back to 1983 to try to prove your point, even the financial climate of Mourinho in 2003 isn’t a fair comparison.

      • Yes. I see. Commitment to “winning”. Remind me again what Tata has won? The Spanish Super Cup? WOW! An exhibition game! Tata has left a trail of failure longer than anybody can follow. 2013-2014 was perhaps the sorriest debacle in Barca’s last two decades. A “total failure” (Tata’s words, not mine). He also faceplanted with Argentina twice, and Atlanta last year (vs Berhalter)…. and I will happily bet money he craters the ship again this year.

    • I don’t know that I buy that the managers in other leagues are better just because the league is better. There are many other factors involved there. Is NYCFC dominating because they have Torrent (6 pts from their last 8 matches 7-4-6 since he took over), or because they had Viera before? Is Atlanta good because they have Martino or is it because they also put together a roster that spent money on young in their prime DPs instead of Euro retirees? If you watch a match in the Bundesliga in the morning, the EPL in the afternoon, and MLS at night the tactics are not much different. The difference is the skill of the players, Liga Mx doesn’t win CONCACAF tournaments because they have better managers its because their rosters are better.
      —————————————————————————
      Bob Bradley’s WC team had a roster made up entirely of Euro players or players that would be in Europe within the year. MLS managers are not delusional they know that MLS is not as good as better leagues in Europe. Berhalter, Vanney, Vermes, Pareja would all recommend guys go to Europe.

      Reply
    • We’re still not getting it as a fan base. I make a comment whose main point is that more successful soccer nations wouldn’t find any of these coaching names acceptable for their NT and therefore we also should be aiming higher on the managerial experience and success ladder as a NT than MLS level coaching.

      However, several of you are putting words in my mouth as if I’m saying coaching is more important than players on the field which I never said. I said developing coaching talent is as important as developing player talent. To develop better players you need better coaching guys, none of us would disagree with that. Yet somehow my point of setting our sites higher than a MLS level manager is being rebuttaled with an argument about players vs coaches.

      Five years ago I used to enjoy coming to this site to read the comments, now with a handful of exceptions the commentary on this board is woefully ignorant of the world game that we can’t even recognize basics.

      A———T———–L
      Vai Corinthians, Chupa Porcos, Mata Bambis

      Flame away.

      Reply
      • I think thats a very fair point. None of us know exactly who is available/ willing to take on this job, but I agree that Berhalter or Ramos would probably never be considered for the national team job for any decent program. That doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t be successful, but its not incredibly inspiring either.

      • What we are doing is no different from what most other countries (even the “best” ones) do…. We are promoting one of our best young coaches and former players to the national team job. Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, England… you name it. It’s nothing to be embarrassed of. Just because our young coaches do not have the same qualifications due to our lack of history and experience, doesn’t make it a bad idea. Neither do our players. It’s convenient to imagine we can “shortcut” our way to greatness by hiring some mercenary to come in and implement some system that magicallly turns us into Barcelona.
        *****************************************************
        But its BS. When has this every worked for any national team ever? Perhaps the only example anybody will come up with is South Korea with Hiddink in 2002 — leaving aside that their overperformance was largely due to mortifyingly biased officiating, it’s not like it really heralded a quantum leap forward for Korean soccer. It was a short term illusion. Real growth takes time. Get used to it. Moreover, we are depriving our own coaching pipeline of an opportunity for growth. If we want better coaches, we need to develop them just like we do our players. Europe ain’t gonna do it for us. Outsourcing doesn’t improve the system…. if anything, the intellectual capital exits the system as quickly as it came in when the mercenary manager and his staff leave in a few years. Little if anything is retained. Look at Mexico….. they’ve been in the same position as us for twice as long, failing to take the next meaningful step forward because they are always chasing the next sexy manager.

      • Gomer, You are creating a false argument. No one is saying a new coach will bring mercurial growth and results. People are rightfully asking are Tab Ramos and Greg Berhalter truly the best, most qualified options for our national team? Maybe so, but lets not pretend either have stellar coaching Resumes.
        I for one would not mind a “sexy” pick as the manager. I’d much rather someone with a track record of success than one who has only coached u-20 soccer or one who has had only middling success in MLS and was fired after 46 games in the other coaching position. I really don’t mean that to insult either, but those are facts about their CV.

      • Did anyone know who Zlatko Dalic was before the WC? Was his coaching in Saudia Arabia not prepping him to manage a national team? There aren’t secret tactics that Euro managers learn or hidden drills no one knows. I would wager that everyone on this list has spent portions of many offseasons with clubs in other countries learning from other managers, its what coaches do. They are constantly learning and getting better at their craft or they don’t last. Arena’s issue wasn’t that he coached in MLS it was that he thought he knew it all. I like Klinsmann but as a manager from the Bundesliga and a top 5 national team did he bring new found greatness? No, because he wasn’t a particularly great manager he basically equaled Bradley and Arena’s success. I understand your argument when you use it with players, especially the 21-26-year-old group, but there is just little basis to support that managing in Europe is any benefit to a US manager over only managing in MLS.
        ——————————————————————————————
        The US job at this time is not a top job. It wasn’t 6 years ago when it was given to Klinsmann, he took it because he already lived here and his family wanted to continue living here, and we gave him a load of cash. No top coach is interested in the US right now, yes we have Weah, Pulisic, and McKennie but guess what nations those coaches want have eleven 24-28 year olds who are better and more experienced plus an equal or larger number of 18-24 year olds ready to take their spots. Our pool of talent although promising for us would be laughed at by these nations you refer to. A top coach is taking a job they can win with and the US isn’t winning the WC in four years.

      • Very well said, johnnyrazor. It’s a pity, because I actually like Joe Dirt as a commentor… he raises a lot of good points generally. But he likes to sniff his own farts, while throwing out bizarre Portuguese chants and and bragging about how he is “part Brazilian” which apparently enhances his credibility. Ah well.

      • Johnny, I get some of your points but disagree on one point pretty strongly. No, euro managers do not have secret tactics the Us could employ that are unknown to us Americans. I don’t think that’s the argument being made though. The top European leagues are the best in the world and often have the best coaching talent. This isn’t secret tactics. It’s an eye for how best to use certain players. Understanding which partnerships are going to create the most success for your game plan. Recognizing and knowing how best to exploit an opponents weakness. When where and how to change your lineup to change the game. Maybe most important in international soccer is the ability to man manage and “rally the troops”.
        Skills in these areas are why many if not most managers in Europe have risen to the top. That’s not to say no american coaches don’t have those skills or are not overlooked due to American bias in the soccer world, but past success is often the best indicator of future success. Neither Ramos or Berhalter have much coaching success in their histories. I think either or both of those guys could be very good US coaches, but I’d be much more excited for a guy with a resume of success to step into the job.

  5. This list doesn’t even include the best US coach in MLS–Bob Bradley. I wish US Soccer and Earnie Stewart weren’t so parochial and would consider someone other than a US coach, like Tata Martino.

    Reply
    • He didn’t want the job Gary get over it. His boss Boca is on the advisory committee you are telling me that US Soccer didn’t kick the tires, please you are smarter than that.

      Reply
    • The list is lacking in ambition for my liking. That said… the question is important moving forward. A good manager is more than a surface issue. It is one key step amongst many needed in the process of repairing the whole structure.

      Reply
    • The team is pretty good under construction, it’s more like you’re hiring a new contractor to finish it and considering skimping to either save a buck or feather someone’s nest.

      Reply
      • I think its more like a stager put the pieces in the right places so that it is appealing to the consumer ie. wins games.

Leave a Comment