Jesse Marsch had a historic season with Austrian Bundesliga side and Sunday saw the American manager given the highest honor in the league.
Marsch was named Manager of the Year on Sunday following Salzburg’s 3-0 win over LASK. It was the first feat for an American manager in the league and well deserving after the strong season Salzburg had with Marsch at the helm.
This is how you end a season! ?? Congrats, Dominik #Szoboszlai and Jesse #Marsch! pic.twitter.com/DoiqCu41vz
— FC Red Bull Salzburg EN (@FCRBS_en) July 5, 2020
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“Winning Coach of the Year for me is a reward for the entire team, which I think is deserved,” Marsch said. “The trophy is for the whole coaching staff, as we have worked so well together. Losing players in winter brought us even closer together.”
The former New York Red Bulls head coach and RB Leipzig assistant became the first American born and raised manager to win a European title and a domestic double after clinching the league title last weekend. Marsch also his Salzburg players roll to an Austrian Cup title after a 5-0 win over Austria Lustenau back in May.
Despite losing star players Erling Haaland, Marin Pongracic, Takumi Minamino back in the January Transfer Window, Salzburg continued on the path to success this season and Marsch was a major reason for it.
Salzburg got a major boost in claiming the league title earlier this Spring after moving into first place following league actions. Then-league leaders LASK was docked 12 points for breaking social distancing rules by conducting full training sessions before they were permitted.
Salzburg rolled to an 11-match unbeaten run in all competitions since its return to domestic action back in May. Marsch’s team posted a 9-2-0 record in that span, while scoring three goals or more in eight of those 11 matches.
The club also posted a 2-1-3 record in the UEFA Champions League this season, earning a pair of wins over Belgian Pro League side Genk and a road draw at Serie A side Napoli. Salzburg also pushed current EPL winners Liverpool to the edge in 4-3 and 2-0 defeats also in group stage play.
Salzburg dropped into the Europa League Round of 32, but unfortunately were eliminated by Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt after a 6-3 aggregate scoreline.
With the season over, Marsch will now look to retool the squad for a push towards more trophies in 2020-21′. The club will return to the UEFA Champions League after winning the league, seeking a first-ever knockout round berth.
In college, I was a fooßballmeister.
The system had been in place for years and the club had won 6 straight league titles and 5 of 6 Cups. Nice for Jesse but this has also been done by 4 RB Salazburg managers since 2013. Rodger Schmidt moved to Leverkuesen (now at PSV), Adi Hutter went to a Young Boys (now at Eintracht), Oscar Garcia now at Celta Vigo (did the double twice), Marco Rose moves to Mochengladbach. None of them stuck around more than two seasons but their all managing in top leagues now even if they had a few stops before getting there.
Lame. Ever considered that they are a way-station to good teams elsewhere? Haaland is now at Dortmund, Rose coaches BM (4th B.1), Garcia coaches Celta Vigo. Apparently only Marsch triggers skepticism there. Fact is RB Leipzig sent him to RB Salzburg as basically proof of concept for him to later be a Bundesliga coach. Really, it’s kind of laughable to the extent there’s still bias after what Bradley and he have done over there. Clearly we can do just fine.
Lame is acting like this proves anything to the American Soccer audience, any manager in MLS could take Salzburg to a title. It would be like giving a foreign manager the job with the Yankees, anyone half decent is going to win. As I pointed out he’ll likely get a chance to move up after this showing, as he should. The test will be if he leaves the Red Bull system will he be able to implement his system for a team that likely won’t have more talent than his opponent as he had this year.
He was hired by RB Leipzig when they did well, is learning German, and has been successful. This was proof of concept and a holding pattern for the RB Leipzig top job. If RB doesn’t snap him up he might coach someplace else in Germany. He was a very good coach here — I don’t have to convince anyone of that when he was on pace to set a points record. Your real argument is he doesn’t have them convinced and clearly based on the RB grooming he has at least one organization convinced. Likely others. He may not get hired to coach BM, but there are 17 other teams and he has teams as high as 3rd interested. It won’t be long. I mean, do you just want to ignore the two predecessors are at Gladbach and in La Liga???
Rah rah Jesse Marsch! Excellent stuff.
“Österreichischer Fußballmeister” is going to look so rad on his résumé.