John Nieman
One can certainly say that this has been a summer of soccer. It’s been quite enjoyable here in my retirement to be able to spend my afternoons watching the Euros and my evenings watching Copa America. So much to take in, and so many interesting story lines.
First of all, I want to note that international soccer is a completely different animal from club soccer. These are basically All-Star teams that get together for a couple of weeks and then play in very important tournaments. The nature of the team, and therefore the nature of the coach, are very different from what you would want or expect from a club coach. And this has led to some of the more interesting story lines.
To begin with, the position is as a coach rather than a manager. The season is four to eight games rather than 30 to 40 games. The players may be selected by the coach, but they don’t have to come and play. One of the roles of the coach is to make the experience of playing for the national team an attractive one. The pundits that one hears who bemoan the fact that some coaches cater to the players don’t seem to understand that there is not the same incentive to play for the team that there is to play for the club.
And so you have situations such as what does Roberto Martinez, the coach at Portugal, do about Cristiano Ronaldo? Does Gareth Southgate bench Harry Kane? What does Greg Berhalter do about Gio Reyna? The answers are relatively simple if you are dealing with the question of what is best for the team in the next game. But it becomes more complex when you are having to cope with your nation’s expectations in a very, very short season.
Which brings me to the firing of Greg Berhalter as coach of the USMNT. Coach Berhalter played at Carolina, but I don’t know him and don’t think I ever met him. I think he got a pretty raw deal out of all this. From what I can tell, the criticisms of him include his handling of Gio Reyna, his lack of success in tournament play, the fact that the players overwhelmingly supported him, and that he may have been the recipient of some nepotism.
First off, Gio Reyna doesn’t seem to be able to get on the field in any of his club team competitions. And it’s not from injury. He clearly appears to be very talented, but one must think there’s something going on here. And in my opinion, Berhalter’s response to and handling of Reyna’s parent’s outrageous actions were commendable.
As to Berhalter’s lack of success in tournament play, he has enjoyed great success in Nations League and Gold Cup competition. The criticism is that he should be leading us to further glory in more expansive international tournaments. But doesn’t that really depend on the quality of our players? As noted above, the national team coach only has a limited time to work with the players given. Much is dependent on the quality and experience of those players. And while it is true that they are playing for European clubs, how much playing time are they getting? Arguably our best player, Christian Pulisic, is an important role player for Milan, but he is certainly not the main man, and none of our other players are more than occasional starters. Many think Reyna is one of our top players but he can’t seem to get a game on any club team.
The fact that Berhalter enjoys the support of the players should be a plus. And any nepotism allegation is patently ridiculous given the incestuous nature of the US federation.
In my opinion, the absurd pursuit of Jurgen Klopp to be the coach was just a smoke screen. It will certainly be interesting to see how it actually pans out.
There has been a lot of talk about how the soccer is not as scintillating this summer as fans have become accustomed to watching in the domestic leagues. That is to be expected. But the competition, for me, has been riveting. The top teams may not have been playing to the expected potential–except perhaps for Spain–but the competition has been fierce.
And more interesting to me are the lessons we are learning in world geography. For those of us who grew up hearing about and finding on the map Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, it is quite the learning experience to identify Slovakia and Slovenia and Croatia and Serbia and discovering that, at least according to Fox Sports, Turkey is actually Turkiye. For some reason, ESPN still thinks it’s Turkey.
One lesson that I sincerely hope has been learned by FIFA and the US soccer federation is that the Copa America experience should be seen as a negative learning exercise. With the World Cup just two years away and being played here in North America, I certainly hope they have learned about proper field conditions and security.
Clearly, the people in charge of security at Carolina Panther stadium discovered that, unlike with the NFL, you can’t put fans and supporters of one team next to and surrounding the family, fans and supporters of the opposing team without proper security safeguards. One’s devotion to their national team in the most popular sport in the world is not the same as the passion one has for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And, just as importantly, the fields must reflect the magnitude of the event. One could see just watching on television the poor condition of the fields in the Copa. It is madness to just roll out sods of grass over artificial turf and think that’s going to be okay. Of course, I could do an entire series of columns on the stupidity of artificial turf. It is a reflection of the priorities placed on money over player safety that we have this abomination. The first time I ever played on artificial turf, I developed what they call “turf toe,” which is a polite way of saying I broke my big toe from the sudden stops that occur on artificial turf as opposed to natural grass.
I am writing this before the finals of the Euros and the Copa. For what it’s worth, I believe England and Columbia will emerge as victors.
Constant television viewing has not helped the Index. Fat Boy Index: 286.