John Nieman
This month’s column is going to be filled with some very obvious observations. I am a rabid soccer fan. Any regular reader of this space knows this.
I fell in love with the sport my freshman year of high school at Asheville Catholic High School. This was in 1966. I played on the varsity soccer team my freshman and sophomore year, because all that was required to make the team was to try out. There was no soccer team at Bishop McGuinness where I attended my Junior and Senior year until I started a team there my freshman year of college. I played on the freshman team at UNC because, again, all that was required was that you try out. Such was the state of the sport back then.
And I have over the years heard the same refrain: “if soccer became the major sport of the United States, they would be a powerhouse.” Soccer has been touted as the sport of the future in the United States for decades. That has yet to occur. That is obvious. That’s how I made the UNC team.
That’s why I can still play with Dynamo.
And so, it is quite frustrating to watch an interview with the coach of the US Men’s National Team bemoaning the fact that soccer isn’t the major sport in the United States. It is also demeaning to US players and fans for him to suggest that everyone in the US looks at soccer merely as entertainment rather than as a competitive sport.
He is absolutely correct that the United States does not have the same level and intensity of interest in soccer as his native Argentina. That should have been obvious to him. And no one offered him the Argentina job. But interest in my beloved sport here in the US has never been higher.
Did we have to spend $6 million per year for a coach who apparently didn’t realize that most athletes in the United States play other sports? Wasn’t that obvious?
And another thing. Club managers spend a lot of time complaining that they don’t have the players that they need. They want ownership to go out and find players from around the World. National team managers are constrained to play players from the country they manage. That’s obvious. And so, around 10 months before the World Cup, it is outrageous that the US Men’s National Team manager is complaining that he doesn’t have the players.
One would think that before someone takes a $6 million a year job, they do a bit of research and figure out who the players are and utilize their talents in a system that the manager creates. That’s what one would think the manager is paid for. Kind of obvious if you ask me.
As I am finishing up this column I am watching the US Men’s National Team versus South Korea and I am struck by the fact that the one thing that the US Men’s National Team has been known for, for as long as I have followed the sport, is physical aggression. Our Nation’s team has never been the most talented, but it has always been one of the most spirited. The lack of determination the team is now showing only serves to highlight what looks to be a lack of organization. When the US has the ball they seem to be running into each other more than moving forward.
I guess the most obvious point I am making here is that I believe Pochettino is not the right coach for the United States Men’s National Team. He is clearly a club coach stuck with a national team. A national team that he doesn’t respect and, and my opinion, can therefore not lead.
But surely we can’t replace our national team coach this close to the World Cup, a World Cup we are hosting.
One can only hope that the coach and the team can right this ship that is clearly in deep danger. It’s obvious.
Would it be too much of an obvious segue to take note of the fact that Carolina has an NFL coach who is stuck with a college team from a basketball school?
I really, really hope that is not the case. The loss to TCU was crushing, and there was a lot of talk about how UNC is a basketball school, but it was great to see them bounce back against Richmond. I understand Richmond has an outstanding baseball program.
Lastly, it is obvious that I am completely failing my goals to right the ship that is the Fat Boy Index.
Which stands at: 294.