yes but the guy has a sort of mythical status and thiago as he sez has already played under him.

i mean potential kickbacks aside.

--

also for some lighthearted bullshit (per cheeto's request)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/v...ry-trick-video

at the same time, mourinho never played at a high level and he is a great coach. but im just being bitch at this point.

hey, at least mourinho played pro!

but it's the other one, from spurs, who never played, what's his name?

at least he grew up thick in in though.

villas-boas.

I've always said that a great player doesn't usually mean a great manager.There's more than a few average layers who went on to be great managers.

Ferguson
Mourinho
Moyes
Wenger (you can't deny he's a great manager)
Bob Paisley
Scolari

and so on, and so on.

right, all that is true, but you need experience and exposure and a deep understanding of things. in the case of bob bradley (which is what i was talking about) the guy grew up in the US in the 50s/60s, played high school + college, went on to manage his own college and eventually joined the MLS. no international exposure, no high level experience because there is little of it here, etc. he strikes me as a good and decent man, just lacking exposure to the rest of the universe. look at his bio here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bradley#Early_life


it's not that he lacks brains or something, it's that the culture and tradition of football in the usa didn't really exist when he was growing up. there were no football stadiums. there was no 500 tv channels of international sports. compare him vs. villas boas who at age 16 was hanging out with bobby robson and working for porto. i mean, come on!

That analysis doesn't always work though. Eric Spoelstra, the coach of the Miami Heat never played professional basketball, indeed only college, and instead of taking offers to play in the Euro-leagues he became a video analyst for the Miami Heat. He became their assistant coach under the legendary Pat Riley and then later took over the head coaching spot. When he took over, the team had just fallen to an NBA worst 15-67. The immediate year he made the playoffs, hasn't missed them since, and went on to win back-to-back NBA Titles and has had three consecutive championship appearances. So in all actuality, there are some potentially great coaches out there who never played pro..

As to Klinsmann? I don't think its his experience as player that helps, its as you said, being "maybe one of the greatest coaches on the planet" part that is winning games ;)

great coaches do not need to have been pros. Not all players can make a great coach either, not Larry Bird, not Clyde Drexler, not Jordan, not Magic, not Pele, etc....

but dude, america has probably the biggest basketball culture on the planet. people grow up immersed in it, children dream of being the next michael jordan. they live and breathe it. playing college here is better than playing pro elsewhere. washed out or sidelined players here go abroad and become local stars-- wich is the opposite with european and south american futbol players who come to be washed out here. why must you be at times so muleheaded? wishful thinking does not give american "soccer" a long story and tradition and mass appeal-- give it time to grow and maybe, but right now it's not up to par because it lacks deep roots.


he's not one of the greatest coaches in the planet but he's probably the greatest the us men's team has ever had. forget comparing him with other coaches, say, other german coaches, even other german coaches of his generation-- but he's played more and in more places than any american player or coach, and has seen and lived pretty much anything you can see and live in this sport except for stabbing followed by decapitation, which makes everyone else around him lok like a damn neophyte-- even the best american players (demonyo already explained why he's not "world class") don't measure up to his achievements.

now, the issue for klinsmann is if he can translate all that deep fucking knowledge and experience into being a good coach-- that's a different achievement. so far the numbers show he can coach better than past american coaches and that is really good news. plus we slowly are having better players who are learning from the pros iabroad. so it's not just raw talent but talent that's being professionally developed by experts who learned football from the womb. so it's building up, thank fuck.

took california wines a few decades to start beating the french.football is gonna take a little longer.

Oh Lord have His mercy how terrible a coach Magic Johnson was. Me? I like Eric Spoelstra style of coaching. It is minus the platitudes and butt-slapping speeches that most "former-star player coaches" rely on. The dude brings in spread sheets, print outs, and stat analyses to his practices. You can literally SEE visibly that he coaches like a video analyst, but it works. The guy draws of frighteningly innovative and complex plays, and has gotten his three stars to be shooting the more efficient in their careers, and all three also leading the league at efficient shooting at their respective positions. Those guys game into the roster as best in the league, and Spoelstra's analytical mind made them even BETTER!

What I see Klinsmann doing for the USA team is more in the increasingly complexities of the play-making, as well as just tightening down on the fundamentals. What is funny, is EVERYTHING I have ever yelled at the TV about during previous US games, Klinsmann has now already readjusted away. We dribble patiently, not those hail mary lobs down the field. we play slow, smart, and focus on planned attacks, not those chaotic run around the field and hope for the best style we played before. Our defense is a bit less staunch as it was, but that is because our players are thinking smarter at both ends of the field. We used to focus on defense because we couldn't score, now we score AND defend. Klinsmann is just doing those smart and simple things we always neglected. Further, his reputation and charisma in the locker room is fantastic, guys BELIEVE in him, trust him, and are excited to try his new implementations. Guys are playing to step up and EARN their spots, and its for the coach.

The USA team needs to be more complex. when I watch international matches I see other countries using high-level shit, and the USA looks like a jr varsity team. I think it is because the USA team does not play together enough.

it's because the usa team has been so far for all intents and purposes a junior varsity team grown out of a junior varsity culture. :/

but the real pros are coming.

btw many years ago i had high hopes that freddy adu would be our first superstar. unfortunately it did not happen. but some other 14 year old scouted by milan or barcelona or manchester united will eventually do it. more like a 12 year old. 10 maybe.

Adu discovered the joys of wanking his pecker and all hope was lost

Tito is leaving Barça. Luis Enrique most likely to take over.

That in particular is what has changed. US has switched to a more sophisticated Euro-style of play and it is getting results!

Vilanova steps down as Barcelona coach after cancer relapse. No replacement yet named

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...-tito-vilanova



Sad for anyone, obviously, but somehow especially tragic for a man who I'm sure most who contribute to this thread would consider to have been about as close to living the dream as we could possibly imagine.

oh damn, that's harsh, best wishes to him.

The question now is who will replace him?

Villas-Boas is apparently the bookies favourite but also hearing Puyol might step in as interim player-manager.

See four posts above.

Ah, never saw that. My apologies. Don't know much about Luis Enrique's management career but looking him up now, it seems weird that he literally only took over at Celta Viga a month ago.

Looks like it's gonna be Tata Martino after all.

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/usnati...id/280?cc=5901

USA beat down El Salvador. It was close, 2-1 at the half. Then US took over.. Under Bob Bradley, US never had that killer instinct, we were always down just to play to win or even to draw. Now? US goes for the kill. 6-1 Belize. 4-1 Cuba. 5-1 El Salvador. While these aren't the best teams in the world, again, US never used to destroy teams like that, shitty or not. I'm looking forward to the WC qualifiers picking back up in a month!

watched the last 20' plus highlights of the US-El Salvador match the other day and it was a bit fo a shit game but USA won 5-1, as it should always do against a team like that. some nice goals, but again, i want to see them perform against a better continental team-- not the superstars-- just sides like uruguay, colombia, chile, ecuador, etc. the rivalry with mexico is small potatoes.

makes me think we should get rid of the concacaf/conmebol bullshit and do a panamerican tournament in between world cups. let them all fight it out just like UEFA. the gringo fish needs a bigger pond.

I agree with you completely, but your bias favoring South American teams is starting to get predictable and boring. Also, stop hating on CONCACAF. Every continent has its own "conference" and its up to those teams to field the best teams, and while CONCACAF isn't necessarily the best in the world, those teams are very widely supported and people enjoy it. By the way, who won the Olympic Gold last year? Was it a South American or European team? Right, it was CONCACAF ;)






Just because YOU don't, doesn't mean you need to shit entirely on us with your soccer snobbery ;)

we're all on the same time zone, moron.

it's an easy setup.

That may be, but you are negating the value that CONCACAF has locally, just because you are a fucking soccer snob, doesn't mean we need to eliminate or conference to appease your snobbery. Let South America have their highly elite and competitive conference, and let CONCACAF have our own fun, we've been enjoying it for decades, if we wanted to play with the South Americans, we would join their shit or invite them more to ours. Yet we invite Asian and Pacific teams instead ;)

you say i'm a snob, i say you're glorifying mediocrity.

team usa needs to grow, it can't keep doing it by playing matches against fucking panama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t8xwpW8gJQ

I'm not glorifying mediocrity, I'm supporting my local teams and conference, instead of bandwagoning and front-running like you do with all that Euro trash ;)

your conference sucks.

That's fine, and least its our own and we're not front-running pricks about it ;)

kramer dominates the dojo

By the way, this was the best part of the game, when some pissed off Salvadorans through a bunch of trash and shit at Landon when he was about to kick a corner, so he said fuck it and jokingly put on the sunglasses they threw until the ref stopped him.

PRE-SEASON FUN!

2013 Audi Cup fixtures and tips:

31st July 2013
Manchester City v AC Milan, 4.15pm
Bayern Munich v Sao Paulo, 6.30pm


1st August 2013
Third and fourth place play-off, 4.15pm
Final, 4.15pm


---------

EXTREMELY curious about what pep will be doing, who will be playing, etc. not so curious about the rest (though i'd like to see what kind of team sao paulo has-- brazilian teams have been "buying back" talent in recent years thanks to the country's prosperous economy).

With such a managerial merry-go-round, this season will be fascinating. Bayern of course will be really interesting but new managers at Real Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Man City, Man Utd will make this years CL impossible to even try to predict. Can't wait!

That is a funny statement coming from a Miami heat and Baltimore ravens fan.

Yeah. Not someone I'd heard of until now but seems like a done deal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...erardo-martino

I was waiting for that. I've been a Ravens fan for over ten years, LA doesn't have a football team. Heat? I followed Shaq from Lakers to Heat when he left in 2004, and they got Pat Riley, he is an LA legend. After that 15-67 season, we were sure fucking happy to snag up Lebron! So that's nine years there. Some band-wagon/front-running! I didn't front run to either team, even if you think so because they won a championship this year :cool:

!@#$%!'s favorite teams

I'd go even further, I think an out and out merger would benefit both regions. As you say, CONCACAF is just too uncompetitive, with Mexico and the USA pretty much guaranteed to qualify, even in second gear. It'd also stop the traditional farce of CONCACAF's third placed side automatically qualifying for the WC and getting trounced in every game. The media may like Trinidad, or Jamaica but do they really deserve to be in a WC when far better countries from more competitive divisions are left behind? Meanwhile CONMEBOL has too few countries so the same teams keep playing each other over and over again.

They also need to reduce the teams that qualify from Asia. It's absurd that they get the just one less place than South America. (Uzbekistan more likely to qualify than Peru?)

It'll never happen so long as Blatter's in charge, though, seeing as he seems to think the WC is all about no-hoper sides like Jamaica participating rather than the best ones.

Why wouldn't you just continue going for the lakers? You stop just because Shaq left? The heat won a championship that first year so all this sounds a little bandwagon-e. LA had the raiders and the rams and the raiders. A lot LA-ains still support them which makes a lot more sense then baltimore.

You can obviously support who you like but don't get on our case for not really giving a fuck about USA soccer. Sure ill root for them in the big touraments but as far as entertainment goes its not even close. Europe has history and a footballing culture not to mention the quality and level of competition (see Kramer owns the dogo video) that far outstrips north America.

I'm getting on your case a bit because as a lakers fan I'm a bit appaled at your heat/Lebron worship