| | CHICAGO -- Three Major League Soccer coaches have mixed futures ahead of them; MetroStars coach Bora Milutinovic and Fusion coach Ivo Wortmann are two guys who are clearly on the bubble, and the third, Bob Bradley of Chicago, might be considering a step into USSF. A fourth, Glenn Myernick of Colorado, is under fire for the way his Rapids crashed out, but more on that in a minute.
Bradley has kept mum all year about his long-rumored move to the Olympic
team to rejoin Bruce Arena, but it would be no surprise if, after this year,
the Fire is forced to look elsewhere for coaching help. This has nothing to
do with the Fire, their performance or the organization: it's just common
sense. Bradley has nowhere to go but down with the Fire -- as this season
demonstrated.
The other two guys certainly don't deserve to return after the way
they mucked things up this past season. Bora can't be excused for
sleepwalking through the season, despite the obvious pressure that weighed upon him as a result of this summer's conflict in Serbia. And Wortmann may be the only man foolish enough to believe that his team would actually be better without Carlos Valderrama; that decision took most of the year to recover from as the Fusion immediately lost cohesion in midfield as a result.
While the MetroStars certainly don't relish the thought of hiring their
sixth coach in four years, facts are facts: Bora got nothing out of his
players and taught them less. Guys who once showed a lot of promise -- like
Mike Petke -- regressed under Bora and probably lost a year of national
team-level fitness. The MetroStars should remember that they were the ones
who hired and fired (or let get away, take your pick) the last bunch, and
pull the trigger on Bora as well. While they're at it, they have to make the
move at the top as well: GM Charlie Stillitano has nothing to show for his
tenure and should be removed.
Wortmann is a more delicate case: his players eventually progressed, but
the Fusion were by no means a good team. The case made for him was that he was a skilled teacher of young talent: that has been borne out as false,
given the Fusion's record. His prickly relations with media and fans
certainly haven't helped the Fusion win any local support, but he can hardly
be blamed for one of the league's worst attendances; that has more to do
with the location of Lockhart Stadium and the fragmentation of that market, as I've written in this space before. That noted, would Miami be better off with a new, American coach? Maybe not -- but it couldn't be any worse and would give someone else a shot. As long as the Fusion don't play another game of musical chairs (how many teams is Lothar Osiander going to coach, anyway?), I'd ditch Wortmann.
Myernick, now: there's a story. The Rapids started out strong and then lost
nine straight, failing to score a goal in over 10 hours of playing time. Ten
hours! One would have thought he was coaching the Hartford Hellions. Who's to blame? Try everyone: the Rapids disintegrated in public, with fingers being pointed by players and management at each other. While I think GM Dan Counce is unlikely to remove Myernick, I think this has to put a cloud over Myernick's USSF aspirations: "Mooch" has been bandied about as an assistant to Arena for some time now, and this spectacular collapse has revealed that he didn't hold the reins right.
Of course, the great untold story of MLS is that there just aren't that
many top-level coaches out there to choose from should someone want to make a move. Foreign coaches won't come here unless they have to, and have proved, time and again, that they generally don't do well with the fickle American player. College coaches play a wholly different game, and in any case, what university guy worth his salt would give up a cozy spot for an uncertain future in an uncertain league? Few, I'm afraid.
Jamie Trecker, editor of Kick! magazine, writes regularly for ESPN.com. You may e-mail him at jamie_trecker@go.com; while he guarantees he will read all letters, he regrets that he cannot guarantee a reply because of overwhelming volume. | |
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