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| Friday, September 14, 2001 24:20 EST |
New coach must lay down the law
By Jamie Trecker
[Special to ESPN.com]
As we reported last week, U.S. Soccer officials have confirmed that April Heinrichs will be named U.S. women's team coach in New York this week. Heinrichs, a former captain and World Cup champ herself, faces the unenviable task of cleaning up a crowded, fractious post-Women's World Cup mess en route to the Olympics in Sydney this summer; within the space of a few weeks, she must decide which players will play, and has an ugly contract dispute as the backdrop.
Here's some advice: were I Heinrichs, I would tell the players that their so-called "boycott" is a sham (it is, after all, pretty tough to boycott a team that doesn't exist; the national team is a selection, not a birthright) and lay down the law. Either they should show up when called into camp, or shut up. There'll be hell to pay, as some media outlets are in the players' pockets; I say to hell with the publicity.
No one begrudges the women from cashing in on their success, and there certainly are some real salary considerations to be taken into account. But the women, who are largely represented by a single agent, have become increasingly onerous in their demands, as well as unsettlingly hostile to anything they perceive as "negative" media attention. Again, the facts are clear: the women aren't entitled to the year-round salary they crave because the national team isn't a club side, and the fact that WWC made some money is not a justification for a ratcheting up of demands. Doesn't anyone remember
that the U.S. Soccer Federation has been paying many of these women for some nine years now, including those years when their fans couldn't fill a hockey rink?
The fact is, if Heinrichs doesn't set the tone at the outset, she
will abet a disturbing trend; that of the women's team members acting like they are irreplaceable. Ex-coach Tony DiCicco fell prey to this syndrome, which had its roots in the 1996 Olympic campaign; that mentality eliminated Lauren Gregg from any consideration as head honcho as well, and rightly so. The truth is that the women, for all their talent, have shown a disturbing willingness to play both sides of the fence, acting as if they are America's sweethearts when in reality some are spoiled brats.
Look, there are a lot of really nice, really genuinely great people on
this team -- I am personally very proud to have gotten a chance to get to know women like Brandi Chastain, Bri Scurry, Sara Whalen, et al., because they are honest, passionate and straight up. However, I find it very hard to defend this team, because they increasingly act more like a cult and less like the professionals they say they want to be.
The U.S. women's team is not a feel-good circle or a twelve-step program. It is not going to move mountains, feed the homeless or change the world. It is a national team, playing a sport, and too often this team's members have been caught up in their own propaganda to remember that. Heinrichs, who is no dummy, has to make it clear from the outset that this is a team run by the USSF, not a team run by the players. If that means some "favorites" -- like Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm and Michelle Akers - have to be retired, so be it. They may be "heroes," but real heroes don't strangle their country's side out of
selfishness.
Lothar's games
You know, you really have to pay attention to the little boxes at the end
of this column; I told you some time ago that Lothar Matthaeus wasn't coming, and what did I get? "Oh no," said then-MetroStars GM Charlie Stillitano, "There's no truth to that at at all." Yeah, right.
Matthaeus, famously spoiled, is shredding whatever's left of Major League Soccer's credibility in Europe with his latest gambit in the "I'm coming ... well, maybe I'm not" saga. Claiming that his trust has been betrayed by the removal of Stillitano (obviously, Matthaeus has never actually seen the MetroStars), he now says he will not come to America this year.
Good riddance, I say.
Since the MetroStars' gambit of bringing in "name players" has been an abject failure, there's no reason to continue the misery by throwing money away on a player who frankly isn't going to sell many tickets. The MetroStars would be better served by cultivating some good American talent and try to build back into a solid franchise rather than perpetuate their legacy of spendthrift gambits.
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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