Another Good Milos Kocic Interview

[A Stick]

Hey Folks;

A little bit more insight to our disasterous TFC season and the shambles of Canadian soccer in general.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXJ2oT7D-7I (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXJ2oT7D-7I)

[ag futbol]

Best interview I've hear in the while. Ignore the histrionics of the interviewer and focus on his questions, they are actually pretty damn good. He's like the anti-Dunleavy

Highlights:
- says young players in Canada have the talent, but the lack of a lower league means they have difficulty adjusting to life as a pro. They don't understand the value of the opportunity they are given or sometimes
- Seems to take issue with the attitude of some of the players on the team. Clearly losing didn't bother them as much as it did some people.
- Made it sound like the club was preoccupied with what fans thought as opposed to doing their job
- Also both Milos and loud-mouth-guy agreed that Kevin Payne does not give a rats ass what other people think, so it was unlikely the club was going to fall into the same traps in the future.
- As we all expected we did the direct 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 changeover (with players to boot) between Winter and Mariner. He described this as "throwing the plan in the garbage without reason".. not that one formation is better than the other, but because you can't see things come to fruition in such a short time period.

[flamehawk]

Hey Folks;

A little bit more insight to our disasterous TFC season and the shambles of Canadian soccer in general.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXJ2oT7D-7I (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXJ2oT7D-7I)

Wow, who is this guy? Good interview, and seems very knowledgeable about the local soccer scene.

[Phil]

Anthony Totera. I have done his show a couple times now and I am always impressed with his knowledge of the team and sport in general.

Good interview and some very good points by Milos.

[[NBF]]

Good interview, I wish every ex-TFC player or coach would do Tortera's show. It would be good to know what their experiences were at TFC.

[Auzzy]

Wow, great interview!

Good to get some more confirmation from Milos on important topics. Yup, tossing out Aron Winter & putting in Mariner mid-season, 18 months after a "big new long term plan & direction," was among the top 5 most idiotic things this club ever did. (And I'm telling you, there's LOTS of tough competition for that list.) ESPECIALLY promoting Mariner, with a completely different outlook & direction. ESPECIALLY a few months before an ownership change, when you can guess there will likely be changes from the top, leading to more changes down below. Resulting in 6 more months of a totally different type of madness, probably setting us back an additional year due to short-sighted trades, signings, and other garbage moves. For what? Four wins? (Forcing two opposites like Winter & Mariner together in the first place, to supposedly support each other, was another one of the top 5 idiocies.)

Very interesting to hear Milos' story on the game vs. DC United, which was Oct. 6th at BMO Field. I have to admit that the suspicions of many (incl. me), that Mariner was freezing out Milos due to contract disagreements, or due to Bermudian sub-plots, was wrong for at least part of the time. Milos actually begged not to play vs. DC, as he had spent weeks at the hospital with his kid & barely slept. I just re-watched the game highlights. Milos got overruled, played well for most of the game, but had a brain fart near the end and the team loses yet again. Kinda expected considering Milos' state.

WTF kind of stupid shit is that??? Milos asks for break in a difficult spot, the season is shot anyway. If Freddy Hall had some bad games & Milos isn't up for it, why the hell not put Quillan Roberts in net for a game? Do you really think that even if Quillan made some mistake or the team lost, that will be worse for Quillan's development, than forever rotting on the bench? (And most of the time not even making the bench or travelling with the first team? Like so many other ex-Academy prospects that were frozen out & then tossed from the team at the end of a garbage season, while some folks with really limited skills got chance after chance.)

I can only imagine it was some kind of warped shortsightedness, trying to eke out a few results in a lost season; probably Mariner & others trying to save their jobs, and the club trying to save season ticket sales. Yet failing to achieve even short-term results.

[Damien]

- As we all expected we did the direct 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 changeover (with players to boot) between Winter and Mariner. He described this as "throwing the plan in the garbage without reason".. not that one formation is better than the other, but because you can't see things come to fruition in such a short time period.

This is why I think hiring Mariner and Winter together was a mistake.

[Joe Kool]

I always felt bad for Quillian Roberts but now after that interview I kind of feel worse for him. He needs games or he will never develop. He even said in media day interview he got maybe 7 full games last year which is pretty sad. I hope the new people in charge realize this since it seems like common sense. It's hard to hear these interviews of just how screwed everything is behind closed doors. Just a few tweaks Mariner? Screw him!

[spark]

I always felt bad for Quillian Roberts but now after that interview I kind of feel worse for him. He needs games or he will never develop. He even said in media day interview he got maybe 7 full games last year which is pretty sad. I hope the new people in charge realize this since it seems like common sense. It's hard to hear these interviews of just how screwed everything is behind closed doors. Just a few tweaks Mariner? Screw him!

I hear you - I could not for the life of me understand why, when the season was done and dusted, Hall kept getting starts when it was clear to anyone with two eyes he was not up to the MLS level or would be staying on. Mariner had some silly quote about the young kids would crap their pants if they were thrown in the game which IMO was such a load of BS, especially in this case. Roberts had already played in a U17 World Cup, I think he could handle a meaningless MLS game - and get critical experience.

[Couchy81]

Good interview. It is clear now that front office puts their image (for ticket sales) ahead of the success of the club, ex. prematurely getting rid of Winter due to losing streak. It is also clear that Mariner put his own interests above the club (playing Milos instead of Quillan) making illogical moves in order to squeeze as much success and therefore coaching time out of the club. No respect for growth, development, or long term vision.

I am also happy to hear that Payne is going to do it his way, which will be the right way.

[Auzzy]

Then again, Mariner did so many other bone-headed things that really lowered the likelihood that he could stay longer. (Strange personnel decisions; unprofessional behaviour towards various people; etc.) So I wonder if these choices, like not playing Quillan & other young kids when the season was shot, were really feeble attempts to win a few games and save his job??

Likely there were other factors as well, like naive pride, thickheadedness, lingering hate towards Winter, etc. For example, if he played Quillan after Freddy kept messing up, and especially if Quillan did fairly well, Mariner would be admitting that this young keeper could compete with his bizarre international signing of a backup goalie from Bermuda. Perhaps Mariner never wanted to sign Quillan to a pro contract in the first place; perhaps he was mad at Winter for that and didn't want to let him play as a result. So force Kocic to play instead.

Could have been the same thing with some of the other academy grads who never got a stitch of playing time, and usually didn't even make it on the bench (even when we were playing with a short bench). What if one of them came on & did as well as some of Mariners iffy signings, like Wiedeman, Amerikwa, and some other names I've thankfully forgotten? Maybe the thought was too much for Mariner's warped ego.

I have no idea. I'm just making this stuff up -- but I'm trying to find some plausible explanation for various bizarre moves that looked more like Mariner trying to torpedo his own prospects for survival than anything else. (Not that Winter's decisions always made much sense either; but that's a chapter of another book.)

[mowe]

Fantastic interview. Kocic was really insightful and the interviewer asked some great questions too.

What stood out to me was when he said that young Canadians don't realize the opportunity they have in MLS. The quote was something like they think this is the lowest point of their career when really it's the highest point for some of them. Definitely sounds like he's talking about the academy graduates that are no longer with the team. He also cited the lack of a development league meaning very few opportunities for Canadians.

Also right on point calling Toronto "an impatient city". According to him getting rid of Winter when he still had 1.5 years on his contract was a mistake. No surprise that Mariner wasn't successful with his completely different philosophy and bringing in his players in the middle of the season.

This makes me so glad that we have Payne on board. At least he has a clear vision of what he wants to do and hired a coach who's on the same page as him. Of course that's no guarantee of success but by all accounts he's not the type of guy who'll bend to outside pressure. This club needs strong leadership and it seems like Nelson (backed by Payne) are a good start.

[SirBobSaget]

Speaking of not appreciating their opportunity:

How about the Generation Adidas guys that come into this league on 6 figure contracts. Recent TFC GAs Wiedeman, Ibrahim, J Hall, Marosevic, Frei, Avila ... notice the trend? Most of them are complete busts.

Wonder what they're egos are like coming in, probably they expect their next contracts to be 7 figures and MLS just a warm up league.

[Auzzy]

^ & ^^ Very good points. Who knows if Quillan really deserved to play goalie. But forcing Kocic to play in that situation, and signing a backup goalie from Bermuda, is strange any way you look at it.

Of course Kocic is just one viewpoint; I'm sure there more to many of these stories. At least it seems to be an open & honest viewpoint for a change.

When you see what a total crap shoot the whole "Super"-draft is, then it also makes sense that the GAs are a crap shoot as well. Obviously it's very hard (even for experienced observers) to guess beforehand, which of these college kids & sundry international youngsters are going to do well in MLS. But a few get picked as GA beforehand, get way more money than their peers, with no cap-hit whatsoever to their teams. It's all a bit strange.

[Yohan]

^ & ^^ Very good points. Who knows if Quillan really deserved to play goalie. But forcing Kocic to play in that situation, and signing a backup goalie from Bermuda, is strange any way you look at it.

Of course Kocic is just one viewpoint; I'm sure there more to many of these stories. At least it seems to be an open & honest viewpoint for a change.

When you see what a total crap shoot the whole "Super"-draft is, then it also makes sense that the GAs are a crap shoot as well. Obviously it's very hard (even for experienced observers) to guess beforehand, which of these college kids & sundry international youngsters are going to do well in MLS. But a few get picked as GA beforehand, get way more money than their peers, with no cap-hit whatsoever to their teams. It's all a bit strange.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Adidas

If you look at the name of some of the players that came through Generation Adidas/Project 40 program, you'd see a lot of good players in there.

It is a crapshoot in a lot of ways, because there is no guaranteed scientific method to determine which player will end up being good. What GA tries to do is to identify some of young players that has special talent and potential at young age.

And I don't think most people would consider Stefan Frei a 'bust'

[SirBobSaget]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Adidas

And I don't think most people would consider Stefan Frei a 'bust'

I don't either, I wrote "most are a bust" .

Looking at the list my initial impression was skewed because seems that the worst cases find their way to TFC. Overall, maybe half? become at regular MLSers or better.

[OgtheDim]

Proof positive that somebody in HR at MLSE has changed.

Kocic obviously did not have to sign a gag order as he left. I'm pretty darn sure every other ex player and ex manager prior to this has had to sign one.

[Richard]

Proof positive that somebody in HR at MLSE has changed.

Kocic obviously did not have to sign a gag order as he left. I'm pretty darn sure every other ex player and ex manager prior to this has had to sign one.

JDG had a pretty good interview when he left too. Lets not forget the shitty American players who liked to trash us as well once they left. :noidea:


Somone should call BDK up for an interview. Im sure he has a lot to say and wont give a damn since he may not want to work in NA again.

[Auzzy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Adidas

If you look at the name of some of the players that came through Generation Adidas/Project 40 program, you'd see a lot of good players in there.

It is a crapshoot in a lot of ways, because there is no guaranteed scientific method to determine which player will end up being good. What GA tries to do is to identify some of young players that has special talent and potential at young age.

And I don't think most people would consider Stefan Frei a 'bust'

Definitely some good players. Maybe TFC gets more of the dregs. However, it would also be interesting to take a closer look: compare the average success of GA players, with the success of non-GA players taken at similar spots in the draft. In hindsight, are the GA players really much better on average?

[Yohan]

Definitely some good players. Maybe TFC gets more of the dregs. However, it would also be interesting to take a closer look: compare the average success of GA players, with the success of non-GA players taken at similar spots in the draft. In hindsight, are the GA players really much better on average?
the difference really is that non GAs are seniors out of college; GAs are generally freshmen and sophomores in college with some just fresh out of high school. with GAs, you get younger players you can develop at your team rather than seniors at 22-24 yrs old who are pretty much past their developing age.

[Blizzard]

Hey Folks;

A little bit more insight to our disasterous TFC season and the shambles of Canadian soccer in general.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXJ2oT7D-7I (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXJ2oT7D-7I)

Anthony's style drives me crazy but it was a good interview and I'm grateful for Milos's level of verboseness.