And Arena has now resigned after MLS "confirmed" he said something to someone. They won't say what.
And Arena has now resigned after MLS "confirmed" he said something to someone. They won't say what.
Pretty crazy for a team that’s near the top of the table.Originally Posted by jloome
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/this-...wilfried-nancy
Good piece on Nancy Ball.
Basically he favors strong structural responsibility but individually creative choices. So, a European manager, for all intents.
His philosophy is basically the exact opposite of Bob's. He eschews individualism in favor of moving as a block, prefers width and switching the point of attack to unsettle a defense, and they maintain their attacking momentum by applying the structural discipline to fast attacks, so that when the ball is headmanned, everyone floods forward.
(Whether Dunfield or Herdman, to me, this is basically the approach we weirdly and surprisingly seemed to employ against Philly. The 4321 offensively meant responsibilities in building were largely about building ahead in a few quick steps, rather than building slowly from the back, while always have four players up top at roughly the same time.)
Basically the tactical approach of every really good manager since time immemorial. Also identical to Postecoglou's system, largely, although I think the everyone-else-plays-transition nature of MLS is why Nancy adjusts and uses three at the back sometimes, so they just worry about that zone and aren't required to get involved much in buildup.
The time of MLS 1.0 coaches is over. Arena, BB, their time is done.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
In fairness, these guys have adapted in time and were successful in subsequent eras. Heck, Arena might be persona non-grata, but his team has performed well in recent years. Maybe that’s down to a great player acquisition strategy as opposed to the coach, but whatever they have done, it’s been working.
I think the evolution in tactics for this league is great. While I really appreciate the enterprising classic #10 play in MLS (one of the best things about the league IMO), seeing crap like RBNY mindlessly pressing at all times is annoying.
Messi et al are really moving the dial here. Guys are learning quickly that being all energy and no tactics can quickly be exploited.
I'm learning about how unhealthy it is for someone to dwell in the past, as I've just been diagnosed with having had PTSD for the last four decades.
Having said that, I imagine a fair number of people who've been shit on by Americans online for pointing out the paucity of tactical skill in this league are breathing a large sigh of relief.
As Nancy's methodology points out, shape is sacrosanct, keeping it is sacrosanct. Fucking Bob ball, man. Ugh.
This summer, Wrexham played a bunch of matches over here. In both the MLS ones, they played MLS II teams, LA and Philly.
They beat LA 4-0 and tied Philly 1-1. In both games, it was obvious the LA and Philly players were better athletes. They ran circles around Wrexham for much of both games, holding strong possession advantages. The Philly team could've won.
In both cases, the reasons the League Two side won were obvious: tactical discipline and understanding where advantages are when shape breaks down. LA dominated first-half possession; Wrexham's manager Phil Parkinson said afterwards he was "astonished" by how good they were, and Wrexham could hardly touch the ball.
But the Welsh team was way bigger, strong and more experienced. They shifted their shape slightly in the second half, pressured the ball higher and used their size and strength by playing tight to thei rmen to just 'muscle' LA out of possession. Four quick goals followed.
The Philly team was bigger, stronger and on average older and more experienced than LA. That finished 1-1 but either team could have won. Again, Philly looked quicker, hungrier and more technically skilled.
But the Wrexham players played a solid defensive block and recognized whenever their opponent was pulled too far apart, where the gaps were, how to exploit them. It ended up very even, but on paper, player to player, Philly II should have walked over them. That was obvious for the approx. 30 minutes it took Wrexham to figure them out.
Coaching makes a massive difference. It's why a guy like Gary Smith, who had minimal success in England even at a low level, is crushing it here. It's why Nancy, who started as a U14 youth coach a decade ago, could take his knowledge as a pro in Europe and become dominant here.
DC united has approximately (Benteke only has one goal in three months) the same shit lineup it's had for the last decade. But they are more competitive in every game under Rooney, because he preaches disciplined shape.
The North American game is impatient and relies on singular moments of skill for its excitement, because it's loosely based more on a blend of Total Football and South American football than on the broader traditional Euro sensibility of positional responsibility.
But in the last decade, the European game has really evolved. It IS creatively flexible ... it's just secondary to responsible movement. And now it's the dominant style again, not Rangnik/Red Bull gegenpress, not Total Football, not whatever the shitshow hybrid "Bobball" was, not the widthless mess that got Jesse Marsch fired at Leeds.
That stuff isn't really winning much anymore.
Last edited by jloome; 09-12-2023 at 11:28 AM.
Seeing Lukas MacNaughton pinch to the center in a zonal block, closing off the lane to the trailer, blew my mind. First time that good coaching was immediately, obviously better than what we've seen before, because it worked in two straight games.
Other teams will adopt that and Miami's road is going to get tougher, not easier. To a much more difficult and tricky extent, Messi is like the Italians; he has tendencies that are hard to stop, but once recognized it is at least possible.
Once everyone starts blocking up the middle and he has to play provider, as in his las two matches, all his teammates will have to maintain their currently way-over-normal performances to make it count. That's when the skill level difference will become apparent.
Wow! There the league goes... player revolt at NER... players will not practice or play? until they understand the BA sitch; Richie not their guy!
Sounds like the fire in New England is increasing in size with players refusing to train today and wanting more information on the Arena situation.
The Athletic, who increasingly are looking like poorly sourced muck-rakers, saying some players don’t trust Williams.
This whole matter stinks like bad clam chowder. The Athletic, and I am not a fan, may be right in the assumption that some of the players are skeptic of Richie; that he may know how to manipulate 'a convenient truth' to his personal advantage. And worse, maybe even a liar. At the very least and in the sense he supposedly recently went on a Boston local radio show suggesting he knew 'absolutely nothing about the matter' instead of stating 'sorry there is a league investigation ongoing and I shouldn't/cannot comment'. Meanwhile, and some days later, according to the Athletic, it's his complaint that initiated, or was a relevant part of, the investigation.
Hmmm
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/MLSist/status/1701330467331404016
So now a journalist working for a broadcast partner can be censored or punished by the league she's covering?!? The MLS media control effort has reached new lows. If she was wrong, it should've been up to Apple to punish here, not to let a non-media entity censor their people.
What this basically means is that you can't trust that any of the opinions on Apple TV are their own, and not from the league's spin department.
Well she did toss out a TMZ level of "journalism" claiming that Bruce used racial slurs and that apparently wasn't the case. Not sure if she had a source or went the gossip route but either way, if all she gets is a 30 day suspension then she is lucky. If I were Bruce I'd sue her for dropping that on the broadcast. Also in looking at her coverage of our earlier mess, it seems she might not be as much a journalist as she is a sensationalistic clout/click hunter.
I agree with Jloome, it’s an odd look to sensor your own broadcaster. MLS is going to have to grow up a little and realize all press good or bad is part of running a league. And that depth of coverage is needed to grow interest. People see through “everything is happy, all is wonderful, all the time” for what it is.
Now that said, I wonder if what you’ve mentioned (legal repercussions) is basically what Arena brought to the league after hearing Kyle’s reporting, forcing them to act or essentially pay the bill.
If Mike Babcock can get another job, Arena might not be as on the outs as we all assume. Pretty bad commentary about society this can still happen but what can I say?
It looks like “by MLS” was added by the person tweeting. The article does not state that she was suspended by MLS - only that she was suspended.
Reporting is supposed to be facts. Now did she get an inside scoop on what Bruce said? I doubt it since pretty much no real MLS insider knows anything so she made it up or guessed based on the wording of the press release. That's not reporting and in this case, it's potentially career endangering slander. With the way the world is today you can't drop a suggestion of racism on somebody without knowing it is accurate because even if the allegation is cleared, in a lot of people's eyes the stain is still there. Really she should be fired for it. She isn't some deep digging investigative journalist. She's just a talking head on a football broadcast who wants to be heard.
I agree, you can’t run around slandering people and the reporting needs to be factual. But part of me wonders if this is a case of sources not wanting to be public so MLS can either pragmatically lay down here and throw Kyle under the bus or brace for a huge lawsuit from Arena knowing that accusation sticking basically ends his coaching career and having such a thing in the press cycle is a lose-lose for the league regardless of the outcome.
Last edited by ag futbol; 09-13-2023 at 10:29 AM.
If the guy doing the complaint was Williams as reported then it's not racism though. I'm sure Bruce was a dick and a bully because that's him but she kind of jumped the gun on her reporting.
It could be Williams report of behaviour not just behaviour directed towards Williams alone.
Edit: lots of clarification and tit-for-tat going back and forth with the press. The Athletic (Pablo Mariner) said the players refused to train yesterday. Today, club says nobody refused to train but rather all parties involved agreed not to train after a day of planned meetings.
Seems Williams is out as Interim Coach, his future TBD but spec is NeR pays him to sit on the couch until his contract is up at the end of the year. Several assistants fired and NER II staff taking over.
Appears very messy at best. Feels nice to not be the league’s biggest dumpster fire for a minute.
Last edited by ag futbol; 09-13-2023 at 11:39 AM.
But you'd think if that was the case Joseph wouldn't have stood so strong by Bruce.
Could be anything. Anti-something else as opposed to anti-black. Or maybe Joseph doesn’t see whatever it was as problematic.
Maybe but she reported racism and backpedalled on that completely. For sure he said insensitive things but I figure he did that every day for the last 20+ years but she still put her foot in her mouth and admitted it.
And that's how you get fired usually from a job like she has.“It’s an interesting matchup because of everything that’s going on with the Revs,” said Kyle. “Bruce Arena (is) on administrative leave pending investigation for a racial slur that he used against someone in the club.”
The specifics of what Arena allegedly said were not public at the time and still have not been made public.
The next day, Kyle released a statement apologizing for her “improper and inaccurate remarks,” presumably for saying that Arena was being investigated for a “racial slur.”
“On yesterday’s episode of The Football Show on Sirius XM, I made improper and inaccurate remarks about the basis for MLS’ review of Bruce Arena,” Kyle wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The league’s investigation — of which I have no knowledge or first-hand information — relates to allegations that the coach made insensitive remarks. I had no basis to say what I said on the show. I understand that words have impact and I apologize for my actions. I spoke carelessly and should have been more mindful of my words.”
Sounds to me like she played fast and loose with sourcing only to get burned. Don’t think she imagined it or created it out of thin air. Rather, probably talked to someone with second hand knowledge of the situation who made speculative statements themselves as opposed to factual ones.
Getting everything she deserves if she played that game. If you throw an allegation like that out there, you better be ready to offer something substantial to back it up.
Maybe it’s time to bring back Rachel Bonnetta.
I don't think they can afford her anymore.
Probably the case. Although, she’s not at NFL network anymore so there’s a faint glimmer of hope.
Opinions welcome: occasionally, I run into a manager or coach who claims to have played for certain clubs. I always check, because there's a long history of prominent people fudging their resumes and I was a reporter for a long time.
Interested in knowing if people think it's honest or okay for a former club YOUTH player to claim that he played for the club, proper.
For example, "Joe Smith, manager of Somewhere FC, was with Carlisle and Blackpool FC before moving to Canada to coach..." when in fact he only was on youth books and never signed or played for the first team.
We had an Irish assistant coach at one point, under Ryan Nelsen, who claimed to have playeed in the Irish League, leading to a job in the US College system. I looked him up and could find no reference, despite strong historical records, that he had done so.
Similarly, Calgary manager Tommy Wheeldon Jr's wikipedia page -- and all the articles on him -- say he played in England for Swindon and Torquay United. But certainly the latter has a list online of every player who ever played for them, and he's not on it. His father is... in 1981, when he was two years old.
Equally, I can find no reference to him playing for Swindon, where he apparently started.
His father played for Everton, though, and pros kids will usually be afforded a shot with youth clubs. I suspect he's exaggerating his experience by omission.
Is this irksome to anyone else? I sort of feel like it's taking the piss because the sport is more nascent here. I suspect it happens less now than two decades ago, when he came over to play for his father's A-League Calgary Storm side, but you do have to wonder if that was a justification at the time for his signing.
It's a significant difference. We had a kid at my high school in Quebec, an exchange student, who'd been on West Ham's books. He was two years old than the other Grade 12s and liked to smoke a fag while playing footy. He was fucking brilliant, the best midfielder at that age I'd ever seen (and probably still); could put a pass on a dime from 50 years, curl in bananas from halway. But he was a lager lad, liked to party and had already been released by West Ham when he came over.
If he told people he'd "played for west ham", I suppose he wouldn't technically be lying, but....
Thoughts?
When it's said that someone played for XYZ, I usually naturally assume it was the senior team (unless we're talking about a U18 player). When it comes to the youth teams, I have no problem with mentioning it in the press releases, but something like he was part of the youth systems of XYZ and ABC. Of course though, I'm not surprised at all by the fudging of it. Everyone likes to butter up their resumes.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/power...olution-tumble
Somehow, we're off the bottom of the table, giving way to our former assistant manager's former team.
Can't really blame him though... everyone wants to be a Hammer, dont they?
But i would agree, he may have been in the Youth Academy.
This season? So far? They do!Can't really blame him though... everyone wants to be a Hammer, dont they?...
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