Monday, October 01, 2007

Ives : The Worst Coach You Never Heard Of

As Ives puts it, Greg Ryan is the worst coach you've never heard of. What more needs to be said? How about that's just a being a bit too English for me? Can I say that? The English seem great at going over the top with their critiques of their national coaches. They're like a bunch of manic depressives swinging wildly from one end of the spectrum to the other when it comes to how they talk about their coach. But at the core of their issue is expecting to always be the best of the best even when they don't have the talent to do it. Going into the women's World Cup the US had shown plenty of signs that they weren't the dominant team of the past. Let's acknowledge those and over simply the issue as being the coach's fault and only the coach's fault. Greg Ryan has his issues as coach but he's far from being the worst coach ever.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How far from being the worst coach do you think he is?
Hiding behind Solo?
Ignoring his goalkeeping coach's advice?
Not playing Tarpley?
Not playing Wagner?
Pulling O'Reilly?
Boot and run tactics?
Insulting Brazil before the game?
Insulting Brazil after the game:
You have to consider where they come from...with so little....

Record number of labor disputes filed during his tenure?
Repeated attempts to reduce the players pay?
Saying he was not devastated, but felt for the players?
Thinking the job is not done?

I guess it depends upon who you are comparing him to, eh? I guess compared to Bradley he looks good.

Allen said...

I fail to see why you would compare Bradley and Ryan and say compared to Bradley Ryan looks good. I don't think most people expect the men to do things such as win the World Cup. The women on the other hand went into the tournament as being one of the favorites and crashed out to Brazil 4-0 in the semi-finals. If the USMNT lost 4-0 in the semi-finals I suspect most of their fans would still be walking around with a smile on their face.

What about Bradley is so much worse than Ryan?