Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Where do we go now?

The San Diego Union-Tribune's Mark Zeigler takes a look at some of the leading candidates to take over for Greg Ryan.

7 comments:

JT Soccer said...

Nice to see Krikorian & Sermanni on the list. I think both would be top notch picks for the job.

In order, I'd like to see:

1) Smith 2) Sundhage 3) DiCicco 4) Krikorian 5) Sermanni 6) Ellis

I think each would have success and offer a more attractive style of play.

That said, I bet they hire Jim Gabarra as interim coach.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see Sundhage get the gig. DiCicco wouldn't be bad, but I wonder how he'd handle Solo. I remember he didn't seem to give Debbie Keller a fair shot in 99. (in my opinion)

Anonymous said...

Does this mean we're getting Domanski-Lyfors and Sundhage?

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=ap-chinacoachquits&prov=ap&type=lgns

JT Soccer said...

mc said...,

didn't that have more to do with some UNC alums on the squad going to USSF to punish Keller for going to court against AD?

JT Soccer said...

In thinking about who might replace Ryan, I remembered this from a Michael Lewis column just before the '04 Olympics. It referenced the USA being with out Tiff & Mac and tactics:

Without those two skilled players who like to play the ball on the ground, the U.S. has been transformed into a team that relies on set pieces and one that likes to bang the ball to the twin towers -- Abby Wambach and Cindy Parlow. There's nothing wrong with an occasional long ball. But when a team comes to close to becoming one dimensional, it could become quite predictable Translated: The team's attack is easier to stop.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=306590&cc=5901

Anonymous said...

jt, I like your list, though I'd swap Sermanni and Krikorian and take DiCicco off altogether. Tony's a great coach, but he has too many ties to the old guard. He'll do great with WSIi, but he'd be a retread on the NT. I put Sermanni over Krik because he's better with player relationships, and I was wowed by the composure his Aussies showed under pressure in China.

JT Soccer said...

leftcoaster, I'd be happy with either Krikorian or Sermanni but as you pointed out Sermanni has WC experience.

I hadn't heard of any personnel problems that Krikorian had with the Charge and I thought he had a great organized defense and integrated top class foreign players in their attack. Sermanni on the other hand was instrumental in the early success of the Cyberrays, helping to pull together that squad. So WUSA wise, I can see that it's a tossup.

I see DiCicco as no more than an Olympics coach just to get the program through this year - so you point is taken if USSF really wants a long term solution.