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First off, I’d like to say I love your mentality with regards to tactics and player development, it’s refreshing.

My question is twofold.

Short term:
Our results from worlds were disheartening to say the least, and we won’t see significant changes to our core group in two seasons. The quickest way to improve this team would be through a stamina training regime, but we’ll still be at a disadvantage.

Knowing that we don’t have the best talent to draw from, what can we do strategically to maximize our success?

Long Term:
Simply, how can we develop the best players in the world?

Strategically speaking, I believe we still need to use our LI attack for the next few seasons but have our mind on the ability to switch things up. It does not take a 20JR player to be effective in an outside offense, even at the NT level, so we need to keep an eye on the other teams and look for any mismatch or tactic switch that could give us a chance to win. If we expect a man to man defense then we need to analyze every player's stats from the opposition and see where some weak areas may be to attack. Obviously once the game starts we dont have much say as to what goes on, but we can change the roster to at least try to take advantage of mismatches. But really, these next two seasons would best be focused on doing the best we can, with what we have, and plan for the future.

For the second part of the question, developing the best players in the world would be up for opinion. I think in order to do this though, we need to have first a goal of where we want to go, a list of types of players we will need for where we are going, and then allow for owners of these players to have fun with the training yet still guide them along. It comes down to looking out for the owners and creating players that are in the best interest of them .

I’m confused by your stance.

In absolute terms, yes, we have better, more balanced players today - but so does virtually every other NT.

Speaking relatively though, I do think that we've regressed in some ways - or at least not kept pace with other top countries. We once had one of the greatest guards in the world in Joe Bronson. Today, we don’t have an elite player at any position.

Just scanning the TL, there are currently 33 players with at least 12 IS and 17 OD, I see a Slovenian guard with 18 OD and 20 IS, a Honk Kong guard with 19 OD and 17 IS, a Hungarian guard with 18 OD /15 IS /13 ID, a Polish guard with 18 OD /15 IS /16 ID, a Chinese guard with 20 OD / 15 IS / 14 ID. We don’t have a single guard that can defend these players, and very few that can score efficiently on them.

As for Poland, if I recall, they didn’t win gold with vastly superior talent. They had HCA and were able to TIE virtually every game they played, in the same position the USA would have been similarly dominant.

This is all tangential to the point though. Whether or not we were better off or worse off in the past, you said in your speech your goal is to make the semi-finals, and you don’t know that we’re good enough to get there.

I have two questions for you.

China made a commitment to conserving enthusiasm last season. At the risk of advancing with three losses, against a certain CT, they TIE’d, defeated us, and advanced to the semi finals, ultimately falling to Poland. If the US were in a similar position, would you handle things differently?

What will you do uniquely to make the NT more successful than it would be with another coach, both during this term and in the future?

Well, im not saying all these players now. He said he couldnt see ONE player that could have been used in multiple tactics, but I was just saying that there were in our older players but not so much now.


Edit: My nonsense comes out of many things running through my mind at once. I have never been the best at conveying my thoughts when typing...so you may come across many things like that. But feel free to ask me to elaborate when this happens ;)

Last edited by Isaiah at 9/19/2013 9:15:08 PM

I just noticed that none of the Top 5 U21 teams in the world (Italy, Russia, USA, Latvia, Phillipines) have a National Team that is ranked in the Top 10. I think this is a reflection of these countries encouraging the primary skill-heavy "arms race" of U21 to trainers of high-potential young players rather than a balanced build for players early on. A recent example is David Aquino (27260671). A manager on the offsite commented that he would train OD/PA for a season if he bought him. Our U21 manager's response? Aquino will "get OD and PS training this season over my dead effing body."

My question to the candidates is: should the U21 team take a (relative) back seat to the National Team when it comes to high-potential players in the hopes of creating world-class, salary efficient players (ie emphasizing training secondaries at a young age rather than waiting to do so once they hit 22 years old)? And if so, how would you work with the U21 coach to enact such a plan when your respective goals are at least partially conflicting?

Magiker's previous work with the U21 shows that he deserves a shot at the NT; he's got my vote. That being said Isiah(interesting ideas) and that Dutch guy(can't hurt to bring in a foreigner, it did help the US soccer team) are good options as well. I'm gonna try to be optimistic.

But what I am arguing is that when we get to that point of having a player like that, who's to say that isn't an outdated build? If we had players like that I wouldn't be arguing about this at all and we wouldnt have this conversation about different player types right now. What we are arguing about is the fact that we continue to be like CR and Poland but lack to have players even like them. So if we can't train those types of players why do we try?

Honestly, I'd be shocked if either of those players were ever ineffective or outdated at the NT level. But I don't think we should build a strategy around a scenario that starts with "what if the best players in the world are outdated in a few seasons?" A well rounded guy with 147 skill points is always going to kill us until we develop similar players. You're going to eventually have to play M2M, and we currently have exactly 1 player in the entire USA that can guard him. That's our problem. We need better players.

And... we CAN train these types of players. Why try? Because I don't see what's so special about the European teams (aside from less competitive D1 leagues... which is another conversation) that they can and we can't. I'm not ready to give up. I think it's still our best strategy.

We once had one of the greatest guards in the world in Joe Bronson. Today, we don’t have an elite player at any position.

If he was so great, why wasn't he so good? I mean certainly an "elite" player should have shot better than 39% in season 16. And the big games against Poland? 14/37. Yikes. I don't know how to define "elite" anymore, because ESPN ruined the term, but I think our players are significantly closer to the best than in season 16. The difference between Zita and Tanner/Moore and Urbanek and Nielsen is smaller than the difference between Wisniewski, Turbato, Tapia, and Gornitz and whoever the hell we sent out at PF and C in season 16. Oh yeah, and we played Grubbs at SF against Zuya vs. Spain.

Just scanning the TL, there are currently 33 players with at least 12 IS and 17 OD, I see a Slovenian guard with 18 OD and 20 IS, a Honk Kong guard with 19 OD and 17 IS, a Hungarian guard with 18 OD /15 IS /13 ID, a Polish guard with 18 OD /15 IS /16 ID, a Chinese guard with 20 OD / 15 IS / 14 ID. We don’t have a single guard that can defend these players, and very few that can score efficiently on them.

Here was season 16: Just scanning the TL, there are currently 600 players with at least 18IS. I see a Chilean big with 20+IS, another Chilean with 13JS, 13DR, and 19IS, a Polish big with 20IS, 19ID and 17RB, and an Italian big with 20IS, 18ID, and 20RB. We don't have a single big that is worthy of washing these guys balls.

As for Poland, if I recall, they didn’t win gold with vastly superior talent. They had HCA and were able to TIE virtually every game they played, in the same position the USA would have been similarly dominant.

Yeah, except when they came back with the same players at the next worlds and won gold again without HCA.

I think you're trying to argue (correct me if I'm wrong) that we had one of the best rosters in season 16, and since then everyone else has passed us by. I think we were way behind in season 16. We're closer to the best now, but we still have a ton of work to do.

This is all tangential to the point though. Whether or not we were better off or worse off in the past, you said in your speech your goal is to make the semi-finals,

I'm a few beers down, but if you could find where I said that in my speech and quote it here, that'd be great. I believe I said "competing for a semi." That's different.

China made a commitment to conserving enthusiasm last season. At the risk of advancing with three losses, against a certain CT, they TIE’d, defeated us, and advanced to the semi finals, ultimately falling to Poland. If the US were in a similar position, would you handle things differently?

No. I think the only chance you have at "competing for a semi" is to carry as much enthusiasm as you can into round two. I was pretty clear on the offsite with my stance to TIE game 1. I can't imagine a scenario where a team can "compete for a semi" and normal more than 1 game in the first round. They'll get crushed in round 2.

Last edited by magiker at 9/20/2013 2:41:30 AM

What will you do uniquely to make the NT more successful than it would be with another coach, both during this term and in the future?

Alright! A question that pertains to this election!
It's all about trying to develop better players:
1. I think I have more experience than most when it comes to putting in the work to train NT players out of position than most other managers. I've trained a 6'0 guy at C for three seasons from ages 22-24. I've trained a 7'1 guy at PG for a season at age 21. And I'm training two 23 year old bigs at PG this season in the NBBA, while trying to stay afloat. I'll let you know how it works out (probably not as well as your team). Outside of Lucas Ray, has anyone else spent more time training out of position for the NT? If we're going to get better players, with better overall skills, we're going to need to spend a lot of time training out of position. And I think it helps to have someone guiding that process who has still been successful at that exact same thing with their club team.

2. I've been a scout for a lot of the 22+ guys for the past couple seasons. I seem to be the only candidate aware of what types of players we have, and what's in the pipeline. In fact, I seem to be the only candidate that realizes the types of players we're up against as well. Well, I bet the Dutch guy realizes that. He seems cool.

3. I haven't really talked about tactics much, although I'm glad you brought up the previous question. At least for this term, I think a better use of enthusiasm and some small differences in the players we put on the roster can help. At least for the short term, I think I've got a good handle on which builds are successful in a LI offense and which aren't. (Don't worry! We'll be trying to develop multi skilled players, not just LI focused ones).

4. I love America more than eminence. To be fair though, that doesn't make me unique.

5. As U21 coach I had 4 seasons of constant communication with managers training players of several different ages. I've realized how crucial it is to keep on top of all the players that are being developed so each season the team is good enough to compete. This requires quite a bit of long term team building and planning (which separates me from at least 1 other candidate).

Thanks for the questions SM, keep firing away!

Last edited by magiker at 9/20/2013 2:46:47 AM