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News Thread ... 2018-19 Season

If it does end up being Berhalter, that’s a hire they could have made the day after Columbus’ season ended last year. Then we wouldn’t have lost a year getting a team ready for the 2019 Gold Cup. Instead, he’ll only have 2 international windows to get acquainted with the non-MLS players.

True. But with the imminent change in USSF's leadership coming, I don't think anyone was going to support Gulati making another hire until his future was determined. And then after Cordero took over, it took approximately forever to get the GM hired and then they doubled down on the delay by allowing Stewart to work with the Union until October 1st. And that's my biggest beef ... that not only did Cordero take from March until freaking June to hire Stewart, he then allowed Stewart to stick on his current job for another 90 days. That's just a ridiculous lack of urgency, given the scenario.

And there's absolutely no guarantee that they'll end up hiring Berhalter or Vermes, or some other MLS coach. Stewart has kept mum, but the other people on the search committee have made noises that could be interpreted to make you believe that there's a much wider net being cast .... words like International or National team experience have been used. At this point I'm just going to sit back and see what happens. I'm fairly certain there's no big name International boss for there US at the end of this process, but nothing is a given at this point.
 
I know there wasn't much drama involved at the top, but CONCACAF has decided their three Womens World Cup participants for France 2019. The US won the qualifying tournament with a truly impressive 2-0 defeat of Canada, who also qualified. Then Jamaica made history by qualifying for their first WWC in penalties over Panama.

Again ... business as usual for the US and Canada, but big freaking news for Jamaica. Congrats to the Reggae Girls.
 
And Panama, with their 17 year old Golden Gloves winning keeper, goes into an intercontinental playoff against Argentina for another spot. Julie Ertz won the Golden Ball, Alex Morgan won th Golden Boot (on a goal scored from an offside position) and the US won the Fair Play award.
 
MLS news...heading into the final weekend of the regular season, as Atlanta United closes in on the Supporter’s Shield and an automatic spot in the CONCACAF Champions League, Tata Martino announced he will not renew his contact and he’s leaving after the season. Speculation is that he’ll take over Mexico’s National Team.

https://www.ajc.com/sports/breaking...tlanta-united-manager/5D8CpsvhTIc5BMxoY9ozGO/

Yeah ... it's only now official, but Tata's departure has been a not so closely held secret for awhile now. The big issue for Atlanta, at least in the short run, is going to be how many of those South American players that he brought in follow him out the door. At least he gave the fans a magical season on the way out. They were absolutely a joy to watch all season long.
 
Manager Julien Lopetegui got the axe at Real Madrid yesterday following their humiliating defeat by Barca. Poor guy got the early hook from the Spanish Federation right before the World Cup if you'll recall ... for announcing that he was taking the Madrid job too early for his bosses' liking and now this. He's having as bad a run of professional fortune as you can have while being paid an actual fortune.
 
Manager Julien Lopetegui got the axe at Real Madrid yesterday following their humiliating defeat by Barca. Poor guy got the early hook from the Spanish Federation right before the World Cup if you'll recall ... for announcing that he was taking the Madrid job too early for his bosses' liking and now this. He's having as bad a run of professional fortune as you can have while being paid an actual fortune.

They took it out on Melilla in the Copa Del Rey today 4-0. In La Liga, they’re in 9h place with 14 points and only 14 goals in 10 matches.
 
They took it out on Melilla in the Copa Del Rey today 4-0. In La Liga, they’re in 9h place with 14 points and only 14 goals in 10 matches.

New manager, completely re-tooled attack with the departure of their keystone attacking player ... one would think a bit of rope would have been in order. But this is Madrid. Patience might be a virtue but it's not in the club DNA.
 
Steve Cherundolo will join the US Men’s National Team coaching staff for their upcoming friendlies against England and Italy. Since retiring in 2014, he’s been an assistant at Hannover and head coach of their U-15 and U-17 teams. He joined Stuttgart as an assistant this year.
 
Steve Cherundolo will join the US Men’s National Team coaching staff for their upcoming friendlies against England and Italy. Since retiring in 2014, he’s been an assistant at Hannover and head coach of their U-15 and U-17 teams. He joined Stuttgart as an assistant this year.

Fine, but for God's sake don't tell me that's the only change for the staff that's forthcoming.

And yeah, I know EVERYBODY seems to know that they've tapped Berhalter and won't be able to announce it until the Crew are eliminated from the MLS playoffs, but jeez. You could hold off on support staff changes until you name the boss, ya know? The USSF just act like it's no big deal that they still haven't freaking named a coach.
 
The FA has suspended referee David McNamara for 21 days. He left his coin in the dressing room before a Women’s Super League match and had the captains of Man City and Reading decide kickoff and which side to defend by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...League-captains-play-rock-paper-scissors.html


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I mean ... I honestly get both positions on this. That's unprofessional, but the result is meaningless and the alternate method pretty much just as random, so who really cares? Fine the guy a token amount and tell him to knock it off in future.
 
Screw that, promote that man. THAT'S HOW ALL MATCHES SHOULD START!!!

Just back from a thing at Disney. Ran into a guy in a Reading shirt in the lobby of the Contemporary Resort on Saturday and I asked him for his take on this. He said anyone who didn't find that move appropriate and hilarious wasn't a person he wished to know.
 
Man City are considering building a 2nd training complex...in London. There are 10 clubs in metro London and south, this would give them a place to train and reduce travel time when facing those clubs. Meanwhile, their US club, NYCFC don’t have a proper stadium.

https://mobile.twitter.com/city_watch/status/1066671528891346944

Sure ... it's not really about recruiting layers who don't want to live in the north (where the sky is closer to the ground) full-time, but rather because they play Brentford and Millwall ALLLL the time. Orient are still broke, why don't they just buy out their facility?
 
He never should have been hired in the first place. Hughes ran his course two or three jobs ago and wasn't even close to a good fit with the club systems that they had put in place over a long period of time. The front office (OK, pretty much just Ralph Kruger I guess has managed to burn down a structure they had been carefully building, cultivating and tending since around 2010 in a matter of two years. Way to go.
 
So underwhelmed was I with the process that I realized that I failed to post the news that the US finally hired a Men's National Team coach ... Gregg Berhalter. He's been 5 years at the helm of the Columbus Crew in MLS, with a solid record despite challenging conditions. USSF GM Earnie Stewart defending the hiring process over the weekend under heavy criticism coming from reports that he passed on even interviewing a raft of seemingly qualified interested parties .... including Tata Martinez and Julen Lopetegui. According to Stewart, he spoke with upwards of 20 potential managers before settling on formal interviews with 2 ... Berhalter and former Dallas head man Oscar Pereja ... who ended up taking the Tijuana job in Mexico.

Here's the thing ... Berhalter probably doesn't deserve the bad smell coming from the hiring process or lack thereof. He's got a good pedigree (albeit largely MLS-centric) and was certainly a prominent player in his day. He's not the problem, but guess who is going to have to deal with all the bad vibes in the press and amongst the supporters? January camp is fairly close at hand, so he'll get a chance to set the course for 2019 pretty soon. I think he'll do fine, but Carlos Cordero promised that he would run the ship at USSF differently than it's been run in the past. Pardon me for officially calling BS on that.
 
MLS playoffs are wrapped up. Atlanta United say farewell to Tata Martino with some shiny hardware after a comprehensive 2-0 win over Portland. They squashed regular season champions NY Red Bull in the semis too, and were pretty much the best and most entertaining team all season before a late bobble in form cost them the regular season honors. So, well earned and well deserved.

Martino will reportedly move on to the Mexico job, and it looks like a goodly chunk of his Argentine players will follow him out the door. As expansion experiments go, Atlanta's went fairly spectacularly, no matter what happens from here. 2 years in they won the tournament championship and generally made MLS fun again. Well done.
 
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