1. What Jason Kreis firing tells us about NYCFC
Let’s say this in summation of the vexing goings-on at NYCFC: When you cite the NYCFC “miscalculation” or “mis-step,” you really have to specify which one.
Consider the choices that have ranged from questionable to just plain loopy at a club that’s played competitive soccer for just eight months:
- From the start, “branding” seemed more important than, you know, “soccer.”
- The stadium plan went swerving all over the road from the get-go. Today, they still don’t have one.
- Club deciders chose poorly in adopting a stop-gap venue solution, selecting the horribly ill-fitting Yankee Stadium, which did serve to tie the club into local sports history but was otherwise wrong for all kinds of reasons.
- The club tasked Claudio Reyna, with no experience in these matters, with architecting the overall personnel plan.
- The Frank Lampard signing was a mess, at best, and made the club look intentionally deceiving, at its worst.
- Someone (we’re not sure who) asked the manager to shoe-horn two aging Euros into a midfield and make something cohesive from it.
- The club clearly aimed too high with expectations, especially in light of the items above.
- Finally, they fired a great manager (Jason Kreis), the youngest to win an MLS Cup, someone who will reappear within MLS to prove, again and again in some likelihood, how wrong NYCFC was here.
There’s a lot to digest about Monday’s big move. Paul Gardener at Soccer America makes a good case that this is mostly about “European arrogance.” Hard to argue the point. I made the point at World Soccer Talk more than a week ago that if NYCFC did, indeed, cut Kreis’ legs from him, it should set off a fresh round of alarm bells about the club.
As I said in the piece linked above, this club needs a plan (a “one-year plan” is really not a plan in professional sports) that fits MLS, or the franchise’s “long, slow march toward ingrained nincompoopery” has begun.
2. MLS refereeing: getting better, whether you see that or not
There is a strange condition attached to MLS: Refereeing is probably better than ever. I’ve watched a lot of matches for a long, long time, so I feel comfortable in saying so.
Yes, it remains flawed. But if you’re saying “seriously flawed,” then you need to go back and watch some of the MMA-worthy brawls from just a few years ago.
But here’s the oddity of MLS: because there are more eyes on the league every year – more tickets sold in stadiums, more viewers for local broadcasts and improved national television ratings, the context of the conversation gets washed away.
Too many of the newer eyes don’t know the history, so they (understandably) cannot attest the improvement. What they see is too many important matches still being decided by calls that are controversial at best, just plain “blown” at worst.
So the narrative gets reduced to something very simple: “MLS refereeing stinks!” That’s not to excuse any of the incorrect decisions that have affected important regular season matches (going back to an incorrect offside decision that helped shape the significant Decision Day outcome between Sporting Kansas City and the L.A. Galaxy).
Handballs at RFK and CenturyLink were talkers. (Certainly so for New England’s Jermaine Jones, whose suspension is coming, assuming he remains an MLS man.) Later at RFK, a lunging tackle that could have potentially changed the series was the main point of controversy. Too many tough fouls (and not enough punishment) put a black eye on one of the best MLS playoffs matches ever, the epic PK win by Portland. Generally, fan consensus at most MLS stadiums was that refereeing wasn’t up to par.
Which may be true; Peter Walton and his PRO organization have after-reports to sort and things to talk through, etc. But do know this: it’s getting better, even if that doesn’t help tamp down any personal outrage when your team lands on the wrong end of a sketchy call.
3. Jurgen Klinsmann is watching Darlington Nagbe, we presume
In Portland’s Darlington Nagbe, are we watching a potential U.S. national team standout born before our very eyes?
It’s not so outrageous to think so. Nagbe, having obtained United States citizenship, is now in a position to be called into Jurgen Klinsmann’s team. And the timing could hardly be better, just as the next World Cup qualifying cycle is beginning. (The Americans begin their march to Moscow next week in St. Louis.)
Nagbe, technically gifted and more than adequately athletic, is enjoying new freedom as an interior attacker for the Portland Timbers. (He had generally played out wide before.)
No one who watched the guy ever doubted his talent. But the final product never seemed to add up. You read about Nagbe’s 23 goals and 20 assists in 160 MLS appearances, and it looks like a misprint. Even to watch the skillful, creative midfielder could become an exercise in curiosity. Somehow he was the opposite of a man who is “more than the sum of his parts.”
But then came his recent form with Portland, an “a-ha!” and “I told you so!” moment for most everyone who has seen him perform. Previously, even if he didn’t dominate, Nagbe was faithful in effort, defensive duty and possession.
This new Nagbe (think “Freddy Adu level skill, without the baggage) could absolutely be a boon to the United States. He has something Klinsmann’s teams are desperately missing: more players highly comfortable with the ball, men who can retain possession sufficiently to play the high-tempo, dynamic style long promised.
4. Youth movements are great, but the players are still “youthful”
There is so much to like about FC Dallas’ youth initiative, about the way Oscar Pareja faithfully empowers young athletes. (Some of these guys are college-aged young men playing the professional game; some are high school-aged.)
But the system has its perils, too. Perhaps “peril” isn’t the perfect word; if you take the long view of player development, there’s no “peril” at all. But it’s the right word for a team chasing a shorter-term goal of ultimate MLS success.
Seven FCD starters in Sunday’s MLS playoff match were 24 or younger: Mauro Diaz, Fabian Castillo, Jesse Gonzalez, Ezequiel Cirigliano, David Texeira, Michael Barrios and Ryan Hollingshead. Captain Matt Hedges is just 25.
One of the real challenges for Pareja is teaching the right balance between useful intensity and anxious over-aggression. See, passion plays a bit part in the way “Papi” coaches. Passion for the game, for the club, for each other, etc. He believes with all his heart in them and wants them to believe with all their heart in the system and in each other. Nothing wrong with any of that, of course.
But there’s a tricky balance at work when they step inside the white lines on game night. Because teaching them to play on the edge, but right on the edge, is not easy. Because passion and intensity overcooked leads to free kicks, bookings and ejections.
We saw it last year with an FCD record nine ejections through the season. Pareja tamed that element in 2015, cutting the number of red cards by more than half (just four in ’15).
But the team still gives away too many free kicks in dangerous spots, or worse yet, penalty kicks, late in matches. FC Dallas gave up nine PKs this year, second only to Real Salt Lake’s 10.
Fouling near the penalty area cost Pareja’s team dearly in Seattle on Sunday (although it was one of the “older” players responsible for the telling foul).
Finding the balance between “passion and playing on the edge” and “useful prudence” is a skill that must be taught and learned. It’s likely to be an ongoing challenge for youth-minded FC Dallas.
5. The Little Five
5a. Honestly, if the City Football Group wants to make NYCFC some sort of “feeder” club for its larger (read: EPL) ambitions, I don’t have a problem with it. But the club cannot be arrogant enough to demand it be: a) a development arm for Manchester City; b) a fan-pleasing club of brand name stars who are better at selling seats than winning games, and c) a legitimate MLS contender. It’s like trying to be the town’s best taco place, pizza joint and steak house all under one roof. It’s just not going to work.
5b. I’m worried for our U.S. goalkeepers abroad. And by “U.S. goalkeepers abroad,” I’m obviously referring to the prominent pair of American EPL swells, Tim Howard and Brad Guzan, the standard bearers of American backstoppers everywhere. There seems to be some feeling around Villa Park that Guzan hasn’t been poor, but that he somehow needs to “do more” for the struggling Villans. And there is amble chatter in England that perhaps 36-year-old Howard’s best days are behind him at Everton.
5c. Evidence is piling up nicely that regular season does absolutely matter for playoff ambition. To wit: finishing 3rd or 4th is clearly advantageous to finishing 4th or 5th. The hosts in these early, single-game elimination round matches (counting since 2011, when the format more or less started) are 10-2. That’s compelling evidence over a growing sample.
5d. While the crowds in Seattle for two playoff matches were outstanding by MLS standards, they also illustrate an issue with the current playoff format. Home teams that survive the knockout round match (most do … see the note directly above) must turn around and host again three or four nights later. Even for Seattle, selling two matches on such short notice is tough. Two crowds of 39,000+ are great, of course. But the season’s two most important matches also fell below Seattle’s (record-setting) 2015 average of 44,247.
5a. The difficulty of travel, exacerbated by the hot summer months and by local challenges, is the lesson that refuses to be learned by foreign players and managers migrating into MLS. Witness the comments from Steven Gerrard, on the league’s unique difficulties (and feel free to wonder how he or his agent didn’t do a little more homework here.)