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World Cup 2010 Know Your Rivals Group C Exclusive: Pierre Barrieu - U.S. Men's National Team Fitness Coach
This week Goal.com spoke to Pierre Barrieu, the USA's fitness coach at this summer's World Cup...
27-Apr-2010 2:01:00 PM
By Noah Davis
Welcome to Goal.com - Know Your Rivals for the World Cup 2010!
In this special series we bring you the local knowledge of the world's leading football tournament. With our worldwide team of experts, each one based in the country in question - from England to United States - you'll hear first-hand the latest team news, exclusive interviews, and fan opinions of your World Cup opponents.
United States Men's National Team assistant coach Pierre Barrieu is about to go through his third World Cup with the American squad. The French native, who's tasked with ensuring the Stars and Stripes come to South Africa at the peak of their fitness, garnered international respect after the U.S.'s impressive showing during the 2002 World Cup. The team was one of the fittest in the tournament, using a tireless work ethic to advance to the quarterfinals.
Barrieu spoke with Goal.com about getting his side in shape, the recent rash of injuries, and whether rehabbing instead of playing might actually help the team.
Many members of the U.S. team have been hurt recently. Assuming a player can get healthy in time for the World Cup, could the time off to rehab actually be a good thing since it allows him to get away from the day-in, day-out grind of the grueling club and international schedule?
It can be a blessing in disguise at times, but it's all about the nature of the injury, the timing of it, and how you deal with it. It's not necessarily true in all cases. There are some success stories out there. Being French, the one that comes to my mind is [left back] Bixente Lizarazu. He came back [to his Bayern Munich club] and played the last two months of the season. He was refreshed by the time the World Cup came.
He's an example of a guy who had very successful surgery and rehab, came back and was a starter on his club team so he got to play at crunch time near the end of the season. But there are so many different factors you have to take into account. If someone is just rehabbing and doesn't get to play games, even if things go well, it's not ideal before a World Cup.
How about from the mental side? Can rehabbing be a break from the mental stress of having to perform in front of tens of thousands of fans all the time?
You can find positives and negative in any situation. It depends on the individual player's mentality and character. If you look at me for example, when I'm hurt, I'm down. Way down. And it's never good. When you look at guy's who recovered successfully, it's no question that the reason they succeeded was because they remained positive. Very upbeat. You can look at a guy who gets hurt and then makes it very personal and takes it as a challenge. He's going to come back and he's going to learn a lot from the injury and come back stronger. Or you can have guys where it doesn't work like that. I don't think there's a rule.
The injured players are constantly encouraging each other, whether it's Charlie Davies and Stuart Holden on Twitter or Davies and Oguchi Onyewu in rehab together in Maryland. In that light, is having so many injuries actually a good thing?
No question. First of all, you know you're not the only one in the situation. You don't spend time being down on yourself with 'Why me, and not them?' There's no question about the positives of having a rehab companion. You see players in the same case and you're working for everybody. When you're sick and you see people that are much sicker, it's human nature to think, 'You know what? It could be much worse.' It helps you stay positive."
A number of U.S. players have gone down in the past six months. It seems like more than during past cycles. Is that true and do you have any thoughts on why that happened?
This is my third World Cup and no question that this one has been incredible in the wrong way. And we're talking about not only the amount but the severity [of the injuries]. We're not talking about muscle strains here. It's one these where you just have to take it in stride and do the best you can do. But never in a million years could we have imagined from Charlie to Gooch to Dempsey to Stuart Holden, someone who goes to Europe, gets a chance, does well, comes in, and then I shouldn't say breaks his leg, but I'll say has his leg broken. It's pretty crazy.
In this special series we bring you the local knowledge of the world's leading football tournament. With our worldwide team of experts, each one based in the country in question - from England to United States - you'll hear first-hand the latest team news, exclusive interviews, and fan opinions of your World Cup opponents.
United States Men's National Team assistant coach Pierre Barrieu is about to go through his third World Cup with the American squad. The French native, who's tasked with ensuring the Stars and Stripes come to South Africa at the peak of their fitness, garnered international respect after the U.S.'s impressive showing during the 2002 World Cup. The team was one of the fittest in the tournament, using a tireless work ethic to advance to the quarterfinals.
Barrieu spoke with Goal.com about getting his side in shape, the recent rash of injuries, and whether rehabbing instead of playing might actually help the team.
Many members of the U.S. team have been hurt recently. Assuming a player can get healthy in time for the World Cup, could the time off to rehab actually be a good thing since it allows him to get away from the day-in, day-out grind of the grueling club and international schedule?
It can be a blessing in disguise at times, but it's all about the nature of the injury, the timing of it, and how you deal with it. It's not necessarily true in all cases. There are some success stories out there. Being French, the one that comes to my mind is [left back] Bixente Lizarazu. He came back [to his Bayern Munich club] and played the last two months of the season. He was refreshed by the time the World Cup came.
He's an example of a guy who had very successful surgery and rehab, came back and was a starter on his club team so he got to play at crunch time near the end of the season. But there are so many different factors you have to take into account. If someone is just rehabbing and doesn't get to play games, even if things go well, it's not ideal before a World Cup.
How about from the mental side? Can rehabbing be a break from the mental stress of having to perform in front of tens of thousands of fans all the time?
You can find positives and negative in any situation. It depends on the individual player's mentality and character. If you look at me for example, when I'm hurt, I'm down. Way down. And it's never good. When you look at guy's who recovered successfully, it's no question that the reason they succeeded was because they remained positive. Very upbeat. You can look at a guy who gets hurt and then makes it very personal and takes it as a challenge. He's going to come back and he's going to learn a lot from the injury and come back stronger. Or you can have guys where it doesn't work like that. I don't think there's a rule.
The injured players are constantly encouraging each other, whether it's Charlie Davies and Stuart Holden on Twitter or Davies and Oguchi Onyewu in rehab together in Maryland. In that light, is having so many injuries actually a good thing?
No question. First of all, you know you're not the only one in the situation. You don't spend time being down on yourself with 'Why me, and not them?' There's no question about the positives of having a rehab companion. You see players in the same case and you're working for everybody. When you're sick and you see people that are much sicker, it's human nature to think, 'You know what? It could be much worse.' It helps you stay positive."
A number of U.S. players have gone down in the past six months. It seems like more than during past cycles. Is that true and do you have any thoughts on why that happened?
This is my third World Cup and no question that this one has been incredible in the wrong way. And we're talking about not only the amount but the severity [of the injuries]. We're not talking about muscle strains here. It's one these where you just have to take it in stride and do the best you can do. But never in a million years could we have imagined from Charlie to Gooch to Dempsey to Stuart Holden, someone who goes to Europe, gets a chance, does well, comes in, and then I shouldn't say breaks his leg, but I'll say has his leg broken. It's pretty crazy.
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