RSS
ATOM
advertisement
Canales Daily: Sacrifice and Strategy
They look as alike as Laurel and Hardy, but in many ways, Juan Carlos Osorio and Sigi Schmid share intense dedication to the success of their respective teams, Red Bull New York and the Columbus Crew.
Nov 18, 2008 9:38:34 AM
By Andrea Canales
Players talk all the time about "leaving it all on the field", referencing the total commitment and sacrifice one must be willing to put into an effort to win. Yet the best players know that the time on the field is actually the culmination of a lot of hours and energy put into the game long before the first whistle blows.
It's the same with coaching. Sure, the glory of the ultimate moment on the sidelines may take place as the clock ticks down. At that point a proud and happy coach is waiting for the final whistle so he can run out to the field and celebrate with his squad all their mutual effort.
What the camera rarely catches, though, is the hours of labor-intensive video analysis of one's opponent, the tactical meetings with assistants, the keen eye at drills to better assess who has improved and who has yet to step it up a notch.
"Nobody works harder," a New York reporter told me, speaking of Red Bulls coach, Juan Carlos Osorio.
Supposedly, Osorio was already looking at video of Columbus on the flight back from Utah after New York claimed a spot in the final.
Osorio is a bit of an enigma, polite and even soft-spoken with the media, but with a calculating nature. Not many coaches would have thought to add the escape clause to his contract that allowed him to jump so easily from Chicago to New York last year.
It was that move which resulted in Osorio, despite his short and successful tenure with the Fire, becoming the most despised coach in that club's history. If it fazed him in the least, he never let on. A few players he had left behind on Chicago were there because they hoped to work with him, but if their stranded situations weighted on Osorio's conscience, it wasn't evident.
But Osorio didn't get to where he is now by letting doubts weigh him down. His tenure as assistant coach of New York back in 2000 led to a jump across the pond to become an assistant to Kevin Keegan at Manchester City. During his time there, Osorio reportedly interviewed for a number of open MLS jobs, including his dream job of coaching New York. He was never picked, however, and lack of head coaching experience seemed to be a factor.
Then Osorio simply eliminated that excuse by moving back to his native Colombia to become the head coach of Millionarios, the team from Bogota, for about a year before making the move to Major League Soccer in 2007 when the Fire called.
Osorio kept his cool this season when New York struggled, even as rumors swirled that he would not last long in New York's notorious coaching hot seat. He dealt calmly with the situation when the first drug scandal in MLS history took two veterans, Jeff Parke and Jon Conway, from the squad, setting an example of grace under pressure.
New York backed into the playoffs when the team they now face in the MLS final, Colombus, defeated DC United in their season finale. The Red Bulls looked likely to continue a long tradition of seeing very little playoff action. Instead, Osorio has guided them to their first conference championship.
Fearless and driven, Osorio has broken the New York curse that has destroyed a number of coaches before him.
If Osorio is the reformer, the sort of coach who can sweep into a club with his intensity and discipline and affect positive change right away, Sigi Schmid is a foundation builder, with a more seemingly relaxed, yet no less dedicated style.
After all, while Osorio contended that part of his choice of New York was to please his family, Schmid sacrificed time away from his own by agreeing to the job in Ohio with the Crew. His wife and children still reside in the Los Angeles area of California.
It's hard to imagine that Osorio watches any more game video than Schmid, since the Crew coach devotes most of the hours he cannot spend with his family to analyzing opponents and the strategies of his own squad. Given the price he has paid personally, if ever a coach deserved to lead a squad dubbed with the motto "hardest-working team", it would seem to be Schmid.
He stuck to the struggle to turn the Crew around even when the effort seemed to flounder for two years, and constructed a smooth-running club of interchangeable contributing parts.
Unlike the Red Bulls, the Crew sweep into the finals with all the momentum and credibility of the top record in the regular season of MLS. Yet there is a surprising vulnerability to the squad, though they have overcome it with grit. Unlike the Red Bulls, who have never trailed in the playoffs this year, the Crew have twice been down to their opponents. They manged to scramble and turn around those situations, but it hasn't been as smooth sailing as Schmid would like.
Now both leaders meet in the final. The coach from Colombia versus the coach of Columbus. Both are coaching their second MLS teams, but Schmid has won the championship before. Osorio, though, has no problem making history.
Who would have thought when New York and Columbus joined the league in 1996, that it would take both teams so long to reach the final for the first time? Who would have guessed that when it happened, it would be the team in the smallest market of MLS considered the establishment favorite, while the one from New York, a city famous around the world, would be tagged as the upstart?
Frankly, as much as the parity issue in MLS has been raised again and again, it was hard to take it too seriously when it seemed that whenever it came down to what really mattered, it was always the same two teams in the final - New England and Houston.
Now though, it's clear that MLS is any team's game. It helps to have a hard worker at the helm, one who does all that is possible off the field to get the team ready to leave it all on the field.
--Andrea Canales is Chief Editor of Goal.com USA
Players talk all the time about "leaving it all on the field", referencing the total commitment and sacrifice one must be willing to put into an effort to win. Yet the best players know that the time on the field is actually the culmination of a lot of hours and energy put into the game long before the first whistle blows.
It's the same with coaching. Sure, the glory of the ultimate moment on the sidelines may take place as the clock ticks down. At that point a proud and happy coach is waiting for the final whistle so he can run out to the field and celebrate with his squad all their mutual effort.
What the camera rarely catches, though, is the hours of labor-intensive video analysis of one's opponent, the tactical meetings with assistants, the keen eye at drills to better assess who has improved and who has yet to step it up a notch.
"Nobody works harder," a New York reporter told me, speaking of Red Bulls coach, Juan Carlos Osorio.
Supposedly, Osorio was already looking at video of Columbus on the flight back from Utah after New York claimed a spot in the final.
Osorio is a bit of an enigma, polite and even soft-spoken with the media, but with a calculating nature. Not many coaches would have thought to add the escape clause to his contract that allowed him to jump so easily from Chicago to New York last year.
It was that move which resulted in Osorio, despite his short and successful tenure with the Fire, becoming the most despised coach in that club's history. If it fazed him in the least, he never let on. A few players he had left behind on Chicago were there because they hoped to work with him, but if their stranded situations weighted on Osorio's conscience, it wasn't evident.
But Osorio didn't get to where he is now by letting doubts weigh him down. His tenure as assistant coach of New York back in 2000 led to a jump across the pond to become an assistant to Kevin Keegan at Manchester City. During his time there, Osorio reportedly interviewed for a number of open MLS jobs, including his dream job of coaching New York. He was never picked, however, and lack of head coaching experience seemed to be a factor.
Then Osorio simply eliminated that excuse by moving back to his native Colombia to become the head coach of Millionarios, the team from Bogota, for about a year before making the move to Major League Soccer in 2007 when the Fire called.
Osorio kept his cool this season when New York struggled, even as rumors swirled that he would not last long in New York's notorious coaching hot seat. He dealt calmly with the situation when the first drug scandal in MLS history took two veterans, Jeff Parke and Jon Conway, from the squad, setting an example of grace under pressure.
New York backed into the playoffs when the team they now face in the MLS final, Colombus, defeated DC United in their season finale. The Red Bulls looked likely to continue a long tradition of seeing very little playoff action. Instead, Osorio has guided them to their first conference championship.
Fearless and driven, Osorio has broken the New York curse that has destroyed a number of coaches before him.
If Osorio is the reformer, the sort of coach who can sweep into a club with his intensity and discipline and affect positive change right away, Sigi Schmid is a foundation builder, with a more seemingly relaxed, yet no less dedicated style.
After all, while Osorio contended that part of his choice of New York was to please his family, Schmid sacrificed time away from his own by agreeing to the job in Ohio with the Crew. His wife and children still reside in the Los Angeles area of California.
It's hard to imagine that Osorio watches any more game video than Schmid, since the Crew coach devotes most of the hours he cannot spend with his family to analyzing opponents and the strategies of his own squad. Given the price he has paid personally, if ever a coach deserved to lead a squad dubbed with the motto "hardest-working team", it would seem to be Schmid.
He stuck to the struggle to turn the Crew around even when the effort seemed to flounder for two years, and constructed a smooth-running club of interchangeable contributing parts.
Unlike the Red Bulls, the Crew sweep into the finals with all the momentum and credibility of the top record in the regular season of MLS. Yet there is a surprising vulnerability to the squad, though they have overcome it with grit. Unlike the Red Bulls, who have never trailed in the playoffs this year, the Crew have twice been down to their opponents. They manged to scramble and turn around those situations, but it hasn't been as smooth sailing as Schmid would like.
Now both leaders meet in the final. The coach from Colombia versus the coach of Columbus. Both are coaching their second MLS teams, but Schmid has won the championship before. Osorio, though, has no problem making history.
Who would have thought when New York and Columbus joined the league in 1996, that it would take both teams so long to reach the final for the first time? Who would have guessed that when it happened, it would be the team in the smallest market of MLS considered the establishment favorite, while the one from New York, a city famous around the world, would be tagged as the upstart?
Frankly, as much as the parity issue in MLS has been raised again and again, it was hard to take it too seriously when it seemed that whenever it came down to what really mattered, it was always the same two teams in the final - New England and Houston.
Now though, it's clear that MLS is any team's game. It helps to have a hard worker at the helm, one who does all that is possible off the field to get the team ready to leave it all on the field.
--Andrea Canales is Chief Editor of Goal.com USA
Advertisement
Inside Goal.Com
-
RIGG: Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is certainly no Mr. February
The Swedish striker traditionally struggles in February. Facing a three-match ban this month, the jinx looks set to continue.
-
DEMPSEY'S DIARY: Playing in the World Cup was the ultimate dream
In his latest diary entry for Goal.com, the U.S. international and Fulham midfielder talks about playing in his first World Cup despite a back injury and what it meant to score.
-
ROGERS: Capello resigns as coach, but the villain is FA chairman Bernstein
Capello and John Terry are far from blameless in the England saga, but the real culprit is the FA chairman.
-
LABIDOU: Is MLS falling behind? The league's new younger direction
With high-profile players like Nicolas Anelka and Luca Toni rejecting MLS for other developing leagues, is the league falling behind its competition?
-
ROSANO: Mexican soccer needs to address referee treatment
Nick Rosano argues that Mexico's continued officiating problems may have less to do with referees themselves and more to do with how they are treated by the federation.
Advertisement
Advertisement