SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums College, Pro & International Soccer Sunil Gulati

i personally think Sunil Gulati, the head of American soccer, is ruining the national team. His indecision and inability to appoint a permanent men's national team coach has stalled future progress. He simply is not getting the job done.

I agree welsh, I still don't understand why the US did not give Klinsmen any resources he wanted for the job. We should have been throwing the kitchen sink out for that guy. Once he said he was interested we should have done everything in our power to make him the main guy. Even now though with Bradley. I think he's doing a good job of developing players out of the MLS and getting a lot of different people into camps. It's ridiculous that a starting back in the EPL (Jay Demerit) just got his first call up to a national team camp. At this point I'll take anything that isn't Bruce Arena but Gulati needs to be more decisive.

Give Bob Bradley the job for an 18-month contract prior to qualification for World Cup 2010. If the US MNT are not on the right track, then dismiss him, but at least he is an American coach and understands the dynamics of the American game. I've been impressed with him thus far and hope he succeeds!

The other day I was listening to the English get all over McClaren. I wonder if Gulati is affected by this? Making a no-decision and seeing if the press or losses eat him alive first. This way he made the right call by not making the call. Gutless in my opinion but thats politics.
I agree I think Klinsmen was the man to get. Bradley is doing a great job preparing for a split squad event this summer.

I don't really understand what Gulati has to do with Demerit, but I will say this: while Demerit's story is crazy and almost unbelievable, too many people keep talking about how he starts in the EPL. Let us not forget that Watford is in last place by what, 9 points. There are times Jay has looked ok and times he has looked horrible. Do I hope he finds a place on the USMNT? Yes! Got to love the underdog story. But it's just that. No one was looking at Demerit. He went to England and started to play on a pub team if I recall correctly. Add to that, even though many think the EPL is the greatest league in the whole world, it is still known as a very physical league and the skill sets may be a bit different.
If any player should have a real complaint, I think it would be Spector. Just my opinions. I take everything said with a grain of salt because you are never really sure of how much soccer people on these boards actually watch.

The thing I was saying about Demerit was that Arena didn't even give our National Team the best chance of winning by not even looking at players like Demerit. You're right about Spector as well. I believe both those players are way better than a Chris Albright, someone Arena thought deserved a spot on the World Cup roster. I agree with Kevin as well, Bob Bradley has proved himself for the time being and I hope he succeeds as well so that the USMNT are back to competing against the best in the world.

The only time the USMNT was "competing against the best in the world" was under the watch of Arena. When did the MNT get big? Under Arena. He has the most international wins, longest home shut-out, best World Cup showing since 1930, reaching the quarterfinals at the 2002 World Cup, and all-time best international FIFA Ranking.

Arena didn't suddenly get stupid after Korea, nor would Demerit have changed our results in Germany. Bob's aim should be to reach Bruce's level of success. Very few world cup coaches get the shot at two in a row with the same team. Tank once, you're out. Make it big and you can go out on a float and parade, or hang around and try to beat the odds. Bruce didn't beat 'em, and he deserved better than what he got in the end. What were we before we had him? Anybody want to talk about France?

Arenas may not have gotten stupid, but when the expectations are high and you end up as one of the worst teams in the '06 world cup, then of course you gotta let then man go. He brought the US program to new heights but like you said Mash, when it comes to the World cup and these international teams, either you win, do good or something, but guess what, you still boubd to get replaced or move on. That's the part of the world cup coaching carousel, unfortunately for some coaches

mash arena was coach of the team for almost a decade

hes goign to get a lot of wins when you coach that long and we never compete against the ebst in the world because CONCACAF is a lowsy region plus we never play good European, South American, or even African teams

plus when we do play quality teams Ecuador, England, Denmark
its in the US we need to start playing top notch teams away from our boundaries

Yes Arena did manage to compile all of those listed statistics, but stats can be decieving. Of course he is going to have the most international wins, he's was there for the longest period of time allowing him the most chances to get those wins. Our highest ever FIFA ranking was also skewed; who did we beat in order to enter the World Cup ranked as high as fifth in the World. We had a good showing in Korea with a little bit of luck (Portugual was down, and Korea had many chances to beat us) and in Germany we had an absolutely awful showing. Not only did we have an awful showing but his actual game tactic coaching and adjusting was terrible. Defend him if you want but I was never a Bruce Arena fan.