In October, U.S. soccer fans wanted blood. They wanted change and they wanted it yesterday. They wanted to see something tangible to show U.S. Soccer was actually trying. Finally, they have something. Nearly five months after the USMNT failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, U.S. Soccer announced its first major youth initiative to help ensure such failure never happens again: bio-banding.
Bruce Arena (with the help of Jurgen Klinsmann and some uninspired performances from the players) failed to qualify the U.S. for the 2018 World Cup. Now he wants to monetize that failure with a new autobiography. The Bruce Arena book is titled “What's Wrong with US?: A Coach’s Blunt Take on the State of American Soccer After a Lifetime on the Touchline,” a clear and obvious money grab revolving around a fiasco of his own creation.
The dead of winter marks the offseason for most soccer players in America, but that doesn’t mean the time for setting goals and striving for improvement is at an end. Between the end of one season and the next preseason marks an important period for reflection, planning and taking the first steps towards a memorable new year.
Building on advice from some of the world’s top managers, we look at seven different areas you can focus on during the offseason to take yourself and your club to the next level.
Who are the longest serving managers in Premier League history? Well, if we exclude the time before the Premier League’s formation in 1992, Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger tops this list, but we’re not going to do that. Including both the Premier League and the original First Division, here are the 10 longest serving managers at any one club in English football history.
Injuries are a part of sports. So it’s only fitting that as you train for soccer, you should also train to avoid injuries. Injury prevention for kids is particularly critical as over 1.5 million kids injure their knees and ankles every year. ACL injuries in kids especially are on the rise, with a 400% increase in the last decade.
It’s official — Pep Guardiola is the most consistent manager in football. With Manchester City’s cruise-control 4-0 win over Swansea on Wendesday, Guardiola owns one of the most impressive records in each of Europe’s top three leagues.
Manchester City has now won 15 straight Premier League matches, setting the record for consecutive victories for the English league. Guardiola also owns the same record in La Liga and the Bundesliga. It doesn’t get any more consistent than that.
Borussia Dortmund hadn’t won in nine Bundesliga matches, so they hired a manager who hadn’t won in 14 matches. And it worked, somehow. Dortmund beat Mainz 2-0 to win for the first time in league play since September to give new coach Peter Stöger his first victory this season.
Borussia Dortmund needed a change, this much was obvious. The club was in a massive tailspin in both the Bundesliga and Champions League. So Dortmund fired coach Peter Bosz on Sunday. But the man they replaced him with as Dortmund coach — Peter Stöger — was just fired from the one club that has been more disappointing in the Bundesliga this season: Cologne.
Vincenzo Montella has been fired as AC Milan coach.
Finally, Milan has initiated the “Unsworth protocol” — sack an underachieving manager after he’s overseen a summer of massive spending and dismal football, only to replace him with a vastly unqualified club legend. In many ways, Everton and Milan are exactly alike.
But whereas Everton is currently fighting an unlikely relegation battle, Milan sits seventh place in the table. Surely, after such a huge overhaul, they should be allowed time to gel together, time to fail together and time to come together as a team?
Brad Friedel made a career out of doing the improbable, from countless saves with Blackburn Rovers to the USMNT’s run to the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals. His latest task will be right up there with them: helping the New England Revolution win their first MLS Cup.