Gulati is Watching
In an interview with Grant Wahl, Sulati made some candid remarks about the US Men’s Olympic team’s performance, including some of the coaching decisions made by Peter Nowak. While he was not talking directly about Bob Bradley, it was clear Gulati was speaking with Bradley in mind. This is especially true considering Nowak is Bradley’s key assistant on the senior team.
Some highlights of the interview.
In expressing his overall disappointment with the early exit, Gulati lamented:
Well, we’re not at a stage anymore where there are moral victories in tournaments like this. We’re well past that. And so I think what’s really frustrating when I look at it is we didn’t lose to superior teams necessarily.
Then, Gulati commented on Nowak’s performance:
You know, aside from extraordinary moves of taking an unproven player and making a player out of him, things like that, you end up judging coaches mostly on results. And so we didn’t advance, so he’s disappointed like I’m disappointed in that . . . So I’ve read things that Dax [McCarty] should have played and Robbie [Rogers] shouldn’t have played, and why did Jozy [Altidore] play less or play more, or whatever. I talk about those things with Peter to understand his logic. I certainly asked him why he chose to pull Freddy [Adu] off in game two.
When asked what did Nowak say, Gulati tersely responded,
That’s for you to ask Peter. I wanted to understand it.
Gulati then summarized,
So I don’t evaluate Peter, it’s evaluating the team, and obviously Peter’s the head of that team. And those reviews are we clearly didn’t get done what we set out to do.
These comments are significant for a number of reasons.
First, rarely does one hear a federation president, at least a US Soccer president, publicly criticizing a national team’s performance and openly questioning coaching decisions. Clearly this is Gulati’s salvo to other federation coaches that the bar has been raised. Moral victories no longer count. Only results matter, regardless of the opponent.
Second, it sends a clear signal to Bob Bradley that he and his staff are on a short leash. In questioning the decision not to play some players and take others out prematurely, Gulati invaded what is normally sacred ground for US coaches. To wit, the federation will not publicly second guess player selection. The days of getting free passes from the federation seem to be over.
Finally, Gulati’s comments send perhaps an even more subtle message. He clearly believes this team was talented enough to compete for a medal. And, he no longer believes that talent requires further development, instead noting “this isn’t like the under-17 or under-20 team where you say, hey, the main thing here is to develop players for the senior team.” In Adu, Altidore, Bradley, Jr., Edu, Wynne, Holden and Kljestan, to name a few, it seems Gulati believes the US has enough talent to compete with the world’s best. Perhaps not the Argentinas or Brazils of the world, but certainly everyone else, including Holland and Nigeria.
And guess who will take the blame when the US comes up short? Memo to Bob Bradley, you have been put on notice.
