A Ruud Gullit Article

By: Laurie | November 21st, 2007

I suppose this article could be called, “He’s in for a Ruud Awakening.” If that particular turn of phrase hadn’t been a) done to death and b) banned by Dan Loney.

I got the article in an e-mail yesterday from SportsHubLA, a new sports website for the Los Angeles area. In it, Enrique Gutierrez of Univision shares his thoughts on the decision to hire Ruud Gullit and the challenges Gullit faces in his quest to bring sexy to the US soccer scene.

I don’t think Gullit realizes the challenge in front of him. From what he said in his introductory press conference, he made it clear he knows nothing about the league -he probably has never seen a single MLS game- its players or its culture.

He spoke about how “there is huge potential in the U.S.” and that he will try to teach the game to his players. Truth is, Galaxy players, and MLS players in general, know the game.

Problem is some of them can’t play it.

Jose Mourinho, who coached Chelsea to two English Premier League titles, said it best when the English team played the Galaxy during the summer (in the game that marked Beckham’s debut with the MLS team). “They have Beckham, and Donovan, and a bunch of lads who try to play football.”

As always, your thougths and comments welcome and appreciated.

Some Related Galaxy Posts:

Category: Preparing for 2008, Team News

« MLS Cup Coming to the Home Depot Center | Home | Gavin Glinton Taken by San Jose »

Misareaux

I'm counting down the days till Gullit calls out AEG/Lalas for interfering in team affairs (he has a great record of this from past clubs). Gullit will be unpleasantly suprised when he finds out the limited extent of his powers in an American sports organization.
Laurie

Dammit, dammit, dammit! I KNEW they should have protected Glinton!!!!!!!!
JustJack

on the OT: Dammit, I knew we'd lose Glinton, statistically the second most effective Forward.

On Topic: Classic Special One statement, hee hee! Not being the Special One I can't agree... not completely. But look at NCAA sides and what they're teaching tactically to their players. Look at club futbol in the U.S. and what tactics are being taught from U12 up... watch high school SAHkur and observe the tactics and ball skills being taught... then you know why MLS has what it has.

I saw one asst. coach at UCLA trying to emphasize Brazilian (and Argentine, Dutch, etc.) tactics like attacking triangles. He got a better job and I never saw that tactic, one of the most commonly learned tactics from young ages all over the planet, never taught again. I saw one club side teach it, everyone else pretended that side was just imbued with "magic" rather than figuring out what they were doing better. True some of it is that we still have ex-basketball coaches-turned soccer coaches teaching too many 'Merkaans basketball court tactics and "zone" defense rather than attacking/defensive triangles, passing skills rather than ball control skills akka's and so on on futbol pitches nationwide. On AYSO fields I see few coaches teaching the fundamental skill "first touch wins" and that speaks volumes. But I referee tourneys and see some considerable skills and team tactical play that's encouraging, often better than what I see on MLS even. Some things are changing but we're still playing SAHkur instead of futbol. We'll get there eventually, but it'll take time. Jose can laugh. I get it. But we won't stay this way forever.
Frank

Off-Topic.
Here are the expansion draft selections (From "Soccer By Ives"):

Player, former club

Ivan Guerrero- Chicago
Jason Hernandez - Chivas USA
Chris Pozniak-Toronto FC
Ned Grabavoy- Columbus
Brian Carroll - DC United
Clarence Goodson -FC Dallas
Ryan Cochrane- Houston
Gavin Glinton- Los Angeles
Joe Vide- NY Red Bulls
James Riley - NE Revolution

Thank you for all your time and effort in keeping fans up to date regarding the Galaxy. Thank you, Laurie!!
Ronny

“They have Beckham, and Donovan, and a bunch of lads who try to play football.”... lol...Jose is a class act, The man does have a point.