Like Father, Like Son

In the search for its first coach for the new USL-1 Tampa Bay Rowdies, the ownership in Tampa dipped into one of the storied families in European football when they hired Paul Dalglish, the son of former Liverpool and Scotland great Kenny Dalglish.

"This sport is my obsession," said Dalglish, who gets his first pro head coaching job. "I've lived and breathed it in the morning and at night. If I'm driving and I see two kids playing, I'll stop. I'm excited about this because it's like having a blank canvas. It will involve a lot of hours, but I think the sense of gratification will be bigger because of it."

Dalglish is the son of Kenny Dalglish, who had an illustrious playing and coaching career that spanned four decades and included three European Cups with Liverpool. He also played for two Scottish World Cup teams.

"I grew up in the corridors of one of the sport's most steepest traditions in Liverpool," Paul Dalglish said. "I grew up the son of one of the best players and managers of one of the best clubs. I know how to respect tradition. I know there's a buzz here because of the tradition the Rowdies have."

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/soccer/tampa-bay-rowdies-hire-former-mls-player-dalglish-as-coach/1052618

The End Of The Coaching Daddies

There are different ways to manage players and teach and educate - no one style is the right way, as it has to fit each coach's personality.

Alan Black of Goal.com writes about the parenting style of Sir Alex Ferguson, and how that context of teaching and coaching appears to be a dying breed.

Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United refers to his players as “boys” and calls them “son,” when speaking to them of matters most important.

His “sons” grow up to call him “father.” Both Beckham and Ronaldo have described him as such.

Ferguson is the last of the great British coaching daddies.

He ends a line that stretches through England from Herbert Chapman to Alf Ramsey and Don Revie.

In Scotland, it was Jock Stein, Ferguson’s own soccer “father.”

These men grew up and played in an era when daddies and their sons were the only people inside soccer stadiums.

Women were secretaries in the front office, and tea makers.

It was an age when daddy lifted junior over the turnstile, a tradition now gone in the age of season tickets and seats. It was daddy who showed his son that losing control in moments of joy and loss was acceptable, and normal, during ninety minutes on a Saturday.

Just don’t cry in the real world, son.

But the old-fashioned coach is rapidly going out of style.

The internationalism of club soccer, and the supremacy of the star player, has diminished the need for parenting.

Younger coaches treat their players as equals, hoping to bond as a team, instead of family. Servitude to one tribe is no longer for life.

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/85/england/2009/10/27/1586445/black-attack-the-end-of-the-coaching-daddies

Brad Guzan saves four PKs

Brad Friedel's understudy Brad Guzan made the most of a rare appearance for Aston Villa, saving one penalty kick in regulation time and three PKs in the tiebreaker in a win over Sunderland that sends Villa to the English League Cup quarterfinals. In Scotland, DaMarcus Beasley saw his first action of the season.

Guzan thwarted Kenwyne Jones' 85th minute spot kick to preserve the scoreless tie that sent the game into overtime and to a penalty-kick shootout, in which he saved three of the four PKs he faced, from Andy Reid, Lorik Cana and Jordan Henderson.

The 25-year-old keeper who joined Aston Villa from Chivas USA in 2008 also made spectacular saves on a Kieran Richardson shot in overtime and a volley from Henderson in the first half.

"We deserved to go through but their goalkeeper's had one of them nights he's going to remember for the rest of his life," Sunderland coach Steve Bruce told the Guardian.

"He was excellent." Aston Villa coach Martin O'Neill said, "No one's more euphoric than Mr. Guzan. His was a fabulous, fantastic performance. He's got everything and he's as brave as they come. Friedel has been terrific for us but Guzan was immense tonight. I can't remember the last time a keeper saved four penalties but, by the end, I was almost expecting him to save them."

Ferguson Voted the Greatest

Sir Alex Ferguson has won 33 trophies in 22 years at the helm of Manchester United, and he was recently recognized for his tremendous success. The makers of Football Manager 2010 had Ferguson topping their poll of the Greatest Manager of All-Time.

The poll features other Knights of the Realm such as the late, great Sir Bobby Robson, Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alf Ramsey but despite their fine records, none of them can match Sir Alex's two decade long domination of the English game.

TOP 10 MANAGERS EVER*

1. Sir Alex Ferguson - 26 per cent
2. Sir Bobby Robson - 14%
3. Bill Shankly - 9%
4. Brian Clough - 8%
5. Sir Matt Busby - 6%
6. Sir Alf Ramsey - 5%
7. Jose Mourinho - 4%
8. Arsene Wenger - 3%
9. Bob Paisley - 2%
10. Jock Stein - 1%

*As polled by Football Manager 2010

Mariner moves back to Plymouth Argyle

Major League Soccer suffered a loss to it's coaching community this past week when Paul Mariner resigned from his position with the New England Revolution to take a similar position with Coca-Cola Championship club Plymouth Argyle.

Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney outlines his significance in New England, as well as in MLS.

Whether or not MLS has let a potentially great head coach slip away with the departure of Paul Mariner back to his native England is open to debate, but what the league and this country have lost is a good chunk of institutional knowledge.

At Plymouth Argyle, he will serve as a head coach under the direction of manager Paul Sturrock , and that is not a contradiction in terms. The manager selects the players and decides strategies and tactics; a coach conducts drills and sessions, and doles out praise and criticism as needed. Every Revs player will tell you that practices with Mariner were laden with exhortation and motivation as well as information.

Mariner might seem at first glance more nutty professor - disheveled hair, casual attire, glasses slightly askew, lanky physique - than the international striker he once was, or the MLS head coach he might have been. But watching him work in the trenches drilling - and that's the right word for much of what he did - players on the finer points of the game magnified the value of high-caliber instruction on the field, every day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

If he appeared at times befuddled, it might have been just a slightly goofy smile, or the glasses, or an amazing knack for rattling off observations and memories seemingly unrelated to the topic at hand. He didn't look especially comfortable in a suit and tie or when asked for a sound bite. His persona may not fit what MLS executives envision as a head coach. Yet players who felt the sting of his criticisms and the reaped the benefits of his knowledge and experience and passion seemed to get it.

Says defender Jay Heaps , "As someone who has been here like myself a long time, I've learned quite a bit from him - about professionalism, about carrying yourself, and I think he's just an awesome coach, an awesome individual, and he's helped my game out quite a bit just by how he approaches it. I think it's a sad day for the Revolution but a great day for Paul Mariner."

Glancing at the coaching staffs around the league, I don't think it's a coincidence that Houston has former Scottish international John Spencer as an assistant coach, or that former Polish international Robert Warzycha guided the Crew back atop the standings after taking over as head coach. Not every successful team has among its assistants a former international player, and some head coaches prefer to do a lot of on-field work themselves, but with many teams more or less equal in talent the value of practical experience is considerable.

Mariner started his pro career in 1976 with Plymouth before helping Ipswich win an FA Cup and a UEFA Cup, and then playing for Arsenal and Portsmouth. England capped him 35 times, and he scored a goal against France at the 1982 World Cup. That may not be as glittering a resume as that of Revs head coach Steve Nicol , an English League and European champion with Liverpool as well as a Scottish international, but it's dotted by success.

The benefits derived from Mariner by a forward such as Taylor Twellman are obvious. He has counseled and drilled - there's that word again - Twellman and other Revs' strikers for years about the timing and angling of runs into the box, finishing the half-chances, harassing opposing defenders, etc.

Yet he could be just as zealous getting players to protect a chute between two cones 20 yards apart, for example, cajoling the defender to push the dribbler as wide as possible to buy time and perhaps funnel the ball into the path of a teammate who could win it, or hectoring defenders to attack balls lofted into the box rather than let them drop or leave them for the keeper to deal with.

Before he joined New England as Nicol's assistant, Mariner worked as a head coach for the Albany Capitals and the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks in the American Professional Soccer League. Whether that experience, plus his work with the Revs, tacked onto a long pro career in England and for the national team would have made a successful MLS head coach we'll probably never know.

"He deserves to go places, and he deserves to get a head coach's job, which I think is going to happen eventually," says Nicol. "We're certainly shocked that no one in MLS has come in and taken him. Our American youngsters are going to lose somebody who has knowledge and experience to another place."

Ultimately, a team depends on the philosophies and expertise of its head coach -- a manager in England -- for success, but conveying and instilling those ideas is a function of work on the training field. In the best situations, an assistant coach is not the head coach's underling but a sounding board for discussions, a partner in strategy sessions, a critical contributor in the scouting and evaluation of opponents and possible acquisitions, and a role model for success.

A head coach in MLS has to do a lot more than coach, which is one reasons his assistants are so important. The Nicol-Mariner pairing, formed in 2004, reached three MLS Cups, losing them all, yet won an Open Cup and a SuperLiga title.

"I think MLS is missing out on a great coach, too, so hopefully we'll see him back someday," says Heaps. "But I think once he starts to fly, we're not going to see him around; he's going to be in some high-level coaching."

1990 World Cup team remembered

I just wrote recently in my column in the Evansville Courier Press about how far American soccer has come since the 1990 World Cup, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Andrea Canales' column on the 1990 US team.

Since that World Cup, I have gotten the opportunity to know a number of the key members of that team. When we look back on the development of US Soccer over the past 20 years, the '90 team needs to be looked back on fondly as the group that got things started.

http://goal.com/en-us/news/1679/us-national-team/2009/10/19/1571214/canales-daily-back-in-the-day-usa-1990-team

The Wizard of Westwood turns 99

John Wooden just celebrated his 99th birthday, and ESPN's Rick Reilly sat down with the coaching legend recently.

I like going to Wooden's house for the same reason people like going to church: It makes me want to be a better man.

The last time he swore? 1924. The last time he drank alcohol? 1932. Number of girls he ever kissed? One, his beloved Nell, who passed in 1985. He's never gotten over it. Still writes her a love letter on the 21st of every month -- the date of her death.

Every time I go, I learn something new about the Wizard of Westwood (a name he hates.) For instance, did you know --

-- Wooden used to predict how his UCLA teams would do that season and hide the prediction in his desk drawer? Only once did he predict the team would go undefeated: "Lewis's first year," he says. He means Lewis Alcindor, of course, who later became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And he was right. Alcindor's sophomore year (his first with the varsity), the Bruins went 30-0 and won the national championship, Wooden's third. "I just felt Lewis was so good and so different that it was going to be hard for opponents to catch up to him." Wooden had three other undefeated teams, two with Bill Walton.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=4557758&ex_cid=MyESPNToday_TopStory