Eric Wynalda article in MLS Magazine

MLS Magazine has made a bold move and hired Eric Wynalda as a regular columnist and in his latest article he makes a very interesting point about MLS being a league where American coaches are more likely to have success then their foreign counterparts. For the most part I agree with him, I think that there are enough skilled American coaches available and that they do have an advantage in that they have a better ability to relate to the American players.

One area where I disagree with Wynalda is in terms of international play, which he doesn't really discuss in the article, but has been on record as having been in favor of Bob Bradley replacing Bruce Arena as the coach of the U.S. men's national team. Given the options, appointing Bradley was the correct decision. However, if the USSF had been able to persuade Jurgen Klinsmann to take the job they would have been better off. The one area where foreign coaches have an advantage of the current roster of American coaches is in terms on international experience and how to make key decisions in tournament play, especially at a World Cup. Very few people have more experience as both a player and coach then Klinsmann and if they US could have hired him and paired him with someone like Bob Bradley who could communicate the experience of the American player to Klinsmann then the US would have stood a better chance come 2010. Hopefully, we get lucky and Bradley is able to lead the team very far through qualification and in 2010, but that remains to be seen.

Back to Wynalda for one minute. I really enjoyed his commentary on ESPN and while I don't agree with some of his recent incidents that probably lead to his release, I do think its a loss for the commentary on ESPN. Sometimes Wynalda is too critical, almost for the point of just being critical, especially during the last World Cup, where for the most part I really felt that Bruce Arena did the best with the hand he was dealt and the expectations were a little unrealistic. Ultimately though I hope that a place within US soccer can be found for Wynalda because I do think he has a lot to offer.