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Porter to coach U-23's


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:nutkick: <--- Pretty much says it all. This one hurt!

Yep! Tough one to take. :wall: What to do until World Cup Qualifying in June? Still have the Ladies going for Gold in the Olympics.

The strong backbone of US keepers were a little weak in qualifying. Hamid and Johnson. Porter is still a fantastic young soccer mind and still has a future with US Soccer, but this definitely sets him back. He failed to deliver with a team that should of qualified. I hope he learns from this and I expect big things from him in the future.

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Yep! Tough one to take. :wall: What to do until World Cup Qualifying in June? Still have the Ladies going for Gold in the Olympics.

The strong backbone of US keepers were a little weak in qualifying. Hamid and Johnson. Porter is still a fantastic young soccer mind and still has a future with US Soccer, but this definitely sets him back. He failed to deliver with a team that should of qualified. I hope he learns from this and I expect big things from him in the future.

I hope he still gets a chance

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I hope he still gets a chance

Porter was handed a tough job. His attacking players played well and played Porter soccer, but the defensive guys he was given played poorly. Not much depth at that position. Opara was awful and Kitchen's poor clearance led to the second goal yesterday.

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Porter was handed a tough job. His attacking players played well and played Porter soccer, but the defensive guys he was given played poorly. Not much depth at that position. Opara was awful and Kitchen's poor clearance led to the second goal yesterday.

You're right but a lot of people were upset with his lack of subs after 3 games in five days.

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It truly pains me to say the following:

If it was ever true that coaching the U23s was going to advance Porter’s career and tangentially advance Akron Soccer, then it is conversely true that this epic failure hurts his career and thereby hurts Akron's stature.

Given a Ferrari, Porter failed to get it out of second gear. This was a tailor-made opportunity to catch the international spotlight, on the home turf. All of US Soccer is reeling. Porter may never gain such a chance again.

Insult to injury is that a large part of the defense that was so disappointing was comprised of Akron alumni. I did not catch the match vs. Canada, but I saw the others. Against El Salvador, the back line played worse than the decent Goal Keeping deserved. Agreed?

We have all foolishly anointed Porter as soccer messiah. I recently compared him to Duke’s Coach K. Porter and we need to return to earth and re-examine what has brought his Akron success. Reality has checked back in!

I do not know the man more than to shake his hand, but I have observed Porter extensively and intently from afar. If he is who I perceive him to be, NCAA Soccer be served Fair Warning! He will dedicate himself with renewed ferocity and vigor. There is but one way for Porter to redeem himself, and that is to win championships.

I believe in the man. Which of you will bet against him?

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It truly pains me to say the following:

If it was ever true that coaching the U23s was going to advance Porter’s career and tangentially advance Akron Soccer, then it is conversely true that this epic failure hurts his career and thereby hurts Akron's stature.

Given a Ferrari, Porter failed to get it out of second gear. This was a tailor-made opportunity to catch the international spotlight, on the home turf. All of US Soccer is reeling. Porter may never gain such a chance again.

Insult to injury is that a large part of the defense that was so disappointing was comprised of Akron alumni. I did not catch the match vs. Canada, but I saw the others. Against El Salvador, the back line played worse than the decent Goal Keeping deserved. Agreed?

We have all foolishly anointed Porter as soccer messiah. I recently compared him to Duke’s Coach K. Porter and we need to return to earth and re-examine what has brought his Akron success. Reality has checked back in!

I do not know the man more than to shake his hand, but I have observed Porter extensively and intently from afar. If he is who I perceive him to be, NCAA Soccer be served Fair Warning! He will dedicate himself with renewed ferocity and vigor. There is but one way for Porter to redeem himself, and that is to win championships.

I believe in the man. Which of you will bet against him?

Porter was hardly given a Ferrari, he was barely given a Nissan Leaf.

I agree with most everything else with what you said other than that. What is going against Porter on the national level, is that very few levels of soccer here coach aggressive soccer (which is why we are awful at the international level). Porter had a short period of time to teach is style of soccer. They saw what it could be against Cuba, and saw the flaws of having a team not used to that style of play against Canada and El Salvador.

As Porter and some of the other "modern" coaches continue to win with aggressive attaching soccer, more coaches will be forced to learn how to coach it and the talent pool will get better.

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Very sad the way things turned out. Unfortunate and costly mistake by the keeper. The team could definitely have used Gatt. Here are the highlights from the game.

Olympic Qualifying Highlights

While some of the blame might be placed on Porter I think alot was the flawed play on the field. Perhaps this will be a wakeup call that US soccer still has a looong way to go before it is on a par with the rest of the world. We still seem to be enamored with players of size but little technical ability. This was quite evident in the El Salvador game. Look at the National teams at the younger ages. Basketball player sized defenders with little or no ability to attack. Look at akrons success over the past few years and look at the size of the players...I think there is a direct correlation. Give me a small,quick/fast,technical player anyday over someone whose sole ability lies in their physical presence. I agree with a previous poster who said something about watch out NCAA. I think Porter now will return to the Zips to prove that his style of play is where the US needs to be and I for one can't wait for the season to start.

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Steve Zakuani ‏ @stevezakuani11

If that El Salvador player shoots wide, no one is blaming Coach Porter, they'd be congratulating him on the comeback. It's a funny old game.

11:29 PM - 26 Mar 12 via web

Steve Zakuani ‏ @stevezakuani11

If there is one coach who can inspire his players to turn it around, it's Caleb Porter. Should be an entertaining second half!

10:09 PM - 26 Mar 12 via web

http://twitter.com/#!/stevezakuani11

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I wanted to wait a little while before commenting on Porter’s role in the US-23 disappointment. Here are a few thoughts:

1. From a purely UA-centric, selfish point of view, this result will most likely extend CP’s tenure at Akron for a couple of years. The DC United’s of the world may think twice before offering CP the next time a job opens up, for fear that CP’s dominant soccer approach only works when his players are all considerably better than those of his opponent (see point 3).

2. KD has (with some justification) been accused of being too loyal to players for his own good. Perhaps CP may have selected too many former Zips for this squad?

3. I’ve seen the Coach K/Duke analogy used to possibly describe CP’s Akron soccer program. I have another hoops coaching analogy in mind, and please hear me out before going ballistic. First let me say that these individuals couldn’t possibly be more different from a character standpoint. This is merely a comment on coaching philosophy. I think John Calipari’s philosophies and tactics are very similar to CP’s. Both favor athletic skill over physical presence. Both espouse high pace offense and constant pressure defense. Both can offer recruits credible evidence that their programs best prepare incoming players for “the next level”, because of the philosophies and tactics they teach. Both use the latter advantage to create separation from almost every other program in the NCAA.

4. Calipari’s composite NBA record was 72-112. It’s still far too early to draw any firm conclusions on how well CP can do in future MLS/USMNT ventures. Hopefully for CP, my Calipari analogy blows up in my face at some point. Regardless, I’m thrilled to have him at UA for as long as he desires.

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The Porter/Cagliari analogy is legitimate, with one glaringly huge hole. John Calipari has never claimed the hardware.

For the short term, we all need to step back from Porter. He is just another coach who has won an NCAA Championship, a preciously short list to be sure. Nothing more! Nothing less! I am as culpable as anyone in generating the cult of personality surrounding Caleb Porter. Therefore, I direct much of this at myself.

I wholeheartedly agree with TopDrawer that USNT should stay the course. We have a plan; we should work the plan. Porter is integral to that plan. He should remain coaching the U23 USMNT, despite this disastrous result.

I am anxious to see how Porter responds to this adversity. I, for one, am buying the Porter stock.

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Thanks Bisbee.

It is nice to remember Akron of 2010 when it stormed through the playoffs and captured a national title, but the Zips did not immediately find success.

When Porter took the job in 2006, the Zips went 14-6-1, which included a 5-0 loss to UCSB in Porter’s first game as a head coach.

If implementing a 4-3-3 to perfection were easy, every team would do it. But that’s not reality. It is a meticulous, time-consuming practice, which requires more than just throwing a ball on the field.

Porter brought some former Zips with him to Olympic Qualifying, perhaps as a way to overcome the difficulty of establishing a new system, but he did not bring the most important piece: Anthony Ampaipitakwong.

The brilliant mastermind of all of Akron’s success was six months too old for this team, and Porter did not find a player who could pull the strings like Ampaipitakwong at the international level.

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A few people have asked whether or not Porter should keep coaching the U-23s or if he should be fired. The U-23 national team exists only for the purpose of qualifying for and going to the Olympics. There are no other tournaments,and so really I don't know what more there would be for the job. He should have been done by August either way, with the only possibility being he returns in another 3.5 years, or gets hired in some other capacity.

As for the comment about taking too many Akron players, I don't think that's true, not because I'm biased, but because the player pool was really very thin on defense. Even without Porter, Zarek and Perry were locks, and Kofi was a good possibility. You could argue that Porter should have left Teal in KC, because he has really hit a poor run of form, but Klinsmann had been calling him up so he must still have hopes for him. But still I think he is the only one you can make a case for not deserving to be in the team.

Sad how this all went down, I know I for one was distraught Monday night. If you read comments on MLS or BigSoccer, it's sad how much people are ganging up on Porter, but I guess I understand.

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A few people have asked whether or not Porter should keep coaching the U-23s or if he should be fired. The U-23 national team exists only for the purpose of qualifying for and going to the Olympics. There are no other tournaments,and so really I don't know what more there would be for the job. He should have been done by August either way, with the only possibility being he returns in another 3.5 years, or gets hired in some other capacity.

As for the comment about taking too many Akron players, I don't think that's true, not because I'm biased, but because the player pool was really very thin on defense. Even without Porter, Zarek and Perry were locks, and Kofi was a good possibility. You could argue that Porter should have left Teal in KC, because he has really hit a poor run of form, but Klinsmann had been calling him up so he must still have hopes for him. But still I think he is the only one you can make a case for not deserving to be in the team.

Sad how this all went down, I know I for one was distraught Monday night. If you read comments on MLS or BigSoccer, it's sad how much people are ganging up on Porter, but I guess I understand.

I think you'll still see Porter involved with the US system in some way as long as Klinsmann is the head coach of the USMNT. Remember Klinsmann hand picked Porter for the job. And US Soccer's goal since Klinsmann was hired is to change the style we play in the United States. Klinsmann is having the same difficulties with the senior squad instituting the 4-3-3 and one thing Klinsmann hasn't had to deal with yet is a meaningful match. Porter was thrown into the fire with only a few months of preparation. I could be wrong, but I believe Klinsmann ran a 4-4-1-1 in the one big Friendly match against Italy he actually won. Mostly because of the lack of attack, goals scored, and players performing the system correctly in previous Friendly matches. For all those who wanted Klinsmann as USMNT coach, I say, you're going to need to take some bumps and bruises and be patient. You can't institute a change in style over night. Porter is still a great soccer mind, I'm thrilled to have him in Akron, and he'll get his shot again.

Here's an interesting fact some may not know, Brazil's Men's Soccer Team has never won Gold in the Olympics either.

Yaz, stay away from those BigSoccer threads, its brutal over there. Haha

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I could be wrong, but I believe Klinsmann ran a 4-4-1-1 in the one big Friendly match against Italy he actually won.

This is actually the way most 4-4-2's are played. One forward drops short to collect and distribute the ball while the other stretches the defense and looks for holes behind for through balls. The difference is semantics. It matches up well with a defense that plays a stopper and sweeper because it can require the sweeper to mark and thus not be completely effective in covering space and passing lanes.

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Yaz, stay away from those BigSoccer threads, its brutal over there. Haha

Some guy wouldn't back off Porter and said he was playing favorites and was just overall trashing him. I ended up saying something absurd like the guy wanted to see the US fail just to prove Porter was unfit for the job. Yeah it got nasty. Good thing I am yazNASTY hahaha

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I think you'll still see Porter involved with the US system in some way as long as Klinsmann is the head coach of the USMNT. Remember Klinsmann hand picked Porter for the job. And US Soccer's goal since Klinsmann was hired is to change the style we play in the United States. Klinsmann is having the same difficulties with the senior squad instituting the 4-3-3 and one thing Klinsmann hasn't had to deal with yet is a meaningful match. Porter was thrown into the fire with only a few months of preparation. I could be wrong, but I believe Klinsmann ran a 4-4-1-1 in the one big Friendly match against Italy he actually won. Mostly because of the lack of attack, goals scored, and players performing the system correctly in previous Friendly matches. For all those who wanted Klinsmann as USMNT coach, I say, you're going to need to take some bumps and bruises and be patient. You can't institute a change in style over night. Porter is still a great soccer mind, I'm thrilled to have him in Akron, and he'll get his shot again.

Here's an interesting fact some may not know, Brazil's Men's Soccer Team has never won Gold in the Olympics either.

Yaz, stay away from those BigSoccer threads, its brutal over there. Haha

If someone offers thoughtful opinions on BigSoccer, even if I disagree, I don't have a problem reading it. But that stuff is just venting.

Anyway, thanks Yaznasty and Crew8 for your discussions. I agree with you that as long as USSoccer is interested in playing this system, Caleb will have opportunities to be part of it, and deservedly so.

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That is a brilliant article! From where I am right now, I cannot see who wrote it. Good job, nonetheless!

The author is absolutely correct that Porter should be retained. However, the criticism leveled against Porter is, for the most part, warranted and fair. We fans are extremely disappointed. Go ahead and blast Porter. He not only can take it, but he will be better for it. In any event, Porter will be with USNT for a long time to come.

Not enough locals realize what a quality coach Dan Zemanski is. He has mentored countless players over the last decade plus. It is good to get his informed opinion here. By the way, his youngest son is rumored to be quite the soccer prodigy. No great surprise there! When can we begin recruiting him? :D

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The Case for Caleb Porter

take a few minutes to read this

Good stuff from ISN as always. If you get the chance read Paul Gardner's article "Olympic flop a minor distraction, not a major disaster" which was also linked in the ISN article.

Another related article I enjoyed last week is Mike Firpo's "The Growing Pains of American Soccer"

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Thanks Bobbyake and Crew8 for those articles.

My belief in Caleb Porter has not wavered (how could it, given all he has done at Akron?!), but I really appreciate reading the non-Akron perspectives.

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