So Low and Solo - Kudos to Good Coaches

Never did a coach in ANYTHING have it so wrong. Former U.S. soccer Coach Greg Ryan last year removed the goalie who got them to the 2007 World Cup semifinal and replaced her for some ridiculous technical reason with Briana Scurry, a good player too, but one who had pretty much rode the pines throughout the entire U.S. run.

Of course, Scurry gave up four goals and the U.S. lost their World Cup semifinal to Brazil, but that was the least of the damage. The decision ultimately resulted in bad feelings all around for the team as Solo understandably voiced her strong opinion that she would have stopped those goals.

Virtually the entire team turned against Solo. Only a few stayed in Solo’s corner, one of whom was the woman who scored the winning goal in overtime against Brazil in the Olympic gold medal matchup. She is none other than New Jersey’s own Carli Lloyd from Delran.

The score was 1-0. That it went that far and that long was due almost entirely to Hope Solo, whose save after save after save turned back the athletic Brazilians. After the match, even the Brazilian soccer coach lauded Ms. Solo. And her U.S. teammates finally relented in their sworn enmity to her as they all celebrated their gold medal.

I’ve read that Solo’s fine performance was her redemption. I don’t think so. Was it her vindication? Yes. Absolutely. But she needed no redemption in my eyes. She had always been the hero of the melodrama, she and the young women like Carli Lloyd who stayed with her.

If one had said it was the U.S. soccer team’s redemption, I could have gone along with that, if only it hadn’t taken them so long to see the light. Too many of them, in siding with a coach, initially no doubt to save their own skins, and then staying with their petty convictions all the way to the Olympics final, earned my total disrespect, and their victory really does very little towards earning my understanding, never mind forgiveness. In a way, they didn’t deserve such a positive result.

But I am extremely happy for Hope Solo and her compatriot, Carli Lloyd. They both came up big when they had to. And although the rest of them obviously played a large part in that great U.S. victory, I can’t help feeling that some of them just went along for the ride. Most of them just did what was easiest.

Too much is made of team unity, especially in the light of ridiculously harsh circumstances. A young woman who had just lost her father and who had to give up her conviction to win one for her homeless Dad, had to watch hopelessly as her replacement allowed ball after ball into the net. How many of us in those same shoes could have held their tongues?

There should have been some glimmer of understanding for Hope Solo, the best goalkeeper in the world. And the people who run the Olympic programs should have some recourse in the event that a coach seems to lose all perspective.

Sometimes a coach loses the forest for the trees. In a sport such as soccer in which every game means so much, there should be the ability for the Olympic organizers to rescind an awful decision before it can impact the big game. Ryan’s hopelessly misguided decision impacted the entire women’s soccer program for a full year.

One coach with a surprisingly good grasp of the forest is Jerry Manuel. Mr. Manuel proved that again Thursday night with his handling of Pedro Martinez. Pedro had pitched well for 5 full innings before getting knocked around a bit in the 6^th. But Manuel had Pedro pitch the 7^th as well, and Pedro obligingly retired the three batters he faced.

And in the 8^th, Manuel had Pedro face the first batter with the intention of replacing him whether or not Pedro retired that hitter. Done to eliminate any need to have to play the righty, lefty game with relievers down the stretch, it is the kind of thing Manuel has done over and over since he took the reins from Willie Randolph.

It’s the simplest of things yet proves to the players that the manager’s head is always in the game; that it has a very good chance to win as long as that guy is at the helm. It’s the kind of thing Willie seemingly never thought of, or perhaps the kind of thing he thought would have been over-managing a situation.

Willie always seemed to think his guys would win the game, that all things considered, in the end, the best players would prevail, and he had the best players. Such a strategy may have worked for those strong Yankees teams of yesteryear but it never seemed to suit these Mets, either the 2007 or 2008 variety at any rate.

And, after the game, Jerry went out of his way to praise the efforts of David Wright, for his great plays in the field, not just his formidable bat. And, rather than harp on the mistake David made on the basepaths, Manuel just joked that he had been in no-man’s land; that he wanted so badly to score.

Coaches and managers mean so much in sports. And not just for their tactical moves either. It’s way more than that. Every player has to believe in the manager’s concern for the outcome, his ability to make it so, and for his genuine humanity.

So kudos this evening for the 2008 U.S. soccer coach, who had the foresight to convince his team that Hope Solo should be one of them. His name is Pia Sundhage. Don’t ask me to pronounce it.

And the same for Jerry Manuel, who makes all the right moves, or most of them anyway. (Just today I heard John Heymann say that Manuel wasn’t a LaRussa or a Scoscia. Maybe it’ll take a World Series to change his mind).