Brunt: Biggest star in the Galaxy arriving soon

[Jarrek]

Brunt: Biggest star in the Galaxy arriving soon

STEPHEN BRUNT

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

E-mail Stephen Brunt | Read Bio | Latest Columns

All of this is going to change.

The Los Angeles Galaxy practice takes place on one of the side fields at the Home Depot Center, a sports complex in the middle of the great metropolis that includes the team's home stadium and extensive tennis and track infrastructure.

It feels like an upscale community recreation centre, and the workout might as well involve a junior college side. There are four or five reporters looking on (and a Finnish television crew working on a story about what's to come) and a handful of folks who have wandered in off the street to watch.

There's no security whatsoever. If you really wanted to, you could reach out and grab the biggest star in this Galaxy, American international Landon Donovan, by the sleeve of his jersey.

The coach is a familiar face, Canada's own Frank Yallop, who less than a year ago abandoned the job of guiding the men's national team to return to Major League Soccer (more on that in a second). He didn't know then what he was getting into. He couldn't have imagined that, come the first of July, he'll be in figuring out how best to employ one of the planet's two or three most famous athletes in his lineup.

And, of course, not just that, but how do you stage a practice with David Beckham on the pitch? How do you handle the press demands? How do you get through an airport? How do you protect him?

How do you make Beckham feel comfortable in these alien, small-time surroundings, and how do you make his teammates — earning a tiny fraction of his take-home pay — feel comfortable with the glamorous new kid in town?

That said, there are worse problems…

"It's going to change obviously in July, but we can't worry about that until it happens," Yallop says. "I'm not really mentioning it [to the other players], to be honest, because it's irrelevant at this point. We've got to get ourselves going as a group and then handle whatever comes our way schedule-wise, or press-wise or airport-wise or in hotels, but it won't be crazy until David does arrive. Up until then, we've got to focus and try to get off to a good start."

When he took the job last June, after the firing of Steve Sampson, Yallop obviously didn't know the Beckham signing was in the cards, that the MLS — a league in which he'd played, and in which he'd won consecutive championships as the coach of the defunct San Jose franchise — was on the verge of a dramatic leap forward in its evolution.

Put that together with what he did know — that a Toronto MLS franchise was in the works, along with a soccer-specific stadium, both regarded as key ingredients in reviving the men's national team program — and his decision to bolt seems even more an indictment of Canada's World Cup prospects and by extension of the Canadian Soccer Association.

Yallop is diplomatic about that. "It's never easy when you make these decisions," he said. "The Canadians were very good to me." And the birth of Toronto FC is "a great move for Canadian soccer. I think slowly but surely the players will start to filter back — you'll keep the best ones from going over and eventually you'll get some of those guys who want to come back to their home country and play."

But make no mistake. Opting to head for Los Angeles before the beginning of the qualifying cycle for South Africa 2010 wasn't based entirely on the allure of sunshine and palm trees.

"We've got some good people there," Yallop said. "The most serious thing about any national program is making the World Cup. The senior men's team has to be your flagship team. Until you actually focus on that team, you're going to struggle. Every other country does it and Canada doesn't. That was the problem I had. I don't mind whatever the budget is for anyone else, but don't make our budget light. We needed to play more games in Canada. We needed to have a lot more camps and spend money where it should be spent, and we didn't do that.

"If I had seen a bigger vision and a bigger picture, then the decision would have been a lot harder. But it wasn't there."

Still, at the time, leaving the position as a national team head coach for a losing franchise in a struggling league seemed surprising to some. It seems a whole lot less so now that Beckham-mania is about to erupt.

But Yallop looks back to Canada for confirmation of the soundness of his reasoning and finds it in the continuing organizational inertia of the CSA, most obvious in fact that 10 months on they haven't yet named his successor.

"Now, I know it was the right decision," he said, "because they still haven't done anything."

[nolando]

booyah...Yallop haters=truth haters...finally some more of the story comes out

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by nolando

booyah...Yallop haters=truth haters...finally some more of the story comes out

There is absolutely no new information here. Yallop knew how the CSA was run before he even took the job. Just the usual excuses from FY. Personal responsibility is not in his vocabulary. And despite what Brunt is assuming, Yallop jumped ship because he knew the Beckham deal was in the works.

[Massive Attack]

Yallop left us high and dry and people still want to defend him? He's as much as a traitor to the national team as the Whore.

Yallop is just making these statements to cover his own ass and make himself look better.

[Jarrek]

quote:Yallop is just making these statements to cover his own ass and make himself look better.

Are you completely sure about that?

Not sure if it's safe making such assumptions.

[RJB]

That doesn't change the fact that he did a poor job while manager, made a series of questionable decisions with the team, and then jumped ship for a better deal, and more personal glory.

Why didn't you speak up when you were in the big seat Frank? Why didn't you demand change if that is what drove you away? If my memory serves me right, he was quiet all along, and the, swoosh --> he's gone!

[An Observer]

Massive attack, does that mean that once you take the job as national coach you need to take it for life or until the CSA gives you an honourable discharge? Playing for the side I agree is about honour for your country as your day job is elsewhere. When you coach the national side, that is your day job so different rules apply (which is recognised by the fact that you don't have to be a national of that country to coach its side). I have no problem with a manager leaving if its not working out for him or his career.

[Massive Attack]

quote:Originally posted by An Observer

Massive attack, does that mean that once you take the job as national coach you need to take it for life or until the CSA gives you an honourable discharge? Playing for the side I agree is about honour for your country as your day job is elsewhere. When you coach the national side, that is your day job so different rules apply (which is recognised by the fact that you don't have to be a national of that country to coach its side). I have no problem with a manager leaving if its not working out for him or his career.

The problem I have with him is that he bolted right around the time that it seemed like he was turning things around. That's what stings the most. After having to watch Canada not qualify, due in part to his incompetence/inexperience, it was a kick in the balls to have him leave like he did.

All I'm asking for from Yallop is some honesty. Instead, we get this revisionist crap were he's trying to make himself look like some kind of martyr now.

Bashing the CSA is easy. Especially when you're far removed from it. Especially when the man himself was part of the problem.

[Chet]

If he did such a poor job, then what are you complaining about?

Yallop quit because he wanted to coach full time, not just a week or two three times a year. I think Yallop is a guy who just enjoys being on the field with his players and coaching them one-on-one. Perhaps he didn't realize how little opportunity he would have to do that with the MNT or how much he would miss it.

I do agree that he left us high and dry. Once you start a job, you have a responsibility to see it through. In that respect, Yallop let his players and his country down. But that doesn't make him a traitor. It's not like he quit to coach some other country's national team. And you certainly can't blame Yallop for the CSA's stunning lassitude in finding a replacement.

Put yourself in Yallop's place. You're a coach not a politician. Do you spend 80 per cent of your time engaged in politics just so you can have the opportunity to coach the other 20 per cent of the time, or do you just give up and go back to where you can coach full time? It's not an easy call.

I wish Yallop success. If he inspires other former players to take up coaching or if his success opens up more professional opportunities for Canadian coaches then it can only be good for the game. Perhaps, in the long run, he'll have done more good for Canada by leaving the national team than he would have done by staying.

[Chet]

quote:Originally posted by An Observer

Massive attack, does that mean that once you take the job as national coach you need to take it for life or until the CSA gives you an honourable discharge?

Not for life, but at least one World Cup cycle. Depending on when you're hired that means at least 3-5 years. In Yallop's case, that would have meant until the end of qualifications for 2010 and, if Canada qualified, until the end of WC 2010.

The length of term should be part of the coach's contract and they should have to pay back part of their salary if they breach it. Conversely, the CSA should have to pay a penalty to the coach if they fire him mid-term.

[sj]

After the CSA cater to Evan the Viking how much money do you think is left over for the other teams.

Holger had a problem with it so did Yallop.

how do you force the CSA to provide the funds to carry your assignment properly?

i dont see how paying somebody $500k per yr when you will give him only 2 games before the wcq begins

Lack of prep game prior to the world cup is why Yallop failed

and it was the CSA responsibility to provide him with tuneup games and a proper budget for it.

Simoe or any high profile coach wont do better under the same conditions.

CSA did not have a business plan for the mens team

no marketing and no sense of direction

How can MLSE turn around and successfully sell the stadium name for 15 millions dollars, does anyone thinks that the CSA had the knowhow and brain thrust to do the same?

15 millions sitting there and they did not have a clue.

they cant even take avantage of the potential demand of team merchandise

how many time have you gone to a nats game and unable to buy a nats jersy on the spot because there was none made available.

more likely you will see jerseys from the oppositing team made available by some local merchant and band hired to performing Socca and Reggae just like at the circus and we know where the clowns are.

we need to make the oppositing team feels like they are in hell and wish they never have to play here again.

[redhat]

I agree with almost every one of your concerns.

We'll just have to wait (a bit longer) and see.

[An Observer]

"The length of term should be part of the coach's contract and they should have to pay back part of their salary" - good luck finding a decent coach that would agree to that in his contract.

"Once you start a job, you have a responsibility to see it through." - even if after spending some time in the job you no longer believe in the direction the organisation/company is taking. People leave jobs all the time as they no longer have faith in the leadership of the organisation. I think its a perfectly legitimate reason for moving on. I have done it myself a few times and will again in my personal career. Can't blame someone if they feel the same. Personally, I think he did the responsible thing, he left almost 2 years before WCQ was to start. Ample time for the CSA to replace him and give the next coach time to build his own team for WCQ. Its not Yallops fault the CSA has essentially lost a year in that process.

[Tyson M]

staying on topic... it would appear according to Skysports today that they are trying to land a REAL star to play alongside overhyped Beckham... Apparently Alexi Lalas is trying to get none other than ZIZOU!

Although I wasn't big on the "Beckham" game in Toronto, I would love to see Zidane play live in Toronto!