Four years ago I noted on SM that Sunil Gulati was appointed the head of U.S. Soccer. Right now the U.S. Soccer team is performing near its best in the modern era. 80% of the credit has to be given to the improvement in play by the U.S. team and to coach Bob Bradley. But lets also give some credit to Gulati. France and Italy have demonstrated that having some of the most skilled players in the world means jack if your organization is dysfunctional and poorly managed.
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Gulati (left) is working with Clinton to try and bring the World Cup back to the U.S. in 2018 or 2022 |
He grew up playing football in Nebraska. Gulati, who served as USSF vice president for six years, was elected as its president in March 2006.
“Across the past decade, a platform for this sport has been built that did not previously exist, and we now have an opportunity in the coming years to achieve more for soccer in the United States than anyone could have ever envisioned 15 or 10 or even five years ago,” Gulati had said after being elected at the USSF President.
Former USSF president and Major League Soccer founder Alan Rothenberg has called Gulati the “single most important person in the development of soccer” in the country. It is he who appointed the current US soccer coach Bob Bradley.
In February this year, he was unanimously re-elected the USSF president. [ToI]
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p>As Gulati said after the Algeria victory, “A new benchmark has been set.”
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p>I guess not everyone appreciates him though. A blogger at Deadspin had this recent eyewitness account from South Africa:
PRETORIA, South Africa — A few hours before the gut-roiling USA victory here, I witnessed a tense moment of another sort when two well-lubricated American yahoos tore into Sunil Gulati, the head of the U.S. Soccer Federation. Here’s how it unfolded …Sometime after noon, I made my way to Hombaze, the pre-game boozing site for hardcore Stars and Stripes fans. And boozing they were. Waiters were bringing around six packs of Castle beer. The lads were downing lager as fast as they could lay hands on a bottle. Everyone was sauced and ebullient. Then Sunil Gulati turned up…
It was then, from the balcony of the bar, that an evil howling commenced. Even over the patriotic commotion you could hear it, an expression of pure animal rage that ran through the crowd like a dirty shank.
FUCK YOU, GULATI!… (Their complaints about Gulati, I would later learn, were manifold, and their origins were difficult to discern. They had something to do with the USSF and banners being prohibited in stadiums and ticket sales and Mexicans sitting in their section and not having “a seat at the table.”)… [Link]
Win or lose today, we here at SM appreciate all Gulati has done for the sport of futbol/soccer in the U.S. I like the fact that it is the hard work of an Indian American who grew up playing soccer in Nebraska that has in part led us to this game against Ghana’s Black Stars. Open Thread below for the game. Let’s go U-S-A!
Let’s hope the refs don’t steal another goal from us today.
The extra time rule is one of the dumbest things in soccer. There is no accountability from the refs. Ghana spent most of the overtime flopping on the field wasting time and the refs add very little time????
I might be US citizen but I was pulling for Ghana because I think it would be unfair to not have any African team in the last 8. Lets see if they can hold on a few more minutes.
For some weird reason, USA has let in too many early goals. Ghana’s goalie was great. But I do not understand the math for extra time. The refs gave 1 minute extra for the first 15 min of overtime. So when they add 3 min to the second half, shouldn’t that 4 minutes total instead of the game ending near 123 min mark? And Ghana wasted a lot more than 3 minutes in OT.
There’s gotta be a middle ground between the endless stoppages in our sports and the ridiculous delay tactics in soccer to bleed time.
It’s not true that this is US’s best effort in the modern era – Right now the U.S. Soccer team is deeper into the World Cup tournament than at any time in the modern era.
In 2002 they were in the Quarter Finals and lost to Germany… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_FIFA_World_Cup
They did not win their group in 2002 but I did correct the post because it was misleading.
Fair??? Good grief……
As for US soccer, there needs to be better effort to reach out to poorer youths around that nation and select the best and put them thru extensive training programs (ideally, overseas). Our current set-up needs revamping, imo. Still props to Gulati (I still say Bradley made terrible player selection this last game) for solid work done. It’s a shame Davies had that accident and that Owenyu (sp?) was never fit for this WC. Also, currses to Giuseppe Rossi!!!!
I saw this kind of liberal western guilt all over the web/facebook this weekend. A particularly elitist subset believe that if they subversively rooted for Ghana over the U.S. (despite being U.S. citizens and having grown up in the U.S.) it would somehow make up for colonialism or other injustices that one can feel righteous about.
@ Pravin – timekeeping in a soccer match works like this: in the first half, if 3 min are added the minutes are said as: 45+1, 45+2, 45+3. However, the second half always starts at 46th minute, never 45+3 or whatever else injury time was added to the first half. Similarly in overtime.
As for the US performance, let’s be honest – they got lucky to get this far. They are hard working players but they lack that x-factor that separates hard-working from magnificent. Jurgen Klinsman on ESPN said this missing ingredient comes from soccer players who grow up poor, playing for the love of the game (which he said was true of basketball in the US). He contrasted this to the US where parents pay for kids to play and thus the kids seldom hunger to win or just enjoy the beauty of the sport. I’m not sure I agree but have a slightly different take: I think brilliant soccer players are made when they play street football… narrow alleys where they must learn to think quickly and be creative since there’s little room to manouver and little time to think before you’re mobbed by the opposing team. If all you’ve ever played on are wide open fields you never learn that skill and that’s what’s missing from US soccer.
(sorry for tangent above; hat tip to Gulati for managing an impressive organization and putting in place a worthy squad)
I think all these arguments about ‘hunger to win’, ‘playing in narrow alleys’, ‘playing poor’ are basically excuses for masking the fact that soccer is just not that popular in the United States. Some perspective here folks. More people watched the Auburn-Northwestern College football bowl game (Outback bowl? in 2009) than they watched the US-Algeria game.
Russians are not better than the Canadians in hockey even though they get their start playing over frozen lakes and ponds. Hell Kobe did not grow up playing street ball.
The US team this year was basically a 1.0 version of the pre-2010 German soccer team. The Germans until this WC used to be the 4.0 version where they were amazingly fit, proficient, focussed, cohesive, and organized where their sum was much bigger than their individual selves. The US team has no individual brilliance, whatsoever. Donavon will go to Man City because of the lucrative North American market and not because of his Messi lite skills. Look at all the US goals at this World Cup. Every single goal was a hustle goal or a result of the players sticking to the game plan and coming to the rights spots to take advantage of rebounds and crosses.
Both the Ghana goals were skill goals (especially the one from the very desi looking Prince). The US had at least 6-7 similar chances and did not even come close to scoring a goal. The US just does not score skill goals or goals requiring individual brilliance (like the Tavez goal from yesterday) Bradley hit a ridiculous shot when he only had the goalie to beat. WTF!
Anyway, well done USA. I am proud of the team and even though it’s a cliche, they did leave everything on the field and out hustled almost all every team they played.
In 20-25 years, the US can hope to become a 4.0 Germany be a real contender.
////rolls eyes
Fair but USA-Ghana raked in 14.9M viewers. Not bad and more than the population of many nations playing, including Ghana.
Um, I’m Canadian and most of us did grow up playing on ponds (or iced over tennis courts). Ice time is expensive and at a youth level you play anywhere, anytime you can. that means 5am starts if necessary. and road hockey when there’s no ice time (year round, in any parking lot or alley you can find). side-bar: there are fantastic European hockey players now and Canadians no longer dominate the sport, Olympic Gold not withstanding.
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