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It’s not exclusive to soccer or even sports. I think it has something to do with human nature, specifically fear and comfort-ability. How else can you explain the hegemony within the constant reshuffling of power positions inside USSF or the fact that it seems everybody who gets the jobs I want has a famous family or friend?

Yesterday John Hackworth was fired from his position as head coach of the U17 national team and residency program director. Today he was relegated/demoted/promoted to assistant coach of the US MNT and Development Academy Director. Given the incestuous maneuvering – Rick Reilly to ESPN/Dan Patrick to Sports Illustrated springs to mind of another reshuffling – what is really changing?

A Rose by any other name is stinking up the joint after the jump…

It would be easy to say these guys are the most qualified and thus deserve the positions they receive. They have certainly paid their dues, climbing that corporate ladder. But can we really compare their success or failure without seeing any other data – i.e. another coach that isn’t from the same pool?

This is where corporate industry and sports differ. The most familiar isn’t always the best choice. If you at all believe that sometimes change for the sake of change is a good thing, than it has to be true for sports. No other industry requires the intangible to be aligned for success. Emotion, Ego, whatever else you want to add to the list, means as much if not more than x’s and o’s, game plans, and statistics. So sometimes you have to mix it up. You typically can’t mix up the players – even more true in a national team sport than a club – so that leaves us the coaches. Even if all else fails, change brings at least the hope of improvement in situations where the status quo surely isn’t cutting it.

So is USSF and its stable of interchangeable coaches cutting it? USSF obviously thinks so and rides unmitigated through media waters focusing their tide changing forces elsewhere. The fans feign for something different, something more beautiful, but instead get lucky or scrappy victories shoved down their throats and called progress.

Every time a position opens up some big names are rumored from all over the world. Gerard Houllier was the named rumored for Hackworth’s vacancy. It happens every time, just in time for USSF to name yet another fairly unproven American spawned by a similar system of technique and skill and wrought on the killing fields of kick-and-run, passive aggressive soccer. The only thing any of them seem to be really good at is saying the right things (ok, so not Greg Ryan whose replacement will soon support or work against the theme of this column). Do as I say not as I do never was a good way to raise a child, so why is it ok for a USSF coach?

It reminds me of places like Chelsea and Real Madrid. It’s not enough to catch a break and win a few trophies. The product needs to evolve and look good doing it. I for one would take an American team that fell out in the first and second round of international tournaments, as long as they did so in a productive manner. Besides this past summer where there were some thrilling moments in the U20 World Cup, what American team can we say this of? That quarter-final appearance in 2002 appears a fluke from here.

There is no doubt our players are improving on the whole, but how much of that is coaching and how much is outside forces? I’d like to say the time is now for a USSF coaching shake-up, as all of our lower classmen enter the senior stage, but we got that shake-up after World Cup 2006, and yet somehow it all looks awfully similar.

The selection of Hackworth’s replacement in Bradenton is the last chance for changing the hegemony on the sidelines that has dictated the play on the field. C’mon Sunil, throw me a bone.