Cup coaches know success
There is a bizarre theory making the rounds in Major League Soccer that Steve Nicol and Dominic Kinnear are successful because they are Scottish. It surfaced again this week, when both coaches were asked why Scotland produces so many top-rate managers.
“Fish and chips and haggis,” said Kinnear, who guided the Houston Dynamo to last year’s MLS title and has his team back in today’s final against the New England Revolution at RFK Stadium in Washington.
“We love the game and we know what’s right and what’s wrong and we say it as it is,” said Nicol.
Nicol, the former Liverpool star whose 27 games for Scotland included three starts at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, has the Revolution in its third consecutive final and its fourth in the last six years.
The fact that the Revolution has lost all three previous championship games -- last year’s on penalty kicks to Kinnear’s Houston -- is beside the point.
The fact is, Nicol, 45, has gotten New England to the Eastern Conference final in every one of his six seasons in charge and has a career record of 77-55-48, including playoffs.
Kinnear, 40, is not far behind. Having won two MLS titles as an assistant coach under Frank Yallop with the San Jose Earthquakes, he took over the team in 2004 and since then -- despite the turmoil of the franchise’s move to Texas in 2006 -- has gone 55-31-41 as a head coach.
Nicol’s and Kinnear’s success has nothing to do with being Scottish -- “I moved to California when I was 3,” the Glasgow-born Kinnear said -- but everything to do with knowing how to recognize talent and how to build a winning team. The keys are stability and consistency.
Constant change means constant failure. No better example exists in MLS than New York, which has gone through 10 coaches and 189 players in 12 years without winning a thing.
Contrast that with the patient, thoughtful way that Nicol and Kinnear have built their squads. “I think stability, especially in this league, lends itself to success,” said Kinnear.
Houston’s roster features eight starters who have played more than 100 games for the Dynamo and another three who have played more than 70 games. Seven of its players have won two or more MLS Cups, led by Canadian attacking midfielder Dwayne DeRosario with three championships.
New England’s roster is a mirror image of Houston’s.
It, too, includes eight starters who have played more than 100 games for the team and another three who have played more than 70 games.
No other MLS teams have as solid or experienced a core.
“The teams that have had consistent lineups, consistent coaches, everything about the place has been consistent, then you just see a lot of success,” Nicol said.
Kinnear said showing “faith in the players that you’ve had year in and year out does lead to success. It means you’re not trying to teach things every year and every month. Players have a good understanding of what’s expected.”
Both finalists are built around a star performer, even though neither team opted to sign a “designated player” a la David Beckham or Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
In New England’s case, the star is striker Taylor Twellman, who in six years with the Revolution has become the league’s fifth-highest all-time scorer with 93 goals. His superb bicycle kick in the Eastern Conference final knocked out Blanco’s Chicago Fire.
In Houston’s case, the star is midfielder DeRosario. The Canadian international has a knack for scoring timely goals in big games, as the Galaxy found out in the 2001 MLS Cup and as the Kansas City Wizards discovered this year in the Western Conference final.
New England can attack in a variety of ways, with speed on the wings in Khano Smith and Wells Thompson, and plenty of guile in Shalrie Joseph and fellow midfielder Steve Ralston as all four try to set up Twellman and his strike partner Pat Noonan.
But Houston had the league’s stingiest defense in 2007.
Canadian goalkeeper Pat Onstad had an MLS-best 0.82 goals-against average and the starting back line of Craig Waibel, Eddie Robinson, Ryan Cochrane and Wade Barrett gave up a league-low 23 goals in 30 games.
Familiarity built over several seasons has helped the Revolution offense just as it has helped the Dynamo defense.
“Obviously, the understanding is there,” Kinnear said. “Playing for years together makes it easier for them.”
Today’s final promises to be another close game. Eight of the 11 MLS Cups have been decided by a single goal.
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MLS CUP FINAL
Who: Houston Dynamo vs. New England Revolution.
Where: RFK Stadium.
When: 9 a.m. PST today.
TV: Channel 7, TeleFutura.
Records: Dynamo 15-8-7 (2-1-0 in playoffs); Revolution 14-8-8 (2-0-1 in playoffs).
Head to head in 2007: New England won, 1-0, at Houston and tied, 3-3, at Foxborough, Mass.
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