[ad_1]
US soccer sports director Matt Crocker’s career has taken him to some enviable places. Crocker has seen his under-17 and his under-20 teams win the World Cup title in India in 2017, with the British Football Association. Most recently, Crocker, 48, was tasked with plotting the sport’s direction for Southampton in his Premier League. He has worked at the highest levels of the game for years.
However, he began his coaching career in a decidedly quirky location: Little Rock, Arkansas.
At the time, Crocker was a 17-year-old apprentice at Cardiff City and wanted to work towards his coaching license. As Crocker recounted, his friend moved to the United States and launched an indoor soccer center called “Soccer USA.” These were the heydays of football camps in America, when the country’s developmental status depended more on the country’s “Football USA” than on the complex and expensive academy system.
“Six of us jumped in a van and drove wherever we were told on Monday,” Crocker said at a roundtable in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. , come back on Friday night and play an indoor showcase game, play an 11 vs 11 game on Saturday and move on again on Sunday.To be 17 or 18 years old and be able to do that in a country like America, What a perfect life.”
Crocker did this for several summers, eventually landing in Kansas City, where he coached local club Lewisburg Legends. His wife, who was his girlfriend at the time, joined him for the adventure.
“[Children on the street]had never seen or heard our accent before,” Crocker said. “There were a few kids on the deck with my wife and I, and what was it called a lightning bug? They flew past. My wife asked the kids, ‘What’s that?’ . They said, “That’s a Thunderbug!” Then the child said, “That’s a dog!” And it’s a cat!
Now, Crocker is back in the U.S. with a job clearly bigger than his first coaching gig in Arkansas. He is responsible for overseeing the sporting operations of US soccer, just three years after his 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup co-hosted by the US. It’s the perfect opportunity to make an outsized impression on the sport of this country.
His first job is substantial, even before he officially assumes the position on August 2nd. He hired a coach for the men’s team and is to oversee the women’s team as they try to win his third consecutive World Cup trophy.
“I’m really excited,” said Crocker. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared in other ways. I already know there is great work underway, but I already know that I need to participate and make an impact, and I need to show that. I also know that there is ‘my worth’. I’m excited and a little scared at the same time. ”
In January, the federation signed a contract with the consulting group Sportology to conduct an exhaustive national and international search for coaching and sports director candidates. After that search ended, the federation looked at how the sports director candidates were ranked in four “buckets”.
“This position is a huge one and no one is going to be an expert on all of them,” Parlow Cohn said. “So we looked at different expertise in different buckets. , decided who to go directly to the interview.”
Parlow Cohn said the federation eventually narrowed down to 10 candidates, then seven, and finally three. According to Parlow Cohn, his two of the finalists were diverse candidates. But from the beginning Crocker stood out.
“(I) had a hunch after the first interview,” Parlow Cohn said.
Crocker’s role will be narrower than that of previous sports director Ernie Stewart. In March, the federation posted a job posting for a ‘Chief Football Growth Officer’, who will oversee the game’s growth at the amateur and youth levels. The oversight of refereeing and coaching education also falls under the jurisdiction of other officials of the federation, allowing Crocker to focus exclusively on national team programs, from youth level to senior teams.
For Crocker, this was a golden opportunity.
He played a similar role in FA, ‘England’s DNA’ Coaching and Helping Build a Playing Philosophy It has helped England’s men’s and women’s programs challenge and win trophies. I did so with Dan Ashworth.
During his six years in FA, Crocker also managed the England men’s and women’s national teams (under-15s to under-20s), including the men’s wins at the 2017 U-17 and U-20 World Cups. . In the same year, the European Championships under 19 years old.
He returned to Southampton in 2020 — previous stints saw former Welsh winger Gareth Bale, Liverpool’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Manchester United’s Luke Shaw and England international captain Southampton. He oversaw and helped found an academy that produced a certain James Ward Prowse. “SFC Playbook” focused on streamlining playing styles from youth level to first team. Crocker was less involved in player transfers at Southampton and focused more on modernizing the academy, recruiting domestic players and building philosophy and organization within the club.
Crocker’s role dwindled somewhat when Sports Republic bought the team in early 2022 and he will eventually leave at the end of this current campaign which sees Southampton on the brink of relegation. Asked if he’d learned anything from the trying season, Crocker said he’d seen the club’s injury outages before considering the positives for Southampton and how that would translate to his work in the United States. He pointed out anguish and turnovers.
“One thing I can say is we are a club with a great business model,” said Crocker. “We are a club with a distinct identity and style of play and I definitely believe that I have learned from Southampton and can transition to my role here. I need to listen, learn, understand, and see where there is potential to add value. ‘s job is to identify it, feed it, support it and grow it, but we may try to identify where the opportunities are.
When Sportsology contacted him about a US sports director job, Crocker quickly understood the magnitude of the opportunity.
“I had to pinch myself,” said Crocker, who will remain at Southampton until the end of the season. “Given the size and scope of the (US) program and the opportunities presented to both men’s and women’s programs, my only focus other than helping Southampton fight to get out of their position is , now in. That was the only thing that interested me.”
In many ways, his strengths in both the FA and Southampton look perfectly aligned with what US football was looking for. In other words, someone who can help organize and manage the sports sector, maximizing the success of the youth national team and the development pipeline. .
“I think people have a skill set that can bring them together,” Crocker said. “We talk about this ’85/15′ rule all the time: 85% of the time we agree and 15% of the time we disagree, but we’re all on the same page when we leave the room.” increase. … My job is to be able to make critical decisions in that 15% so everyone understands why we’re doing it and if it doesn’t work out. It’s about getting them to raise their hand first. ”
Crocker’s first hire is important not only because of the stage that coach must succeed in, but also because of the current state of the program. But he also had to navigate significant off-field drama involving one of his young stars, Gio Reyna, and former coach Greg Verhalter.
Crocker declined to discuss individual candidates on Tuesday, but his comments painted a clear picture. He looked optimistic about the team’s performance under Burhalter, especially at the World Cup. He also wants a team willing to play on the field and defend in one-on-one moments. indicated that the employer will be billed for continuing the progress achieved.
Burhalter remains a candidate for coaching, but the federation is definitely considering other coaches. Among them could be American manager Jesse Marsh, who had mixed results in Leeds and the Premier League after a brief stint at RB Leipzig after a successful streak with Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga. Highly sexual
“We’ve advanced the identity that Greg has built, and obviously[interim manager Anthony Hudson]has pushed that forward as well. We want to grow and build on that,” Crocker said. Told. “Because we have several players with great potential and a very high level of creativity who can identify and deliver key moments in the game.”
Crocker, and the Commonwealth as a whole, are not looking for a candidate seeking to instill his own philosophical approach into the position. Crocker, along with Parlow Cone and his CEO JT Batson, spoke frequently on Tuesday about establishing and implementing processes and roles. Crocker seems to have left that hierarchy clear when it comes to hiring coaching.
“I don’t see an interview process that starts with ‘What can you offer us?'” Crocker said. “For me, it’s like, ‘This is our program, this is our vision, this is where we’re going.’
“I want to make sure the coach understands that, and get excited about adding to the program rather than breaking it and starting over and bringing in my own philosophies and ideas.
Crocker, who has the final say in hiring coaching, reflected Parlow Cohn’s opinion on the new coach’s timeline.
“For us now, it’s about making sure the process is successful,” he said. “What we want to know and make sure we have the right data modules to give us the information, make sure we have the right background checks to give us the leadership style, and then make sure the coaches To provide appropriate opportunities for them to come and show their best selves through the process of what they can offer.
In a way, Crocker’s stepping into the Commonwealth from the outside brings fresh eyes to a landscape that needs it.
He acknowledged that Crocker has a lot of work to do to better understand the scope of his work and the many areas he needs help with, but he now shows a lot of progress in the men’s sport. I was quick to point out that I was overseeing the program. Set standards for women.
“When I was watching the[men’s]team in America[when I was on the British national team]they were incredibly competitive,” said Crocker. “And you mentioned the group that was born in 2000, and they’re still great players and they’re still growing. I don’t really think they’re underachieving. We must not forget that the Academy ecosystem is still in its early stages, we still have time to grow.”
The hope is that the men will continue to grow in relevance and competitiveness, and that the women’s national team will be able to hold back many teams that are closing the gap as investment in the game grows globally.
“I think it’s about harvesting that mentality and continuing to grow it,” said Crocker. ‘We need to re-instill fear in the opposition’
Crocker has seen the tremendous progress the country has made since first joining Soccer USA coaching Little Rock. Since pushing the game to the professional level, he has been tasked with overseeing the program’s greatest chances to take off.
(Photo: Patrick Smith/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
[ad_2]
Source link
