LEIRIA, PORTUGAL – NOVEMBER 14: Head coach Dave Sarachan of USA in action during the International Friendly match between Portugal and USA at Estadio Municipal Leiria on November 14, 2017 in Leiria, Portugal. (Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images)
Matt Lichtenstadter
Dave Sarachan has been at the helm of the US Men’s National team for nearly 11 months, and his tenure has seen the US put up a few intriguing results and a horde of talented young players get their first taste of national team duty.
With the new cycle fully underway, we had a chance to sit down with Dave to talk about the past, present and future of the program. Quotes and questions are slightly and lightly edited for quality and length.
Matt: Thank you for your time Dave. Now that a few days have passed since the games against Brazil and Mexico, what is your assessment of those games?
Sarachan: The games were great in terms of challenging our guys in different ways. In terms of the game against Brazil, we played a very experienced, established team that you could argue is as good as any assemblage of 11 players on the planet with great experience. We learned a lot in terms of movement and spacing and getting punished when there are mistakes. It was a good lesson for a lot of our young guys.
The Mexico game had us face a team that was similar in age and experience but added another element in terms of competition when you’re talking about a heated rival and the ability to come away with a result, which was important for our young guys. These games in the past and coming up are going to continue to help in terms of offering these young guys these kinds of experiences moving forward.
TYAC: You’ve been the manager for 11 months. Have you had a chance to sit down and collect your thoughts and think about what you’ve been through personally in that time?
Sarachan: It’s like anything when you’re in the middle of something, it’s hard for me to step away from a bird’s eye view and look at the body of work in some cases. I have taken some time to reflect on the position and what I’ve done over the last 11 months in a way. I’m always honored and proud to lead the national team but feeling as though having an imprint on moving this thing along for the next cycle and having my hands in that part of things is very rewarding. It is difficult to step away until I’m completely out of it but it’s not lost on me the experience that I’ve had with this team.
You’ve been an assistant for a large part of your career, and now that you’re in the spotlight especially now with the future of the program a question everyone is asking, what is it like being the front facing man in the program with those questions, and dealing with the spotlight that comes with it?
Sarachan: I don’t shy away from it. I’ve been a head coach, I’ve been in the hot seat with Chicago and various stops along the way collegiately and in terms of the professional level on an interim basis with the national team, so I’m not afraid of the spotlight. I understand what comes with it, good and bad, but I really do tune out a lot of the noise. There’s a high percentage of people that create the noise that don’t know what they’re talking about, so I don’t get too consumed with that, but I understand what comes with sitting in this chair. There’s always going to be negativity and a certain population that are never going to be happy with you, and when you get older and have perspective, you don’t get bogged down in it.
I enjoy being in this position because I feel I have a lot to offer and I feel I’ve moved the program in a way where I can feel proud of putting the next generation of players in a position where they can take over.
Dave Sarachan says he’s moved on from last October, mostly because he’s intellectually and physically invested in helping shape a better future for US Soccer.
Do you enjoy embracing the challenge of being in the position you’re in now considering where the program has been over the last year?
Sarachan: Whenever you can lead the national team, it’s a real privilege and honor. We all want to know what our future is and what lies ahead, and I’m included in that population. Those conversations will come sooner than later I’m sure because Earnie would like to settle this before the end of the year. It’s always a risk when you’re an interim coach, but I’ve used this phrase often: “all coaches are interim, all coaches can be replaced.”
In my position now, there’s been a lot of positivity in terms of what I’ve brought to the program and my work speaks for itself. If it leads me to continue as the head coach I’d certainly be honored to do that. If they go in a different direction, I feel confident that I’ll have a future whether it’s with US Soccer or in other areas of the sport in the future.
What’s your relationship like with Earnie Stewart now that he’s the GM?
Sarachan: I coached Earnie so I had a coach-player relationship with him and now that Earnie is GM, the relationship in terms of positions is different than what it was but Earnie is still the same kind of executive as he was a player: he’s hard-working, serious, direct, he has ideas. This past camp was the first time I’ve spent a lot of time with Earnie and it was good to have a soccer brain and guy who can influence things at that level.
You’ve gotten to coach some very interesting young players in the last 10 months and bring them in to the national team. Do you feel more hope for the future because of what you’ve seen from them and the talent they possess?
Sarachan: The jury is out on how all these players will mature as full, integrated men’s national team players when we get into the full cycle of Gold Cup and qualifying. But the pool of players that I’ve been able to identify and use in these friendlies is an exciting young core and one of the big things I’ve tried to instill is a real culture of what it is and what it should be when you’re part of a national team when you’re in together and representing your country. They’re so young that I think that’s an important piece to all this. In terms of quality, the pool is large. There is still room to grow but I think the starting points with many of these young guys is very positive.
What do you want to do to instill optimism not just in the players, but with everyone watching US Soccer that there are things to be positive about and the future is brighter than what has happened in the past?
Sarachan: When our national team steps on the field and plays, I think the takeaways should always be that they competed, they were organized, they worked and battled for each other and the hope is that we got a favorable result. Results can come and go in soccer as we know; the best team doesn’t always win on a certain day and sometimes a team that is getting crushed does win. The common theme should always be that we have a talented group of players that shows all the attributes of what the US team should be about. For me that’s paramount.
Do you still think about what happened last October now that the World Cup has passed?
Sarachan: I don’t dwell on it now; I only really do when reporters like you bring it up (laughs). We all have a history that we learn from; but we all move on. For me, I’ve moved. I do reflect on what happened when moving forward, but I don’t dwell on it because it’s history and a new cycle has begun. We can all have our theories, but let’s be practical and move ahead.
Do you use what happened in October as personal motivation, since many of the players you’re working with weren’t part of that?
Sarachan: For me personally, I always try to challenge myself no matter what, whether I’m successful or I fail. I think if you sit tight because things are going well, that’s not a good place to be, and if you failed at something or something didn’t go the way you wanted to and you didn’t improve, then you’re in the wrong business. Good or bad, the challenge for me in my role and I speak to almost anyone in any of their roles is how can the next day be better, how can we improve this product and move forward? That’s always been my mantra.
Last question and thank you for your time Dave, what do you hope and want the team to look like tactically, stylistically and in terms of play a month, a year from now?
Sarachan: As far as the soccer goes, I hope we continue building from friendly to friendly to when the real competition comes that each time we get together it’s just a little bit better. In a year or two, we’d hope to see a very coordinated, technical, organized team that is very hard to play and score against, yet still has enough in it on the attacking end to be dangerous and cause problems. That’s always ideal. Each area of the field has shown improvement and we must continue to build on where we last left off.
Matt Lichtenstadter is a freelance journalist who has been a guest writer at TYAC. He is based in Pennsylvania. Follow him on Twitter @MattsMusings1.