Europhilia: A big-name guy with a foreign accent says he can do better and the inferiority-complexed American buys the whole kit and kaboodle. This little scam has kept some truly horrible coaches, who just happen to have British accents, in clover for many years over here. They come in and think they need to teach us how to play "their" game.
But this season, while doing the Revolution games for television and observing every single game, chatting with the coaches, the players, and the team's staffers at training, I've been smacked upside the head for my jumping-the-gun judgmentalism.
From the outside, Nicol might seem like your typical been-there-done-that former European pro who is going to lean on that past to justify his present. But Steve Nicol is anything but typical. He doesn't lean on anything in his past. Sure, he chats about his years with those marvelous 1980s Liverpool teams, but he knows that "When I was playing at Anfield ..." is not a successful coaching pedagogy. A coach's history is not relevant except as a learning tool for the coach himself. Like life and one-night stands, what's done is done and all that matters is what's doing.
Nicol is fully of the moment, so much so that you might actually think there is no plan, that nothing is done by design, that it's all made up as he goes. Not true. The reality is that the grand plan is so self-evident to him he doesn't have to think about it. He has said it a thousand times: He doesn't worry about what's going to happen. Will he go coach in England, maybe Liverpool? Scotland? Could he take over the U.S. team someday?
He just shrugs at it all. No one knows what's going to happen, so why worry about it until it's happening, is his philosophy. As he's done his whole career, Nicol will concentrate on what he's doing right now -- coaching the Revolution in the MLS Cup Final -- and let the chips fall where they may, because he knows that all he can do.
It's all very Zen. It's about keeping perspective. I've come to think of it as the "Tao of Nicol."
He doesn't overcelebrate a goal or a win. The most exuberantantly joyous I've ever seen him after a victory is raising his fists over his head, then immediately go find his coaching counterpart and shake hands.
He doesn't fret over losses. The season is 32 games and then there are playoffs (a system that he'll readily admit he and the Revs have taken advantage in previous years). One loss does not a season make.
And unlike so many foreigners, Nicol and his assistant Paul Mariner don't look down on U.S. players. This is the crux of Nicol's success, I think. He has consistently praised American players in the press back in Scotland and England. And it's no coincidence that the Revs have had their record-setting season this year with the vast majority of minutes being logged by Americans. Of the internationals, only Uruguayan Jose Cancela has had an integral role. (I'm not counting Grenada captain Shalrie Joseph as a foreigner because he really grew up in Brooklyn.)
On a road trip, I once asked Mariner about the American player, how he stacked up to the British players. Without hesitation, Mariner explained that MLS players can match Premiership players for skill and fitness. The real question is the in-game thought process, the speed of thought, the decision-making, the mental fortitude to compete at a very high level day in, day out.
Understanding that is more than half the battle, it seems to me. Because American players are sick of being told that they can't compete at the highest level. Perhaps American teams can't compete at the highest level (yet), but American players can. And as soon as coaches realize this, all that's left is to help the players put it all together in a team effort. The Tao of Nicol recognizes this. It's not about how to pass the ball and how to shoot and how to tackle; it's about where to pass the ball, when to shoot, and why to slide tackle. Off the field, he toys with the media, protects his players with subtle Godfather-like tactics, and never loses sight of the big picture. In other words, he manages, which is what this country and league need more of. He just might be the first MLS coach since Bruce Arena who deserves the title "manager" rather than "coach."
And the Revolution players have bought into it. Nicol says "Go out and play your game," and that's just what they do. They jam the middle, get the ball wide, and crash the box. They defend as a unit, cover for each other, encourage and admonish as necessary. Because of all this, I suspect that this Revolution team could compete with most teams around the world.
On Sunday, though, they only have to compete with their opposite: a Los Angeles Galaxy team that is thriving on the energy of the playoffs, a team that swings up and down depending on how the Golden Child is playing. In the MLS Cup Final, I'm putting my money on the team that keeps the moment in perspective. Then, Nicol might finally enjoy the moment rather than just being in it.
Greg Lalas played for the Tampa Bay Mutiny and the New England Revolution in 1996 and 1997. Send e-mail to Greg at cheapseats@g73.org. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
