Wednesday, April 23, 2008
United Tuesday, featuring Daft Punk
I would never have guessed DC United coach Tom Soehn to be a devotee of advanced French Eurotechnopop. But in the wake of his media Q&A session after Tuesday's training I kept seeing parallels between his general attitude and the title of a particular Daft Punk song.
Speaking forcefully, Soehn took questions for about 10 minutes and he made clear that he expects his team to play their way out of their current funk. He wants Better. Harder. Stronger. Faster.
While he didn't give us too many clever quotables he was admirably 'on-message,' gruffly driving home what some would interpret as talking points with enough singlemindedness to delight any PR pro.
For an opener:
(paraphrasing reporters' questions)
Injury status on McTavish, Peralta, Mediate?
They’re making progress.
Do you expect Peralta back in training as per normal?
Later, talk switched towards finishing and, somewhat, tactics, and within three minutes I had a clear theme (see if you can piece it together):
"I still think, I’ll turn it the other way: as a team we’re too easy to play against. I looked at the way we played against Pachuca ...
"When we’re playing well we do a lot of fouling in the offensive part of the field because we’re getting after teams and making it hard for them to play. As I had the weekend to assess things, we’re not hard enough on our opponents right now...
"I’ll get back to the point that we’re not hard enough on teams that we play. That’s a big factor...When you have that, things get tighter and you’re harder to play against. So we’re going to continue to focus on..."
But he wasn't alone -- when I'd spoken with midfielder Clyde Simms 20 minutes beforehand, he was right on the same page with his coach, so to speak.
"I guess it’s no secret that we’re too easy to play against, defensively..."
Again, I abridge: Better. Harder. Stronger. Faster. Yes?
Typically direct but genial, Soehn has grown less patient with media duties of late -- not that any human being wouldn't be similarly tempted, even in the relatively mellow media world of MLS -- and on this occasion even a team intern compiling quotes for some marketing materials got the treatment. The former defender definitely holds a 'loose lips sink ships' outlook and has previously mentioned his preference not to talk tactics with reporters -- "to make sure you don’t divulge too much."
Perhaps Soehn got word of Chelsea coach Avram Grant's recent media gambit...Is this what some would call circling the wagons...?
Speaking forcefully, Soehn took questions for about 10 minutes and he made clear that he expects his team to play their way out of their current funk. He wants Better. Harder. Stronger. Faster.
While he didn't give us too many clever quotables he was admirably 'on-message,' gruffly driving home what some would interpret as talking points with enough singlemindedness to delight any PR pro.
For an opener:
(paraphrasing reporters' questions)
Injury status on McTavish, Peralta, Mediate?
They’re making progress.
Do you expect Peralta back in training as per normal?
Later, talk switched towards finishing and, somewhat, tactics, and within three minutes I had a clear theme (see if you can piece it together):
"I still think, I’ll turn it the other way: as a team we’re too easy to play against. I looked at the way we played against Pachuca ...
"When we’re playing well we do a lot of fouling in the offensive part of the field because we’re getting after teams and making it hard for them to play. As I had the weekend to assess things, we’re not hard enough on our opponents right now...
"I’ll get back to the point that we’re not hard enough on teams that we play. That’s a big factor...When you have that, things get tighter and you’re harder to play against. So we’re going to continue to focus on..."
But he wasn't alone -- when I'd spoken with midfielder Clyde Simms 20 minutes beforehand, he was right on the same page with his coach, so to speak.
"I guess it’s no secret that we’re too easy to play against, defensively..."
Again, I abridge: Better. Harder. Stronger. Faster. Yes?
Typically direct but genial, Soehn has grown less patient with media duties of late -- not that any human being wouldn't be similarly tempted, even in the relatively mellow media world of MLS -- and on this occasion even a team intern compiling quotes for some marketing materials got the treatment. The former defender definitely holds a 'loose lips sink ships' outlook and has previously mentioned his preference not to talk tactics with reporters -- "to make sure you don’t divulge too much."
Perhaps Soehn got word of Chelsea coach Avram Grant's recent media gambit...Is this what some would call circling the wagons...?
Comment posted by Charles Boehm @ 2:17 AM 
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