Harkes Book Excerpt: Beginning of the end

Captain for Life and Other Temporary Assignments

By John Harkes With Denise Kiernan Soccer America presents the first of two excerpts from John HarkesÆ new book, Captain for Life and Other Temporary Assignments. We pick up during the final phase of France Æ98 qualifying as Harkes notices a change in Coach Steve SampsonÆs approach. “IÆm here fighting for every American coach,ö Steve Sampson would say in meetings when we were supposed to be talking about the next game. What Steve was fighting for was the chance to keep his job through the World Cup, and he only had through the end of qualifying to prove himself. But even though job pressure is there, a good coach wonÆt show that to his players. ItÆs a fact of life when youÆre a national team coach that you could lose your job at any time. To remind us of that was another sign of his lack of experience. We had enough to worry about once we got out on the field. SteveÆs coaching techniques and constant fiddling earned him the title of ôD. of T.ö: Director of Tactics. In meetings, he would stop the videotape and examine every little play. He was constantly stopping our training sessions to tell a player he needed to be five more yards this way or that, overanalyzing every move. He wouldnÆt just let us play. He had gone 180 degrees from where he was two years earlier. He would tell Eric Wynalda how to hit a free kick, Joe-Max Moore how to hit a corner, or Preki how to swerve a ball. YouÆve heard of micromanaging? Well, Steve was microcoaching. We tried to listen to him ù he was the coach ù but he was pointing out the obvious. Not having played professionally, let alone internationally, and without a successful coaching career behind him, SteveÆs book smarts lacked credibility to a group of guys who had hundreds and hundreds of caps among them. It had been said that the more he coached, the worse we got. In training we would split into two groups, one going with Steve and the other going with Assistant Coach Clive Charles. HeÆd say things in that cockney accent of his like, ôHow many chances dÆya get to just play, boys? LetÆs have fun today.ö I would sometimes have a word with Clive when things got tense with Steve. He would talk with Steve on our behalf and things would change for a week or so, but then go back to normal. Looking back, maybe going to Clive so often was a mistake. As the situation with Steve went downhill, I wondered how Clive had represented the playersÆ news to Steve ù especially mine. The players had July and August off from qualifying to spend time with their clubs. The chemistry at D.C. United was probably better than at most clubs because a lot of us had played for Bruce Arena at UVa and already knew each other. We also didnÆt have a coaching change or any major lineup changes going into the second season, unlike a lot of other teams. As a result, D.C. was having an incredible season ù we were virtually unstoppable. Without too many worries about my club team, my mind was on how the national team was going to perform during the second half of qualifying.

ôRumors about Steve being fired were everywhere and the Federation wasnÆt backing him.ö

The first week of September, we played Costa Rica at home in Portland and we needed a win to give ourselves some breathing room. I was unable to play because I had accumulated two yellow cards, and Waldo was out due to injury. But, after eight months of rehabbing his ACL, Tab Ramos was back. The almost entirely pro-American crowd in Portland was the best in recent memory, and we hoped the atmosphere would help get us a win. The first half came and went, and the game was scoreless. As the second half wore on, it looked like we would have to settle for a draw. But in the 78th minute, Preki crossed from the right, Marcelo Balboa laid a great one-touch pass to Tab, and he let loose a spectacular shot from about 25 yards out that hit the back of the net. At that point, we were closing in on qualifying for France and next up was a match against Jamaica at home in RFK. We were confident after our win against Costa Rica and were expecting to take three points from Jamaica, a team considered at the time to be much less threatening. I, along with Roy Wegerle, Jeff Agoos, and Eddie Pope, was also looking forward to playing in RFK, our D.C. United home field. We started the game playing a 3-5-2, not a formation we had much experience with. I remember discussing the formation with a few others. We thought it would be a mistake to change from a 4-4-2 and that we might have to waste a substitution too early in the game if the 3-5-2 wasnÆt working. ThatÆs exactly what happened. Steve substituted Jeff Agoos for Mike Sorber in the first half and we moved back to a 4-4-2. A win would have meant a cakewalk to the end of qualifying. Instead, we tied and didnÆt look too good, particularly in the first half. We didnÆt really go after them like we should have. We gave away another bad goal on a mistake in the back, when Agoos tried to square the ball and it got picked off. Tying that game put us under a lot of pressure and we had to refocus. Qualifying for the World Cup came down to three games in November: away against Mexico and Canada, and at home against El Salvador. Rumors about Steve being fired were everywhere and the Federation wasnÆt backing him. In preparation for the final stretch, the team trained in the mountains of Big Bear Lake, Calif., to adjust to the high-altitude we would have to deal with in Mexico City and to spend some time bonding. After D.C. United swept through the Eastern Conference playoffs for a second straight year, I was playing in my second MLS Cup, this time against the Colorado Rapids. As a result, I came into camp late, along with the other United and Rapids players. MLS Cup Æ97 was almost a repeat of the year before as far as the weather was concerned ù pouring down rain, slippery conditions. This time, though, D.C. United was in control from the beginning, and while Colorado had had a great run through the playoffs, we won the match, 2-1. RFK was soldout, the crowd was fantastic, and the atmosphere was incredible notwithstanding the rain. After such a long season dividing time between qualifying matches and MLS games it was a relief that United was able to pull off the championship. Again. Unfortunately, I didnÆt have much time to celebrate with the team or my family and had to leave immediately to join the team in California.

ôEveryone felt cooped up and was starting to go stir crazy.ö

Big Bear was beautiful, and for that reason I was looking forward to it. But when I arrived, it was clear that the players who had been there were on edge. Everyone felt cooped up and was starting to go stir crazy. During our time at Big Bear, Steve introduced the ôword of the dayö in training. He would have us stand in a circle, holding hands, and players would take turns sharing their ôword of the dayö with the rest of the team. My first practice back, Steve asked me to offer that dayÆs word. Now, no one had explained to me in advance what this was all about, so I hesitated, not sure whether Steve was kidding, and if not, what kind of word would be appropriate. ôUhh …,ö I stuttered as I looked around the circle at players winking, smiling, and making other encouraging faces. ôHow about ærespectÆ? Has that been used?ö ôGreat word, Harkesy, great word,ö Steve said, as a few players out of his sight nodded approvingly or gave me a thumbs up. ôNow … can you use it in a sentence?ö I donÆt remember my sentence, but it must have passed the test because there was a lot of ôrespect?ö on the practice field that day, then in the locker room, in our rooms, and during dinner. In the end, the ôword of the dayö generated a lot of laughs, especially when Frankie Hejduk asked if ôdudeö was OK, and Thomas Dooley ù not a native English speaker ù completely botched his sentence. Things took a turn for the worse when Tab reinjured his knee and was sent home, but not before having a blowout with Steve about the way Steve was handling training. Tab had just come back and his getting injured again was almost as devastating to the team as it was to Tab. Ernie Stewart was injured, too, and Kasey Keller had torn his thumb playing for Leicester City in the English Premier League. It was one thing after another, everyone was tense, but trying to hold on because we were heading into the home stretch. Steve was leaning on me as captain even more. Looking back, I wish I hadnÆt had so many meetings with Steve. He would always ask, ôHow are the players?ö He wanted to know how they were feeling, what they were thinking, where their heads were. He put me under a lot of pressure during qualifying, especially with regard to Eric Wynalda, who performed at the highest level in games, but was not the best practice player. Steve would talk to me during training about Eric and tell me that he needed to work harder. ôGo talk to him,ö heÆd say. Whenever Eric lost his top, in training or with the press, Steve would take me aside and say, ôYou need to sit down with him, you can get through to him.ö He also vented to me a lot about other players, and that wasnÆt fair to me because they were friends and colleagues, not to mention the fact that I wanted to focus on my own game. He would tell me which players were going to be criticized in the next team meeting and that I should tell them to be on their guard. Steve wanted me to be his messenger and that undermined my role as captain because it separated me from the other players and made me look like SteveÆs assistant, rather than a peer. He should have had more conversations with players one-on-one, behind closed doors, including with me.

ôBy midway through the second half, with the game still tied 0-0, we had turned the crowd against their own team.ö

On November 2, we went down to Mexico City to play in one of the most intimidating stadiums in the world. The United States had never gotten a result in Mexico, and we knew getting one in qualifying was going to be nearly impossible. There were 110,000 Mexicans screaming at us through the heat, smog, and thin air of Azteca. ItÆs an amazing stadium, and all soccer fans should try to experience a game there at least once in their lives. A lot of families had traveled down for this game, including my wife Cindi and our six-month-old baby, Lauren. Lauren stayed in the hotel with a baby-sitter while Cindi went to the game, because we knew the atmosphere inside the stadium was going to be intense. ItÆs a good thing Lauren stayed behind, because unfortunately the tickets for the families were in the general admission seats behind the goal ù they were basically thrown to the lions. They ended up getting pelted with eggs before the game. Thank God the players didnÆt find out about this until afterward, or else we would never have been able to concentrate. Everything was against us from the start ù as it is for any team that steps onto that field ù and then, to make matters worse, Jeff Agoos got red-carded in the first half and we had to play a man down. I moved to left back and helped shut down Mexican forward Luis Hernandez. By midway through the second half, with the game still tied 0-0, we had turned the crowd against their own team. They shouted ô0leö after every pass we completed and were calling for Bora to be fired. We walked away from the game with a tie and a qualifying point, thank you very much. Spirits were high. We got back to the hotel, and I spent some time hanging out in the lobby. Cindi and I showed off Lauren to my teammates, as most new parents do. We had dinner with a few players and then I took Cindi and Lauren back to the family hotel before turning in. I was happy: when the chips were down, our team had come up big once again. The next morning, Roy Wegerle and I didnÆt get our wakeup call ù unless, of course, you consider someone speaking broken English and banging on the door saying that the team had just left to be a wake-up call. We grabbed our stuff, jumped in a taxi, and rushed to the airport, but no one was there. The team hadnÆt left, the bus had been parked on the side of the hotel, and we had beaten them to the airport. When they arrived, Roy and I were sitting at the gate, drinking coffee, and reading the paper. I found out later that Tom King, the teamÆs general manager, had called CindiÆs hotel room looking for me, but didnÆt knock on our door. Roy and I were fined $100 each for missing the bus. It wasnÆt enough to worry about, but we werenÆt too happy. Somehow we had become responsible for a mixed-up wake-up call.

ôI thought Steve should get to keep his job because he had coached us through qualifying and had earned the right to be there.ö

A week later, we clinched our spot in France with a game to spare, beating Canada 3-0 in Vancouver. The champagne was flowing in the locker room and, after nearly two years of qualifying, going to France was finally a reality. Everyone was so relieved ù an enormous weight had been lifted. We called Tab from the locker room after the game. Steve walked up to me, gave me a hug, and said, ôWe did it! YouÆre going to your third World Cup.ö At the time, I believed him. Our final qualifying match was against El Salvador at Foxboro. For us, it was an opportunity to close the gap between ourselves and Mexico in the qualifying standings and put on a good show for our fans. But for El Salvador it was a chance to go to the World Cup. Roy and I received a phone call in our room offering us money if we would throw the game. I didnÆt know who it was so I wasnÆt too worried about it. Afterward, the Federation put a number of security measures in place. ThatÆs how much it meant to El Salvador. But we were playing for pride, and after tying El Salvador in the previous match, we wanted the win. Steve could afford to move things around, and in that game used me as an attacking midfielder. The team played well, we won 4-2, I notched two assists, and the team finished qualification just one point behind Mexico. The Federation waited until December to tell Steve the job was his through the World Cup, even though we had qualified midway through November. Everyone knew that Alan Rothenberg hadnÆt made up his mind about Steve. The Federation also knew that the players were not happy, and the press had criticized the way weÆd qualified ù struggling when we shouldnÆt have. I wrote in my column on ESPNÆs website that I thought Steve should get to keep his job because he had coached us through qualifying and had earned the right to be there. As players, we didnÆt always agree with his tactics and coaching techniques, but we thought it was too late to have someone new come in and, everything else being equal, we preferred an American coach. So we gave Steve the benefit of the doubt and Steve helped himself by being a good politician and playing up to the press. He claimed that he didnÆt like to criticize players in the media, and always insisted to us that we keep team problems private. But he purposefully used the media to put pressure on players like Lexi, Marcelo, and Eric. And in the months leading up to the World Cup, Steve would use the press against me. The team thought that once the job was his, he would relax and things would be better. We couldnÆt have been more wrong. (Part I of two parts) Captain for Life and Other Temporary Assignments. By John Harkes with Denise Kiernan. Casebound. 260 pages. $24. Sleeping Bear Press (1-800-487-2323).