Coaches Comments

US Men Deaflympic Taiwan 2009

"The Deaflympics in Taiwan couldn’t have come at a worst time as far as the US Men’s team was concerned. The September date made things impossible to have all our best players available to represent their country. The main reason was college commitments from players who just couldn’t get permission to be released for a few weeks. This would mean I would be missing half my starting line-up that had such success at the World Cup in Greece 2008. Missing 5 starters had to have a detrimental effect on any team. I arranged a summer try-out to find new players, but we just couldn’t replace the quality we had lost. This meant the bench players from Greece who didn’t get much playing time in the World Cup would have to step up to starting positions in Taiwan. Unfortunately their lack of experience and the pressure of playing at this level were just too much for most of them. Even the veterans who returned from the 2005 Deaflympic squad, but missed Greece, struggled to have a major impact.

It has to be said, the whole feel about the men’s team in Taiwan just didn’t have the magic of that in Greece. It was obvious the starters from Greece were disappointed in the lack of drive and ambition from the replacements who just didn’t seem to understand the amount of effort both physically and mentally to compete at this level. There was definitely a feeling of tension which hadn’t existed for a long time in this squad.

This all became evident in our games against Ireland and Japan where we couldn’t string two passes together. The one thing I will defend my players on was the appalling referee’s who were conned by our experienced opponent’s gamesmanship. I felt for my players when they were making genuine fair tackles but the ridiculous response’s from these challenges were so dramatic the ref’s couldn’t see through the cheating which lead to a ridiculous amount of yellow and red cards over the course of the tournament for the US team.

Even through all this adversity the men’s team still managed to create US Deaf Soccer History by becoming the first US squad to progress from the group stages of a Deaflympics. A fantastic 3-1 win over the 2005 gold medal winners and favorites Gt Britain took us through to the knock-out stage.

The less said about the second Ireland game and the Argentina games the better.

This report can be interpreted in one of two ways; negative or positive. I prefer to see the positive side. I think it is good for most of us to be disappointed in ourselves in Taiwan. Most other coaches would have been proud to have taken the team into the history books, but I got little joy from this because my team’s general play throughout the tournament never reached the standards we set in Greece. I know the veterans will never be satisfied by one good tournament then go back to the bad old times. Taiwan was a minor hiccup produced by the loss of half our team. These players will be back and have a major impact on the next big challenge. The players who did struggle in Taiwan will have learned so much from the experience and will return as much better players. They will all get one more chance to show if they deserve a place in the next tournament. So the squad that does attend the Pan Am Games next year should be our best ever. The days of the US Men’s team contentment with being average at International events is now a thing of the past. We must never be satisfied until we reach the ultimate goal, a Gold Medal."

- Coach McDonald