How Much More Time Do You Give Mark Wilson To Captain Team USA?

klone said:
Our captain can't even get his player to tuck in his shirt to show professionalism and avoid potential fouls?! When Bergman walked down the steps with his shirt hanging out I had a feeling that he was going to foul sometime in the match.
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This is hardly something you can blame on Wilson. It's Bergman responsibility not to foul the balls when at the table, shirt tucked in or not.

To be fair, it may have something to do with all ball fouls not being the norm in America (which I find kind of ridiculous really). It's standard here in the UK, and I assume in most of Europe (???) - so is probably a lot more automatic for those who have always played it. Still, no excuse at this level.

Celtic said:
I am not a huge fan of Mark Wilson but he is irrelevant.

Get rid of him, don't get rid of him, it makes not one bit of difference because the USA does "not" have PLAYERS that can compete with the likes of Shaw, Ouschan, Appleton, Feijen, ect...

SVB has the skill to compete with the above players, but it is REALLY obvious to anyone with a lick of common sense that he has zero faith in the USA team and it negatively affects his own performance. I think SVB could potentially actually shoot well on a team if he actually though his team was full of his peers or equals that could back him up. But every time I watch him in the MC he looks like a guy who does not think his performance will matter one way or the other and that his team simple cannot win. He would never admit it, he would say "oh no, Sky and Bergman and Mike are great players and Rodney is a legend" but in reality he knows Shaw, Feijen, Appleton and Ouschan will shoot any of them into a coma in a proper world class event.

It is not the coach, it is the players. Beyond SVB the USA has no one winning world class events, you hardly have any players who even play in them FFS. How the heck are you going to beat a team full of world champions who compete constantly on the world stage?

Billy Thorpe? Justin Hall? Josh Roberts? Oscar? Against world champs like Albin, guys like Shaw who just won the Kuwait Open? Multi-time World champ and US open winners like Appleton? Yeah freaking right... Give me a freaking break, what is next the guy who won the APA singles last year? Yeah, he will have Albin shaking in his boots! Do you guys comprehend if Albin or Shaw plays Josh Roberts or Billy Thorpe in the World 9-ball championships in a race to 13 what the line would be in the Action Room for people betting actual money? That is a obscenely lopsided match.

The USA's problem is not the coach, you guys don't have the players to be able to win this. Sky is not good enough, Bergman is not good enough, Rodney is years past being good enough, Dechaine is not good enough, and SVB is not much better then 50/50 against team Europe in short races, they are all his actual peers and are all champions as well.

You cannot win this year, you won't win next year, and you wont win any of the 5 years after that the way things are looking. Europe is producing world champion caliber players, the USA is not, and there is nothing on the horizon that gives any indication whatsoever that is changing any time soon.

Archer as captain? Who cares, he is not going to miraculously make players better than they truly are.

When your team is full of players who would rather try to win $5,000 in a local USA bar box event than go to Asia and compete against the elites of the world like Ko, Chang, Albin, Wu, ect... to attempt to win a world class even you are going to lose. You can say "well that makes economic sense" but it is precisely a sign that these guys are not out there to become world class players and rise to the top, they want paydays, and second place in the Mosconi Cup is just another payday for them.

You CANNOT build a world class 5 player team with 1 world class player, it simply cannot be done.
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This is an excellent post.

It's not the coach, or the pockets, or the break rules, or the rolls; it's the players. And more specifically, it's the cueing. The Euros are simply far better cueists than the Americans - that kind of thing holds up under pressure.
 
SakuJack said:
This is hardly something you can blame on Wilson. It's Bergman responsibility not to foul the balls when at the table, shirt tucked in or not.

To be fair, it may have something to do with all ball fouls not being the norm in America (which I find kind of ridiculous really). It's standard here in the UK, and I assume in most of Europe (???) - so is probably a lot more automatic for those who have always played it. Still, no excuse at this level.



This is an excellent post.

It's not the coach, or the pockets, or the break rules, or the rolls; it's the players. And more specifically, it's the cueing. The Euros are simply far better cueists than the Americans - that kind of thing holds up under pressure.
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Embarrassing how Americans cue a ball. Embarrassing.
 
SakuJack said:
This is hardly something you can blame on Wilson. It's Bergman responsibility not to foul the balls when at the table, shirt tucked in or not.

To be fair, it may have something to do with all ball fouls not being the norm in America (which I find kind of ridiculous really). It's standard here in the UK, and I assume in most of Europe (???) - so is probably a lot more automatic for those who have always played it. Still, no excuse at this level.
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It is the norm here when there's a ref at the table...which is practically never. Anyhow, don't you hear the European team when someone's getting down to shoot over some balls? "Hey, watch your shirt!" They're all paying attention and helping each other win. They behave like athletes on a professional athletic team.

The US team is disinterested and unorganized. Yes, it's Wilson's responsibility to tell his player, "Tuck in your shirt because number one, you look like a slob, and number two I don't want you fouling." And I like Justin and am always rooting for him, but this is ridiculous. Wilson's not the guy for the job. I'll tell you what, forget Archer. I really like Archer and I think he's probably my second pick, but my first pick is Earl. He'd have that team whipped into shape in no time, and he'd keep the intensity from the first lag until the last ball dropped on the last day.
 
What the heck is wrong with you guys? Bergman is a human, capable of mistakes. You don't think those European tournament soldiers have committed a foul?

When push came to shove, I saw Bergman save the day when he was playing his partner match with Mike D. Justin made some magnificent shots.

The performance this year has nothing to do with Wilson being coach. Americans play a different brand of pool than the European tournament soldiers. Put some money in the middle -- BIG money -- and see who comes out on top.

Mark Wilson is doing a great job being coach. The Cup is designed for tournament soldiers with its stupid shirt fouls and short races to 5. Heck, that's the only way the Europeans can win.
 
JAM said:
What the heck is wrong with you guys? Bergman is a human, capable of mistakes. You don't think those European tournament soldiers have committed a foul?

When push came to shove, I saw Bergman save the day when he was playing his partner match with Mike D. Justin made some magnificent shots.

The performance this year has nothing to do with Wilson being coach. Americans play a different brand of pool than the European tournament soldiers. Put some money in the middle -- BIG money -- and see who comes out on top.

Mark Wilson is doing a great job being coach. The Cup is designed for tournament soldiers with its stupid shirt fouls and short races to 5. Heck, that's the only way the Europeans can win.
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You honestly make me ashamed to be an American.
 
Celtic said:
I am not a huge fan of Mark Wilson but he is irrelevant.

Get rid of him, don't get rid of him, it makes not one bit of difference because the USA does "not" have PLAYERS that can compete with the likes of Shaw, Ouschan, Appleton, Feijen, ect...

SVB has the skill to compete with the above players, but it is REALLY obvious to anyone with a lick of common sense that he has zero faith in the USA team and it negatively affects his own performance. I think SVB could potentially actually shoot well on a team if he actually though his team was full of his peers or equals that could back him up. But every time I watch him in the MC he looks like a guy who does not think his performance will matter one way or the other and that his team simple cannot win. He would never admit it, he would say "oh no, Sky and Bergman and Mike are great players and Rodney is a legend" but in reality he knows Shaw, Feijen, Appleton and Ouschan will shoot any of them into a coma in a proper world class event.

It is not the coach, it is the players. Beyond SVB the USA has no one winning world class events, you hardly have any players who even play in them FFS. How the heck are you going to beat a team full of world champions who compete constantly on the world stage?

Billy Thorpe? Justin Hall? Josh Roberts? Oscar? Against world champs like Albin, guys like Shaw who just won the Kuwait Open? Multi-time World champ and US open winners like Appleton? Yeah freaking right... Give me a freaking break, what is next the guy who won the APA singles last year? Yeah, he will have Albin shaking in his boots! Do you guys comprehend if Albin or Shaw plays Josh Roberts or Billy Thorpe in the World 9-ball championships in a race to 13 what the line would be in the Action Room for people betting actual money? That is a obscenely lopsided match.

The USA's problem is not the coach, you guys don't have the players to be able to win this. Sky is not good enough, Bergman is not good enough, Rodney is years past being good enough, Dechaine is not good enough, and SVB is not much better then 50/50 against team Europe in short races, they are all his actual peers and are all champions as well.

You cannot win this year, you won't win next year, and you wont win any of the 5 years after that the way things are looking. Europe is producing world champion caliber players, the USA is not, and there is nothing on the horizon that gives any indication whatsoever that is changing any time soon.

Archer as captain? Who cares, he is not going to miraculously make players better than they truly are.

When your team is full of players who would rather try to win $5,000 in a local USA bar box event than go to Asia and compete against the elites of the world like Ko, Chang, Albin, Wu, ect... to attempt to win a world class even you are going to lose. You can say "well that makes economic sense" but it is precisely a sign that these guys are not out there to become world class players and rise to the top, they want paydays, and second place in the Mosconi Cup is just another payday for them.

You CANNOT build a world class 5 player team with 1 world class player, it simply cannot be done.
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thx for that post, thats excactly what im thinking, only i could never write it down like that!
and btw fargo did a great job again, the teams are only separated by 7 points........ well, i guess albin or mark never ever had a look on fargo :thumbup:
 
BeiberLvr said:
You honestly make me ashamed to be an American.
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Were you coached by earl ?
If not, are you earl behind the screen ?

Its good to love your country , not that good to be delutional.

Good luck getting a backer to stake any of the american players ( except svb ) to play d europeans.

There's a reason why Darren Mika n Jayson live in the states , that is ...
To win AMERICAN COMPETITIONS , hustle Americans in their own backyard in your preferred long race money games, can i be anymore blunt ?!

Now try asking rodney bergman sky dechaine to travel international , go to taiwan, philipines or europe to gambel n see how they wld survive.

I will give odds that they will be calling mommy back home to western union some expenses and book an air ticket home before the 5th day.
Try it , or wld u like to sponsor em Jam ?

Taiwanese europeans n pinoys have all flown on their penny to States, europe n asia despite the US dollar against their favor.
Now try asking em american players to do so , my bet is they cant afford it or wldn risk losing their lunch money.
 
Carolina_Giant said:
3. Wilson said in the opening interview for Day 1 that this year, our goal was to not suck. You know what? That sounds like we've already lost or Wilson has given up. If he's given up or that's his attitude, I want him out. There's no fire or passion in that statement, and to make it on their home soil to beat? That's an attitude that says Americans are losers. You're the captain of the team Wilson. Act like it or step down. American pool may not be what it once was, but your job as a leader is to be there to support your guys to the end. You let them down with that statement and hung them out to dry.
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I totally agree. I couldn't believe he said this. If I was playing for him this statement would totally effect me and make me not want to play hard for him. He should be gone. Johnny Archer should be the next coach. He is deserving and I believe he would be respected by the players and maintain a positive attitude.
 
JAM said:
What the heck is wrong with you guys? Bergman is a human, capable of mistakes. You don't think those European tournament soldiers have committed a foul?

When push came to shove, I saw Bergman save the day when he was playing his partner match with Mike D. Justin made some magnificent shots.

The performance this year has nothing to do with Wilson being coach. Americans play a different brand of pool than the European tournament soldiers. Put some money in the middle -- BIG money -- and see who comes out on top.

Mark Wilson is doing a great job being coach. The Cup is designed for tournament soldiers with its stupid shirt fouls and short races to 5. Heck, that's the only way the Europeans can win.
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The same format as thier playing now money is not changing anything


1
 
MOJOE said:
Smoke a little do ya? This is so laughable it does not deserve a reply!
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Years ago the NFL champion team would play the college all stars. There were several years when the all stars would win. This consisted of a team of college players that haven't played together again the best team in the NFL.

So it is possible that they could win against some NFL teams that are at the bottom of the standings.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_College_All-Star_Game

🎱
 
It is not Mark Wilson's fault that Skylar Woodward didn't learn from Mark Gray's seven ball that hit the rail at about the first diamond, when Skylar shot a seven ball straight into the bottom of the nine ball instead of cheating the pocket.

It is not Mark Wilson's fault that Mike Dechaine missed an easy 2 / 9 combination with the nine in the BIG ball position.

It is not Mark Wilson's fault that Shane is playing poorly.

Clearly, the European players have been breaking better as a team, but how can Mark Wilson MAKE his players practice as they travel all over trying to make a living. Ultimately, this falls on the American players (maybe excluding Shane), who do not view playing pool as a job. If they did view pool as their job, they would break better. There is no excuse for their poor results on the break. They know they will shoot break shots; they should be prepared to execute as well as Europe.

Maybe if Mark had total control of who makes the team, it would be more fair to lay some blame with him, but he doesn't. He must take the first 3. Mark's picks this year have been the best players. I think our two worst players this year have been SVB and Dechaine, and they earned their spots.

Given how poorly, the players have played, I would be in favor of allowing other players an opportunity to see if they could play and not dog their brains out. I would like to see Josh Roberts, Billy Thorpe, and Oscar get more serious consideration next year. I think these players should be given a heads up that they will receive heavy consideration, and I think all the American players should lock themselves in a room until they break better. Just my 0.02.

kollegedave
 
Cardigan Kid said:
I have the utmost respect for coach Wilson. I appreciate all he has done for American pool and continues to do with his college team.

I believe his best work is with younger players

So there is no disrespect at all when I say after years of observing him (through his commentaries and now a few years as the captain) I have determined that he is intimidated by some of the players.

I've seen great coaches treat great players with kid gloves and it usually doesn't end well.

Wilson is a great support role, but in terms of coaching and the constructive criticism required to bring your players to the top, I believe he is missing that.

That being said, some players need to be receptive of the criticism as well and willing to change.

Not going to happen.

Therefore, I say keep Mark Wilson on for another four years.

Enough time to see players from his college levels mature into fruition.

USA soccer just made a grave error in firing Klinsman who overhauled the youth soccer academies of America. Such an undertaking takes a decade to see the results. But team USA wasn't patient enough and their premature firing of the coach has set them back, they just haven't realized it yet.

I believe coach Johan Ruisnik or Lee Brett could do the job better from the instructional/criticism angle, but that would require players too listen and change. Not going to happen with some of current players. So keep Wilson and get the youth going as he did with Justin and Skylar
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CK makes sense...

So we are at the halfway point of probably the most eagerly awaited and yet the most disappointing MC ever!

I’ve gone down on record here on AZ for the past 2-3 years stating that 2017 will be the year that the USA brings the MC home. Looking at this years event; I couldn’t be further from the truth. The USA, seem to have hit reverse gear.

Who’s too blame?
Well, judging from all the threads and posts here on AZ. Everyone’s to blame but the USA…

Like it or not, USA pool is just not a force to be reckoned with anymore. So what can or should be done?

The USA players:
2017, both Sky and Tenacious B should be travelling to Asia to begin their schooling of ‘Hard Knocks’. On their travels back, they should make a pit-stop too at least 1 Euro Tour, so they can ‘air’ their new skills with an attitude of
“See Ya’ll In Vegas.”
WHY?
Simple; Week in week out, beating on hapless league players on Bar Tables simply WILL NOT stretch either of them to the heights of their potential.

YES. I know. "Put either of them in a money match playing from noon till dawn and they would beat any European." etc... YAWN!

If the money in money matches are not an issue, why not invest that money into a training ritual that will improve their game? I mean, slopping all over the balls has become a standard practice in the USA - STOP IT NOW!

New blood needs to be recruited into the set up. Players like Wilkie and others got close this year, but without the support will fall to the way side leaving only a few veterans to show up and get paid, but will not necessarily improve the team.

New blood doesn’t need to be young blood; it just needs to be the right blood.

The great American Pro Tour! The Emperors New Clothes
For the guys who end up representing team USA, the need for a USA Pro tour today or next year is almost irrelevant. They all have the Euro Tour that they can hop onto. Jayson Shaw has done this year, so why can’t they? Costs will decrease if they all club together and share expenses and the bonding between them will become stronger than ever! Heck, US players will travel 3,000 miles to play in Vegas, but won't do the same to play in Europe? ALARM BELLS!

USA Team Captain:
Some may laugh, but it has never been suggested, discussed or possibly Matchroom would not permit it…

Captain America, USA’s best player, SVB should be the all new Player / Captain! With advisors like Mr. Wilson in the background.

This situation will put all responsibility on SVB shoulders, which I believe he would thrive under. The great ones usually do. USA has one of the best Quarter Backs, yet he is not allowed to call the play… Does this make sense?

Give SVB the reigns and see what comes from it. Things can only get better, surely.

Finally; I’ve gone back to playing Snooker and have 2 matches this evening and will miss tonights MC. I have the privilege of being able to record this on Sky; However, I’ve not recorded any of this years matches and IMO, I won’t be missing out on anything tonight. Which is a real SHAME!

The way things are going, the USA will be grateful to have a Jayson Shaw and an Appleton deflect to the USA Team in the future on immigration credentials.

Would USA win with both Appleton and J Shaw? I doubt it; but it would make for a closer match…

…But who in their right minds really want to see this as a positive outcome.

COME ON USA; Pull your boots up!

The world needs a strong USA American Pool presence. You invited the game; You gave the world the game and its rules.

Now you MUST relearn the game in order to be better! The world is watching...

PS:
I decided not to start yet another MC thread…
FFS :thumbup:
 
I guess everyone on here only lives, eats, sleeps, and dreams about pool and nothing else. If anyone on here paid one bit of attention to the Chicago Cubs season this year, they would get it. For all of the ones bashing Mark for his "try not to suck" comment, here is a news flash. The Cubs won the world series for the first time in 108 years. Guess what their slogan was? You guessed it, "try not to suck" and was started by Joe Maddon their manager. Mark is a huge baseball fan, specifically the Cardinals, and was paying homage to the Cubs manager and loosing things up a bit.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/cubs-rally-around-new-joe-maddon-slogan-try-not-to-suck

Btw, Mark puts in more hours preparing for this than most of you work by looking at the number of posts some of you have. You don't see the behind the scenes work that he does. I know for a fact that he was working on about 4-5 hours of sleep a night for 3 months straight doing everything he could to make the BallPark Village exhibition a success, and it was. I'm sure if any of you supported it by buying the stream, you couldn't tell, and most of what I read on here was negative, but it was a huge success. Why? Because it is getting our sport in front of people that know nothing about our sport. Last years turn out was so good, the company that owns BallPark Village said if you can do it again or even better, we have investors that may be interested in helping getting a pro tour and doing events like this at the other 5 or 6 venues around the country in other cities that they own. Mark, with the help of his step son that has media connections is doing this all on his own time and spending money out of his own pocket. He loves this game more than all of you on here combined and yet, all you want to do is bash him because the best player we have is missing balls that he hasn't missed in 25 years.

Also, for those of you calling for Archer to be the replacement, are probably the same ones on his Facebook page bashing Mark as well. Here's another newsflash for you. JA is just bitter that he didn't get selected last year over Sky or Justin. He can't compete with either of them anymore and if any one wants to stake him, Sky and Justin have a line of people that will stake them against Johnny. Maybe if Johnny would have committed to practicing for more than 30 minutes a day (yes, that is all JA was willing to commit to) to prepare for the 2015 MC, he might have gotten more consideration, but if that's all your willing to do to prepare, you don't deserve it, no matter what your name or past accomplishments are.

Also, Mark has no time to speak of to really help these guys. The points race is not over until less than a month before the actual event. The players all do come to St. Louis prior to the event. Mark opens up his facility at Lindenwood for the players to practice and work on things. Do you really think Mark is going to change Shane's stance and stroke mechanics in 2 weeks? Or Dechaine's attitude and ability to get along with the rest of the team in 2 weeks? Mark has them practice their breaks, lags, and kicks. He does everything he can. They have team meetings to discuss strategy and matchups. I know for a fact, he provided them with a condo to stay in while they were here last year. He is no where near rich, but provides all that he can to help them.

Maybe AZ members can start their own Gofundme page and raise all the $$$ it would take to do all the things people on here are suggesting. The reason we are losing and are behind is because we don't have an organized Pro Tour that our players can compete at on a regular basis to allow them to not only get the experience, but to be able to make a decent living financially. Mark's work behind the scenes will hopefully create that in the years to come, but bashing him and calling for JA or anyone else to be captain will not get it done.

Go ahead and bash me all you want and comment on how few comments I make and little I know, but I do know what I wrote here are all 100% facts.
 
Two things:
1. I'm fairly certain Mark Wilson co-opted the "not sucking" thing from Joe Maddon, who was often quoted as telling his players to "try not to suck". If you're not aware, Joe Maddon was at the helm as the Cubs ended a 108 year World Series drought.
2. WHO CARES IF THE US PLAYERS MIGHT DO BETTER IN LONGER RACES FOR "REAL MONEY"? That's like saying the Cleveland Browns could field the best basketball team amongst the NFL franchises. It's totally irrelevant to the Mosconi Cup competition.

Other than that, go USA. Wormer hasn't dropped the big one yet.

Pax,

Taek
 
Stew_Pidaso said:
I guess everyone on here only lives, eats, sleeps, and dreams about pool and nothing else. If anyone on here paid one bit of attention to the Chicago Cubs season this year, they would get it. For all of the ones bashing Mark for his "try not to suck" comment, here is a news flash. The Cubs won the world series for the first time in 108 years. Guess what their slogan was? You guessed it, "try not to suck" and was started by Joe Maddon their manager. Mark is a huge baseball fan, specifically the Cardinals, and was paying homage to the Cubs manager and loosing things up a bit.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/cubs-rally-around-new-joe-maddon-slogan-try-not-to-suck

Btw, Mark puts in more hours preparing for this than most of you work by looking at the number of posts some of you have. You don't see the behind the scenes work that he does. I know for a fact that he was working on about 4-5 hours of sleep a night for 3 months straight doing everything he could to make the BallPark Village exhibition a success, and it was. I'm sure if any of you supported it by buying the stream, you couldn't tell, and most of what I read on here was negative, but it was a huge success. Why? Because it is getting our sport in front of people that know nothing about our sport. Last years turn out was so good, the company that owns BallPark Village said if you can do it again or even better, we have investors that may be interested in helping getting a pro tour and doing events like this at the other 5 or 6 venues around the country in other cities that they own. Mark, with the help of his step son that has media connections is doing this all on his own time and spending money out of his own pocket. He loves this game more than all of you on here combined and yet, all you want to do is bash him because the best player we have is missing balls that he hasn't missed in 25 years.

Also, for those of you calling for Archer to be the replacement, are probably the same ones on his Facebook page bashing Mark as well. Here's another newsflash for you. JA is just bitter that he didn't get selected last year over Sky or Justin. He can't compete with either of them anymore and if any one wants to stake him, Sky and Justin have a line of people that will stake them against Johnny. Maybe if Johnny would have committed to practicing for more than 30 minutes a day (yes, that is all JA was willing to commit to) to prepare for the 2015 MC, he might have gotten more consideration, but if that's all your willing to do to prepare, you don't deserve it, no matter what your name or past accomplishments are.

Also, Mark has no time to speak of to really help these guys. The points race is not over until less than a month before the actual event. The players all do come to St. Louis prior to the event. Mark opens up his facility at Lindenwood for the players to practice and work on things. Do you really think Mark is going to change Shane's stance and stroke mechanics in 2 weeks? Or Dechaine's attitude and ability to get along with the rest of the team in 2 weeks? Mark has them practice their breaks, lags, and kicks. He does everything he can. They have team meetings to discuss strategy and matchups. I know for a fact, he provided them with a condo to stay in while they were here last year. He is no where near rich, but provides all that he can to help them.

Maybe AZ members can start their own Gofundme page and raise all the $$$ it would take to do all the things people on here are suggesting. The reason we are losing and are behind is because we don't have an organized Pro Tour that our players can compete at on a regular basis to allow them to not only get the experience, but to be able to make a decent living financially. Mark's work behind the scenes will hopefully create that in the years to come, but bashing him and calling for JA or anyone else to be captain will not get it done.

Go ahead and bash me all you want and comment on how few comments I make and little I know, but I do know what I wrote here are all 100% facts.
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Bingo.
You've stated loud and clear. Well done!

USA soccer made the grave error of firing Klinsman early.
This is a changing of pool culture, and Wilson has been at this for three years. He is a baseball fanatic and the Chicago cubs reference - yes it could've been stated better, maybe with the reference to Madden - but it was relevant to the desire to build up the USA squad as the Chicago cubs did .
 
Stew_Pidaso said:
I guess everyone on here only lives, eats, sleeps, and dreams about pool and nothing else. If anyone on here paid one bit of attention to the Chicago Cubs season this year, they would get it. For all of the ones bashing Mark for his "try not to suck" comment, here is a news flash. The Cubs won the world series for the first time in 108 years. Guess what their slogan was? You guessed it, "try not to suck" and was started by Joe Maddon their manager. Mark is a huge baseball fan, specifically the Cardinals, and was paying homage to the Cubs manager and loosing things up a bit.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/cubs-rally-around-new-joe-maddon-slogan-try-not-to-suck
A well constructed post from someone who can distinguish the wood from the trees

Btw, Mark puts in more hours preparing for this than most of you work by looking at the number of posts some of you have. You don't see the behind the scenes work that he does. I know for a fact that he was working on about 4-5 hours of sleep a night for 3 months straight doing everything he could to make the BallPark Village exhibition a success, and it was. I'm sure if any of you supported it by buying the stream, you couldn't tell, and most of what I read on here was negative, but it was a huge success. Why? Because it is getting our sport in front of people that know nothing about our sport. Last years turn out was so good, the company that owns BallPark Village said if you can do it again or even better, we have investors that may be interested in helping getting a pro tour and doing events like this at the other 5 or 6 venues around the country in other cities that they own. Mark, with the help of his step son that has media connections is doing this all on his own time and spending money out of his own pocket. He loves this game more than all of you on here combined and yet, all you want to do is bash him because the best player we have is missing balls that he hasn't missed in 25 years.

Also, for those of you calling for Archer to be the replacement, are probably the same ones on his Facebook page bashing Mark as well. Here's another newsflash for you. JA is just bitter that he didn't get selected last year over Sky or Justin. He can't compete with either of them anymore and if any one wants to stake him, Sky and Justin have a line of people that will stake them against Johnny. Maybe if Johnny would have committed to practicing for more than 30 minutes a day (yes, that is all JA was willing to commit to) to prepare for the 2015 MC, he might have gotten more consideration, but if that's all your willing to do to prepare, you don't deserve it, no matter what your name or past accomplishments are.

Also, Mark has no time to speak of to really help these guys. The points race is not over until less than a month before the actual event. The players all do come to St. Louis prior to the event. Mark opens up his facility at Lindenwood for the players to practice and work on things. Do you really think Mark is going to change Shane's stance and stroke mechanics in 2 weeks? Or Dechaine's attitude and ability to get along with the rest of the team in 2 weeks? Mark has them practice their breaks, lags, and kicks. He does everything he can. They have team meetings to discuss strategy and matchups. I know for a fact, he provided them with a condo to stay in while they were here last year. He is no where near rich, but provides all that he can to help them.

Maybe AZ members can start their own Gofundme page and raise all the $$$ it would take to do all the things people on here are suggesting. The reason we are losing and are behind is because we don't have an organized Pro Tour that our players can compete at on a regular basis to allow them to not only get the experience, but to be able to make a decent living financially. Mark's work behind the scenes will hopefully create that in the years to come, but bashing him and calling for JA or anyone else to be captain will not get it done.

Go ahead and bash me all you want and comment on how few comments I make and little I know, but I do know what I wrote here are all 100% facts.
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A well constructed post from someone who can distinguish the wood from the trees.
But Mark's approach to the job has always been twofold. He is trying to build a new infrastructure as well as a cup winning team. On the former he has made much progress but not so on his team building.
So here is a radical solution.Shane has had too many disappointing MC performances. Make him the non playing captain. Replace him with Justin Hall.
Retain the other four and then announce the team in January. Next step is to get a binding commitment from all six players to attend monthly sessions at Lindenwood where their one to one coach will be Mark Wilson. Every single player in the USA needs their fundamentals reviewed and deconstucted if necessary.
 
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