From French philosophy to learning mechanisms to Atlanta United, Mexico national team soccer Juan Carlos Osorio covered a range of topics in an interview promoting his team’s upcoming game against Paraguay at the Georgia Dome.
Since taking over, Osorio has led “El Tri” to five consecutive wins as part of the team’s 17-game unbeaten streak. That streak will be put on the line against Paraguay on May 28 and then again against Chile on June 1 in San Diego. Both games are warm-ups for this summer’s Copa America Centenario, a tournament featuring the national teams from South America, as well as the U.S. and Mexico.
The exhibition against Paraguay should be the last soccer game in the Dome, which will be replaced by Mercedes-Benz Stadium next year. Mexico is unbeaten in its five previous games at the Dome.
“It is a great opportunity to be back in Atlanta,” Osorio said. “It has been a very good scenario for the Mexican national team. We hope that it continues that way.”
Osorio may be familiar to fans of MLS because of his time managing the Chicago Fire and then the New York Red Bulls.
After complimenting Atlanta United for hiring Carlos Bocanegra as technical director, Osorio took time on Tuesday to answer questions about building Atlanta United, teaching methods and some comments he made about MLS that caused controversy. Questions and answers have in some cases been paraphrased for brevity and clarity. This is the first part of a two-part series that will run on ajc.com.
Q: What were your impressions of the renderings of Atlanta United’s training facility?
A: You can play in a beautiful stadium, and that’s great, but the most influential scenario you can have in developing players is your training facility. When you have a training facility that costs all that money ($60 million), and gives you all the benefits in having a few fields at your disposal to train every day, then it’s fantastic. It’s the best part.
Q: What is the easiest part of starting a soccer team from scratch?
A: I don’t think there’s anything easy, but I think it’s a fantastic opportunity to start from zero. I would say that my way to do things would be with the owners and the technical director (Bocanegra), sit down and decide A) what is the brand of football that you are going to play. If it’s a way of just getting result or are you going to start a philosophy that will attract fans to the stadium. Obviously, that has a lot to do with the way you read the game. In my opinion, I would start something like Barcelona started 15, 20, 25 years ago by bringing the Dutch philosophy of a 4-3-3 with wingers, flank players who can take people one on one. The fans will go crazy and enjoy that part. And the team can always score goals.
Having said that, there’s the other side, which is more like the English culture, the Italian culture, playing a 4-4-2 and defend better and with more people.
That should be step one.
After that, you go and find a coach or manager who identifies with that philosophy.
Step 3 is between the sporting director, the head coach, the owners, more so the director and manager: build the team for this idea. Then start bringing the pieces into the puzzle. Understanding this puzzle is different in the United States because of the salary cap, all the MLS intricacies. At the end, it’s a wonderful opportunity to start from scratch and build a team that will appeal to the Atlanta population and the way they look at football.
If, let’s say half are going to be Latin, they may like a skillful game. If it is more like European, it may be more direct or a combination between the two. As we know, the most beautiful thing about the game is there’s no magic formula. There are winning teams playing offensive-minded football. But there are also winning teams playing defensive-minded football. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion.
Q: Who or what would you build a team around if you were starting an MLS team?
A: If I could chose and bring in a goalkeeper I would bring in Alfredo Talavera of Toluca. From there, I would start building the team. My fullback would probably be Americans. My left-footed central defender would have to be a foreigner because there aren’t too many around (Osorio did note Matt Besler was a player he wanted to sign coming out of college). Central midfielder, probably (Michael) Bradley. A center forward candidate would be Zlatan Ibrahimovic. As a designated player in a city like Atlanta, it would be not only good for the team but it would be appealing to him. The wingers, I would like for them in South America where the market is accessible.
My football education, when I decided that I was going to take my license, I looked for the most different type of football that I was aware of. In Colombia, we played too many short passes. Way too many, in my opinion. So I decided to go to England. Looking back, it was the best decision I ever made.
Nowadays, I understand, appreciate and respect those who can play five passes and go into the goal. It’s not just English football. (Diego) Simeone’s style and at some point (Jose) Mourinho played like that. It’s more than acceptable. It is a way of doing things. If you know how to do it, you can help it.
That’s why when I look at building a team, this is a great opportunity. I would do it around the way I think it should be played. There’s not just one way. There’s Plan A and Plan B. That’s why I decided to go with a center forward who is big and tall and who can hold the ball. You have to have quick players on the flanks, but you need to have someone who can hold the ball. That was my combination.
Completing the whole thing, if I could bring three foreigners, I would target the market here: one Mexican, the goalkeeper, one attacker, Ibrahimovic – everybody would love him and identify with him – and the central defender I would look for because there aren’t too many.
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