Pep Guardiola, a great soccer coach in Europe, ires Gregg Popovich, a Hall of Fame basketball coach in the United States.
“A devoted fan,” writes biographer Martí Perarnau of Pep.
Whether Pep emulates Pop, I don’t know. But Mikey Varas of San Diego FC should in one key respect.
Varas, in response to Major League Soccer’s brutal schedule, should become the league’s most aggressive and proactive coach at holding older stars out of matches — especially road matches.
One such player is left wing Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, 29.
Popovich pioneered bold, even brazen “load management” efforts in response to the NBA’s 82-game, travel-laden schedule. More so than his peers, he withheld stars and often sent them home with games to go on road trips. Even when the NBA’s top media rightsholders complained about it, the coach and team ownership held their ground and thus further endeared Popovich to veteran players throughout the sport.
It can’t be known the exact effect of Popovich’s rest-my-guys approach. His sparkling results, however, are undeniable.
Most of his stars aged well, enabling the small-market San Antonio Spurs to win five NBA titles. The club’s fifth champion had three starters who were 31 to 38 years old. That season, no Spurs player averaged 30 minutes or more per game.
Similarly, the 34-game Major League Soccer schedule, plus numerous other matches played by many MLS standouts during the season, can dilute the quality of play by asking too much of players.
I invoked Popovich last month in a column about MLS’ attrition challenges confronting SDFC, arguing that Pop treated the NBA’s regular season for the excessive farce that it is.
Saturday night’s contest for SDFC was in its third in eight days, the second such compressed stretch in three weeks.
In the 64th minute, with SDFC ahead 1-0, Lozano collapsed to the grass without , grabbing his left hamstring and walking gingerly to the locker room.
“He felt something,” Varas said.
Varas didn’t start Lozano in last Wednesday’s game at Seattle, using him only in the second half of the 1-0 loss knowing he’d play again three days later.
“That just shows you how crazy life is,” Varas said. “You can have all the processes in place to do all the right things, but there’s nothing guaranteed in life. The last time we had three games (in eight days), he started all three of them, played, fine. This time, we decided to rotate him in Seattle, not because of performance but purely because we wanted to save him physically, and then this happens.
“At the end of the day, what I’ve learned is you don’t control pretty much anything.”
Who am I to disagree? I can barely spell kinesiology.
Even so, I’d like to see Varas go full Pop. The Spurs’ coach was less partial to half-measures than not allowing a player to suit up. If he could keep an older star off an airplane, he often did.
Maybe Pop would’ve kept Lozano in San Diego while the rest of the team went to Seattle.
I’m not second-guessing Varas’ decision to bring Lozano, who played the final 45 minutes, but it’s worth noting that the left wing was coming off a extra-strenuous home game three days before that Wednesday night match, the 2-1 victory over the LA Galaxy. Lozano went the full 90 and hit the ground a few times. He made a memorable 60-yard sprint, creating a second-half steal. Still buzzing around in stoppage time, Lozano won the game with a half-field sprint and header of Anders Dreyer’s perfect .
Key point: SDFC, near as one can tell from its soccer and injury reports, has matched or exceeded most of its opponents in health, work rate and stamina. The first-year team’s success in maintaining fitness is evident; SDFC stands second among 15 Western Conference teams in both points and goals scored. Leading the conference in ball possession, as Varas’ club does, takes abundant energy.
The performance through 17 matches reflects well on Varas and a heavily credentialed sports performance staff headed by Luke Jenkinson, whose two years with D.C. United acquainted him with the MLS beast.
But the full NBA-MLS parallel is worth considering.
With 16 of 30 teams allowed into the NBA playoffs, Popovich saw that a merely decent team should get a playoff berth. So when the schedule became a bear, why not find full recharges for older stars? Giving its teams more margin for error, MLS its 18 of 30 clubs into the postseason.
Here’s hoping Lozano can get back to peak level. The show was memorable. Saturday night, the left wing made the team’s most impressive assist this season. Four minutes before the injury struck him down, he played Paddy McNair’s long with a perfect first touch off his chest while on a sprint. Then he evaded two Austin FC defenders with cutbacks and fed a smooth grounder to poised Luca de la Torre, who finished for his fourth goal and Lozano’s fifth assist, the first score in a 2-0 victory.
Now we’ll see if Lozano, who turns 30 next month, can push the rock back up the hill.
