MLS: Interview with New England Revolution head coach Brad Friedel

Former USMNT goalkeeper and current New England Revolution coach Brad Friedel joined MLS Multiplex for an interview.

Along with over 400 appearances in the Premier League for clubs including, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Blackburn and Tottenham, goalkeeper Brad Friedel also earned 82 caps for the U.S. national team. The Ohio native played in three World Cups, before retiring from professional soccer in 2015.

However, Friedel wouldn’t be away from the game for long as he was named the head coach of the United States’ U-19 national team the following year. Then in 2017, Friedel made the jump to Major League Soccer, where he became the head coach of the New England Revolution.

The former USMNT goalkeeper gave MLS Multiplex a few minutes of his time to talk about his transition into coaching, the rise of Major League Soccer and the state of the USMNT.

Interview

Juan Herrera, MLS Multiplex: Let’s get started here. Can you tell me a bit about the work you’re doing with Allstate?

Brad Friedel: I’ve worked with Allstate for a few years now and one of the reasons that I’ve been involved with them is because they do some tremendous work in underprivileged communities. This time around, we’re going to put on a clinic for some kids. We’re going to donate some equipment and apparel to the kids. We’re also going to surprise them with match tickets and Allstate has also gone to the semifinalists cities; New York, Atlanta, Kansas City and Portland. They’ve chosen one player from each of these areas and they’ve donated $5,000 college scholarships to each of those individuals. Whenever I have the opportunity to work with Allstate on these community events, I’ll jump at the chance because it’s all for very good causes.

JH: So after retiring as a player, what made you want to pursue a career in coaching?

Friedel: Well I didn’t realize I wanted to do that probably until I was in my last three years of playing. So when I was 41 down in Tottenham, I had finished my UEFA B license and I had just started to enjoy coaching. I started going in with Tab Ramos as an assistant with the U-20 national team as well and was doing some coaching at Tottenham’s academy. It was just something that I fell in love with. I never, throughout my playing career, envisioned that I would definitely go down that route, but once I got the bug, I knew it was something I wanted to do.

JH: What’s been the biggest challenge of coaching a professional team in Major League Soccer in comparison to coaching a U.S. youth team?

Friedel: There’s challenges every day, no matter where you’re coaching, whether it’s with the U-20s or the U-19s or if you’re at Tottenham in the Premier League or in MLS. I wouldn’t say they’re challenges, more like obstacles that you have to overcome every day in decision making. That’s also how I’m programed, to try to make decisions and problem solve on the go so you can create a good environment to get results now and also build a club for the future.

I wouldn’t say there’s one or two or three specific things with coaching an MLS team with pros. I was around pros for 23 years as a professional, so the bad management side of things is not surprising, but you never know what the actual circumstances are going to be on that day. That’s what actually excites me a lot about coaching. It’s having to deal with situations on pretty much an hourly basis.

JH: What made you want to make that transition into coaching in Major League Soccer?

Friedel: Whether it was Major League Soccer or another league, that was something that didn’t really come into my mind, it was the project itself. So when I met with Mike Burns, Brian Bilello and Jonathan and Robert Kraft, I saw the project that they wanted to achieve. I wanted to be a part of that project and I spoke to my staff members and they were all very excited to be a part of it. We have year under our belts on a building process and we’re very excited about what the future has in store for us.

JH: What are some things you learned from your first year in coaching the Revolution that you hope to use moving forward?

Friedel: I think the most important thing is you learn about the players that you have. We work in a salary cap league, so I think it’s always important to have a real strong look at the players that you currently have under contract. Yes, you have to make a few decisions right away on players that you might not know on a day-to-day basis, but I think the most important thing that we learned is exactly what we have in front of us.

We knew which players that we wanted to release. We know which players that we want to keep and take forward with us. We know which players we may want to trade. We also have a much better understanding of the players that we want to bring in to fit into our system. The learning curve where we’ve learned the most is about our own individual players.

JH: Early on in your career, you decided to make that jump to playing in Europe straight out of college. What are your thoughts on the number of players making that jump from Major League Soccer to Europe? Players like Zack Steffen and Tyler Adams come to mind.

Friedel: With the growth of the league, the stature of the league and the standard of the league, teams over in Europe are starting to scout MLS much more vigorously than they had in previous years. I think if a player has a good opportunity to play, they should visit that opportunity, whether it’s in MLS or abroad. I think the most important thing when you’re making your move is that it’s structured around the playing time you’re going to get and not necessarily just the dollars and cents to the move.

I’ve coached Tyler Adams with the youth national team and I’ve also coached against him in MLS. He’s a tremendous kid and a tremendous talent. If the Red Bulls could have held onto him with a contract, fair play to them. Obviously they couldn’t do it. He’s gone and I wish him the best. When it comes to a player with a talent like that I think it would have been fantastic if he had stayed in MLS, but it’s also fantastic if he goes to Europe. I think it’s important that he develops as best as he can so he can play many years for the U.S. national team.

JH: What were some of the challenges you faced when you made that jump from college to play in Europe?

Friedel: Back then we didn’t have a professional league so that was the only step. It was night and day going from college, where Sigi [Schmid] did an incredible job at trying to create as professional of an atmosphere as possible at UCLA. We had a lot of good players. Back then, almost all of the talented players in the United States did go to college because there wasn’t MLS and MLS academies or too many professional teams that were scouting the youth of the United States. So going into these clubs was a little bit of an unknown. I played with the olympic team and the youth national teams for a couple of years so you knew some of the players and you knew some of the talent levels, but you didn’t know the day-to-day life. So I had to go in and learn on my feet as quickly as I could.

JH: You mentioned MLS has grown significantly and you were a part of Major League Soccer during its infancy, how much has the league changed since your time with the Crew?

Friedel: It’s been night and day. It doesn’t compare and it’s for the better. We had to start the league sometime and some place and if you just look at the bricks and mortar side of things, the training facilities and stadiums that are up where these teams are playing nowadays in comparison to back then, the standard has changed. The standard of coaching, the standard of players, the salary cap has increased, the Targeted Allocation Money has increased, the Designated Players have increased, the television contracts, the notoriety of the league, the types of players that we’ve been able to attract to the league, it just doesn’t compare.

Every year it gets bigger and better. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that instead of having 10 or 12 teams like we had back then, we now have 24. So the league has grown quite faster than any professional sports league in the U.S. I’m pretty sure I am accurate in saying it’s the fastest growing professional league in the world at this moment in time.

JH: What are your thoughts on the USMNT’s decision to hire Gregg Berhalter? Do you think the program is moving in the right direction?

Friedel: Well I’ve been out of the program for over a year now with soccer, so the state of U.S. soccer is difficult for me to comment on. What I can say is the state of the youth national teams from working under Tab Ramos when I was there was outstanding. It was very structured. Tab is a very talented coach and is a very talented soccer mind.

Gregg is a good hire in the respect that he’ll know all the U.S. players. He knows the U.S. system. He’s done a very very good job at Columbus and they’re one of the teams that has definitely had a style of play associated with it. They’re a difficult team to play against.

We at New England wish him the very best and we’ll help him be successful in any way that we can. I’ve known Gregg for a long time. I’ve played with Gregg and I know how intense he is. I know how professional he is and I really hope he guides the U.S. in a very positive way for years to come.