Coaching Decision at State Cup Could be Costly for MTA Technical Director Abboud

Mark Abboud said it wasn’t hard to make the decision that he did on Sunday. After all, he’d been thinking about it for a year now.  As it turns out, Abboud, who is the Minnesota Thunder Academy Technical Director has second thoughts.

Here is the background on this story. Abboud was coaching a U-12 Minnesota Thunder Academy East team in the Minnesota State Cup on Sunday.  Abboud had entered the girls into the U-13 category hoping to prepare them for the steeper competition the team would begin to experience when they were U-13’s.

The State Cup is a US Youth Soccer competition where the winners of State Cup can progress on to Regionals and then Nationals.

The U-12 team Abboud was coaching faced another Minnesota Thunder Academy team in the semi-final but this U-13 team was from the MTA and not MTE (east). The Thunder Academy is set up so there is a Minnesota Thunder Academy which is the old Bangu club. There is also an east, west and north academy, the west being the former Wings Soccer Club.

Abboud writes in his blog about the tactics he used in the U-12 game, playing a very defensive formation and bunkering down. A question might be asked at a U-12 level if bunkering a team in, even if they know the opposing team is better, is the right tactic. With a U-12 team, (6th graders) it seems like the kids should play positive, not negative and it is important not to over-coach them. Then again, Abboud is an extremely successful girls coach. Many young women who have gone on to play college level soccer swear by Abboud, his coaching ability and his true concern and care for the players on his team.

His U-12 MTE team ended up drawing the game with the MTA U-13 team. The game went to overtime and eventually to shootouts. This is where the trouble started. Abboud thought about scenarios that had happened in the past with his Bangu club teams and how sometimes younger teams had beaten the older team only to get crushed in the following round of the final.

There is no doubt in my mind that I made a poor decision on Sunday, one that compromised the integrity of my club, of MYSA and their State Cup Tournament, and of the game of soccer itself.
Mark Abboud, Technical Director Minnesota Thunder Academy

It was at that point Abboud may have made the biggest coaching mistake of his career. He called his girls over and told them that the better team was really the U-13 team and that even though he was proud of the girls for battling the way they did and drawing the older team, the whole reason they had gone into the tournament in the first place was for the experience gained for the following year.  At that point Abboud asked the girls to pass the ball nicely to the opposing keeper, in essence throwing the game to the U-13 team, instead of taking the penalty kicks to win the game.

The Star Tribune reported some of the girls reactions this way. When it was over, they “sobbed so hard they were shaking,” according to one parent. Another parent said, Abboud is a great coach, “but this was morally wrong. He told them to go against everything they’ve ever learned about competition and sportsmanship. He might as well have told them to rob a bank.”

Abboud had this to say about the incident, “Within one minute of the game I knew it was a mistake. It was an absurdly idiotic decision that at the time I thought was in the best interest of the team. My girls were distraught, my parents were irate.”

Abboud, who is being quite forthright about the situation blogged about the whole event. You can read his thoughts and the rationale for his decisions as well as the emotions he went through at the time and afterward. He told IMS that the incident has created a maelstrom in which he has been contacted by media sources from around the country.

The Star Tribune broke the story on Wednesday and it was rated as one of the top 5 stories of the day at the online version of the paper. As of the writing of this IMS article, the Strib online article had 125 comments posted on the story which ranged from supportive to those who where on a witch hunt for the whole of MTA. IMS suggests reading the Star Tribune story to get better details of the incident, even though the Minneapolis paper does not have the understanding of the State Cup, nor the politics involved with MTA and MYSA clubs in the metro area.

IMS has spoken at length with many of the parties involved with this incident but few wanted to comment publicly for legal reasons. Here is what we know has happened since the incident:

Candace Daley, Executive Director of Minnesota Youth Soccer Association said that immediately following the completion of this State Cup game on May 17, 2009, (MYSA) “was notified that it appeared that the game was thrown.”

IMS has learned the State Cup Committee held an emergency meeting on Wednesday, May 20, in which a decision was made for sanctions concerning Mark Abboud and possibly the Minnesota Thunder Academy. Those decisions are currently undergoing legal review before being released.

Daley made a very brief statement to IMS saying, “MYSA takes matters of this nature very seriously and we are taking appropriate measures based on our rules, policies and procedures.”

The Minnesota Thunder Academy has a message on the front page of their website stating, The MTA Executive Board is aware of an incident at State Cup this past weekend.  It was a coach’s decision that came into question; an individual decision, and it was not supported by the club.  We are looking into it further to deem whether any disciplinary action is needed.

IMS also learned the MTA Executive Board called an emergency meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss the incident. The board met for 3 hours, from 9:00 p.m. until 12:00 a.m. Barry Neal, President of the Executive Board for the organization told IMS a decision has been made which is being reviewed by a legal team. He could not comment further as they were still deciding when the decision would be handed down. He had no other public comments at the present time.

IMS talked to Mark Abboud who said, “There is no doubt in my mind that I made a poor decision on Sunday, one that compromised the integrity of my club, of MYSA and their State Cup Tournament, and of the game of soccer itself.” Abboud, again was forthright about the incident in saying, “Though I’ve taken responsibility publicly for a decision that I made alone, it is important to me that people understand that in no way do I believe an apology simply negates the gravity of that decision, and I know it will be a long and hard road to repair the damages caused by my actions.”

Abboud said just because he has publicly apologized doesn’t mean he expects people to think that he won’t have to face consequences — that the apology will make everything all right. “I don’t expect sympathy for any consequences that the MTA Executive Board or the State Tournament Committee deem necessary to impose on me,” said the MTA technical director. “I stand firm that my decision was made with good intent at the time, and although a poor decision in hindsight, I am at peace because I’ve been true to my heart moving forward.”

Bangu Soccer club had long been criticized by some community soccer clubs for some rather aggressive recruiting while Abboud was coaching director of that organization. The criticism continued when Bangu merged with the Minnesota Thunder and became the Minnesota Thunder Academy even though the Academy had taken many steps to try to keep their nose clean knowing that they were being scrutinized for every move the club made. Since that time there has been a steep increase in the criticism of the Thunder Academy culminating in a decision last fall by the MYSA to no longer partner with the Minnesota Thunder professional soccer club nor its Lightning women’s team. MYSA had previously partnered with the club supporting clinics that the pro team did and purchased a ticket for a Thunder game for each of the 40,000 competitive youth soccer players in the state.

According to those who have experienced such scenarios with other professional soccer clubs like the Chicago Fire of Major League Soccer, who also started a soccer academy, this backlash is not that unusual. The Pro Club can bring quicker recognition of players from scouting talent around the country but often the smaller community clubs are left frustrated after developing a player for years only to lose them at age 15-18 and not get credit for the work they put into the player. There are also many soccer professionals in the state who make their living conducting clinics, camps and coaching teams who are affected financially by MTA. The Thunder Academy has brought in a bigger and different business model that make some unhappy. Yet the pro team fielding an academy is highly supported by the United States Soccer Federation as was stated recently by  John Hackworth, Director of the Development Academy for the USSF. Hackworth told Inside Minnesota Soccer they have found pro teams are instrumental in creating the right climate for advancing players to the next highest level.  “In our initial study of how to create a true player development system, we concluded that professional clubs must play an integral role in this system.”

Abboud’s incident has come at a poor time for the academy as MTA was trying to build a name for itself and prove to the soccer community they were trying to be good soccer citizens in the state. The ironic part is this has hurt MTA as well as Abboud, who may be one of the best girls youth coaches in the state. The former Thunder player has spent countless hours building the foundation for the Thunder youth academy. Anyone who has knowledge of Abboud understands how close to his heart MTA was and ranked just behind his family and friends as first and foremost in importance.

IMS will keep you updated with any further developments.