3/28/2023 0 Comments Pablo mastroeni![]() As a player, I was always an emotional, passionate player. And if you’re too emotional, you don’t have a good structure or discipline. I think coaching is all of it put together, you know? If it’s just tactical, you have a team that are drones. Can do it again today in land?! #RSL #SportingKC #MLS /QWPLlcYgr6 Pablo gives an epic speech after their win in Seattle. About getting your players to come together at the right time. It’s about getting your players to buy in. I was curious if that was always a strength of yours or if that’s another thing you had to find your voice on, so to speak. You mentioned being able to articulate yourself tactically, and one thing that struck me during your playoff run were the videos the club put out of your different locker room speeches along the way. I think the most important thing as a coach is knowing who you are - knowing what you want to do and being able to express that. Then it’s utilizing the practical elements of it: on the field but also video, and having a great coaching staff. It starts with me, really being able to understand what I want. But at the end of the day, it’s all about giving the players digestible information. You learn from other coaches and the way that they do things. As a young coach, you go to these courses, you go abroad and you study. I think just being able to articulate my thoughts in a simpler fashion. How would you describe your evolution as a coach from the time you were in Colorado to now? Obviously there are some common threads, but how do you think you’ve grown in the meantime? But if we’re in the game, if we’re organized, I do think we have the kind of firepower to see us through. I think that’s going to be our biggest challenge. But as a group, we’ve gotta find different guys to contribute on the scoresheet. Obviously we lost guys like Albert (Rusnak) and Anderson (Julio), two guys who were quite influential in that run. I think that’s going to be really important going into the season. We want to replicate the way we approached those playoff games: being organized, and conducting ourselves professionally from the start. We found ourselves in an interesting situation because of all the games we hadn’t taken advantage of earlier in the regular season. A lot of times, in the regular season, you take games for granted. I think what is most translatable is knowing the importance of every game. What do you think will have to carry over the most for RSL to have success? ![]() Some of those elements you mentioned are important for success all the time, but others do seem to be more conducive to a playoff run than replicable through a whole regular season. We had quite a few players who hadn’t had those types of experiences before. The experienced players on the team really led by example, in the way that we wanted to approach games. When you get into the playoffs, especially away from home, it’s important not to put yourself in a hole. Winning the game in the fashion that we did stoked a lot of belief in the group. We had momentum going into the playoffs, obviously with what happened on Decision Day. I think it was a group that really came together at an important time. What do you think were the biggest elements that came together, and what do you think you can carry over into the new season? You guys were kind of the story of the last playoffs, and it was a legitimately thrilling run. Our conversation below has been lightly edited for length and clarity. And I could think of no more interesting figure to spend some time chatting with on the brink of the new MLS season. He is determined to make the most of the opportunity last year’s run has afforded to him. Mastroeni is an introspective thinker, and he knows well how much could’ve gone differently. Would Pablo Mastroeni have been made full-time head coach, or would that interim tag have lingered? Certainly, the current feel-good vibe around a club that has lacked it for a long time would not exist. The charmed underdog run to the conference finals would’ve disappeared into the ether, first and foremost. ![]()
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