Arace: Nancy teaches his players 'the scoreboard is not important' ... and means it
It is customary for a member of the Crew’s media relations staff to record coach Wilfried Nancy’s post-game press conferences, then listen carefully to the audio, and then edit it for clarity. These transcriptions are dispersed to the local media via email, with the words “Wilfried proofed” in the subject field. This is an invaluable service, and not necessarily because Nancy’s English retains more than a touch of a French accent.
English is a nightmare if you didn’t grow up with it. It’s a mashup of numerous languages, and it teems with idiosyncratic tics that are difficult to transpose for one who speaks a Latin-based Romance language, such as French. In fact, if you run Nancy’s English through a transcription program built on artificial intelligence, what comes out is indecipherable. Seriously. I saw one of these AI-based transcripts earlier this week and it could make Noam Chomsky quit his day job.
Yet, if you’re around Nancy for any length of time, as is the Crew’s media relations staff, you know exactly what he’s saying, or trying to say. You look into his eyes, he locks in on yours, and he expresses himself human-to-human. The accent doesn’t matter, at least not as much. You know what he is saying because his words, even when he has trouble digging for the right ones in English, are sincere. There is nothing phony about him.
There is no coach-speak. There are few, if any, cliches. There is communication.
Nancy, in his first year with the Crew, has taken a team that missed the playoffs in each of the previous two seasons to the brink of a championship. He has taken a roster comprising bona fide stars, baby-faced prospects, journeymen and throwaways, and guided them to the MLS Cup championship game. He has used them all, and you don’t know whom he’ll pull off the bench Saturday when the Crew faces mighty Los Angeles FC, the defending Cup champions, in the title game at the new Crew Stadium.
When Nancy set up his preseason camp in January, this is what he told the Dispatch: “I have a tattoo, ‘Remember why you started,’ and all the time, every day, I remember why I started this job. It’s because I want to discover something new. I want to discover a new person. I want to discover a new culture and everything like that, for me and for my family.
“Today, I’m really grateful to work in a really good environment. We have all the tools to be better. If we can create a memory for this club, this is the objective. Everybody wants to win, but for me, this is trying to create a story. … What you’re going to see on the pitch is going to be the way that I live every day.”
What we have seen on the pitch is a team that has bought into a clearly defined vision. Oh, there are other coaches who espouse, tactically, what Nancy preaches; one of Nancy’s predecessors in Columbus, Gregg Berhalter, was (and is) a proponent of a possess-and-attack system designed to patiently break down defenses and quickly exploit the cracks. But no one in the world is as unwavering in this philosophy or as unrelenting in its implementation, regardless of personnel.
It’s too dangerous, right?
“I try to teach them the scoreboard is not important,” Nancy said last month. “What is important is what we want to do with the ball and without the ball. The more and more they stay focused on that, the more it's easier for them to stay focused on the task.”
Much has been written about Nancy’s background. His father was in the French Navy, so Nancy grew up all over the world. He was a journeyman as a pro defender in France, knew he wanted to coach, spent 18 years in Montreal coaching at all levels – including MLS – and so on. This week, as the national soccer media has descended on Columbus, more will be written about his life and about his system and how beautiful soccer has translated into instant success in his first year with the Crew. This is a team that sold Lucas Zelarayan, perhaps the greatest player in the history of the franchise, at midseason – and got better. It’s a remarkable story.
One hopes the sincerity and the humanity of the man will come through, as well. It’s part of his balance. He is tactically acute and a stickler for detail who does not shy away from tough decisions. At the same time, he is naturally empathetic, cares for his charges and knows in his heart that what he does will not work unless a basic level of trust, and kinship, is in place.
He’s kind of like a talented elementary school teacher, one who can get down on a knee, look a 9-year-old in the eye and come to an understanding: “We will learn together.” The only difference here is that he’s looking 20- and 25- and 32-year-olds in the eye, and telling them, “This is what we’re going to do. Stick with me on it, and I’ll back you with a sword and a shield, because I care about you. We can do it. This works.”
It is something artificial intelligence cannot comprehend.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Wilfried Nancy's focus, philosophy have Crew in MLS Cup final vs. LAFC
