Copyright The Philadelphia Inquirer
Time and again, Union manager Bradley Carnell has insisted that the team’s success is about the collective, not just his influence in his first year at the helm. But on Thursday, for just a moment, he had no choice. Carnell was announced as this season’s MLS Coach of the Year after leading the Union to the Supporters’ Shield in a 29-point improvement over last year’s failure to make the playoffs. “I think it’s just a sort of indication that what the team has done throughout the course of the year hasn’t been just a flash in the pan, I would say — just a quick stint here in the beginning, or a quick flurry in the summer,” he told The Inquirer. “We’ve remained consistent, you know, and I think that got a lot of recognition, and we all got rewarded in respective ways. So I think it’s just a body of work over the course of a season, and I appreciate [being] seen in that regard, within the league and with my peers.” The scale of the recognition is shown in the vote totals. Carnell was first on 37.78% of the ballots, well ahead of the rest of the candidates. Vancouver’s Jesper Sørensen finished second for the Whitecaps’ terrific campaign, and San Diego’s Mikey Varas was third for steering the expansion team to first place in the Western Conference. Carnell won the player and club staff balloting by a considerable distance, while Sørensen took the media vote by a narrow margin. Some aspects of Carnell’s impact have been obvious. The shift to a box-shaped 4-4-2 from the previous diamond-shaped midfield has brought new life to the Union’s playing style, resulting in the Supporters’ Shield and the second-highest total of standings points in team history. The Union also finished this year with the fewest goals allowed in the league, 35, and the second-best goal difference margin at plus-22. » READ MORE: The Union’s return to the playoffs is a milestone moment for Bradley Carnell Working ‘together as a family’ Carnell’s most significant impact, though, has come on the mental side of things. The intensity that defined the club from 2019 until last year’s collapse has returned. And when there were losses, even big ones, it didn’t affect the big picture. “I think it’s just something I pride myself on,” Carnell said. ”Making sure everyone has that little reset button and trying to live it within myself: not getting too high when it’s going well, and not getting really terrible and down in the dumps when it’s going through a current phase or form that we’re not happy about. … I give the team great credit for that, because they’ve shown it in bunches this year.” The players, in turn, praised Carnell for his impact. “He makes a culture now that everyone wants to win, and that’s how we want to have it,” said centerback Jakob Glesnes, whose renaissance season earned him a place on the league’s team of the year. “The locker room has been huge, but also the coaching staff that we had coming in this year, just taking command like they did from the first session to where we are today,” Glesnes said. “That’s a big honor for them, and also for the whole squad, that we have been digging into it from the first second.” » READ MORE: Bradley Carnell gets to celebrate the Union’s success for himself, too Frankie Westfield accepted Carnell’s request to move from outside back to attacking midfield for Saturday’s playoff win at Chicago. He hadn’t played the role before, but he fit right in. “It’s just him putting trust in the players,” Westfield said. “Him putting trust in us, knowing that we’ll get the job done; it starts from that.” Even a player who didn’t capture a great deal of minutes this season was complimentary. Olivier Mbaizo is a team veteran and well-liked around the locker room, but has gotten just 652 minutes over 11 games so far. So it was a sight to remember when he helped carry the water bucket to douse Carnell at the Supporters’ Shield trophy ceremony. “Since the start of the season, he’s been very close to his players,” Mbaizo said. “The team this year had a lot more harmony and cohesion. We’ve worked together as a family since the start of the season, and having seen his work every day in training, we can support and like what he does.” Carnell appreciates knowing that his players are with him. “The first thing I spoke about when I came in is people,” he said, invoking a principle of “the four P’s: the people, the purpose, the principles, and the passion. We can bring that every single day — but it starts with good people, because once you have a good person in and around these buildings, then you can start building.” » READ MORE: Andre Blake stars again for the Union while keeping hurricane-hit Jamaica in mind ‘We play with a lot of emotions’ He wants to know them, not just coach them. “It means nothing if I don’t know why or what they’re playing for, or what’s going on in their lives, so I try and connect with them,” Carnell said. “There has to be a boundary for sure, that the players know it’s not buddy-buddy, but also, there’s a lot of respect. “And they know I’ve been down that road before: as a former player, now a coach, walking the walk and talking the talk from a different angle, they know that I have it for the right reasons.” One needed only look as far as this week’s practices for proof. The Union’s next game isn’t for nearly three weeks, and a number of players will head to their national teams for key contests before then. But the whole squad was fully engaged, including a raucous short-field drill full of quick passes, hard tackles, and loud words. “I’m proud about that, because if it’s November and guys are still competing about certain things within the session — whether it’s been a tackle, whether it’s been a foul, whether it’s been a goal decision, whether it’s been something that I’ve kind of not controlled,” Carnell said, before stopping midsentence to acknowledge that he also had a role. » READ MORE: Led by Tai Baribo, the Union’s superior mentality fueled a first-round sweep of Chicago “But I’m the referee,” he continued. “So yeah, they can hit on me for a little bit, and blame me. That’s fine, as long as they can find a way to work with their teammates and sort out the problems on the field.” So off they went. “It’s a challenge for me as a coach, how you manage that,” he said. “Because we play with a lot of emotions, but it’s controlled, right? We feel our chaos is controlled, but for the opponent, it’s not. But through these repetitions of just going crazy and training with a bit of discipline, a bit of control, then we find ways to make it count on the weekends.” Or, as he put it more succinctly at one point: “We have one way. We can’t pretend to be, I don’t know, something we’re not.” Carnell made a point of praising his staff, especially those who stayed with the team after Jim Curtin was fired. Among them are assistant coach Frank Leicht (whom Carnell knew a little before), goalkeeper coach Phil Wheddon, and video analysis chief Jay Cooney, and a pair of Union long-timers: equipment director Brandon Comisky and director of player relations Dan Nolan. » READ MORE: Jay Sugarman wants the Union to get more respect, and knows winning MLS Cup will make that happen “Without the staff here that I received, without their cooperation, and openness to change, and to experience things, [this] would never have been possible,” Carnell said. “The acceptance of my staff coming in, I feel that made an immediate impact on how we operate. … “It’s not easy, us coming in here and all of a sudden changing everything, and hitting the ground running hard — like, really hard, with an idea, with a plan, with how we’re going to go about it.” Now the payoff has come. “Everyone’s just been open to some ideas, and everyone’s been willing to cooperate,” Carnell said. “And only then do you get the tail wind of, like, OK, there’s this guy spearheading it, but there’s so many pieces underneath. And if there’s any bit of turbulence somewhere, this thing can’t go straight, and I really appreciate that.”
