Brendan Burke ready to lead Bethlehem Steel's inaugural season
Bethlehem Steel, the Union's USL team, got a win in its first ever game Friday night. Thanks to a goal from Union draft pick Fabian Herbers, Steel beat FC Montréal 1-0 at Olympic Stadium.
A few days before the game, I talked with Bethlehem head coach Brendan Burke about how preseason preparations went, and what his goals are for the team's inaugural season. This piece was supposed to run before the game, but because I've been covering the NCAA basketball tournament games in Philadelphia for the last few days I've been out of the soccer loop.
So apologies for this being late, but there's still a lot worth reading.
Steel's home opener at Lehigh's Goodman Stadium is next Sunday, April 3, against FC Cincinnati at 3 p.m. Tickets are available here, and they're pretty cheap. If you can't go, all USL games are streamed live online free of charge on YouTube.
And since I know some of you are wondering: Yes, jerseys will be on sale eventually, but the specific date hasn't been set yet.
How does it feel to be back in town? You've been away for a while after being part of the Union's coaching staff from 2011 to early 2014.
It's great. It feels like home again. Being back in and around the club and seeing the growth of the club has been the coolest part for me. These training fields weren't here when I was here. That building over there [the Union's new training facility on the far side of the former power plant where the team's offices have long been] wasn't here when I was here. This is the club shooting off in the right direction.
It's still early with this team, I know, but what have you seen so far?
I've seen that we have some good pieces. We have some good core pieces and we have a lot of young guys that are going to need some time to adjust to the level. If I'm perfectly honest, we have probably four or five guys that are going need half a season before they know what this level is really all about. But [we're] making progress week to week, so I'm really happy with that part of it.
As with so many USL teams, your roster is a mix of academy products, college products, castoffs from other MLS, NASL and USL teams, and the occasional foreign signing. Those are all very different cultural environments, and I'd imagine that it takes some work to bring them all together.
Yeah. A lot of this job at MLS clubs where you have a USL team is management. It's helping them understand that they're working toward the same goal, no matter where they've come from - even [if they just arrived] a week ago. I think our guys have done a very good job of honoring that culture and that environment, that we're all fighting for each other every day.
Is it different for you to coach a 25- or 26-year-old player who had a run in MLS for a year or two and is now taking a step back, compared to a player who's coming out of the Union's academy at 17 or 18?
Absolutely. I would say we try to treat them all the same on a matchday or during a training session, but guys have different needs.
Some of our top academy products - Mark McKenzie and Auston Trusty come to mind - those guys have very different needs than [2011 Union draft pick and La Salle alum] Ryan Richter, who could translate to the first team in a week or two if he had to.
I think communicating with the younger ones is very important, and making sure that every day there's some interaction between us. Some of the older pros don't need my voice every day. They just need to train and keep fit, and a few simple messages.
As with so many of these MLS-USL partnerships, you have the USL team training next to the MLS team in Chester during the week before playing a game in Bethlehem or elsewhere on the weekend. Even the casual fan likely understands by now the importance of that setup.
But from your perspective, having been a part of such a setup, what are the things that you see during the week that help you to know that the principles and lessons are taking root?
The growth of the academy kids from week to week is staggering. From the first time that Mark McKenzie and Auston Trusty came in with us, we've probably had 25 academy products either train with us or play in a preseason game. Their growth is the biggest thing that I've recognized since I've been a part of this environment.
And do you see the senior team players taking the prospects in and wanting to be part of conversations?
They do, but they also keep them honest. They push them. And if they don't belong here, we find out pretty quick. That's why it's really important to have an older group of pros around the younger group - to kind of teach them that culture, and make them respect that culture.
One of the Union academy products you have right now is midfielder Derrick Jones, a kid who a lot of people have heard of because he also came from the well-known Junior Lone Star youth program for children of African immigrants to Philadelphia.
To be able to make those kinds of connections with local youth clubs - first of all, how important is that in general, and second of all, what's the significance of getting a Junior Lone Star kid specifically?
It's changed Derrick's life. Now he's a pro soccer player. A couple years ago, he was playing for that club which is doing a great job of providing an organized environment for kids to get a chance to be seen. He was seen, and now he's doing all the hard work necessary to get himself there. He's been phenomenal from the first day I've worked with him, and I think he has a very bright future.
And at the general level, do you hear from other youth soccer programs in the region? Obviously, many of them know about the Union already - maybe they have even some affiliations. But is there even more of a desire to get their kids involved because of the USL pathway?
Yeah, I would hope so. I would hope that our academy, Union Juniors, and the PDP programs [the Player Development Program at YSC Sports in Wayne] are providing a service to the community, not just taking your best player away. That's not what it's about, and it never has been.
Hopefully those kids do bubble up to the top, and they end up in our academy and pushing through into the USL and then beyond us, at some point - like I hope Jones will.
You mentioned McKenzie and Trusty. Another Union academy prospect I'd ask about is forward Yosef Samuel, who has gotten some attention from the U.S. youth national team setup in recent times.
Yosef has been in training with us intermittently. Not as consistently as Mark and Auston, so I don't have as good a read on that one yet.
Would it be fair to say that spending time with Steel has sped up these prospects' development?
Absolutely. I hope so. Auston and Mark have both played 90 minutes in at least two preseason games for us, and I think back to the Red Bull II game two weeks ago [a 1-1 draw on March 11] - Auston played 90 minutes and he looked like he fit right in. He's going to have days when he progresses quickly and days where he makes a few mistakes, but there's no replicating a match environment for a young guy.
There are some kids from the Union academy who have gone the college route. Maybe they're there for a year or two, or four. Sebastian Elney at Maryland comes to mind first, as he's probably the best known of that group. Have you had conversations with any of those kids about maybe now coming to Bethlehem?
Yes, I think that's an ongoing conversation with all of our top guys that are weighing college. Specific conversations kind of have to remain [private] for a number of reasons, but look - Auston's slated to go to UNC next year, but he's part of the 20's [age] group. You don't know how those things will progress, and it's such an ever-shifting landscape that it's difficult to pin that down.
But what I would bring it all back to is it's really important to maintain a relationship during the PDL season with Reading United [the PDL team affiliated with the Union that regularly attracts many top college players during the summer], and to keep those relationships fresh and current.
The debate over the merits of college soccer is one of the loudest in the sport in America right now. You've seen it from many sides: as the head coach of Reading United, as an assistant with the Union, as an assistant coach at Northeastern University and now as the head coach of Bethlehem Steel.
What do you hope happens with the balance between the college game and professional academies in this country?
I think they can co-exist. But I think the academies are going to continue to get stronger, and the USL is going to continue to bring in younger and younger players. We'll see the average age come down and down. I think you'll end up at a point where the number of top college programs is smaller, and the number of top USL programs is bigger. That's where I see it heading.