I sat down with Deltas CEO Brian Andrés Helmick and new head coach Marc Dos Santos by phone. Here are some of the questions and answers from the interview:
SFGATE: What was your process to hire a head coach for the San Francisco Deltas?
Brian Andrés Helmick (BAH): Before we started talking about any names we asked: who are we? what are our values to build our club philosophy first. Then we said: Great, who is the type of individual we want from a coaching perspective? We want a leader, someone who’s open-minded, treat players in a transparent way, doesn’t need to be liked but respected.
We measured every candidate against those traits. We had the names and ranked and rated people based on these traits. In was a long list that we went through in an organized fashion and Marc was one of those people on the list.
We first got in touch with Marc in June. We had a number of in-person visits and facetime call with Marc and his wife Marie to make sure she was part of the process and they were o.k. with the move.
It was important to me that not only Marc was going to do well from a professional aspect, but from a personal aspect, this was a good fit for him, and his wife and their kids.
SFGATE: Marc, what interested you in being the coach for the Deltas?
Marc Dos Santos (MDS): First it was the project. For me, I was always attracted by startups and a club that was going to start from zero and building it from scratch. The second thing was the passion of the people around and leading the project and the city. It’s an extremely special city that I wasn’t expecting to see with all the traits San Francisco has. It became quite obvious for me and my family when making the decision.
SFGATE: Marc, how much do you know about the soccer community in the Bay Area?
MDS: I don’t know much about it but it’s the first thing I want to start studying and looking at. I really believe that bringing a professional team at the level of the NASL to San Francisco, it’s going to be very important to build excellent relationships with the community clubs. We will have someone on the technical staff that will be the link with the community clubs.
SFGATE: Will you be looking at local clubs and colleges for your players?
MDS: You have to be open to the college players that were not able to be drafted by an MLS team or even the best college players in the San Francisco area that we think could have a shot. It’s difficult to tell you about players from the local clubs because I don’t have a strong idea about them, good or bad, at the moment.
It’s important to bring experience to the team. It’s important to bring players that the city is going to identify with. Players that want to be in the club not only for one year or six months but players that want to stay with the club so they start being the faces from the club. And players that know the NASL also. Not only foreigners who have never played in the NASL. We need players that know the league well so they can help you perform now.
SFGATE: I know you have coached before for the NASL and the USL this season. What do you think of the NASL and what are the challenges of being a coach in the NASL?
MDS: When I look at the North American landscape, I’m not able to divide them into divisions because I believe you can only talk about a first, second and third division if you have promotion and relegation. There are three different leagues in North America. All of them have good teams. The USL has good teams and the MLS most certainly has good teams. The NASL is the most similar league to what we see in Europe or South America when it comes to player movement and player markets.
One of the challenges that you have with the NASL is the growth of it and the quality that is coming into the league. It’s not always easy to come in as an expansion franchise and right from the start be a very successful team on the field. But I believe with the right organization, the right model, and the right recruitment the league allows every team to be very competitive.
SFGATE: What challenges do you have building a team from scratch?
MDS: The first thing is you are going after players that are free. It’s not always easy to build a team from scratch when you don’t have one player on your list. There is no history for the club there is nothing, you’re starting from zero. So recruitment becomes a key element.
You only recruit well if you have a very clear idea on the style you want to play and then it becomes easier. We’re starting out the process for recruiting now as I’m speaking with you because it takes time to not only make sure you bring in the right person but the right player. It’s important to mix the players you want to develop with experience. You don’t develop good players if they are not around experienced players that could help them.
The first year in Ottawa was very difficult because we had a lot of inexperienced players in the league that we brought in and we started a very young team. Then in the second year, we mixed that with experienced players it was a very successful year.
SFGATE: What is your philosophy as a coach and do you have a style you like to play?
MDS: When a club brings in a coach they automatically bring in an idea of play. That’s normal. It’s very related to what I’ve lived in the last ten years of my career, what I’ve learned with the Montreal Impact, what I learned in Ottawa from the league, from Brazil and now with Sporting Kansas City.
Everything helps you build your idea of play and methodology of work. I think the game has four important moments: your team in defensive organization, your team in offensive organization, and you team in two different transition moments; when you win the ball or when you lose the ball. These four moments, it’s very clear in my head, are what we have to look like at the Deltas.
We want to be a team that is very compact, a team that is very aggressive without the ball, a team of players that are very determined so the character and personality is important here. The type of human beings they are to be humble enough to understand that this is an important part of our game.
On the offensive side, I want a team that is very fast. We want to build a team that is fast in transition, that is quick going to goal. I’m not the type of coach that want to exaggerate in the possession. I think when Barcelona came up with this style of possession play, a lot of coaches wanted to imitate that and it is not easy to imitate what Barcelona did. I look at possession more as a result if you are able to attack very fast to goal then you have to keep possession.
We want the Deltas player to react very fast when they don’t have the ball. No one is more important than the team. Our forwards are going to be needed in the defensive process, our wingers are going to work hard without the ball, our midfield will work hard without the ball. We want players that nobody is going to think they are a star or above the club. These players are going to have a high level of commitment.
SFGATE: Brian, are the Deltas going to make a splash and go after any marquee names for the team?
BAH: What we have spoken about is let’s identify talent, let’s develop those players, let’s build for the long run and follow the model that clubs use in other countries. It’s not about finding a retiring star but let’s find a young talent and develop that.
SFGATE: There have been rumors of an NASL team in Southern California and Las Vegas. Are you upset there have not been any more teams added on the west coast?
BAH: I think expansion is what people want to talk about. We have to make sure we are bringing in the right owners in the right markets [for NASL]. If we haven’t brought them in we don’t have the right people for the right market. I’d rather focus on excellence than growth.
SFGATE: Are you worried that there is not a natural rival in the NASL for the San Francisco Deltas?
BAH: I think the rivalry happens on its own. Our main rival might not be in our league. We’ll see how it goes with the San Jose Earthquakes and we are playing a preseason game against the Sacramento Republic. Right now we have three independent leagues. At the end of the day, as a fan, what do I want? I want to watch exciting soccer. For all we know our biggest rivals might be the New York Cosmos and they are one of the furthest teams away.
