Plus/minus, Aston Villa, 7th November 2013

Lloris injury highlights need for soccer concussion protocols

When Hugo Lloris shrugged off the Tottenham training staff and put himself back into Sunday’s game against Everton to save  the decisive penalty, public reaction moved quickly from curiosity to disbelief and then to rampant rationalization. 

The shot-stopper had recently concussed by an errant knee by Toffee forward Romelu Lukaku and despite his save, we must now ask whether players should input into such decisions.

Lloris, captain of France and number one at White Hart Lane, essentially pulled rank on educated medical professionals and convinced manager Andre Villas-Boas he was fine to continue despite obviously losing consciousness. It’s a fair bet Lloris couldn’t have named the President of France, the date or even his name and thus been assessed as having a (probably mild) head injury. 

Plaudits are often paid to those who play on despite injury. This is not one of those times. Alongside dizziness, visual dysfunction and sometimes vomiting, one cardinal sign of head trauma is reduced executive function (decision making).

Automatically, klaxons sound: if a player with diminished cognitive capacity has the loudest voice in whether he continues playing, serious consequences are close at hand. The decision must rest with medical professionals alone, usually by applying a concussion assessment tool. Altered executive function may result in the concussed player’s condition worsening, or him putting himself or other players at further risk. The best solution would be to remove such a player from the game and, if necessary, adding a fourth substitution mediated by the umpire.

British jockeys and NFL players have strict rules in place for the management of head injuries; if an athlete can’t pass the famed “concussion protocols”, they don’t play. The same must apply to football players both during and after matches – even though there’s less chance of such catastrophic impact, it can and does happen.

The reasons are simple. While manager Villas-Boas stated the final call rested with him, he is only sort-of right. The final tactical decision may rest with the manager, but had further injury occurred either to Lloris or another player due to Lloris’ reduced capacity then liability rests with the medical team. Ergo, the ultimate decision has to be made by trained healthcare providers rather than a coach or a motivated player with faculties perhaps already below 100%. Despite Spurs' protestations that they did clear the player, the time taken to do so on Sunday - in comparison with kayoed NFL players - seemed remarkably short even considering the circumstances.

The support staff for a club want the team to win just as much as players and coaches do. However, they must also balance this with the wellbeing of the individuals. While one would hope coaches and players also have player welfare foremost at heart, several past examples suggest this may not always be the case. With head injuries, especially in light of the recent spate of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy diagnoses, safer is better than sooner.

Beckham and Miami a perfect fit

News filtered through this week that David Beckham has selected Miami as his venue of choice for a new MLS franchise. The as-yet-unnamed team seems set to become the third visible expansion team after the Manchester City and New York Yankees’ joint venture, New York City FC and the record-setting Iron Lions of Orlando.

Really, selecting Miami was a no-brainer. The appeal of the city to athletes is notorious, and although one MLS franchise has already failed in South Florida, the times have changed in MLS such that Beckham and his co-investors are making this decision based on expected strong crowd support. While this hasn’t always been the case in South Florida – especially during particularly unsuccessful sporting summers – the city is a major market with a passionate soccer fan base.

(c) Author's own collection

Scanning the list of major US and Canadian cities without MLS franchises, Miami is the most populated unrepresented city and has been targeted by the league as a possible location for some time. Other options it was believed Beckham was looking at were San Diego, Orlando and … wait for it … Montreal.  

Commissioner Don Garber is on record plugging the merits of a twenty-four team league with a presence in Florida, Atlanta (please let this potential franchise keep their NASL nickname, The Silverbacks) and another SoCal team. That he has now leveraged three global brands into associations with MLS means smaller, more … optimistic parties should begin doubting their immediate chances.

As the business plans for each nascent franchise gain clarity, so does the picture of MLS’s mid-term future. Fittingly, David Beckham is front and center for this new era.

Plus/minus, Tottenham Hotspur, 31st October 2013

Plus/minus, Southampton, 31st October 2013

Plus/minus, Manchester United, 31st October 2013

Plus/minus, Cardiff City, 31st October 2013

Plus/minus, Aston Villa, 31st October 2013

Dempsey behind Seattle Sounders' decline

(c) Author's collection

Rumours persist that Seattle Sounders coach Sigi Schmid needs at least an appearance in the MLS Cup Final to retain his job. 

He won’t get it.

Despite boasting – on paper – the best forward line in the seventeen-year history of MLS, the team has almost completely failed to gel and enters the playoffs with form that can only be described as calamitous.

The downturn can be traced to what seemed the Sounders’ zenith, the capture of USMNT talisman Clint Dempsey from Tottenham Hotspur and his presentation to the throng as all-conquering Caesar.  The crowd thrummed as “The Deuce” emerged onto CenturyLink field to his rather overstated rap, all expectant that the best-credentialled outfield player in American soccer would complete Seattle’s reformation from inertia-bound locomotive into filthy, filthy machine.  Dempsey, Obafemi Martins, Eddie Johnson and Mauro Rosales?  Heaven help Real Salt Lake and the Galaxy.

Ian Holloway: Don't you think he looks tired?

“Six little words that could bring down a government … don’t you think she looks tired?”

Those words and a couple of questionable decisions ousted the fictional Harriet Jones from the Prime Ministership of Great Britain.  So powerful is one’s appearance that all it takes is speculative criticism and fading appearance to lose a grip on authority.

In related news, everyone’s favourite jumble-a-quote man Ian Holloway has left Crystal Palace by mutual consent after winning only one of his team’s eight Premier League games so far this season.  Former Bristol City manager Keith Millen will take over as interim boss as the club investigates possible new blood; names mentioned so far have included former Stoke City manager Tony Pulis, a re-hired Neil Warnock and Western Sydney Wanderers manager Tony Popovic.

This may genuinely be one of those rare situations in football where the term mutual consent isn’t simply a kinder synonym for sacked.  A man whose straightforward nature and Worzel-type accent sometimes drew attention away from a keen football mind, Holloway was visibly exhausted only three months into the season and as he failed to balance a squad that boasted plenty of players but only a few of even an average level.  His flowing, offensive tactics have plenty of merit in the Championship but have now failed twice to transport to Premier League standard.

The travails of managing a club unprepared for life at the top level were apparent on his usually smiling features.  Recent pictures – including this one, usually a bog-standard "manager shot" – show a defeated man, albeit one who hadn’t yet surrendered.  When even the involuntary parts of body language betray a manager so quickly, doubts build about his ability to make effective decisions; as the stress increased, it became increasingly apparent that Ian Holloway’s future lay away from Selhurst Park.