When it comes to press conference etiquette, Montreal Impact coach Frank Klopas has some pretty strict rules, and of the ones that deal with himself their raison-d’être is self-effacement.
The most commonly applied rule, which although unstated is clearly understood, is to reserve all praise for his team (note that he never talks about individual players, it’s always about “the team”). If Klopas speaks of himself, it’s rarely ever for the purpose of something other than accepting blame, bearing responsibility for bad results.
Last Wednesday, Montreal earned one of the best result it’s ever had and Klopas had an ideal opportunity to boast—one might have thought he would have done so for sure, given the occasion. But even then, he didn’t seize the chance, staying faithful to his own modest protocol.
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The Impact had just managed to do what was practically inconceivable in earning a 1-1 draw against Club America in their colossal home stadium of the Azteca in the opening leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final.
Looking exhausted and disheveled in the post-game press conference, Klopas credited his team for the remarkable result and superlative performance. He thanked Major League Soccer for rescheduling league games so as to give the Impact more time to prepare for the final and also thanked club president Joey Saputo for graciously financing the expense of a week-long trip in the Mexican capital to enable the team to better acclimate to the city’s steep elevations.
Although he never really mentioned himself (except to express how much he likes visiting Mexico) Klopas also deserves credit for what the Impact have done in the Champions League. At the very least, he deserves more credit than he receives.
Owing to his seeming lack of recognition is the mostly adverse reputation Klopas carries in MLS, much of which is due to false perception. It’s worth noting, if it wasn’t already apparent, that Klopas doesn’t care all that much for the image he conveys.
Here’s one example of why that’s important:
Remember Marco Schällibaum? The Impact’s coach in 2013? He didn’t spend a shred of the time that Klopas does to prepare for games—he would barely even take the time to watch other teams play. But Schällibaum had a strong personality—his press conferences were entertaining—and therefore he came off as a great coach, especially with the fans. And it’s not that he wasn’t one in theory, but with the Impact he just didn’t care all that much.
However, from the outside looking in, seeing Schällibaum arrive for interviews after a game with the semblance of one who had just taken part in a bar fight, you would never have figured that.
By contrast, Klopas can often come off as rather drab and colorless; and that tends to create an impression of a coach who’s not very remarkable, but it isn’t necessarily the case.
The main issue, what hurts Klopas the most, is his record as a coach, which, it must be said, isn’t great. Aside from his tenure in Chicago (which wasn’t spectacular) what has really tarnished Klopas’ standing is the 2014 season he endured with the Impact, where they finished dead last in MLS with a record of 6-18-10.
But for however many decisions one could have questioned Klopas for in 2014, you can’t really blame him all that much for the terrible season the Impact underwent. The reality was that Klopas never had a chance to succeed in the first place. The team he inherited wasn’t a good one at all, the dismantling of it as the season was ongoing made things worse, and all the while Klopas didn’t have the power to make any alterations of his own.
When erstwhile sporting director Nick De Santis was temporarily cast aside later in the summer, Klopas was promised by club president Joey Saputo that he would be given the chance to sign players of his own choosing, to build the team he wanted to build.
“I want to give Frank the opportunity to succeed,” were the words Saputo used at the time.
But when the off-season came, Klopas was still having to work in conjunction with De Santis. Between them, they signed 11 new players and with very mixed results: Laurent Ciman and Danny Toia have been superb, while Marco Donadel and Victor Cabrera have been much less so.
While it remains to be seen whether the squad Klopas and De Santis have assembled will be good enough to make the playoffs this season, four months ago it didn’t seem like it had any chance of going very far in the Champions League, let alone winning it. A replacement for striker Marco Di Vaio wasn’t found, creating strong cohesion between so many new players in such a short period of time was unlikely, and the prospect of facing Pachuca, a Mexican side, in the quarterfinals was a daunting one.
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With that almost surreal last second goal from the then unknown rookie Cameron Porter, one could perhaps argue that the Impact were fortunate to have gotten past Pachuca in the quarterfinals. The same can be said for the semis with Alajuelense, where the Impact held on for dear life in the second leg in Costa Rica; lost 4-2, but still went through.
There was, however, absolutely nothing fortuitous in what the Impact accomplished at Azteca, and if their task wasn’t already mammoth enough, they also had to deal with officiating of the lowest possible grade.
But Klopas and his staff prepared the players so well. The team was unfazed by the intimidating environment and was ready to play; the tactics that were implemented were just the right ones; and despite very testing playing conditions, the players were fit enough to get through a very good portion of the game.
Referring to the task ahead in the second leg on Wednesday in Montreal, Klopas warned in the post-match press conference at the Azteca that the “job is only half done”, but the job done so far has been extraordinary: He’s pushed this team to the limits of what it’s capable of.
And don’t forget: no MLS team has won the Champions League before; no MLS team has come this close; and no MLS team has had to face the same amount of quality opposition.
So say what you want about Klopas, in this moment he deserves admiration and respect, even if, in principal, he won’t accept it.
Nick Sabetti is a Montreal-based writer. Follow him on Twitter