The Oversight Committee

From Michael Lewis's fairly complete retrospective on coaching over at MLS Net comes this:

Traditionally, foreign-born coaches without any U.S. professional coaching experience have not fared well in the league. Several teams learned the hard way in 1996, when former Ireland international Frank Stapleton (15-17, fifth and last place in the Eastern Conference and out of the playoffs with New England) and England's Bobby Houghton (11-20, five and last place in the Western Conference and out of the playoffs with Colorado).

In alphabetical order, here's how other foreign coaches have fared:

• Argentine Carlos Cordoba (Miami Fusion), 8-11-0 in 1998 (five shootout wins). Was fired.
• Serbian Bora Milutinovic (MetroStars), 7-25 in 1999 (four shootout wins), 8-25 overall. Left the team under mutual agreement.
• Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira (MetroStars), 13-19 in 1997 (two shootout wins). Left the club to coach Saudi Arabia in the 1998 World Cup.
• Portuguese and Mozambique native Carlos Queiroz (MetroStars), 12-12 in 1996 (one shootout win). Left the team to coach Grampus Eight in Japan.
• Brazilian Ivo Wortmann (Miami Fusion), 21-28-4 from 1998-2000 (five shootout wins). Was fired and replaced by Ray Hudson.
• Other foreign coaches in the league included England-born Ron Newman (Kansas City) Scottish native Steve Nicol (New England) and Canadian Frank Yallop (San Jose) are not included in this group because they had coached in the United States for years before their MLS posts, or in Yallop's case, had played in the league and was familiar with the unique rules and players.

One could suggest a name that offers contrary evidence, assuming that MLS playing experience is not the same as US coaching experience.