🇩🇴 - An 'enfermo del fútbol' takes charge in the DR
Jacques Passy loves tactics but will sacrifice style if it means the Dominican Republic achieves the lofty goals he's setting.
Jacques Passy is not well. He knows it. I know it. Hell, if you follow him on Twitter, you know it. The Mexican manager is what often is termed an ‘enfermo del futbol,’ someone who is completely consumed by the game.
Passy speaks from his office where he stares at a whiteboard full of notes and to-dos, an exercise bike the only hint he does anything but think about the game all day. The first thing he sees when he enters is the framed shirt of the Dominican Republic, the national team he took over August 3, a reminder of the responsibility he feels not only to the team but to the nation.
“I’m an enfermo, Jon. I’m an enfermo for what I do - and I say that with a lot of clarity,” Passy said with a laugh last week. “I’m not just ‘un enfermo de táctico.’ Of course tactics and strategy are what I like most, but I’m an enfermo because every minute of the day I see what I can do for my team.”
You’d expect nothing less from a man who was the president of the Johan Cruyff Institute in Mexico and Latin America, chatting with its legendary namesake about soccer or joining him when consulting with teams.
The technical debates at the Cruyff Institute thrill and excite Passy but coaching got in his blood early and still hasn’t left nearly three decades later.
“At 16, I was at the American School Foundation in Mexico City and I already was coaching my age group in high school,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t compete with my class. I was trying, trying, trying, sometimes you don’t have a skill and you just realize it. That was my first job.
“When I graduated from high school I realized I wanted to be a coach so the only decision was to become a coach at the same time as starting a ‘normal career,’ I’ve got a degree in communication sciences and later did a Master’s and at the same time I was developing a career as a manager in parallel.”
Passy pulled it off, managing Dorados de Sinaloa at age 31 but seeing his tenure come to a close after earning four points from three matches.
He continued his off-field work but kept feeling the pull of the dugout, eventually telling Cruyff and the institute he needed to return to the fields. After a brief project in Ecuador, Passy landed back in Concacaf as the manager of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The Sugar Boyz overachieved, drawing with El Salvador in the second round of 2018 World Cup qualification and landing in League B in Concacaf Nations League despite a qualifying draw that included rising powers Canada and Suriname.
After closing his cycle there, Passy entertained the thought of returning to the club game but eventually agreed to take over the Dominican Republic’s U-23 squad ahead of a daunting Olympic qualification tournament. That tournament, of course, is still pending after being delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, but Passy’s work ethic plus, he said, a similar vision to that of the federation president was enough to convince the Dominican Republic that he also could lead the senior team.
“There was too much uncertainty in those times of what was going to happen,” he said. “But when they said that in theory qualifications starts in October, we closed the deal for me to manage the senior team. We had a consistent relationship. Now we’re working full-time, every day toward the World Cup qualifiers that could start in October.”
You might expect someone who has spent the better part of the last several decades thinking about tactics and learning the principles of Cruyff and other legends to come in with a firm idea of how he wants the team to play.
For Passy, however, a manager must put his likes and desires aside in favor of what can produce results. That might mean playing in a way that he doesn’t even entirely like if it’s the best way to win.
“It’s possible that we’ll get to the first game and have it be the debut of this coaching staff, a debut in a World Cup qualifier. So, the first responsibility before developing a style of play is develop a winning plan,” he said. “It’s a World Cup qualifier, not friendly matches, so the winning plan is today above saying, ‘This is how the DR is going to play with this staff.’ Today the most important thing is to put this idea in for the players and try to get the players to come in with the best form possible for us to go compete to win.”
Passy believes they can do just that.
While the Dominican Republic has produced far more top quality baseball players than soccer stars, Passy sees the raw material needed and wants the team to dream of getting out of the first two rounds of qualification and into the octagonal.
“That’s an ambitious goal, for sure, but if the manager of the national team doesn’t put lofty ambitious in his goals, from the start you’re generating an atmosphere that isn’t going to compete for serious goals,” he said. “I want all of us to have lofty goals. I’d rather at the end, if the goals aren’t reached, analyze why they weren’t reached, although that implies criticism and disappointment, than setting goals that aren’t ambitious.
“There are 30 of us teams looking for three spots in the Octagonal. From my perspective, we have all the possibilities and reasons to hope to fight for these spots.”
Doing that would be writing history for Los Quisqueyanos, with a second-place finish in the second round in the 2014 cycle the best-ever result. Two wins in Nations League play don’t suggest anything too different this time around yet Passy sees the opportunity for change by combining talented players with the right idea from his staff.
“The formula isn’t magic. The formula is very direct and clear,” he said. “There are times you don’t have the raw material necessary to achieve victory, even if you put together a strong group, mentally strong, you simply can’t get there.
“But the Dominican Republic has very good players, and I think that in the medium-term it’s going to be one of the types of soccer people in Concacaf are talking about. Now, it’s worth saying we can also work in the short term, that we can dream and aspire toward achieving important things in the short term.”
For several years now, fans in the DR have been dreaming about fully utilizing the available player pool. Players like Real Madrid’s Mariano Diaz (who played and scored in a friendly against Haiti but later said he was hoping for a Spain call), Barcelona’s Junior Firpo, PSV’s Pablo Rosario and Espanyol forward Raul de Tomas are among the top players still eligible for the Dominican team.
Passy preferred not to mention names of players he’s considering but said he would look at options currently based in Europe if logistics allow it during the pandemic. But while the focus may be on some of those star names, he’s planning to cast an even wider net. “There are players all over Europe. You’ve got players in the Dutch league, in the Swiss league you have players, in the Austrian league you have players, top players in their teams in leagues that are A or B, so you have a range of important players,” he said.
Passy sees his pool as having around 350 players between the local league and nearly 100 players based abroad. The most important thing, he said, is their desire and commitment to the team. If they’re not 100% in, he’s out.
“If he doesn’t feel like he wants to be there, it’s not a player who is important for us right now because the group is above all.” Passy said. “There are a lot of eligible players who haven’t been in picture for the Dominican Republic. I’m not obsessive about saying that part of my project is bringing in this, this and this player. No, the project is putting together a strong group and have players who really want to represent the Dominican Republic, who want to make history for the Dominican Republic.”
Of course, the pandemic also plays a role in the potential recruitment. In better times, the coach could hop a plane and meet with players face-to-face. He also could assure them that they’d be able to return quickly, whereas right now there exists the potential of players being required to return and quarantine for 14 days, missing out on trainings not only during international breaks but the matches that follow and potentially losing their spot in the interim.
For Passy, it’s another challenge for someone who likes to have everything drawn up well in advance.
On the one hand, it has to drive him nuts as someone who spends so much time thinking about every element of the competition. On the other, it’s another reason to spend even more time at the white board doing what he loves.
“I’m a person who likes to work with structural plans. I like to work and say, Friday I have this, the next Friday this and the next that,” he said. “Today every manager in the world must have something called flexibility and adaptability. If you don’t have flexibility and adaptability, today you don’t have the conditions needed to manage a national team because unfortunately right now plans are not exact.”
We’re back tomorrow!
Passy’s Dominican Republic and many other teams will learn their opponents for World Cup qualification, and I’ll have some reaction shortly after the draw. We also should learn more about the logstics of pulling this thing off, which will be very important!
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