It isn’t often that an American gets a chance to manage a national team outside of the United States. Of course, Bob Bradley helmed the Egypt team that nearly qualified for the World Cup as the Arab Spring swirled, but for the most part Yanks experience in the international scene is managing in the U.S. set up. Another American has an opportunity to continue blazing that path however, former Midlands-Odessa Sockers FC manager Matt Barnes. The manager has been hired to coach the Turks and Caicos Islands national team as it makes its way qualifying for the inaugural Concacaf Nations League.
In an interview from the island, Barnes described his path to the team saying, “both parties felt like I was a good fit for this type of job with my college experience and the semi-pro experience I’ve had.”
While it might seem random that he would end up managing for Turks and Caicos, it turns out that Barnes’ links to the islands go back to his days coaching in college at Lubbock Christian University where he managed T&C captain Billy Forbes. In fact, shortly after taking the national team job, one of the players sent Barnes a photo of him, Forbes and two other national team players who were trying out for the university.
While Turks and Caicos is currently ranked last in the FIFA rankings, Barnes says that fits into what he brings to the table. As he describes it, “I’ve been a turn around guy since I got back into coaching full time. I turned around some of the worst programs at every level. I’m used to doing more with less and I think when you’re coming in and taking over literally one of the worst teams in the world, it’s a unique challenge.”
The federation is clearly hopeful that eventually Barnes can do something similar to what he did with the Sockers, bringing them from one of the worst teams in the league to an appearance in the 2017 NPSL championship match, and its first win in the U.S. Open Cup in 2015.
It’s been a tough start for the team in Barnes’ tenure so far. They fell 11-0 to Cuba and 8-0 to Guyana in the Nations League, but Barnes says the federation isn’t focused on the results, which came against two of the better teams in the Caribbean. Rather, Barnes is focused on taking basic steps to make the national team more professional and getting players chances to play significant minutes outside of the national team, saying, “One of the things we have to do is get kids placed off island, I gotta get kids into college and into the PDL and NPSL and opportunities like that.”
That’s the path that Forbes, who Barnes helped get his first professional contract after college, followed eventually leading him to appear in 20 matches for USL side Phoenix Rising in 2018.
The Concacaf Nations League, which breaks up the 40 national teams in the confederation into three leagues with promotion and relegation, is a huge opportunity for the island but one that the team needs to make improvements on to take advantage of. For now, the results aren’t as important as the process for the federation over Barnes’ eight month contract. As manager he needs to expand the player pool, create a culture of professionalism, and make players more disciplined.
Barnes says that for the federation, “the test out on me is what do my sessions look like? Am I managing my locker room? Am I managing the staff? How do I interact with the public and the executive committee?” Qualifying is underway to determine which leagues the 34 teams that did not appear in the World Cup qualifying hexagonal round will be placed. Eventually, the league will determine 10 of the 16 teams to compete in the Gold Cup. T&C has two more qualifying matches and the federation has set some realistic goals knowing they haven’t played a meaningful match since 2015.
As far as how Barnes will go about reaching those goals, he mentioned that he would be looking at growing the grassroots, placing players in college in the U.S., and reaching out to players who need to take steps with their immigration status to be eligible to play for the team.
On that last point, Caribbean nations in Concacaf has been somewhat infamous for their lax standards on bringing in players to represent them. Of course, French Guiana fielded Florian Malouda in the 2017 Gold Cup who was ineligible due to years of representing France at the international level. Barnes says nothing like that will happen with T&C, noting he was told that “from day one, they’re going to try to do things the right way.” Of course that means no shortcuts and as Barnes noted, “it’s probably going to take a lot longer than other places to grow. I appreciate that despite the fact that it’s really hard to be standing on the sidelines when you’re losing 11-0 and 8-0 and we don’t even have a goalkeeper that should be playing at this level and the last game we only had one goalkeeper.” Doing the right thing and giving Barnes realistic goals gives him confidence that the scores may not be important as T&C builds up its program.
The goal of building the program seems to fit Barnes’ strengths as a manager. Before he joined the Sockers, the team had only won three games a season over their past two years. While some clubs in the PDL and NPSL bring in veteran players to drive results, Barnes told the owners of the club, “I was really only interested in doing this if I could work with legitimate future pros. I didn’t want to do it with old guys” rather he “had a real passion for development and working with the youth.”
While it was a grind, Barnes says the experience in the league made him a better coach. The process he developed with the Sockers included a fitness program that reduced injuries and enabled him to try things both with the club team and when he managed in college in the offseason.
The time with the Sockers also helped prepare Barnes for the atmospheres he has and will experience in Concacaf. In the NPSL, Barnes managed in front of some of the most passionate fans in the U.S. in matches in Detroit. He says that experience taught him that “managing yourself, being a professional coach, it’s much different coaching college at St. Mary’s in front of 100 people and then in NPSL you’re in Detroit playing in front of 8,000 people, it’s something different that I was able to do.” The manager noted that in his first match with T&C against Cuba, he used what he learned saying, “it didn’t feel unusual, I think my time in the NPSL and PDL was invaluable.”
Barnes and Turks and Caicos will close out the seeding round of the Nations League against St. Vincent and the Grenadines on November 18th at home and then travel to the British Virgin Islands in March of 2019, after that it’s onto the Nations League where Barnes can test his team against more evenly matched opponents.
