The Trajectory of Your Career is Out of Your Control

The course of a player’s career hinges on a few significant decisions (their own or others) or plays, sometimes even just one.  Those fork in the road moments largely determine the trajectory of one’s career.  This could be something that happens on or off the field.  This is scary to think about, but is a reality.  A career in sports is fragile, often teetering on failure and success.  The point of this is not to strike fear or to be pessimistic but rather allow you to consider your current situation and things to look out for.  I want to instill the cliche that everything matters, how you do anything is how you do everything.  Having the discipline to understand every decision and play is important which could determine the outcome of your career.  Simply put, are you giving yourself the best opportunity when it’s earned (in the eyes of someone else) to take your game to the next level, and then do things go well? 

You must consider all the variables when an opportunity is presented to you.  You must also treat every opportunity you get, whether it's in training or a game as that deciding moment.  Let’s be clear, consistency is extremely important when creating opportunities for yourself but there are decisions that define the outcome.  It is important to understand there are incremental stages needed to make progress.  The details add up.  Overnight success happens but is rare.  There comes a time in a player's career when a decision alters the final outcome.  Every player hits this at a different point in their career, it could be as a youth player or as a professional.  This decision could be the coach you play for at the youth level, or where you decide to go to college, or when and where you decide to sign a professional contract, or who's your agent.  These are the significant moments I want to highlight. 

Things can happen fast in the sport of soccer, and there are a lot of factors that determine outcomes, timing is often everything.  At the professional level you have seen players make meteoric rises from playing in a lower level league in Europe to playing in one of the biggest leagues in the world in under a year.  For example, a player who usually goes unnoticed, comes off the bench does something spectacular in a game.  Then all of a sudden eyes are on them, their confidence grows and that one moment pushes them to the next level.  That one moment in the game presents a career defining change.  Maybe you’re playing really well for your club and then your national team recognizes your ability, which earns you a call into camp that leads to a major transfer to another club.  Or on the other hand, we have seen players who were very successful within a team make a big transfer and then completely fall off a cliff when they arrive at their new club.  Finally, a college coach or scout comes to see you play and your coach decides to make a change in the system of play where you don’t feature and get an opportunity to be seen.  These moments can go in either direction and it can lead to significantly different outcomes in one's career.  We can go into even finer details such as moments like, did a striker make a proper connection on the ball to score a game winning goal in a championship.  We can often pinpoint, when looking back at that significant moment when everything changed.  

A major determining factor is the coach you play for or who is in charge and makes the decision, this often determines the outcome of a players career.  Player selection by a coach (and staff) is one of the most fascinating conversations because it is often subjective in what they are looking for in their system of play (especially at higher levels).  This is a topic for another time.  Let’s focus on factors that determine the outcome of a player's career.

Sure, you can control a lot, but a lot more than you think is out of your control.  You can control your attitude and work ethic, arguably two of the most important variables in it all but then you need so much more to fall into place.  Technically are you executing when you need to, are you making the “right” decisions on the field in the system of play, are you around teammates who make you better?  Furthermore, are you playing for a coach who appreciates who you are as a player and person?  Is there another player already in the position you play who the coach favors?  Do you fit into the coaches system of play, do you possess the technical qualities required to be successful?  See already there is a lot that is out of your control.  These are just a few factors to consider.  Let’s say you do possess the qualities needed to be successful in the system of play and the coach does appreciate you as a player and person but you’re injured.  Another player steps up and is playing well, they are in good form and the team is playing really well and you fall out of favor.  This leads you to lose confidence, then you start to have a bad attitude and your performance drops.  Sure these are incremental moments but it all hinged on ultimately one moment.  Here’s the challenge and hope with sharing this, you keep going, you continue to have a good attitude and focus on what you can control to lead you to better opportunities and outcomes.  The goal is to be proactive, evaluate your situation enough to have the foresight to put yourself in the best possible situations and be resilient.

I glossed over this documentary a few times because I already had my perspective on this player and formed my opinion based on the stories in the news I heard at the time (often headlines or Tweets, without the full context and hearing the other side). I recently took the time to watch the Untold: Hope Solo documentary on Netflix and you should too.  I actually watched it twice in 24 hours.  It changed my perspective on her career and the situations she faced.  We often form opinions too quickly or without having enough context of the situation.  I am really glad I watched the documentary, because even though I believe I do well with gathering as much information, gaining different perspectives and context as I can, I realized in this case I need to be better. 

The Untold: Hope Solo documentary is an eye opener for so many reasons. (I promise to not give away too much of the documentary, as I want it to be worthwhile when you  watch and you’re able to form your own perspective on some of the situations and outcomes)  As I led with in the newsletter, the outcome of a player's career is often determined by a few moments, sometimes even one. 

The current narrative around Hope Solo is often a negative one, even with being inducted into The National Hall of Fame in 2023.  Although the outcome of her career was successful (various metrics), her career hinged on one moment which nearly changed the whole outcome, but did change her attitude and reputation.  Hope Solo played 202 games for the U.S. Women's National Team and is the only goalkeeper to reach the 200 cap mark. She also won a World Cup and two Olympic Gold Medals.  Most would do anything to have a career with those accolades but it wasn’t easy to reach those achievements. 

The moment in the documentary that needs to be highlighted took place during the 2007 Women’s FIFA World Cup in China.  It’s important to first preface, just prior to the 2007 World Cup, Hope Solo’s father passed away.  I believe this is an important detail to take into account with what is about to transpire.  Hope Solo was named the starting goalkeeper heading into the tournament by Head Coach Greg Ryan.  Hope and the Women’s National Team topped Group B with 7 points and a +3 goal differential.  They went on to knockout England 3-0 in the quarterfinal match.  The team reached the semifinal match with Hope as their goalkeeper, not having conceded a goal since the first game of the tournament in the 62’ minute.  Then a decision was made that drastically changed the trajectory of Hope Solo’s career.  

There was no clear explanation as to why this decision was made. According to the documentary, team captains Abby Wambach and Kristine Lilly approached Head Coach Greg Ryan to make a change at the goalkeeper position for the semifinal match against Brazil.  The players suggested or urged starting long time goal keeper Briana Scurry, a hero of the 1999 World Cup Team, to be the starter for a Cinderella story to cap off her career. (No alternative theories were presented, poor form, sickness, injury, etc.) Commentators to former coaches were dumbfounded to learn the news prior to kick off that Greg Ryan was going to start Briana Scurry in the semifinal match against Brazil.  The decision backfired and the team lost 4-0!  As you can imagine, Hope Solo was not happy.  That is put kindly.  She was absolutely furious with the decision and the outcome, as it is fair to say most players would.  

To be a starter, who helped lead the team to the semifinal in convincing fashion and then to be removed from your position without justification would infuriate just about any player.  Here is when things turn even worse.  Post game, Hope made her thoughts known in an interview. (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh0w14)  She criticized Head Coach, Greg Ryan’s decision to make the change and further went on to state that she would have made the saves on the goals her team conceded.  Now you may say, she could have approached the interview differently, sure; but let’s take some things into account.  Her father had just passed away, she had been the starter and played every minute up to the semifinal and then without justification she was benched.  Easier said than done when emotions are running high.  

Watch the rest of the documentary to see how the course of her career changed.  Again, she had an immensely successful career but it took a nasty turn.  This one moment, one decision changed so much. A decision by a coach can significantly alter a player's career.  Of course a player’s attitude, work ethic or performance will influence a coach's decision but in Hope’s case this was no fault of her own. Unfortunately stories like this often get swept under the rug and happen more than they should. 

Another example of decisions that get made that are out of a player's control is when an agent is involved.  Agents can influence the trajectory of a player’s career, good or bad.  There are agents who suggest transfers to a player for their own interest because they will get paid.  This certainly happens more than a political decision by a coach and the player is in more control of these types of scenarios (by choosing the agent they work with and saying “no” to the transfer) but nonetheless changes the trajectory of a player’s career.  

Evaluate your current situation, are you putting everything that you can in your control, are you around a coach you trust and that trusts you?  Are you working with an agent who is truly looking out for your best interests and not their own?  Although there will be decisions that will be made, that are outside of your control, are you doing everything you can to put yourself in the best possible situations? Remember how fragile it all is and make sure you’re making the most of every scenario to take your game to the next level. 

Greg Ryan, if you would like to discuss this decision I would be more than happy to hear your perspective and explanation as to why you and your staff made the change in goal for the 2007 World Cup Semifinal game.