It is all a matter of timing for the coaches

In sports as in life, the art of hanging on to the high-profile job comes down to a matter of timing. You don’t get time unless you are a winner.

Joachim Loew returned to a hero’s welcome in Germany on Tuesday as the victorious World Cup coach. Luiz Felipe Scolari stepped down - or “surrendered his position,” to use the jargon stated by Brazil’s soccer federation for ending his tenure.

So, at the end of the first day after the tournament ended, a third of the 32 national team managers had parted ways with their federations. That is par for the course, except in Germany.

“We started this project 10 years ago,” Loew had said after the final in Rio de Janeiro. “And this is the result of constant progress over many years of work.”

Looked at another way, it was the result of a decision the coach made in the 88th minute, when he replaced the tiring veteran Miroslav Klose with the youthful vigour of Mario Goetze.

The rest, as they say, is history. Goetze scored the only goal of the final against Argentina, and his coach later said, “I know he is able to decide a match, and he scored a great decider today.”

What courage. What timing. What fortitude this coach had in waiting until two minutes from the end of normal time to send in his decisive game-winner.

If, by then, Gonzalo Higuaín, Lionel Messi or Rodrigo Palacio had scored with their three clear chances, the substitution might have been too late. And perhaps if Löw had been employed in any other country, he would not have been granted 112 games over eight years as head coach to bring home the trophy.

That is a credit, and not a criticism, of Germany’s system and its faith in it. The German soccer federation has had three different leaders since 2006, but its belief in its coaching structure, from the kindergarten level all the way to the top, has remained constant.

It is the great contrast in global soccer. Brazil has what is called the “Carousel of the Coaches.” It changes the head man not just once in a four-year World Cup cycle, but over and over again. It depends on the whim of the “cartolas,” the again ever-changing top men of the federation.

As each head of the committee resigns or is forced out, the philosophical debate is renewed. Shall Brazil, the winner of five World Cups to Germany’s four, play the Beautiful Game as defined by the Pelé generation, or attempt to be pragmatic in what is presumed to be the European style?

After playing no real competitive games since the Copa America of 2011, Brazil at the World Cup veered from attempting to play its historically famous style to emulating a more pragmatic approach.

 Consider that Brazil has hundreds of players playing that pragmatic style in European leagues, where the money lies, but its national soccer was a carousel of styles, with not only coaches, but players hopping on and off. Compare that to Germany, which has committed to a system that from youth soccer on up coaches uniformity - with an eye-pleasing emphasis on passing and moving, requiring each player to be comfortable with the ball at his feet.

Scolari was brought back when a change in president of the Brazil soccer federation brought in the inevitable change of coach. Mano Menezes, who preceded Scolari as coach, was attempting to emulate what Germany was doing. Menezes selected young players like Neymar, and he tried in noncompetitive games to test them and get them to build up unity and trust.

But when the president changed, the new man soon went back to Scolari. Scolari, who coached his team to the World Cup title in 2002, said on the eve of this tournament that his current selection of players was similar to that of 12 years ago.

It never was. The team that won the trophy in Yokohama, Japan, had the three R’s — Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho. That trio scored 15 goals, and the incomparable Ronaldo — who scored eight of those goals - was arguably the best striker in any World Cup since Pelé in 1970.

More than that, Brazil had a complete team in 2002. It was also an experienced squad; Cafu was such a superb fullback that knew exactly when to attack and when to defend. Contrast him with Marcelo, the left back who in this latest World Cup was AWOL so often from his position that Germany exploited the space behind him to set up the majority of its seven goals in the ill-fated semifinal.

By the time the fifth goal went in, before halftime of a 7-1 loss, Scolari’s fate was sealed. The winning coach of 2002 was doomed to be the failed coach who will forever have on his record the most horrible stain in Brazil’s soccer history.

Scolari and Loew are actually two of a kind. Both are World Cup winners, and both have known more fickle days and have been fired as losing coaches in the past.

And both must surely appreciate that the day you sign a contract to manage players, you are dependent on the skills of players at your disposal — and dependent down the line on the thousands of coaches who identify and train youngsters from grade school on up.

The national team coach is in effect the front man for the country’s system. While Loew is being celebrated right now while Scolari is ridiculed, each must know that it is a matter of being in the right place, at the right time.