Where "diversity" and "soccer" hook up – with brilliant results

If you can put aside the “Successories factor” of the word itself, diversity really is a good concept. A lot of good can come from zigging when others are zagging.

At the very least, perhaps a little diversity of thought can keep you from following the herd over the cliff.

The universe of our beloved game has some splendid, recent examples of such out-of-the-box thinking. (Speaking of corporate, Successories speech, there’s a good one, eh?)

Chile’s national team is demonstrating some innovative thinking that I would call nothing short of brilliant. It’s a shrewd tactical response to a problem all World Cup-bound teams are up against.

There is a limited number of dedicated FIFA international dates between now and when teams will gather for that critical camp prior to South African departure. And by “limited,” I mean “one.”

The United States, of course, will play the Netherlands on March 3, which is the one FIFA date between now and May. Most qualifier nations have a match arranged for that date.

Chile? The South American middleweights have two friendlies scheduled that day.

Responding to the challenge, officials there have scheduled a pair of matches, one against Costa Rica and one against North Korea, both to be held in Santiago. And this is not an A team and a B team. Chilean officials say the idea is to call in the 24 or so players who will make up the squad this summer, therefore ensuring participation for all of them.

“The idea is not to form teams A and B but to nominate all players that the coaching staff considers are fit to confront the final squad in South Africa and so everyone would have the chance to be in the field by that date,” said Harold Mayne-Nicholls, president of the National Association of Professional Football.

Still on this diversity of thought kick, I also like the choice made this week by New England Revolution attacker Steve Ralston.

The veteran attacker surprised MLS followers recently with news that he would not return to the Revs in 2010. Even at 35, Ralston was an effective player for New England last year when healthy. So everyone had assumed he would return, even though he would be recovering from a serious injury.

Instead of taking the Revolution’s short-term contract offer, Ralston said he would do something else. Everyone assumed that would mean playing in another MLS shirt.

Then, on Monday, AC St. Louis announced Steve Ralston as its first signee. So Major League Soccer’s all-time leader in games and assists will be the most prominent player in soccer’s second tier league. (AC St. Louis is an expansion club in newly formed USSF-D2, a temporary compromise league formed through U.S. Soccer federation mediation between the feuding United Soccer Leagues and the North American Soccer League.)

Ralston would have been fine in MLS this year; and the other league’s gain is certainly Major League Soccer’s loss. I’ll miss seeing a good player and good person like Ralston in MLS – but I sure do appreciate the out-of-the-box thinking here.

Speaking of New England and diversity of thought:

I’m on record as saying that Revs manager Steve Nicol consistently gets the most from the least in terms of talent. That’s not a sucker punch at the talent on hand at Gillette Stadium. Rather, I’m just always impressed by how many wins Nicol can squeeze out of a roster that never has included a Designated Player, one that’s built on the cheap by ownership decree and one that has taken its share of injury hits.

So, when Nicol does something that other clubs aren’t doing, people really should take notice.

This year and last year, the Revs started their training camp about a week later than many of the teams. (A few other teams also started this week, later than the herd.)

I have never understood why MLS training camps open so early. In many cases, teams start on the date the collective bargaining agreement says they are allowed to start – but there’s really no better explanation for why they begin so early. It really is a long season, full of travel and dotted with plenty of games in the taxing summer sun. And here’s the real kicker: almost every manager I’ve ever talked to says something at some point of the preseason about how darned long the training camp is.

So I’ve asked several times, “Well, why don’t you just start a little later?”

And to be honest, I’ve never really gotten a good answer.

Nicol, and now a few others, apparently stopped trying to come up with a good answer. All it took was a little diversity of thought.