South Beach Property

Soccer Digest, August, 2001 by Michael Lewis

Interview: Ray Hudson

For two decades the former NASL star and current Miami Fusion coach has been the voice and face of Southern Florida soccer

THE SOCCER WORLD ALREADY knows that Ray Hudson has a golden tongue. This year it has discovered that the Miami Fusion coach has the Midas touch as well.

Through the early part of the MLS season, Hudson has the Fusion flying among the league's elite with a solid defense and opportunistic attack. Not bad for someone who doesn't have a fancy coaching license or who was offered the job while he was the Fusion's color commentator on TV broadcasts.

SOCCER DIGEST recently caught up with the passionate Hudson and talked to the native Englishman about coaching, MLS, American soccer, and the Fusion.

SOCCER DIGEST: Why did you decide to take up the offer to coach the Miami Fusion?

RAY HUDSON: This is a very unique situation for me here. This has been my home for 23 years. I came here as a 22-year-old and, at the time, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers took the entire South Florida area by storm.

My coaching here is as if Giorgio Chinaglia stayed in New York, took over the MetroStars, and remained involved with the community. I've been very fortunate and lucky. There are other former NASL players who stayed in America who have not been given a chance to be an MLS head coach: Chris Dangerfield in San Jose, Vladislav Bogicevic in New York, and Perry Van Der Beck, who is an assistant coach in Tampa Bay.

When the Fusion came to me, I said: "Anything I can do to help." It was a genuine interim position. Usually, I don't think those interims have the faith of their general manager as I had, and they become overlooked.

If I felt that in my heart I couldn't move this team along, I wouldn't have done it. Fate moves its hands in strange ways.

SD:. You acquitted yourself well when you took over the team midway through last season. You personally finished with an 11-11-1 record. Now, you've sort of rebuilt the team in your image, wouldn't you say?

RH: The execution of it--the bravery, the ballsy moves--were beyond anything that was ever attempted by the Fusion. So far, so good. I don't say we have all the answers.

Five months is very little time to reconstruct a team. That was a huge task. We decided to let popular players go and bring in veteran players, and we have done reasonably well so far.

In this league you're given three darts and an a patch over one eye. The equitable arrangement to make the league financially viable provides an amazing challenge for the teams. There are some restrictions, but there won't be a New York Cosmos or Secretariat that gets away from the rest of the pack. They were very, very savvy with the construction of the league.

There were some mistakes made early on, I don't mind saying, but the whole product is getting better. The Americans are pumping blood into the league.

SD: Mistakes such as signing foreign players who didn't play to their potential or want to play? It's not easy making the transition to play in this league or live in this country. Is it difficult finding players who can make an impact?

RH: Yes, and I am very, very passionate about this point. There are foreign players out there who are entertaining and come at a small, modest cost. If you're careful you can find them.

SD: Did you really feel the Fusion would be in such a lofty position these days?

RH: No, even though I knew I had the talent and character on this team. Then we added Chris Henderson, Carlos Llamosa, and Preki. I didn't think we would gel as quickly as we did. One thing I'm proud of is that the players aren't happy with the level of success that they have. I mean, are we the perfect beast? No.

The dream is to win it all. This year will see a very intriguing championship match.

SD: It has been proven that teams can turn around in one season. Bob Gansler turned around an 8-24 Kansas City Wizards team into a championship side in a year. Could you do the same?

RH: What he did with that team was truly beyond heroic; it was monumental. That's the standard to live up to, but I don't think it's going to be done again.

SD: What has Honduran forward Alex Pineda Chacon brought to the Fusion?

RH: Alex has been fabulous. Everything I saw from him in all my trips to Honduras, he has shown with us. He's a wonderfully balanced soccer player; he could run on snow and he wouldn't leave footprints. He's a beautiful, delicate little player, a butterfly of a player. Alex is an insightful, precise passer, and he's also very reliable. He rarely gives the ball up and he is always looking for that right moment.

The one thing that Pineda Chacon has that you cannot coach and cannot introduce to a player is that little bit of fantasy soccer. When some players gain possession of the ball they instinctively know the right time to shoot and the right time to chance the pass to set up another player, and he's one of them. I love that about his game. It's something that is a very rare commodity. It's that little bit of voodoo, like Carlos Valderrama has. It's that little bit of magic, that element that Preki has. I think Alex brings that to our team. He's very, very clever.