Crew still winning with Warzycha

By Ridge Mahoney, Special to SI.com, Soccer America

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Robert Warzycha took the helm in Columbus with scant experience as a head coach. Greg Bartram/MLS via Getty Images

When a popular and successful head coach moves on, the simple choice can be complicated for the replacement.

In his third year in charge at Columbus, Sigi Schmid guided the Crew to the league's best regular-season record and their first MLS Cup, even as rumors of a pending move to expansion Seattle inexorably grew stronger. The eventual departure last fall was far from amiable; by exercising a non-compete clause in Schmid's contract, the Crew extracted a $25,000 payment to release him.

To no one's surprise, Robert Warzycha, a Crew assistant coach since his playing days ended in 2002, got the job. Aside from a short stint as interim head coach in '05 when Greg Andrulis was fired, Warzycha had no experience as a head coach. He did, though, have more than a decade of history with the team as a player and coach tacked onto a distinguished resume playing in Europe.

"We do not have the same voice," said Warzycha, who led the Crew to their second straight MLS Supporters' Shield after a bumpy start to the season. "I have a different personality. I get in with the players more, I show them what to do or what I want, so we are a little bit different. But as how we see the game, we are very similar, and I learned a lot from Sigi, because he has so much experience."

In his native Poland, as is the case in most of the world, players are steeped in pro soccer as teenagers. Warzycha is an exception; not until his early 20s did he decide to pursue a professional career, though the talent and competitive drive were always there. The only son of a veterinarian and teacher, Warzycha drifted for a time before finding a calling.

"I was a spoiled kid, I think. I had everything, so it was not difficult for me," says Warzycha, a native of Siemkowice in central Poland. "I didn't know what I was going to end up doing, but I didn't have to go find a job, maybe my life was so easy I didn't decide about going to play soccer. I didn't have to decide what to do."

After playing for a decade in Poland, England and Hungary, he came to Columbus in 1996 for the startup of MLS, and still holds the Crew all-time assist record of 61. He turned to assistant coaching in 2002 when injuries terminated his career, and worked 16 games as an interim head coach in '05.

By rotating players, and resting playmaker Guillermo Barros Schelotto and other starters, Warzycha guided the Crew to the top spot in MLS and a strong showing in the CONCACAF Champions League.

"As far as I was concerned, he was the only choice to replace Sigi, and I think most of the players felt the same way," said Crew defender Frankie Hejduk, who played against Warzycha early in his career with Tampa Bay. "He hasn't changed things a lot, and why should he?"

Playing days

Warzycha grew up during a golden time of Polish soccer, at least in terms of accomplishment. Poland won an Olympic gold medal in 1972 and silver four years later. In between those Olympiads, a disciplined yet creative mix of artisans and workers rolled through the '74 World Cup to the semifinals, in which Poland lost to host West Germany 1-0 on a rain-sodden field in Frankfurt.

The mesmerizing play impressed fans and journalists around the world, captivated the populace and inspired thousands of young Polish players, including former MLS All-Star and current Philadelphia Union head coach Peter Nowak. But Warzycha, 11 years old at the time, wasn't among them. He lived a comfortable life, and though he liked sport and competition, he didn't avidly pursue a professional soccer career, or any career, for that matter.

"I never thought I would make some money playing soccer, to be honest with you," said Warzycha, who still expresses a bit of disbelief when reminded he's been making his living in the game for more than two decades. "Everybody said I was good. Wherever I played, I was one of the best players. I just thought something else was more interesting or more fun -- going out with my friends, going swimming -- instead of playing soccer."

He attended a sports school, intending to play team handball -- a rough, popular and highly professionalized sport in certain European countries. It is also fiercely competitive at the Olympic level. He couldn't hack it.

"When I went to the sports school, I find out right away that I'm too small," he said of his 5-foot-8, 160-pound frame. "People there were much stronger than me. You have to be really big and strong to be able to play that sport. Then I went to another school, a school for construction. So if I didn't play soccer, I probably would have been a contractor or something."

He left home at age 20 to serve his mandatory military duty and found time to play some soccer for the army team. Back home after two years of service without prospects or ambitions, he finally found his start in professional soccer, thanks to a good kick in the rear end.

"Some people from one of the clubs came to my home and put me in a car and took me to the club," he said, laughing at the memory of being shanghaied into success and fame. "They told me I was going to train and they wanted to see how I would do. So I trained with the team, they play in the second division and, after six months, they gave me a contract with the first team."