By GARRETT CLEVERLY
U.S. soccer has announced the hiring of Tom Sermanni as the next head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team.
Currently the head coach of the Australia Women’s National Team, Sermanni will take over head coaching responsibilities on January 1st, after he fulfills his obligations with the Football Federation of Australia.
Jill Ellis will continue in her role as the interim head coach when the U.S. women hosts Ireland on November 28th in Portland and again on December 1st in Glendale. U.S. Soccer will also be adding three more games before the end of the year, games which have yet to be announced.
Sermanni has coached the Australian side for 11 years, which have occurred during two separate stints. During his first tenure he guided Australia to their first ever World Cup appearance in 1995.
After leaving Australia in 1997, Sermanni coached for three years in Women’s United Soccer Association between 2001-2003. He took over responsibilities for Australia again in 2004 and most recently took his team to the quarterfinals of the last two Women’s World Cups.
Sermanni will become the 7th head coach of the USWNT and will have enormous shoes to fill after the successful tenure of Pia Sundhage. During her tenure, the USWNT won back-to-back Gold Medals at the Olympics and finished with a 91-6-10 record. Sundhage’s .897 is the second best winning percentage in USWNT history.
So it’s Pia Sundhage with a mustache?
what a lucky guy…to coah Solo and Morgan….Dream job
What is it with Scottish coaches, come on. They are not particularly progressive.
Not sure how much importance I put on a coach’s progressiveness, but Scottish coaches have a proven track record of coaching at the highest levels. David Moyes is certainly a progressive Scot with all he’s done at Everton. And that Sir Alex Ferguson fellow seems to have potential too.
By progressive I mean something that is different from typical American coaching which is always criticized as being inferior. The typical scottish coach, from what I’ve seen (including Sir Alex), has their teams play in a way very similar to American coaches.