[AMERICANS ABROAD] Joe Enochs, whose playing career spanned 376 games and 12 seasons in Germany, has been named interim coach of Bundesliga 2 club VfB Osnabrueck.

Enochs is one of the most popular players in Osnabrueck's history -- he had a testimonial game in his honor when he retired -- and he has been coaching the club's under-23 team.

He replaced Karsten Baumann following its 3-1 home loss to Alemannia Aachen.

Osnabrueck is 16th in the 18-team league. The bottom two teams go down and the 16th-place team meets the third-place team in the third-level Regionalliga in a playoff.

Enochs, 40, was one of many Americans to try their luck in the lower levels of German soccer and hooked on at Osnabrueck, which has bounced back and forth between the second and third levels.

The Californian even earned one cap for the USA in 2001 and won the "goal of the month" in September 2004 for a goal against Bayern Munich in the German Cup.

He settled in Osnabrueck, where he owns a restaurant.