Gulati: Seven coaches on short list
- by Soccer America , Oct 23, 2012
[USA WOMEN] Speaking at Tuesday's USA-Germany women's friendly, U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said he hoped a new
women's national team coach would be selected by Nov. 1. He also emphasized the importance of getting a new women's league off the ground and finding a home for national team players, as well as
the U.S. players below them on the pecking order. For more on what Gulati had to say ...
On the list of women’s national team coaching
candidates:
“We had about 25-30 people that we’ve looked at seriously, and that list is at seven. Hopefully, in the next 10 days we’ll be able to narrow that down to one
and get it going.”
On if there are one or two favorites of the short list:
“A number of them did very well. We were actually
very impressed overall with the level of responses we got both in the interviews and interest to start with. Some of those coaches are American-based, some are international-based so overall
I’ve been very pleased with the process in terms of the quality candidates we’ve had in front of us.”
On the time frame for selecting a
new coach:
“That’s always been our target, the end of October, but we don’t have any official games in the next month. We want to make sure we get it right. Jill [Ellis] is available to us going beyond this month if we need to, but my guess is we’re going to be ready by Nov. 1.”
On any new developments for a new women’s professional league:
“We’ve been working very hard on that with a number of investors and our
friends at the Canadian Soccer Association, and I think over the next 10 days, we’ll have some interesting things to say there as well. It’s very important that we have a place to play,
not only for these players, but for the next 20 and 40 and 60 and I think we’ll accomplish that.”
On the interest of current women’s national team players making a choice between playing domestically or overseas:
“The players
always have the opportunity to do that regardless of where they’re playing. We’ve had players playing overseas in the past. We’re certainly going to encourage them to be part of this
league and from everything I’ve heard from them and their representatives, they want to do just that. They want to help us build the game in the United States, they want to be available to our
new coach for as many games as we want to play, so I think you’ll see most of them staying home.”
Nice to see that something is getting done about a league. Also, good to see
potential Canadian involvement. Personally I'd like to see Regional teams , not tied down to a specific city. Something like 5 U.S. teams , 2 Canadian teams and even one in Mexico City would be good.Hopefully a Saturday evening fixture time and leave weekdays out.
The new league should avoid the mistakes of the WPS. An important issue is to assign players to the proper markets. WPS had Marta playing in Rochester, NY where the native Wambach would've been a better choice and have put Wambach in Miami area where Marta would've been a better option considering the Latin influence in the region.
Good suggestions from both Steven and Gus so obviously neither will be considered.
Main thing is to follow the European model and associate teams with strong MLS clubs. Essential to avoid all the start-up costs and overhead of creating a league de novo.