USL Coaching Moves: Popovic in as Ottawa head coach, de Guzman now GM

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Dec 21, 2017

Ottawa is the seventh USL team that will begin the 2018 season with a new coach as the Fury promoted Julian de Guzman to general manager and hired former Swope Park Rangers head coach Nikola Popovic as its new head coach.

Offseason USL coaching moves:
OKC Energy FC: Out: Jimmy Nielsen. In: Steve Cooke.
Orlando City B: Out: Anthony Pulis.
Ottawa: Out: Julian de Guzman. In: Nikola Popovic.
Pittsburgh: Out: Dave Brandt. In: Bob Lilley.
Rio Grande Valley FC: Out: Junior Gonzalez. In: Gerson Echeverry.
*Rochester: Out: Bob Lilley.
Saint Louis FC: Out: Preki. In: Anthony Pulis.
Swope Park Rangers: Out: Nikola Popovic. In: Anthony Pulis.
*Will sit out 2018.

De Guzman, the former Canadian international, finished the 2017 season as interim coach after Paul Dalglish stepped down as Fury head coach and general manager in August.

“Julian’s commitment to this club and its success is tremendous and he has earned this opportunity,” said Fury FC president and OSEG partner John Pugh. “The leadership and astuteness that we’ve seen from Julian as a player has been matched in the management role that he’s held since mid-August.”

In his one season with Swope Park Rangers, Popovic led them to their second straight Western Conference championship and second consecutive run to the USL Cup final. he served as an assistant to former Fury FC head coach Marc Dos Santos during Swope Park’s inaugural season in 2016.