D.C. United is full of surprising moves this off-season. A week after the young superstar he often clashed with was traded, reports suggest Peter Nowak will also not return to United next season. Nowak will be replaced by assistant Tom Soehn.
I’m somewhat surprised to see Nowak go, as I thought Adu’s departure meant United was picking Nowak over Adu. Now, United has neither of them. I wonder if Soehn will change United’s system and formation, and if so, couldn’t they have tried to keep Adu to fit him into the new system? And what has happened behind the scenes that noone knows about yet?
Also, let the rumors of Nowak filling the USMNT coaching position full-time begin!
Bobby,
As long as Christian Gomez is on the team I doubt there would be any system where Adu gets to play his favorite position. Having said that, you do wonder if Adu could have played a position he liked better under Soehn (this is assuming that Soehn is not as rigid as Nowak). Did the interested parties know about the coaching change when the trade was being worked on?
And it gets more interesting.
U-23 Assistant Coach? Something else is going on here.
Does that mean the Post has it wrong?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122001372.html
Peter Nowak, who guided D.C. United to the MLS championship in 2004 and the league’s best record this year, will leave the club to become a U.S. national team assistant coach, sources close to the situation said last night.
United will hold a news conference this morning at RFK Stadium and, according to sources, introduce Tom Soehn, Nowak’s top assistant for three years, as the new coach. Team officials declined to discuss the nature of the announcement.
Nowak’s contract with United was to expire this month and although he and team president Kevin Payne had discussed a new deal in recent weeks, the Polish-born coach decided to accept an offer from U.S. interim coach Bob Bradley.
Even if Bradley is replaced by a European or South American candidate this summer, he would remain in charge of the 2008 Olympic squad and keep Nowak at his side.
Nm. I read the story wrong, ha! There was another media outlet that was reporting that he wasn’t taking the U-23 asst. position but I guess that’s been cleared up. I think having Nowak will only strengthen the US team, so good job Bradley.
Natalie, I’m still a little confused as to why the USSF press release only mentions U23 asst. coach. It does mention that he would be helping out at the Jan. camp, but if I recall correctly, a certain Germany helped out at past camps and that didn’t translate into any sort of coaching role. Maybe I’m reading way to much into this, but I’m a little confused.