An interview with the new GM: http://www.sandiegospirit.com/324407.html This says it is from a couple weeks ago, but I just saw it on the Spirit site the other day.
Inside Soccer at 5pm today I've heard from a couple of different sources that the new Spirit GM Dave Presher is scheduled to be on "Inside Soccer" at 5:05 PM today. So if you have had any questions that you have wanted him to answer, today will be your chance to call in and ask him!
I just got done listening to the GM Dave Presher on Inside Soccer. I don't see Tsunami on yet so I will type what I can remember and hopefully he can fill in the rest?? Presher is in Atlanta along with all the other GMs for the annual meeting of league managers. They are meeting with World Cup folks to sort out the WUSA scheduling for 2003. They will also be talking about marketing, etc. Afterward, he will be leaving to scout teams and meet with some coaches. When asked about the coaching speculation, he said that they were getting very close to making a final choice. However, once they decide on the final candidate, they will have to strike a deal. Then there is an extensive background check that the individual has to go through and the hammering out of a contract. So he said the press probably will not hear about it for another 2 to 4 weeks because of this process. Regarding the trade, when asked how he pulled it off he said that he 'got the GM of NY drunk'. He said he took input from other people and then made his decision but that it was not a difficult decision to come up with. He said they had to give up 'a lot', 'good players' but thought that it was the right move. Brian Halliday asked if it wasn't really Shannon Boxx for Aly Wagner but he didn't want to take the bait saying that, for competitive reasons, he wouldn't want to give up his choice of pick in advance. However, he then said that Aly Wagner was one of the first players to come out of America, male or female, to be able to playmake and score and that she was 'something special'. With regard to Lalor, Presher said that a big weakness for the Spirit has been the left side and felt that Jen Lalor would be big help being as she is a good left side midfielder. He mentioned that she was very happy when he phoned her regarding the trade and said that Southern California has consistently produced top quality soccer players and that it is always good when you can bring them home as he feels that they will fight a bit harder back at home. That was about it.
I hope you all can read through the lines on the 2-4 week process! That could be handled in a couple of days if they needed to. The coach is daLuz. They are just respected his college team right now. His regular season will end in 4 weeks.
A couple of things. One - that interview was too short, but I was glad to hear that they wanted to have Presher back in the studio later for a more involved talk. I heard that thing about Lalor on the left side, but I didn't get Presher's comment about Mac this past season on the right side. He said like, "what with Mac's trouble on the right side" or something. I don't know. Maybe that was the part when the dog was barking in the background. Did anyone else hear it? Maybe someone could recount it. Also, I thought his evasion of Halliday's question about the "Boxx for Wags" trade was deft. No one even mentioned Welsh at all. It was like it was a done deal that SD wouldn't consider picking her over Wags, and a non-issue. I also recall some passing comment from Presher about Crow, when asked about the origins of the trade. From the comment, I couldn't be sure if he was implying that Crow had something to do with it. Maybe someone who heard the interview could give me their impressions on that one too. There was a question about whether or not the Director of Communications, Aaron Heifitz and Presher's coaching experiences were of any help in finding a coach. It was a softball question and a softball answer. Also, Halliday asked if Presher was frustrated by not being a coach. He said [paraphrase] that he chose to go into communications and radio/tv, so he wasn't regretful [/paraphrase].
He said something along the lines of "with Mac playing on the right side and trouble being on the left...". I don't really know why he brought up Mac, but it sounded like he was saying that she was best suited by playing on the right but that that left problems on the left.
Thanx for all the updates guys and gals. It's good to kknow, at least, that Presher has come into the job running...