Thanks for posting this right away Heeligan2. I wish Jay the best of luck with his new position as head coach of the Courage. Well this is most definitely a big relief to find out that the Courage have FINALLY made their official announcement. It is hard to believe that Marcia resigned a little less than three months ago because for me it seems like this whole process has taken a lot longer than that. Now I hope that the WUSA can hurry up and finalize the CBA so that they can have their waiver draft real soon and make sure that the season actually gets to start on time!
More info on Entlich. http://sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=soc-wusa/news/ALN2442450.htm Welcome to the League
News & Observer Article I just came across this article about the hiring of Entlich as the Courage's head coach: Courage hires Entlich
Five Other Candidates For the Job The Courage definitely did a much better job than the Spirit keeping the names of their coaching candidates out of the media. Thanks to the Soccer America newsletter and the contributions of SCoach, I believe that two of the candidates who interviewed with the Courage were probably Dave Dir and Angela Kelly. I have no idea who the foreign national team coach is who was rumored to be in contention for the Courage job. I'm also still trying to find out more information about what did actually happen with Bente Nordby's current coach, Per Danefeld who was quoted in the Norwegian media as having said "no" to the Courage.
International Players In Camp The only international player who will probably be in Cary "for the start of training camp on March 1" is Breanna Boyd and she might only be there for a week because of the Algarve Cup. I haven't heard any recent news about the status of D-Slate & Fotop so I hope that they are both going to be ready to go at the start of camp next Saturday.
Re: Five Other Candidates For the Job I went back and looked at some of the old posts, and it turns out that the Soccer America newsletter that correctly predicted Entlich's hiring didn't specify anything about a national team coach, only that a "European coach" might be brought aboard. So, Nordby1, I think that your detective work solved the mystery and that Danefeld was indeed the "mystery coach."
Re: International Players In Camp It's sheer laziness on my part, but what are the dates for the Algarve Cup? It sounds like it's going to conflict with the scheduled Courage/Freedom spring training game on March 8. Is that the case? If so, then it means that some of the rookies and free agent invitees will have a chance to get some on-field action in that game. But that's what training camp is all about, isn't it?
Algarve Cup Schedule Since the Algarve Cup starts March 14th, I doubt that Hege will travel to the U.S. for the first week of camp since she will need to back in Europe the following week. I still haven't heard any news about Unni's knee surgery so I'm not sure what her status is. Germany is playing China March 4th & 6th, so I guess there is still a chance that Birgit will be back in time for the Freedom game. In any event, here's the link for the complete Algarve Cup schedule: Schedule for 10th Algarve Cup Tournament, March 2003