I'm not going to bash her too much since she seems like a nice enough lady but is U.S. women's head coach Pia Sundhage kidding me with her latest comments?
On Saturday, after her current team-the United States-had a friendly against Sweden, she said that she wants to return to her homeland (Sweden) and coach their national team once her contract expires with the U.S. in 2012.
I realize that she was a star for Sweden and she clearly misses her family and friends. There's always been an obvious language barrier and who knows if she's ever really acclimated herself to the U.S. culture?
I have no problem with her wanting to take that job which is at the same level as the U.S., one of the top teams in the world. My only issue is that who does this? Who says something this damning when her current team has another big competition coming up-namely the 2012 Summer Olympics in London?
Under her direction, the U.S. won the gold medal in the 2008 Olympics and came in second at the 2011 World Cup, losing to Japan in penalty kicks. My feeling with the U.S. women's team is completely different from the U.S. men. Since the U.S. women have been one of the best teams in the world pretty much forever, we don't need people from other countries to help us out by coaching.
The U.S. men are another story; they have never been great and they need new ideas that come solely from more accomplished guys (cough Jurgen Klinsmann) from other more soccer-centric lands.
I know there's probably no chance of it happening before then but I would have no problem with the U.S. canning Sundhage before the 2012 Olympics. If she's so motivated to get back to Sweden (she's been away for six years) and Sweden's coach Thomas Dennerby's contract ends next year too, why not speed up the process?
Who's to say she'll be able to fully focus on the task at hand if she's already spouting off with nonsense like this.
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