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In the history of sports, there may never have been a coach fired with a better record.
Greg Ryan was dismissed yesterday as coach of the U.S. women's national soccer team, after dropping just one of 55 matches (45-1-9) over a three-year period. It was a record that not even Joe Torre could dream of attaining, but that 4-0 semifinal defeat to Brazil in the World Cup last month was a wrenching loss that drove a wedge through the middle of the team.
And if U.S. Soccer has learned anything from that fiasco, it may be that female athletes in team sports are different than men, and that another all-male coaching staff is probably not a good way to go in the future.
The president of U.S. Soccer, Sunil Gulati, insisted that Ryan's firing was not the result of a single match, or the infamous Hope Solo affair. He felt, overall, the team's overall technical development was unsatisfactory. It has become painfully clear that the Americans were badly outclassed by Brazil, that other countries have caught or surpassed the U.S. women, and that the Americans arguably have only one breakout star in Abby Wambach.
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Gulati said that Solo, the first-string goalkeeper, was welcome back now on the national team by the federation, an indication of where U.S. Soccer stood on the issue.
Ryan benched Solo unexpectedly for the Brazil match in favor of Briana Scurry, who allowed a soft first goal in a drubbing that probably would have happened anyway. Solo ripped Ryan after the match, and then was sent home instead of remaining on the bench for the third-place match.
"My guess is a number of participants, if they could do it over again, would do it differently," Gulati said. "The decision (to banish Solo) was made by the coach, with the support of the players.
"The players on women's team repeatedly have said to me there are things that are different from the men's team. I think we've had issues in the past, not exactly like this. The thing that separates this issue was that it went public at the highest level, at the World Cup. They were managed internally in the past."
Although the team's general manager, Cheryl Bailey, is a woman, Ryan's entire coaching staff was comprised of men. Now, however, former great Mia Hamm will join Gulati and U.S. Soccer secretary general Dan Flynn in a coaching search that should be completed in 40 days or less. There are important Olympic qualifiers early next year.
"We certainly will be talking with female candidates," Gulati said. "We want the best-qualified person. If that's a woman, that's terrific."
At least two top candidates for the job are women: Jillian Ellis from UCLA, who is also coach of the U.S. under-20 national team, and Pia Sundhage of Sweden. The committee could choose a male coach with the tacit understanding he will hire female assistants. Former national coach Tony DiCicco remains popular with the old guard, but he has tentatively committed to coach the Boston franchise in a new professional women's league scheduled to begin in 2009.
Expectations and lines of communications are clearly different on the women's national team. Gulati said the dismissal of Ryan occurred only after national team members were consulted.
"Greg's record is pretty good, the best we've had," Gulati said.
One ugly loss was one too many.
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