That’s definitely been true - and it goes beyond Sundhage’s performing skills and foreign passport. She has built players up with constructive criticism rather than breaking them down by yelling. She has modified the style of play that had brought the US success for so many years so the Americans can stay at the top of their game as the rest of the world improves.
Most importantly, she found a way to heal the bitterness and hard feelings that threatened to destroy the Americans following their ugly exit from the 2007 World Cup just a few months before she took over.
“She was everything we needed,’’ said goalkeeper Hope Solo, whose criticism of then-coach Greg Ryan was the flashpoint for the World Cup turmoil.
With a spot in the quarterfinals already secured, the US women wrap up group play today against Sundhage’s native Sweden at the Women’s World Cup.
Though Sundhage is nonplussed at the prospect of facing her home country (“For me, it’s not Sweden. It’s just a team.’’) the game will put the spotlight squarely on the woman whose intelligence, confidence, and unflinching optimism has transformed a fractured team into Olympic gold medalists and, just maybe, World Cup champions for a third time.
“Everything that we had hoped for in making the decision to hire her, she’s lived up to,’’ US Soccer president Sunil Gulati said.
Sundhage is considered one of the greatest players the women’s game has ever had, scoring 71 goals in a 22-year international career. She was considered for the US job when Ryan was hired in 2005, but didn’t have enough head coaching experience. Though Sundhage coached the Boston Breakers in 2003, most of her experience was with Sweden’s youth teams.
When the Americans were in the market for a coach again two years later, Sundhage’s name topped the list.
Though Sundhage had told Gulati she wanted to retool the US style, that would have to wait. The Beijing Olympics were just eight months away when she was hired in November 2007, and the tournament is second only to the World Cup in importance in the women’s game.
First, though, Sundhage had to address the tensions still simmering from the World Cup.
