Gansler Steps Down as U.S. Soccer Team Coach

Bob Gansler, who last year became the first coach since 1950 to take a U.S. team to the World Cup, accepted the inevitable Saturday, resigning under pressure to accept another position within the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Gansler, 49, received a verbal guarantee last year that he would remain the U.S. coach through the 1994 World Cup in the United States. But a short time after Los Angeles attorney Alan Rothenberg unseated Werner Fricker as USSF president in a vote last August, the federation began seeking potential replacements.

According to sources within the federation, two leading candidates are Yugoslav Bora Milutinovic, who coached Mexico in the 1986 World Cup and Costa Rica in the 1990 World Cup; and Thijs Libregts, who coached the Netherlands before the 1990 World Cup.

USSF officials said in a statement Saturday that they hope to name a new coach within 30 to 60 days.

John Kowalski, the coach for Robert Morris College and the U.S. indoor team, will coach the outdoor team on an interim basis. The United States’ next game is scheduled for March 9 at Tampa, Fla., against the South American club champion, Olimpia of Paraguay.

Gansler will become the USSF’s national director of coaching and player development.

“I guess lame ducks just don’t fly that well,” he said in a statement. “The team that we need to showcase was suffering because neither the players nor I could perform at maximum potential under these circumstances.”

Gansler announced his decision to the team Thursday night after a 1-0 loss to Bermuda at Hamilton, Bermuda. That was the sixth consecutive scoreless game for the United States, which has a 14-17-5 record in full international games since he became coach in 1989.

The United States lost all three first-round games and finished 23rd out of 24 teams in last summer’s World Cup at Italy.