New U.S. Coach Has Latin Style of Play : Soccer: Milutinovic, hired through 1994, has directed Mexican and Costa Rican teams.

As expected, Bora Milutinovic, a Yugoslav who has coached the World Cup teams of Mexico and Costa Rica, was named coach of the U.S. national soccer team Wednesday. He replaced Bob Gansler, who resigned last month after two years in the job.

Milutinovic, 46, was introduced at a news conference in New York and on a conference call to reporters throughout the country.

“It’s a big challenge,” Milutinovic said of coaching the U.S. team, which as host of the 1994 World Cup will automatically qualify for the tournament. “The best things about the players in the United States are discipline and tactics. By 1993 I will have a better picture of what team I will put together for 1994. For that reason, starting next Monday and through 1993, I will be in a period of observation.”

Milutinovic’s contract with the U.S. Soccer Federation, which runs through December of 1994, is reportedly for about $200,000 a year and includes incentive bonuses.

Milutinovic speaks five languages, but English is not chief among them. For Wednesday’s conference call, Milutinovic spoke mostly Spanish, a language that has served him well during 17 years in Mexico City.

After playing professionally in Yugoslavia and France, Milutinovic played in the Mexican league at the end of his career and coached the Mexican team to the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup, for which Mexico was the hosting country. Milutinovic was hired to coach the Costa Rican team only 45 days before the start of the 1990 World Cup. That team made it to the second round.

Milutinovic’s experience with Latin players and the Latin style of play is seen as a peace offering to the Hispanic soccer-playing public in the United States, a group that has frequently complained it was being ignored. The selection of a coach versed in a Latin style may also signal a change from the USSF’s previous Central European-dominated style and personnel.

The federation has been searching for a coach to replace Gansler since last August. Officials said they wanted someone with World Cup experience, making Gansler the only U.S. candidate on the first 10-man list. Four were interviewed from that list, which was pared to two finalists, Milutinovic and Dutch Coach Thijs Libregts.

Gansler never even attended a World Cup match before taking the U.S. team to the 1990 World Cup in Italy. The team lost in the first round, and much of the criticism was directed at Gansler, who endured months of speculation that his job was up for grabs. Gansler resigned under pressure on Feb. 23 and has been named director of coaching and player development.

John Kowalski, named interim coach at the time, has led the team to a 2-0-1 record. Milutinovic said he will work with Kowalski for the team’s next four matches but would sit in the stands and let Kowalski do the bench coaching.

The U.S. team will leave Monday for matches in South Korea against the Olympic team April 5 and the national team April 7. Two matches against club teams in Saudi Arabia on April 17 and 19 are yet to be confirmed by the USSF. Milutinovic said his first game behind the bench will be against Uruguay on May 5 in Denver.

Milutinovic plans to move to Colorado Springs, where the USSF is based, for the next two months. After that, he said he might move to either San Diego or Tampa.

Milutinovic is not only charged with the difficult task of achieving the federation’s avowed goal for 1994--making it to the second round of the World Cup--but he also must try to sell the sport to the American people. It is a job at which many have failed.

To this end, he said the U.S. team will develop a “spectacular style of play.

“I realize it is not a very popular sport,” he said. “Our hope is to offer a spectacular game and win. It is like a show.”

Asked if he is concerned about being a foreigner and being accepted by the American public, he said, “If I win, the people will like me.”