The U.S. Soccer Federation is making a risky move just a year away from the 2015 World Cup.
Multiple media outlets have reported that U.S. national women's team Tom Sermanni was fired just hours after the Americans defeated China 2-0 in a friendly in Commerce City, Colo., on Sunday.
Sermanni had been on the job since January of 2013.
"We want to thank Tom for his service over the past year and half, but we felt that we needed to go in a different direction at this time," U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said in a news release, as reported by ESPN. "We will begin looking for a new coach immediately to guide our women's national team toward qualifying for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup."
Soccerbyives.net quoted Sermanni on Sunday night, and he revealed that the decision caught him off guard.
"They didn't go into any specific reason, but they just felt things weren't going well within the team," Sermanni told SBI. "The progress wasn't where they wanted it to be and things within the team environment weren't working.
"It came as a surprise to me - I'll be honest," Sermanni said. "I didn't perceive that there were issues - I didn't feel that within the playing group. But maybe my perception let me down and things happened that I wasn't aware of. I didn't sense the players weren't on board with the direction that we were trying to go in, but perhaps I was wrong. I was surprised by the decision, I can't deny that, but I'm not walking away angry with it. That happens in soccer. I was surprised with it because I did genuinely feel that we were moving in the right direction."
Sermanni had an 18-2-4 record with the U.S. team, but a red flag appeared when the team failed to win a match in the Algarve Cup last month. Sweden, coached by Sermanni's predecessor Pia Sundhage, ended the Americans' 43-game unbeaten streak with a 1-0 victory. Then, the U.S. surrendered a team-record five goals in a 5-3 loss to perennial also-ran Denmark.
The 2012 Olympic gold medal champions finished seventh at that event.
"I don't know if that came into the equation," Sermanni said. "That could've been part of it. I think we were all frustrated with the results. But I think I analyze performances quite critically, regardless of results.
"I honestly thought in the Algarve Cup that we had one of those tournaments where things didn't go right on the field results-wise, but the performances, particularly against Japan and Sweden, were promising and showed we were actually going in the right direction."
Speaking to SBI, he wondered whether players had an issue with his "very open" coaching style, which he said is about talking through things with the squad rather than giving them orders.
Jill Ellis, U.S. Soccer Federation's director of development, will serve as interim coach and take over the post on Thursday, when the U.S. faces China in San Diego.
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