US set to name Latin coach as technical director

NEW YORK, July 11 (Reuters) US Soccer plans to name a technical director next year and is looking to name a Latin coach to the position, federation president Sunil Gulati said.

''We will bring on a technical director to work with (national coach) Bob (Bradley),'' Gulati told Reuters yesterday.

''There's a reasonable chance that would be an international coach, not because I necessarily think they're better but because he'll bring something different to the mix.

''Everything else being equal, if we could have it be a Latin coach that would be ideal. The Hispanic community is a huge part of our future in the United States.'' While Bradley would continue to lead the national team, the technical director would oversee player development and youth teams, Gulati said at a gathering hosted by Spanish-language Univision TV network, a major broadcaster of world soccer.

Gulati praised Bradley, whose squad beat Mexico in last month's CONCACAF Gold Cup final, and said the three defeats that sent the US packing from the Copa America last week was tied to difficulties in assembling their strongest team.

''We wanted to get the national team situation stabilised and he's (Bradley) done that magnificently. Now we'll focus on (naming a technical director),'' said Gulati, adding it would take six months to a year.

Stressing the importance of reaching out to the large Hispanic community, Gulati said the US Soccer Web site (ussoccer.com) had just been made bilingual.

''In my view that was overdue,'' Gulati said, adding that within the next two days US Soccer would be adding another Hispanic to its independent board of directors.

''There's only 15 of us and it will be the second Hispanic,'' he said. ''All these are little pieces of the puzzle.'' Reuters TB DB1035