It's old news by now that Greg Ryan is the new head coach of women's soccer at University of Michigan. He officially accepted that position on Friday. What you might not know is at that he is in Vancouver this week helping Even Pellerud and Team Canada prepare for the Olympics.

I talked with Greg about the work he is doing for Canada, his new job at Michigan and though I've pretty much managed to stay out of the "he said/she said" of the World Cup aftermath, I had a few questions about how he handled things that I hoped he could clarify.

How did it come about that you are in Vancouver working with Even Pellerud and the Canadian National Team as they prepare for Olympic Qualifying?

Even and I have a great relationship from the time that I started working. We’re peers and colleagues and friends. When I would come to Vancouver to scout his teams, he would take me to dinner. When he came to scout, I would take him to dinner. I know his assistant coach and the general manager very well from being at events all over the world. He contacted me about coming in and helping out. We haven’t established whether that will be just now and again or a little more consistent. We’re just working together this week and seeing how things go. He’s kind of organizing his staff for the Olympics.

What’s the scope of the work you are doing with them?

This week I’ve been watching and learning what they do and seeing where I can fit in to helping them whether it would be a scouting assignment or an extra set of eyes from another international coach or in actually being more hands on in training. As you know, I’ve just taken on the University of Michigan job so I have my hands full there as well.

How will that fit in with your job at Michigan? I assume you are a little behind the game in recruiting, having just taken over.

Recruiting for this year is already over. The kids that the past coach recruited signed today. This year that’s done. Obviously we do need to get to work on the next couple of years in terms of recruiting, but you know you can only get so much done in 24 hours.

At Michigan, we are really looking at a pretty long-term plan in terms of getting the right players into the program and trying to raise the standard. Right now, we have the players we have and they’re working very hard and they have great attitudes, but clearly, my ability to recruit both domestically and internationally will need to work for us to really be able to take it up another notch or two.

You met your team this past weekend. How did that go?

It went great. It was fun and I think they are excited about the change. We’ve had some training sessions this week. My assistant coach, Dean Duerst, is also a U-18 National Team coach for the U.S. and he’s an assistant for the U-23 team. He worked with them this week while I was in Vancouver and then he’s in Spain next week with the U-23’s and I’ll be working with the team. We’re off to a good start. We know we have a long ways to go. This isn’t the U.S. National Team. I don’t think I will only lose one game in three years, but that’s okay.

How are you feeling about moving back into college coaching and specifically the Big Ten?

I feel good about it. I love coaching. I knew that as soon as my job was up with U.S. Soccer that I would land somewhere coaching. I’m excited about it. I love working with players. I love helping players develop and grow. I feel like I had that same situation at a different level with the U.S. team in that we had so many young players come through our program that had opportunities to step up. I think Michigan is similar, just not on the same level. They’re still young kids. It’s a very young team with a lot of maturing and growing to do. I like that process.

Has your experience with the National Team made you a better coach?
Definitely. Both as an assistant coach with April, I think I learned and grew a lot. You know, the NCAA puts a lot of limits on your coaching in terms of number of days. I feel like in the last five years, I’ve probably coached more than most coaches coach in ten years at the college level, especially with the residency programs - three out of four years when I was with the National Team. Any time you’re out there on the field every day training and traveling the world scouting, it’s just a fantastic developmental opportunity.

Without doing a whole rehash of the World Cup drama, I have a couple questions going back to China. Do you feel like you had the team prepared for the World Cup?

As well as we could be. Given that many of the young players had never been in that environment with the number of people in the stands, with the pressure, with the media, with the sponsors clamoring for their attention. I think as much as we could be prepared, we were prepared.

What kind of responsibility do you feel for how they played in China and for the loss to Brazil?

I look at it like we played 55 games and we had one stinker. In that game, we scored an own goal and had a red card by half time. That’s just soccer. Anybody that knows the game understands that when you have a red card early in the game that things aren’t going your way and you score an own goal on yourself early, things aren’t going your way. And to be honest, I thought Brazil was just better, not only because of those circumstances. So as a coach, your job is to put a team on the field that you think can beat your opponent and it’s up to them to try and do that. On that night, Brazil was just better. I feel great about what I did. They’ll never have another coach that plays 55 games and loses once. I’m serious. Wait and see.

Even before Brazil, you and the team were taking hits in the media for the style of play. It wasn’t pretty enough and so forth.

The level of opponents in our group throughout the tournament was much, much higher. If you look at being able to possess the ball better … I mean certainly, our style of play that we’ve played over the last few years was not kick and run game, but I think we got into that in the World Cup because of the pressure that certain players felt. I think Aly Wagner’s injury took a player off that might have been able to help us settle down and hold the ball. I look back and say everything we were trying to do was to get our team to settle down and play, but the level of opponent and the pressure of the event got to some of them. It’s a game of 11and if all 11 aren’t in sync, it doesn’t look very good. I even look back in Greece in the Olympics. I tell you, I only think we played one good game the entire tournament and that was against Germany in the semi-final. I didn’t think it was very pretty. I think we played very poorly in most games. Japan was an okay game, but other than that I thought the team was sub-par.

You did an interview for the FIFA website and you made a comment that your detractors have rallied around. You said, "Back then, you could get away with playing little passes all over the field and have success doing it. But in the modern game, a team that just knocks the ball around the middle of the park is going to get killed doing it.” It seems that from that comment you’ve gotten a reputation of not valuing possession soccer. Is that a fair assessment of you coaching philosophy?

That’s people that don’t actually understand the game. What I meant by that was, in the old days, because many of the teams were subpar you could play five and 10 yard balls all day without stretching the opponent and play through them. Anywhere in the modern game around the world you’re going to see teams that are using the long ball to play behind a flat back four to be able to stretch the defense back, not only to create more chances, but to create more space in front of the defense. You’ve got to have a more varied attack. That includes some long passing and some short play. We worked on those things for three years straight and had great success with it. I don’t think anyone would have typified our game as a long ball game going into the World Cup.

Of course not everyone who has an opinion about it now was watching before the World Cup.

That’s fair. We don’t live in a soccer culture. We don’t have people who have grown up with the game and most of the people that comment on it don’t actually understand it.

At the time everything kind of imploded, you were quiet about what had been going on behind the scenes, but then you came out in December with more information about what led to the goalie switch. Why?

Initially, when everything blew up, if I go public with the stuff Hope does then I’m putting Hope in a very bad light right there in front of the whole world. At the time I talked to her and said we’re just going to manage the best we can. We’ve got the Norway game and we’re still playing for a bronze medal and it wasn’t the time or place for a coach to go after one of his players in front of the world media. That was the initial timing. After that, I wanted to be able to clear the record and I wasn’t able to do that. The timing of my comments on Fox Soccer Channel and an article that was published in Arizona allowed me the chance, after my contract was up, to clear the record. Perhaps it was at a better time because things had settled down and it allowed the team to move on a little bit.

Were you concerned at all that it would open things up for the team, who now answer to a new boss, and put them in an awkward situation having to answer questions about your comments?

The fact that I was actually honest about it was probably helping the team because it was their same opinion and they got hammered for it in the press. The press looked at it as vindictive but I looked at it as standing up for what was right. If nothing else it brought to light some things that people didn’t know about it. I said at the time, “Look, I believe my players have this right and the rest of the world can say what they want.” If you have a player that was doing the things that Hope was doing and training the way Hope was training and saying the things about her teammates that Hope was saying and the players stand against it, I’m sorry they’re right and I back them.
What do you take away from the whole National Team experience?

I had a great time. I love my players. Even though I pushed them quite a bit, I always loved my players. I back them and I’m excited about their future. I’ll follow them and I told them I’ll be their biggest fan except of course now I’m working with Canada. (Laughs.)

Yeah, I wonder how that’s going to go over.

I emailed all of them and Pia and I’ve let them know many times, how much I think of them and how I appreciate how much they gave to the team and to me. I just walk away with a fantastic experience and a record that no U.S. National Team coach has ever achieved and to me, I just look back and say it was fantastic.

With the record in mind, is it difficult how things ended?

It’s disappointing but when you take a National Team job, you know what your last day’s going to be like. I knew it going in. I never had any illusions that I would get what I wanted or things would be the way I thought they should be. It’s not a secure position and it’s not my choice as to whether I coach the team. It’s someone else’s. When you’re a pro, you understand that every day you’re out training could be your last day. In the end, I had a great experience. I’m thankful for it and I’m excited about where I’m going. How’s that for the right thing to say?

Before the Women's World Cup last September, FIFA announced that they would be watching the competition closely in view of expanding the field from 16 to 24 teams. Apparently they weren't impressed. This footnote comes out of the FIFA Football Committee's February 4th meeting:

"While reviewing the 2007 FIFA competitions, the Football Committee was happy to note that the symposium during the FIFA Women's World Cup in China had provided further impetus to develop the women's game. However, it was felt the quality of the game did not yet justify an increase of the number of teams at the FIFA Women's World Cup as the difference between the top teams and the weaker ones was still significant."

One wonders what concrete action FIFA will take to further develop the women's game.

Greg Ryan confirmed that he accepted the women's head coach postion at University of Michigan today. Check back in a day or two for for an interview with Greg.

The Michigan Daily is reporting that former USWNT coach, Greg Ryan, will be named head women's coach at the University of Michigan. We haven't been able to confirm this yet, but will keep you posted.

Christie Welsh has been so close to being a core member of the U.S. Women’s National Team. She’s been an Olympic alternate and been one of the last handful cut right before a big event more than once. In 2005 she was the team’s leading scorer and seemed a shoo-in for the 2007 World Cup. Then in 2006 without much of an explanation she fell off the radar. She wasn’t with the team again until late April of 2007 and was one of the last three cuts from Greg Ryan’s World Cup roster. She’s been invited in to the February mega-camp and is looking forward to another chance to prove she belongs.

Welsh talked candidly with Fair Game about the ups and downs of her National Team career a few days before heading to California to try and prove herself again.

You gave me a little hint in Baltimore that you had been talking with Pia, and you’ve officially been called into the Feb 1 camp, I guess we can talk about it now.

Basically they are bringing a large group in and there’s two groups and I’m part of the larger group that’s, I guess you could say, battling it out in the first week to try and get to stay for the second. There are 37 people total.

Let’s talk about your career as a whole. You’ve been in and out since 2000 with a lot of ups and downs. Back in 2005, you were on fire, you were the leading scorer and then 2006 you were kind of off the radar again.

I have been doing this since 2000 and it’s been up and down the entire time. Looking at this camp right now, I’m extremely excited to go in. As you get older and after you’ve been in and had the experience, all you want is a chance again. Every time you go in you think, “Alright, this is it.” I thought last spring when I went in was it. I thought, “If I don’t do this now this is it.” And I thought the year before this is it. Every time you go in, you have to make the most of it because you never know when it’s going to be over.

With that, as you go in and you’re let go, all you want is another chance. It’s been up and down. I think back in 2000, I was extremely young and I had no idea what was going on. I think I played well during that time because, my expectations on my self are always high, but the expectations of others was low so you just went out and played. You didn’t worry and you didn’t even know what was going on. You’re like, “Okay, I get to play more soccer. This is fun. The chance to play in the Olympics, wow. Okay.”

And gradually my expectations became more and the expectations of other people on myself definitely increased. I think 2005 was a great year for me. 2006, I went into residency and had a few injuries. I got diagnosed with spondylothesis, which is like slippage of your vertebrae. I got diagnosed with that and I was having major back issues, which I had never really had before. It slowed me down for a bit and I wasn’t able to regroup. In the eyes of Greg (Ryan), I wasn’t able to regroup and get back to where I was supposed to be. At the end of that year, he released me from contract.

In 2007 I knew that I was basically going to have one chance and that was it. At the beginning of 2007, I had been in touch with Greg all the time saying, “Bring me in. Bring me in. Bring me in.” I went in and I think I played the best that I’ve ever played and basically at the end of it, I was told, “Well it’s too late. You did a great job but I’m pretty solid with what I have.”

I wondered at the time, because it was so late and you hadn’t been in for a while, if you were getting a legitimate shot or if he was strictly brining you in to help prepare the team.

I didn’t know either. He constantly reminded me, “You had a great Algarve Cup in 2005 when I was trying to get the job. You performed great. I know what you are capable of. I need you to play like that.”

That’s all I kept hearing in 2006 as I was kind of slipping off. Sometimes there is kind of a downward spiral with players and coaches. Once you’re not doing well, you kind of fall off the radar and it’s hard to get back on. Especially at that level when there are some great players competing around you. When he moved Tarp (Lindsay Tarpley) up to forward as well, that really hurt me. He made that move at the end of 2006. She was playing great and Natasha Kai coming in, she’s got some qualities that are above and beyond a lot of players. You have to compete.

It just came down to performance. You don’t perform well and you kind of slip off the coach’s radar and it’s hard to get back in there, especially when other people are performing. I don’t think my level dropped that much, I just think that it dropped enough for me to not have that spot. All I thought about last year going into residency again was, “I’ve got to be ready because if I don’t go in there and make a huge impact, it’s not going to matter.” I was pushing as hard as I could to get in early last year but I wasn’t’ asked in until late April. At that point I don’t know if there is much I can do but I just have to work my butt off. I was extremely proud of what I did. It just wasn’t enough.

The difficult thing for me was hearing that last year. Being that close again and knowing I should definitely be there and can be there and proved that I should be there, but it’s too late.

Timing is everything with this game and you see that with players that come in and out. Look at Amy Rodriguez right now. She had a fantastic College Cup and comes in right away with the National Team with Pia being the head coach, there’s a nice transition there. She’s getting a shot that for a long time she hasn’t been able to have. She was in a while ago and she’s always been a great player with fantastic speed and good finishing ability. Maybe this is her time now.

You’ve been an Olympic alternate, one of the last one’s cut right before the big events …

In 2000, technically I was an alternate and 2004, which 2004 I believe was my best in terms of making an impact. In 2000 I’m not sure I was really that close to even be considered an alternate, but in 2004 I should have been on the team if not an alternate. I remember sitting in the meeting with April and I was like, “So that’s it? I’m not even an alternate?” (Laughs.) And that was sort of it.

Having been through the ups and downs, how do you emotionally get yourself up for it when you get the call to come back in?

To be honest, I don’t even have to get myself up for it. I’ve had all this time to sit and stew over everything. When I talk to my mom, she says, “Don’t get your hopes up again.” She takes that approach with me because she’s been on the other end of the phone, so many times when I’ve been bawling my eyes out because my dream has been crushed. She’s got that perspective and I’m thinking, “I’m not going to (excuse my language) half-ass it.” If I’m going in there then I’m going in there 100%.

As soon as I found out that Pia was the coach, I tried to get in touch with her to let her know that I’ve been there and know what it takes. I know the players and I know what I can bring. If nothing else, I can go in there and make players better. I don’t know if that’s what Greg brought me in for last year, but he didn’t communicate that to me. I don’t think many coaches would. The big thing is, as you get to this age and you’re older and you’ve been in, all you want is the honesty. If I’m going to be that role player, please tell me.

I’ve had this time to look at my career and look at everything and we’ve been waiting for this league to start up again. I just want to play. Right now all I’m thinking in my head is how excited I am to be able to go out to LA for one, maybe two weeks, if I get to stay and just play soccer and just worry about that. In all this time in between I’ve had to figure out how to pay health insurance every month and how I’m going to pay rent.

What have you been doing to pay health insurance and rent?

Before last summer I was in constant communication with Greg trying to figure out the best way to get myself ready to go into camp. I spent the beginning of last year and my own money and took myself out to Athletes Performance, which basically runs out of the Home Depot Center. I went out there for about 3 and half weeks in January and February of last year. Then I went to Penn State and trained there. I needed to get in an atmosphere where I could be playing so I moved down to DC in the very first week of April last year and just started training down here with the Freedom and the players that were around. I got myself ready and then I went into residency and then came back and played the rest of the summer with the Freedom.

I actually got a job with National Geographic. I’ve been working with them since late August.

That sounds cool. I seem to recall that you are into nature photography.

I am and it is like my dream job to be a photographer for National Geographic, but right now I’m working in the television department with a show called Wild Chronicles, which is a show that airs on PBS. It’s fantastic. I love it. One of the producers there has a daughter that plays at UVA right now so she completely understands all my soccer goals and where I want to go and how I’m training for the league. They’ve been great. I work by the hour and then I go train. I coach as well. I have a little U-10 team that I coach.

We've posted a small gallery of pics from the Mia Hamm & Nomar Garciaparra Celebrity Soccer Challenge.

This is a short clip from my interview with Tonya Antonucci, League Commissioner of WPS at the 2008 NSCAA Convention.

We'll be dropping into Goal - The New York Times Soccer Blog from time to time to provide some perspective on the women's game. Check out our latest post on Women's Professional Soccer and be sure to give us a hand combating the soccer cavemen that show up on occassion just to bash our game.

A standing room only crowd attended the Women’s Professional Soccer’s Town Hall Meeting at the 2008 NSCAA Convention to get the scoop on the new league. The meeting was moderated by USA Today columnist Christine Brennan and had six panelists representing the league including President and General Manager of the Boston Breakers, Joe Cummings, Boston Breakers Head Coach Tony DiCicco, Chicago Owner Gary Weaver, Chicago General Manager Marcia McDermott, Sky Blue Soccer (NJ/NY) Marketing/Public Relations Manager Gloria Averbuch and former NY Power player Emily Janss. Unfortunately, League Commissioner, Tonya Antonucci was under the weather and was unable to participate.

Two attendees that were especially eager for some news were Christie Welsh and Lori Lindsey. Both played in the WUSA and are among the dwindling number of former players that have been hanging and keeping themselves ready for when and if the league ever came back. Both currently play on the Washington Freedom’s W-League team.

I chatted with them for a few minutes after the meeting to get their take.

FG: What did you guys think? Was this new information or have you been hearing things through the Washington Freedom organization?

CW: I haven’t heard much to be honest. We’ve been pretty much out of the picture and training on our own and trying to get ourselves ready for the eventual launch. Today I was hoping to hear a little bit more about what’s going to happen with players and how they are going to be allocated. Obviously, that’s going to take some time to figure out, but that’s the stuff that we’re really interested in. We want the smart people to figure out the business plan and to get that organized and then as soon as we can, to help in anyway that we can. The t-shirts they handed out, I’ll be wearing this around as much as I can to get the logo out and the name. We’re just wondering what we can do to help and what we can do to prepare.

FG: Both of you were around last time and you stuck it out and kept yourself fit, obviously hoping this was coming and then it always seemed to be “next year”. Does it seem real?

LL: I think finally it seems real. Since 2003 when the league suspended everyone’s been saying “the league’s going to be back next year, the league’s going to be back next year,” and finally I think they’re just taking their time and getting it right. I think we heard some of that today about the front office and there’s going to be more information coming about the other side of things about what we need to do to get ready to come for combines or however they’re going to select players.

FG: How many of you guys are out there that have been waiting and just trying to stay ready for the league to come back?

CW: We were just talking about that amongst ourselves on the way here. We were wondering ourselves, how many people are out there. We play in indoor leagues at night and we just ran into a couple girls the other day that still have it and are playing, but they don’t play on W-League teams and we were wondering if they were going to decide to quit the jobs that they now have and are secure financially and jump into something like this again.

LL: I think there are only like five of us.

CW: We’ve just been focused on playing in the league, whenever it is, it might be ten years from now but that’s what I’m going to do. 20 at most, maybe that are like us. We play in the league, the tournaments.

LL. We play with the National Team whenever we can.

Both Welsh and Lindsey will continue to play with the Washington Freedom this year to bridge the gap and expect that they will see more familiar faces dusting off their cleats to try and get themselves back in the mix.

* Photo - Boston Breakers President and General Manager Joe Cummings and Chicago General Manager Marcia McDermott represented Women's Professional Soccer well at their Town Hall Meeting at the 2008 NSCAA Convention. (Andy Mead/YCJ)

Heather Mitts, who is still rehabbing from an ACL injury, has been busy at the NSCAA Convention signing autographs for Under Armour and Women’s Professional Soccer. She took a short break to catch up with Fair Game readers.

Give us an update on the injury. You were in the mini-camp in December. Did you do any contact drills then?

I wasn’t supposed to, but I did. It’s so hard not to when you get out there. That’s the thing that I talked about with Pia. I’m not ready for China because I’m not ready to go out there and be 100%, so we thought maybe February coming into camp which I’m going to do on the 1st and hopefully make the Algarve Cup, without the brace, being 100% and going forward from there.
How are you feeling now?

Great. I’m in Philly right now doing double days. It feels like it did before, Now I know it’s just a matter of me getting out there and getting used to playing with the new players and the old players and getting game fit again.

Have you been following the Four Nations Tournament?

As well as I can. It’s hard when you’re not over there, but I know they’ve won both their games so far. Pia is going to do a great job. I know the players, I’ve talked to a lot of them, are really excited about going forward and obviously the Olympics.

What were your impressions of Pia from the four-day camp in December?

Luckily for me, she was my coach in Philly, so I knew her a little bit before hand. It was so much fun because I knew what to expect and it’s the same old Pia. It’s a completely different philosophy and I think it will be great for this US team to be able to go out there with a new coach and play a new style of soccer.

You’re here signing autographs at the Women’s Professional Soccer booth. What do you think now that it’s really official?

I’m so excited that it’s coming back. We need it. Not only for those kids looking forward to coming out of college and playing and little girls growing up, but also the fact that it’s going to help our Women’s National Team with the pool. We saw that when it went away, we didn’t have as many players that were training single everyday. I think it’s so important to the growth of women’s soccer here in the states.

The WUSA was critical to your development as a player.

I wouldn’t have been on the National Team if it weren’t for the league. It’s just so important for so many of those girls coming out of college that don’t have the means to be able to play every single day with the Women’s National Team. I’ve gotten so lucky from it and I know Shannon Boxx and Abby Wambach are the same story. You look at them and they are two of the best players on the team. It was detrimental not to have a league and I know we are all looking forward to it being back.