The San Diego Spirit on Friday will announce it has hired Omid Namazi, a veteran player and coach who has spent most of his career in the indoor game, as its head coach.
Namazi, 37, has little experience coaching women, but Spirit general manager Dave Presher — after being turned down by four prominent women's coaches — tagged him as San Diego's third coach. The Spirit is one of two WUSA clubs not to qualify for the playoffs in the league's two-year history.
The other, Boston, also hired a new coach, former Philadelphia assistant coach Pia Sundhage. The former Swedish standout had been pursued by San Diego, under Crow, at the close of the regular season.
New York also has a new coach, Scotsman Tom Sermanni, a former assistant with San Jose.
Namazi succeeds Carlos Juarez, who was dismissed in early June. Former Spirit general manager Kevin Crow served as interim coach the rest of the season; he left the team in August to become the WUSA's chief operating officer.
The former West Virginia University defender spent nine years in indoor soccer, with the Baltimore Blast and the Philadelphia Kixx. He had served as Kixx player-coach since March 1999 and guided the team — formerly owned by Comcast, the Philadelphia Charge's operator — to the MISL championship last season.
Namazi resigned his post on Thursday, four games into the MISL's second campaign. The Kixx are 3-1, with Namazi scoring one goal in two appearances. The five-time all-star and 2000-01 NPSL Defensive Player of the Year also directed the Kixx camps program and was aan ODP staff coach in New Jersey.
Namazi saw 12 minutes of action for MLS's MetroStars in 1996 and previously played for the L.A. Salsa of the American Professional Soccer League, the A-League's precursor and the top men's league in the United States before MLS.