Erica Dambach Named USWNT Assistant Coach
Update January 6, 1:44 p.m.: Dambach will continue to coach Penn State while serving as an assistant coach for the national team, Penn State Athletics confirmed Sunday evening in a release.
Original story: Penn state women’s soccer head coach Erica Dambach has been named assistant coach of the United States Women’s National Team.
— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) January 4, 2020
| Erica Walsh Dambach and Philip Poole join Vlatko Andonovski's technical staff as assistant coach and goalkeeper coach, respectively, for #JanuaryCamp in Florida. https://t.co/5fcefisphP
The announcement of Dambach’s appointment did not confirm the duration of her term as assistant coach. She’ll likely retain her position as the head coach of Penn State while she serves as an assistant, however, based on her previous national team stints.
Dambach is no stranger to the national team. She formerly served as an assistant coach for the 2008, 2011, and 2012 women’s national team squads, and was on the sideline for an Olympic qualifying campaign, a gold medal-winning run at the Beijing Olympics, and a World Cup Final appearance. She continued to coach at Penn State while working with the national team.
Dambach joins Wake Forest associate head coach Phillip Poole on head coach Vlatko Andonovski’s staff. She’ll also join program alumnae Ali Krieger and Alyssa Naeher, who were both named to the January camp roster after participating in the team’s successful World Cup campaign.
Andonovski was named head coach of the USWNT in October following the departure of two-time World Cup winner Jill Ellis. Andonovski called former Penn State defender Kaleigh Riehl, who played her final season for Penn State in the fall of 2019. She was not named to the final January camp roster.
Dambach lead the Nittany Lions to their first national title in 2015, and concluded her 13th season at the helm of the program last month with a 2-0 loss to Stanford in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Penn State has won 10 Big Ten regular season titles under Dambach while securing the conference playoff title four times.
The USWNT’s January camp, which will prepare the team for upcoming Olympic qualifying matches, begins tomorrow, January 5, in Tampa, Florida.
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