Jonatan Giráldez has joined up with the Washington Spirit, but his debut as an NWSL head coach won’t come until well into July.
Interim head coach Adrián González, who has overseen 10 wins in 14 NWSL matches, will continue as the team’s manager of record in Saturday’s home clash against the North Carolina Courage, as well as for the team’s trip to face Bay FC on July 6.
“We want to do the transition as smooth as possible,” González told reporters during a Friday press conference. “We’ve been talking with players, with different departments of course, with [Spirit GM Mark Krikorian], with [owner Michele Kang].
“I’m gonna be on the bench tomorrow [versus North Carolina], against Bay FC, and after that, we have that CBA break and summer, so we thought that it was the best option to to make that transition.”
Giráldez, who arrived in the U.S. last week, is set to fully assume the head coach role in a NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup clash against Chivas, which is set for July 21 in Philadelphia.
Washington plans to use that 15-day gap between games, as mandated by the NWSL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NWSL Players’ Association, as a sort of brief preseason to further its adaptation under Giráldez.
González said that Giráldez has been involved in training sessions and will play a part in matchday coaching, and emphasized the desire to keep the changes small and manageable for all parties.
“It’s been pretty smooth,” explained González. “We’ve been working to make that transition easy, and the team culture that we have right now, it’s unbelievable…we have the same intensity during the training sessions. We have the same routines, the trainings are similar. So, we are not changing a lot of things.”
The Spanish manager’s first league match in charge may be a massive one, though, with the Spirit resuming its NWSL campaign on August 25 with a home game against the league-leading Kansas City Current.
Spirit looking to minimize disruption
Speaking with Pro Soccer Wire on Friday, Krikorian explained that the decision has been in place for several weeks.
“All of us were involved: Jona, myself, a sports psychologist, Michele [Kang] was part of it,” explained Krikorian, who noted that Giráldez is involved with training sessions already and will “to a certain extent” be involved during these next two matches.
“We’ve taken a good look at all of the circumstances surrounding the transition with Jona arriving, and thought that probably the best approach for us to take is a slow integration…trying to create a situation that’s the least disruptive to the team,” said Krikorian.
In an interview with Pro Soccer Wire on Tuesday, Giráldez underlined the delicate balance of bringing a coach in midseason while a team is already thriving.
“It’s my responsibility to be smart, to decide what I should do in the next days [and] coming weeks,” said Giráldez. “I am [becoming] part [of the team] in the middle of the season. That is not an easy situation, and we have to make a small transition to keep helping the players, because they are the protagonists.”
Giráldez, whose hiring was confirmed all the way back in January, arrived with two staffers brought over from Barcelona. Fitness coach Andres González will join Vice President of Performance, Medical and Innovation Dawn Scott’s staff, while analyst Toni Gordo will bolster the Spirit’s analytics team.
Once the transition is complete, González will join Mike Bristol, Mami Yamaguchi, and Morinao Imaizumi as an assistant coach.
[lawrence-related id=76527,62731,75584]