Tag: Pellegrino Matarazzo

Hoffenheim boss Matarazzo reportedly offered USMNT job

Could the USMNT be set to hire the New Jersey native?

Could the U.S. men’s national team be closing in on its new head coach?

That appears to be the case, per two reports out of Germany that strongly link Hoffenheim’s Pellegrino Matarazzo to the vacant position.

According to Kicker, Matarazzo has been offered the USMNT head coaching job and is still undecided, though he is open to to the position.

Bild was more emphatic, reporting that Matarazzo has already informed Hoffenheim that he wants to leave to take the USMNT job.

The time may be right for Matarazzo to seek out a change, as Hoffenheim is currently in the midst of some upheaval that has recently seen the club sack managing director for sport Alexander Rosen.

Matarazzo was born and raised in New Jersey before he moved to Europe for a playing career spent in Germany’s lower divisions. After retirement, Matarazzo began a coaching career that saw him earn his first head coaching role in 2019 with Stuttgart.

The 46-year-old impressed with his work at Stuttgart, and just guided unfancied Hoffenheim to a seventh-place Bundesliga finish and a European place.

Matarazzo even expressed his interest in the USMNT position last year when it was vacant, saying: “At some point, I do feel like it’s time to give back to soccer in the States but when that time will be we’ll see.”

The USMNT position has been vacant since Gregg Berhalter was dismissed last month in the wake of the team’s stunning group-stage exit at the Copa América.

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The Americans Abroad Five: Balogun already setting American records

Balogun has more goals this season than every USMNT player in the top five leagues combined

If it wasn’t already apparent, Folarin Balogun emphasized this weekend just how big of a coup his commitment to the U.S. national team was.

Balogun scored his 20th Ligue 1 goal of the season for Reims, a milestone that no American man in a top-five European league had ever reached. The previous high-water mark was the 17 goals Clint Dempsey scored with Fulham in 2011-12.

Not only is Balogun a clear upgrade on any American striker right now, he has reached a level this season that very few forwards across Europe’s top leagues have been able to match.

Did we mention he is still just 21?

Let’s kick off this week’s Five with a look at the now-confirmed USMNT forward.

Pellegrino Matarazzo interested in USMNT coaching job

The New Jersey native is currently coaching Hoffenheim

Hoffenheim head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo has said he would be interested in one day coaching the U.S. men’s national team.

Matarazzo, a New Jersey native, won plaudits for his work as Stuttgart head coach — his first full-time managerial role — as he led the club to promotion and then maintained its Bundesliga status for two seasons before he was sacked earlier this campaign.

The 45-year-old was then hired by relegation-threatened Hoffenheim in February and after a rocky start, has now guided the club to three wins and a draw in its past four games to sit 13th in the table.

Speaking to ESPN after a 1-1 draw with table-topping Bayern on Saturday, Matarazzo was asked about the USMNT job and responded that he had a desire to “give back” to the game in his home country.

“We’ll see where this (Hoffenheim) job takes me,” the coach said. “I’m open for many paths, At the moment I’m very happy to be here in the Bundesliga. At some point, I do feel like it’s time to give back to soccer in the States but when that time will be we’ll see.”

Anthony Hudson is currently serving as interim USMNT head coach after Gregg Berhalter’s contract expired at the end of 2022. U.S. Soccer has said that due to its desire to hire a sporting director first, a permanent USMNT coach may not be in place until the end of the summer.

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Pellegrino Matarazzo out at Stuttgart after nine-game winless run in Bundesliga

Stuttgart has started the season on a nine-game winless run

The list of Americans in the Bundesliga just got a bit smaller.

Pellegrino Matarazzo was dismissed by VfB Stuttgart on Monday, one day after a 1-0 home loss to Union Berlin pushed their winless start to the 2022-23 season to nine games. That poor start has left the club in 17th place with over one-quarter of the schedule played, and Stuttgart is the only Bundesliga club without a league win this season.

“Our journey together at VfB has come to an end,” said Matarazzo in a club statement announcing the move. “They’ve been eventful and wonderful years with a lot of incredible moments and memories, which will last forever. I’ll always be grateful for being given the chance to get my foot on the coaching ladder here. VfB are a special club, which you only understand once you’re a part of it. I wish this team, this club with these fans all the very best and the maximum success.”

Stuttgart sporting director Sven Mislintat said Matarazzo “more than met our expectations, and even surpassed them in many respects,” but added that “(Stuttgart) started this season with high hopes. Results thus far have unfortunately not lived up to these hopes. We’ve now reached a point at which we believe that parting with (Matarazzo) is unavoidable.”

Club CEO Alexander Wehrle praised Matarazzo, saying that “I got to know him as a special person, which makes the decision to end our work with him even harder. Ultimately, though, we came to the conclusion that a change in the coaching position was necessary in order to bring about a turnaround.”

The 44-year-old New Jersey native was hired in December of 2019, having climbed rapidly into a role as the top assistant coach at Hoffenheim under Julian Nagelsmann and Alfred Schreuder. All in all, he lead Stuttgart for 100 competitive matches, leading them to promotion in 2019-20, and following that up with a solid finish in ninth.

Last season, Stuttgart barely survived the drop, needing a stoppage-time goal on the final day of the season to keep them in the Bundesliga.

Too many red cards, not enough goals

Stuttgart were not getting blown out or looking hapless this season, despite the lack of wins. They’d picked up five draws — including coming back for a 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich  — and their -5 goal difference underlines that their losses were all close.

However, they scored one or zero goals in seven of their ten total competitive matches, with a 1-0 cup win over Dynamo Dresden on July 29 representing their only competitive victory on the season. Only Bochum, who are at the bottom of the table, have scored fewer than Stuttgart’s nine league goals on the season.

That DFB Pokal win came despite a red card for defender Waldemar Anton, which began an unfortunate trend for Stuttgart. In 10 total games on the season, Stuttgart has already suffered four red cards, including one given to Serhou Guirassy in what turned out to be Matarazzo’s final game in charge. Stuttgart has been down a man for 88 minutes already in their 2022-23 competitions, nearly 10% of the minutes they’ve played thus far.

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