Brian Bliss

Brian Boyer Bliss (born September 28, 1965) is a retired American soccer defender and front office executive. He also serves as an assistant coach for the United States U-20 national team.

Brian Bliss
Personal information
Full name Brian Boyer Bliss
Date of birth (1965-09-28) September 28, 1965
Place of birth Webster, New York, United States
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Playing position(s) Defender
Club information
Current team
 Sporting Kansas City (Director of Player Personnel)
Youth career
1983–1986 Southern Connecticut State
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1987–1988 Cleveland Force 51 (4)
1989 Albany Capitals 5 (0)
1990 Boston Bolts ? (?)
1990–1991 Energie Cottbus 13 (1)
1991 Chemnitzer FC 12 (0)
1992–1996 FC Carl Zeiss Jena 83 (1)
1996–1997 Columbus Crew 31 (2)
1997 MetroStars 16 (0)
1998 Kansas City Wizards 3 (0)
1999 Connecticut Wolves 22 (0)
Total 236 (8)
National team
1984–1995 United States 33 (2)
Teams managed
1999 Connecticut Wolves
2000–2006 Kansas City Wizards (assistant)
2006 Kansas City Wizards (interim)
2012– United States U20 (assistant)
2013 Columbus Crew (interim)
2015 Chicago Fire (interim)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Bliss played professionally in Europe and the United States, including the original Major Indoor Soccer League, American Soccer League, and American Professional Soccer League. He earned forty-four caps, scoring two goals, with the U.S. national soccer team and was part of 1990 FIFA World Cup squad.

Career

Early career

Bliss attended Webster Schroeder High School in Webster, New York. After high school, he attended Southern Connecticut State University from 1983 to 1986. On December 2, 1984, Bliss earned his first cap in a 2–2 tie with Ecuador. He would not play again until 1987 when he would play two of the three U.S. games. That year, the Cleveland Force of the Major Indoor Soccer League drafted Bliss with the top pick. He would play a single season with the Force in 1987–1988. In 1988, he played in the Summer Olympics. In 1989, Bliss played five games with the Albany Capitals of the American Soccer League. However, by that time he was a regular with the national team, playing nearly every game in the team's qualification campaign for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. He played only one of the team's three games in that cup, as a substitute in the loss to Austria. In 1990, he was on the roster of the Boston Bolts of the American Professional Soccer League.[1]

European career

After the World Cup, Bliss went to Germany to play with Energie Cottbus of the 1990–91 NOFV-Oberliga. He later went on to play for Chemnitzer FC and then FC Carl Zeiss Jena. Bliss was one of the last cuts from the final 1994 FIFA World Cup roster when he tore cartilage in his knee.[2]

Major League Soccer

As Major League Soccer prepared for its first season, it began a process of equitably distributing known players to each of the league's teams. As part of this process, Bliss was allocated to the Columbus Crew. He played a season and a half for Columbus, being traded 12 games into the 1997 season to the MetroStars for A.J. Wood. Bliss finished the 1997 season with the MetroStars, but was traded by the team to the Kansas City Wizards for a first round college draft pick during the 1998 off-season. He played only three games of the 1998 season. In 1999, he finished his career with the Connecticut Wolves.

International appearances

Coaching

After retirement, he went on to coach the Connecticut Wolves of the A-League in 1999. The next year, Gansler selected him again, this time to be the assistant coach for the Wizards. On July 19, 2006, Gansler stepped down as head coach, allowing Bliss to become interim head coach for Kansas City. In March 2007, Curt Onalfo replaced Bliss as the Wizards head coach, and Bliss joined Kansas Youth Soccer as State Director of Coaching. He also coached the JV squad at Olathe Northwest Highschool where he coached Andy Cockrum who went on to play for La Masia, which is FC Barcelona's academy team.

Bliss served as the technical director of the Columbus Crew for six seasons, helping the Crew earn two Supporters' Shield and one MLS Cup. He served as interim head coach for part of the 2013 season following the dismissal of Robert Warzycha, but he was not retained as head coach and departed for Chicago following the hiring of Gregg Berhalter.[3]

On September 20, 2015, Bliss was named interim manager of the Chicago Fire, while retaining his technical director duties at the club.[4]

He joined Sporting Kansas City as Director of Player Personnel in January 2016.[5]

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References
  1. "ASL 1990 Season". a-leaguearchive.tripod.com. January 27, 2007. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
  2. "U.S. Roster Selected For the World Cup". The New York Times. June 2, 1994. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
  3. "Chicago Fire name longtime Columbus Crew fixture Brian Bliss as new technical director". MLSsoccer.com. December 6, 2013.
  4. "Chicago Fire part ways with head coach Frank Yallop". MLSsoccer.com. September 20, 2015.
  5. "Sporting KC names Brian Bliss Director of Player Personnel". MLS. January 5, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
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