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Stielike Named Ivory Coast Coach
(Goal.com) - Ivory Coast have appointed Former German international defender Ulrich Stielike as coach of the national team, the Elephants, on Tuesday.
Stielike replaces Frenchman Henri Michel who guided the team in the 2006 World Cup finals where they crashed out in the first round.
The 52-year-old is expected to sign a two-year renewable contract with the Ivory Coast Football Federation (Fif) on Thursday in the West African country.
He first task will be to qualify the team for the 2008 African Nations Cup in Ghana and will be in charge when the team takes on Gabon in a Nations Cup qualifier on 8 October.
Ivory Coast were impressive in this year’s Nations Cup finals where they reached the final only to lose to hosts Egypt in a penalty shootout and Stielike will be expected to take the team to higher heights with the 2010 World Cup being the next target.
Stielike made 42 international appearances for his country and was part of the team that lost to Italy in the 1982 World Cup final.
He has previously had coaching stints with Switzerland before moving to Neuchatel Xamax, Mannheim and Almeria. He also got involved in the German national team in 1998 when he became assistant to Erich Ribbeck and before taking over the youth team in 2000.
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Comments
Man oh man!
Those players are gonna trip bigtime having this german dude in charge.Those germans really are strict I bet he will have them marching doing the goose step doing push ups & drinkin german beer which is cool i guess and wearin storm trooper boots when they work out this guys gonna whip them into shape 4 sure! haha
Posted by: Robbie Quaid | September 14, 2006 01:45 PM
This could potentially work out very well.
The weakness of the African nations on the international stage has never been talent or skill. Discipline and defensive shape are usually the downfall against the top teams. Considering this is typically the strongpoint of the German game, maybe this will result in a beautiful marriage of the pace, creativity and skill the African players have shown with the disciplined team defending influence of the Germans.
As long as it doesn't stifle their creative attacking play, it could bring the Ivory Coast to the next level. I hope it does as they are such an exciting team to watch already, and have some talented young players that will be in their prime and already have World Cup experience come 2010.
Posted by: Heath Young | September 14, 2006 03:11 PM
Ivory coast,Ghana,Nigeria,Cameroon,just to name some are good individual players teams,the players all play on top european teams,they are not disciplined ,nor coached the lack of experience and the right mental attitude cripples the great talent they have.Just look at the players playing in the clubs: Example Essian,Drogba ,Eto (remember Weah)and so on, on the club level they are great but the national team struggles.
Posted by: Tony p | September 14, 2006 08:52 PM
I think the appointment of a German coach is the best thing that could have happenned. Although we have great players, we do not have a team because they do not play as one man on the pitch. Ulrich Stieleke, i hope, will bring the defensive stability that is lacking to Ivory coast, and it shouldn't be that difficult with players like Kolo Touré (Arsenal), Zoro Marc (Messian), Boka Arthur (Stuttgard), Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal), Abdoulaye Meite (Bolton) and Steve Gohouri (Bern). A part from the defense, the real challenge for Stieleke will be to find a strong goalkeeper.. the real weakness of our squad... JJ Tizie is the most experienced one but he is too old and should be dropped in favour of the young players like, Barry Copa (Beveren), Stephan Loboué, Gerard Gnanhouan or Daniel Yeboah... anyway.. Ivory Coast needs to find a good goal keeper. The strongest point of the team is the attack... with Drogba (Chelsea), Dindane (Lens), Kone Arouna (PSV Eindhoven), Baky (Nice), Kalou B (PSG), Sanogo (Hamburg).. he will have enough fire power to produce the goals... and in midfield with Kader Keita (Lille), Akale (Auxerre), Diane (PSG), Ettien (Levante), Romaric (Le Mans), Zokora (Tottenham), Yaya Toure (Monaco), Manfredi (Lazio), Demel (Hamburg) and Fae (Nantes)... he will have the best players he dreamt of managing one day.
Posted by: Franck | September 16, 2006 11:58 AM