Former U.S. team captain Thomas Dooley was named coach of the Philippines national soccer team, the Associated Press reported Friday, making him the sixth American since 2002 to coach a national team outside the United States.

Dooley, of Laguna Niguel, had 81 caps with the U.S., playing in the 1994 World Cup and captaining the team in the 1998 tournament. The defender spent much of his career in Germany, playing for four clubs before joining Major League Soccer, where he played with Columbus and the New York Metro Stars.

His previous coaching experience included two years with the German club Saarbrucken. Dooley, 52, signed a one-year contract with the Philippines and said he will begin work immediately to prepare the team for the Asia Challenge Cup in May, an event he sees as a step toward a possible World Cup opportunity.

“Forget about the World Cup,” Dooley told reporters in Manila. “We are so far away from that that if they don’t win the Challenge Cup we can’t play in the next 25 years for that. But if we win the Challenge Cup, we have another goal then.”


The German-born Dooley, the son of a U.S. serviceman, joins former coaches Steve Sampson (Costa Rica), Bob Bradley (Egypt), Thomas Rongen (American Samoa) and current coaches Ian Mork (Belize) and Jack Stefanowski (Nepal) as Americans coaching national teams overseas.

ALSO:

Chris Kaman confused by foul calls in Lakers-Cavaliers game

Injuries: Not a single Laker has played in every game this season

Mitch Kupchak: ‘Unfortunately, we’re going to have a good draft pick’