Penn State head coach Erica Dambach joins USWNT coaching staff for January training camp

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State women’s soccer head coach Erica Dambach has been named by U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Vlatko Andonovski as an assistant coach for the USWNT’s Olympic Qualifying Training Camp January 5-15 in Tampa, Florida.

Dambach will continue her duties with the Nittany Lions as the defending Big Ten Tournament champions prepare for spring practice and the upcoming 2020 women’s soccer season — her 14^th as head coach.

The USWNT training camp will prepare the two-time defending World Cup Champions for the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament January 28-February 9. The U.S. will be seeking to secure a spot in this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Dambach previously served as an assistant coach for the USWNT during the 2012 Olympic qualifying stage and won a gold medal as an assistant coach with the U.S. in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work with Vlatko and our U.S. Women’s National Team,” said Coach Dambach of her opportunity with the USWNT. “They are obviously coming off of an incredible 2019, where they won their second-straight Women’s World Cup and have started to turn their attention to the Olympic qualifiers. It’s an exciting time for women’s soccer around the world!”

Andonovski recently released his 28-player roster for the January training camp. Women’s soccer alumnae Alyssa Naeher and Ali Krieger are among those 28 players on the current roster. Krieger and Naeher were members of the 2019 Women’s World Cup championship team.

Dambach coached Naeher from 2007-09 in Happy Valley and coached Krieger during the 2008 Olympics.

In 2019, Dambach led Penn State to its eighth Big Ten Tournament Championship and seventh NCAA Round of 16 or better in the last nine seasons. Dambach has won 219 games as the head coach of the Nittany Lions, including the program’s first National Championship in 2015 and 10 Big Ten regular season titles.