Women’s soccer team discusses world cup with Sermanni

After their training session on Aug. 16, Coach Rudy Grubesky arranged for the Central Penn players and coaches to meet with Coach Tom Sermanni on a Teams call. Although he was a coach for the Canadian Women’s National Team, Coach Sermanni resides in Australia. His coaching resume includes being the head coach for the Women’s National Teams of Australia, United States and New Zealand.

In his introduction, Coach Grubesky told the team about how he met Coach Sermanni when Tom was the head coach of the Orlando Pride in the NWSL and that when his New Zealand (NZ) team was in the United States for a match with Mexico in the lead up to the 2019 World Cup, Coach G. got a chance to work with Tom’s NZ team.

Coach Sermanni talked about how teams prepare for a big tournament, such as the Women’s World Cup and provided insights into how competitive this World Cup has been.

Coach Grubesky facilitated the discussion that included Coach Sermanni talking about emerging trends in the women’s game and how the Matildas (the ASustralian team) were taking women’s and girls’ soccer in Australia to a new level. Several players asked questions about some of the players Coach Sermanni has coached over the years. Tom commented about two Brazilian players, Sissi and Marta. He also talked about coaching Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan. 

One of the Central Penn players, Kelly Kieffer, commented afterwards that, “It was very nice of him to talk to us. I enjoyed learning about his team and what it takes to be a professional player.” Kacie Hoppel added, “I thought it went really well and was very informational!” In addition, Trinity Etzweiler wrote the following, “Thank you for taking time to set that discussion up with Coach Sermanni. I appreciate it!”

Coach Sermanni wrote, “It was a pleasure talking with your team.”

Coach Grubesky said, “I think our coaches and players learned a lot from interacting with Coach Sermanni and it was awesome that he would take time out of his busy schedule to talk with us.”