Brian Bliss

{{Infobox football biography

| name = Brian Bliss

| image =

| fullname = Brian Boyer Bliss

| height = {{height|ft=5|in=8}}

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1965|9|28}}

| birth_place = Webster, New York, United States

| position = Defender

| currentclub = Sporting Kansas City (Director of Player Personnel)

| death_date =

| death_place =

| collegeyears1 = 1983–1986

| college1 = Southern Connecticut Owls

| years1 = 1987–1988

| clubs1 = Cleveland Force

| caps1 = 51

| goals1 = 4

| years2 = 1989

| clubs2 = Albany Capitals

| caps2 = 5

| goals2 = 0

| years3 = 1990

| clubs3 = Boston Bolts

| caps3 = ?

| goals3 = ?

| years4 = 1990–1991

| clubs4 = Energie Cottbus

| caps4 = 13

| goals4 = 1

| years5 = 1991

| clubs5 = Chemnitzer FC

| caps5 = 12

| goals5 = 0

| years6 = 1992–1996

| clubs6 = FC Carl Zeiss Jena

| caps6 = 83

| goals6 = 1

| years7 = 1996–1997

| clubs7 = Columbus Crew

| caps7 = 31

| goals7 = 2

| years8 = 1997

| clubs8 = MetroStars

| caps8 = 16

| goals8 = 0

| years9 = 1998

| clubs9 = Kansas City Wizards

| caps9 = 3

| goals9 = 0

| years10 = 1999

| clubs10 = Connecticut Wolves

| caps10 = 22

| goals10 = 0

| totalcaps = 236

| totalgoals = 8

| nationalyears1 = 1984–1995

| nationalteam1 = United States

| nationalcaps1 = 33

| nationalgoals1 = 2

| manageryears1 = 1999

| managerclubs1 = Connecticut Wolves

| manageryears2 = 2000–2006

| managerclubs2 = Kansas City Wizards (assistant)

| manageryears3 = 2006

| managerclubs3 = Kansas City Wizards (interim)

| manageryears4 = 2012–2013

| managerclubs4 = United States U20 (assistant)

| manageryears5 = 2013

| managerclubs5 = Columbus Crew (interim)

| manageryears6 = 2015

| managerclubs6 = Chicago Fire (interim)

}}

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.

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.

Playing 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.{{cite web|url=http://a-leaguearchive.tripod.com/1990/statsasl90.htm1990|title=ASL 1990 Season|access-date=March 17, 2012|publisher=a-leaguearchive.tripod.com|date=January 27, 2007|archive-date=March 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330144821/http://a-leaguearchive.tripod.com/1990/statsasl90.htm1990|url-status=dead}}

=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.{{cite web | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/02/sports/us-roster-selected-for-the-world-cup.html | title = U.S. Roster Selected For the World Cup | date = June 2, 1994 | work=The New York Times | access-date = March 17, 2012}}

=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.

Coaching career

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.{{cite web |url=http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2013/12/06/chicago-fire-name-longtime-columbus-crew-fixture-brian-bliss-new-technical-d |title=Chicago Fire name longtime Columbus Crew fixture Brian Bliss as new technical director |publisher=MLSsoccer.com |date=December 6, 2013 |access-date=December 6, 2013 |archive-date=December 5, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141205200950/http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2013/12/06/chicago-fire-name-longtime-columbus-crew-fixture-brian-bliss-new-technical-d |url-status=dead }}

On September 20, 2015, Bliss was named interim coach of the Chicago Fire, while retaining his technical director duties at the club.{{cite web |url=http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2015/09/20/chicago-fire-part-ways-head-coach-frank-yallop-announce-nelson-rodriguez-new |title=Chicago Fire part ways with head coach Frank Yallop |publisher=MLSsoccer.com |date=September 20, 2015 |access-date=September 20, 2015 |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923060422/http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2015/09/20/chicago-fire-part-ways-head-coach-frank-yallop-announce-nelson-rodriguez-new |url-status=dead }}

He joined Sporting Kansas City as Director of Player Personnel in January 2016.{{cite web|url=https://www.sportingkc.com/post/2016/01/05/sporting-kc-names-brian-bliss-director-player-personnel|title=Sporting KC names Brian Bliss Director of Player Personnel|publisher=MLS|date=January 5, 2016|access-date=December 4, 2017}}

Career statistics

class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" ! # !! Date !! Venue !! Opponent !! Goals !! Result !! Competition
1	December 2, 1984	Miami, Florida	{{fb\|ECU}}	-	2-2	Friendly
2	June 8, 1987	Seoul, South Korea	{{fb\|EGY}}	-	1-3	Friendly
3	June 16, 1987	Chongju, South Korea	{{fb\|THA}}	-	1-0	Friendly
4	June 12, 1988	Fort Worth, Texas	{{fb\|ECU}}	-	0–0	Friendly
5	July 13, 1988	New Britain, Connecticut	{{fb\|POL}}	-	0–2	Friendly
6	July 24, 1988	Kingston, Jamaica	{{fb\|JAM}}	-	0-0	1990 World Cup Qualifying
7	August 13, 1988	St. Louis, Missouri	{{fb\|JAM}}	1	5–1	1990 World Cup Qualifying
8	April 16, 1989	San Jose, Costa Rica	{{fb\|CRC}}	-	0–1	1990 World Cup Qualifying
9	April 30, 1989	St. Louis, Missouri	{{fb\|CRC}}	-	1–0	1990 World Cup Qualifying
10	June 4, 1989	East Rutherford, New Jersey	{{fb\|PER}}	1	3-0	Friendly
11	June 17, 1989	New Britain, Connecticut	{{fb\|GUA}}	-	2-1	1990 World Cup Qualifying
12	June 24, 1989	Miami, Florida	{{fb\|COL}}	-	0–1	Friendly
13	August 13, 1989	Los Angeles, California	{{fb\|KOR}}	-	1-2	Friendly
14	September 17, 1989	Tegucigalpa, Honduras	{{fb\|SLV}}	-	1–0	1990 World Cup Qualifying
15	October 8, 1989	Guatemala City, Guatemala	{{fb\|GUA}}	-	0–0	1990 World Cup Qualifying
16	November 5, 1989	St. Louis, Missouri	{{fb\|SLV}}	-	0–0	1990 World Cup Qualifying
17	November 14, 1989	Cocoa Beach, Florida	{{fb\|BER}}	-	2-1	Friendly
18	November 19, 1989	Port of Spain, Trinidad	{{fb\|TRI}}	-	1-0	1990 World Cup Qualifying
19	March 30, 1990	Budapest, Hungary	{{fb\|HUN}}	-	0-2	Friendly
20	April 22, 1990	Miami, Florida	{{fb\|COL}}	-	0-1	Friendly
21	May 5, 1990	Piscataway, New Jersey	{{fb\|MLT}}	-	1-0	Friendly
22	May 30, 1990	Eschen, Liechtenstein	{{fb\|LIE}}	-	4–1	Friendly
23	June 19, 1990	Florence, Italy	{{fb\|AUT}}	-	1–2	1990 FIFA World Cup
24	July 28, 1990	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	{{fb\|GDR}}	-	1–2	Friendly
25	September 15, 1990	High Point, North Carolina	{{fb\|TRI}}	-	3–0	Friendly
26	November 18, 1990	Port of Spain, Trinidad	{{fb\|TRI}}	-	0–0	Friendly
27	November 21, 1990	Port of Spain, Trinidad	{{fb\|URS}}	-	0-0	Friendly
28	December 18, 1993	Palo Alto, California	{{fb\|GER}}	-	0–3	Friendly
29	May 25, 1994	Piscataway, New Jersey	{{fb\|SAU}}	-	0–0	Friendly
30	June 11, 1995	Foxborough, Massachusetts	{{fb\|NGA}}	-	3-2	Friendly
31	June 25, 1995	Piscataway, New Jersey	{{fb\|COL}}	-	0-0	Friendly

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20120705085702/http://ussoccerplayers.typepad.com/ussoccerplayers/bliss-brian.html Brian Bliss] at USSoccerPlayers.com
{{FIFA player|174408}}

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Category:1965 births

Category:Living people

Category:1990 FIFA World Cup players

Category:1995 Copa América players

Category:2. Bundesliga players