Brian Bliss

Brian Boyer Bliss (born September 28, 1965) is an American retired 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.

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.

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.

On September 20, 2015, Bliss was named interim coach of the Chicago Fire, while retaining his technical director duties at the club.

He joined Sporting Kansas City as Director of Player Personnel in January 2016.

Career statistics Date Venue Opponent Goals Result Competition 1 December 2, 1984 Miami, Florida - 2-2 Friendly 2 June 8, 1987 Seoul, South Korea - 1-3 Friendly 3 June 16, 1987 Chongju, South Korea - 1-0 Friendly 4 June 12, 1988 Fort Worth, Texas - 0–0 Friendly 5 July 13, 1988 New Britain, Connecticut - 0–2 Friendly 6 July 24, 1988 Kingston, Jamaica - 0-0 1990 World Cup Qualifying 7 August 13, 1988 St. Louis, Missouri 1 5–1 1990 World Cup Qualifying 8 April 16, 1989 San Jose, Costa Rica - 0–1 1990 World Cup Qualifying 9 April 30, 1989 St. Louis, Missouri - 1–0 1990 World Cup Qualifying 10 June 4, 1989 East Rutherford, New Jersey 1 3-0 Friendly 11 June 17, 1989 New Britain, Connecticut - 2-1 1990 World Cup Qualifying 12 June 24, 1989 Miami, Florida - 0–1 Friendly 13 August 13, 1989 Los Angeles, California - 1-2 Friendly 14 September 17, 1989 Tegucigalpa, Honduras - 1–0 1990 World Cup Qualifying 15 October 8, 1989 Guatemala City, Guatemala - 0–0 1990 World Cup Qualifying 16 November 5, 1989 St. Louis, Missouri - 0–0 1990 World Cup Qualifying 17 November 14, 1989 Cocoa Beach, Florida - 2-1 Friendly 18 November 19, 1989 Port of Spain, Trinidad - 1-0 1990 World Cup Qualifying 19 March 30, 1990 Budapest, Hungary - 0-2 Friendly 20 April 22, 1990 Miami, Florida - 0-1 Friendly 21 May 5, 1990 Piscataway, New Jersey - 1-0 Friendly 22 May 30, 1990 Eschen, Liechtenstein - 4–1 Friendly 23 June 19, 1990 Florence, Italy - 1–2 1990 FIFA World Cup 24 July 28, 1990 Milwaukee, Wisconsin - 1–2 Friendly 25 September 15, 1990 High Point, North Carolina - 3–0 Friendly 26 November 18, 1990 Port of Spain, Trinidad - 0–0 Friendly 27 November 21, 1990 Port of Spain, Trinidad - 0-0 Friendly 28 December 18, 1993 Palo Alto, California - 0–3 Friendly 29 May 25, 1994 Piscataway, New Jersey - 0–0 Friendly 30 June 11, 1995 Foxborough, Massachusetts - 3-2 Friendly 31 June 25, 1995 Piscataway, New Jersey - 0-0 Friendly