Halifax’s Stephen Hart will be back on the sidelines as head coach of the Canadian men’s soccer team.
The Canadian Soccer Association announced Friday that Hart will serve as interim coach for the rest of the 2009 season. He replaces Dale Mitchell, who was fired in March. Hart, a native of Trinidad and Tobago who moved to Halifax nearly 30 years ago, will lead Canada to the CONCACAF Gold Cup in early July. Things get started with a friendly match in Larnaca against Cyprus on May 30. It’s not clear if the interim gig could become permanent.
“It’s quite sudden … The first task at hand is to get on with the Cyprus game and try to put something together for the Gold Cup,” Hart told Metro’s It’s Called Football show.
“To be honest, I haven’t thought about anything beyond that.”
This is Hart’s second tour of duty as head coach of the national team.
The 49-year-old also had the job on an interim basis in 2007 when Canada lost in the semifinals at the Gold Cup. Most recently he was the CSA’s technical director.
