Mark Stephen Sampson was born on January 19,1957 and is an American soccer coach.
16 Facts About Steve Sampson
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Steve Sampson is the former head coach of both the United States men's national team and the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer.
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Steve Sampson attended UCLA briefly before transferring to Foothill Community College, located in Los Altos Hills, California, in 1975.
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Steve Sampson then transferred to San Jose State University in 1977.
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Steve Sampson graduated from San Jose State in 1979 with a minor in Spanish, which he later used as coach of the Costa Rica national team.
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Steve Sampson was named the 1989 NCAA Men's Soccer Coach of the Year.
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Steve Sampson attempted to improve the team by looking for Americans playing in Europe.
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David Regis was the most talented of those Steve Sampson brought in but was impacted by delays in gaining his citizenship.
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Steve Sampson gave a variety of reasons, from Harkes' lack of leadership, Harkes wanting a more offensive role, and behavioral issues unbecoming of a national team player.
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When Steve Sampson changed the system in the second half his team showed promise but was thwarted by an exceptional strike by Jurgen Klinsmann.
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In February 2010, Steve Sampson said that John Harkes was dropped from the 1998 World Cup because of an affair between Harkes and Amy Wynalda, then the wife of US striker Eric Wynalda.
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Long rumored as the reason Harkes was dropped, Steve Sampson finally cleared the air after Eric Wynalda confirmed the rumors during a discussion about the situation for the English National team in the run up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
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Steve Sampson was hired as the LA Galaxy coach on August 18,2004, replacing Sigi Schmid.
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Many of the players whom Steve Sampson had brought into the team were absent from the Galaxy squad due to national team commitments for the US, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.
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The Galaxy failed to build on their success in the 2005 season and Steve Sampson was fired on June 6,2006, after Alexi Lalas, who played for Steve Sampson on the US National Team, was hired as president.
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Steve Sampson was hired as the head men's soccer coach at California Polytechnic State University on December 4,2014.