Report: Crew SC assistants Wolff and Estevez to join U.S. National Team

A couple of Columbus Crew SC assistant coaches are joining Gregg Berhalter as members of the U.S. Men’s National Team coaching staff according to reports from Yahoo’s Doug McIntyre. Berhalter’s top assistant while in Columbus, Josh Wolff, will join him with the national team in the same capacity while fellow assistant Nico Estevez will also leave Crew SC and join Wolff and Berhalter with the USMNT.

Wolff was on the Crew SC staff for all five years of Berhalter’s tenure, joining before the 2014 season. Prior to joining Columbus, Wolff coached for a year on Ben Olsen’s staff with D.C. United. Several Black & Gold attackers have lauded Wolff’s work, including Justin Meram, Gyasi Zardes, and Ethan Finlay as he helped mold their careers during his time working with them. Over his tenure as an assistant, Wolff took on head coaching duties in one game, a 2017 loss to Toronto, when Berhalter was suspended.

Before coaching, Wolff forged a long and successful career in MLS, overseas and for the national team. He scored 80 goals in 216 games during his MLS career that had stops with the Chicago Fire, Sporting Kansas City, and United. He also played for 1860 Munich from 2006 to 2008 before returning to MLS. He was a member of the 2002 and 2006 World Cup U.S. squads, highlighting a nine-year career with the national team that saw him earn 52 caps and score nine goals.

Estevez was another early hire by Berhalter, joining Crew SC early in 2015 as the Director of Methodology. He then took over as the Director of the Academy and was promoted to the first team coaching staff before the 2017 season. He previously spent several years with Valencia CF in the academy and as the Director of Methodology. He was also interim head coach of its first team in Spain’s First Division at the end of 2013.

It’s now clear that there will be a significant restructuring of the technical staff and incoming coach Caleb Porter will have a free hand to develop the staff as he sees fit. Currently, only Pat Onstad remains from Berhalter’s staff. He is the interim general manager and has been managing day to day soccer operations during the offseason as well as his position of goalkeeper coach that he held throughout Berhalter’s tenure.