Darth V, surely managing your own national team is the dream of any coach? Add to that she's 52 and has spend most of the last decade overseas; perhaps she just wants to go home. Alternatively she's become bored of winning and would like a greater challenge. Certainly wouldn't have been a financial decision.

Red Auerbach, the legendary Celtics coach, said the biggest challenge coaches have is getting the players to listen. He said it's especially hard on veteran coaches. Veteran players have already heard everything the coach can possibly say. They also involuntarily tune off the coach because they've heard it before. I think good coaches know when players aren't listening as closely as they should.

I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect Auerbach's observation played a role in Sundhage's decision to step down. After two Olympic golds and a silver in the World Cup (decided with penalty kicks), there's no place for her to go but down, and she probably views time in her native Sweden as a welcome change. When she coaches Sweden against the US, expect Sweden to give the US a very tough game since she knows the US players very well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pia_Sundhag...

I have to question her decision. There is no doubt USWNT is the dominant team in women's soccer. Sweden is on the decline now losing to France in the olympic and didn't win any medals. So why would she want to leave the number 1 team in the world and coach team Sweden? Doesn't she have a much higher chance of winning a medal with USWNT then the Swedish team? Unless money is in this equation, I don't understand why she would want to coach Sweden. Will she get a higher salary with the Swedish team?

Simply retiring in glory, the next World Cup are not for a long time, there is not much else for them to do in the near future.

maybe she didnt like that whole t shirt thing....