(Photo Credit OFC Media via Phototek)
WORDS | Coen Lammers
Juan Chang Urrea is a living testament to how ‘Football Unites the World.’
The 36-year-old coach wrote history last month when he coached the first ever Samoan football team to a FIFA World Cup, by finishing as runners-up at the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship in Fiji.
After an incredible journey that covered clubs and teams across many continents, the German-born, New Zealand-based, former Guatemalan youth international with a father from El Salvador, as well as Croatian heritage, may have found his ultimate destiny on the small Pacific Island country.
“My heart belongs to Samoa,” smiles the amicable Guatemalan football chameleon, who wrote himself into the Samoan football folklore after qualifying one of the smallest and lowest ranked countries in the world to a FIFA finals tournament.
Samoa is ranked 101 in the FIFA women’s rankings and 190 in the FIFA men’s rankings, but Chang Urrea has made incredible strides with his women’s teams over the past 16 months. He believes the best is yet to come.
“I am very grateful for the trust President Sam (Petaia) and the Football Federation Samoa (FFS) has put into me and trust the process to improve with every tournament. It is exciting to imagine how good these players can become in the future.”
Chang Urrea is also quick to thank former Crystal Palace and Wellington Phoenix player Paul Ifill, who initially brought him into the Samoan coaching fold as his assistant for the national women’s team.
“It was incredible, the first time I landed in Apia. The feeling that hit me was overwhelming. I had never been in Samoa, but it felt like I had come home. I tried to explain it to my mom and she is super smart and she said, man, I think your heart might belong in Samoa.”
Unlike some other foreign coaches, the devout Christian seamlessly melted into Samoan culture where church and family are at the heart of the community.
Culture and religion are also at the core of Samoan football teams, where players raised in New Zealand or American cultures quickly learn the national anthem, the traditional Siva Samoa dance, and take turns in leading morning and evening lotu ceremony with traditional church hymns.
That cultural soul of the team was on full display during the medal ceremony at the OFC U16 Championships in Fiji when the team treated the large Samoan expat crowd in attendance to an impromptu dance performance.
“Some of the new players know a little bit of about their culture from home, but the majority, they don’t. We try to implement a lot of this Samoan culture, because it’s the most important thing for our team. That’s why I particularly ask them why they want to play for Samoa and I want the players to tell me about the importance of representing their family and their heritage.”
The Samoan diaspora has taken the estimated global Samoan population of 800,000 to every corner of the globe in search for a better life, with a quarter of a million Samoans now residing in the United States, which is more than the population of Samoa itself.
As well as upskilling the domestic talent in the Pacific, including New Zealand, Chang Urrea has been working hard to identify Samoan talent in high schools and universities around the United States.
“FFS used to work with an agency (Ten players from the squad were directly scouted by football-consultancy.com to find overseas talent) but that stopped last year, so with the support of FFS I have started contacting as many people in the US as I could. And one family leads to another, just like one club leads to another and one school leads to another school. In Utah alone, I found five Samoan players through this amazing lady at the Utah Soccer Youth Association.”
Once he finds a player, Chang Urrea checks their level of competition, asks for references from coaches as well as match footage.
“And not highlights, I want to see full games, so I can see how they play in the entire match. So yes, I spend most of my time watching footage of US school matches,” laughs the coach who is very familiar with the US system after studying and playing for three years at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa.
The Guatemalan youth international smiles when he recalls how he ended up in Oklahoma after making an impression during a friendly under-17 match against the US team who were preparing for the 2005 U17 FIFA World Cup.
“I was born in Germany, but we moved back to Guatemala when I was three and I ended up playing for my home club of Antigua. The funny thing was that I was only picked once to play for Guatemala, for that U-17 friendly against the US.
“I scored a goal and that video earned me a full scholarship in Tulsa. I remember that Omar Gonzalez was marking me and he ended up playing for the LA Galaxy. It’s crazy how things work out.”
After graduating with an international business degree, Chang Urrea was signed by the Colorado Rapids, but never made the first team, so moved to the Rochester Thunder in the USL.
When the Rochester franchise folded, the striker returned home and played two seasons for his local team, who had been promoted to the top flight.
Keen to explore a European adventure, Chang Urrea reached out to an old contact at Club Esportiu Europa in Barcelona, resulting in two memorable seasons in the third tier of Spanish football.
“It was an amazing time, living in Barcelona, five minutes from La Rambles with some great Argentinian guys and other players.”
The European journey was just another chapter in a remarkable world football tour, which then took Chang Urrea to New Zealand.
“An old Rochester team-mate, Ben Sippola, asked if I wanted to help him at the Ole Academy in Wellington, so off I went.”
The striker joined Western Suburbs in the Central League and found the richest scoring vein in his senior career, bagging 13 goals in 17 matches, and catching the eye of National League franchise Canterbury United in Christchurch.
Like many twists in his life, the South Island move was another coincidence thanks to his roommate, goalkeeper Fabian Otte, who also turned to coaching and recently joined English giants Liverpool as their goalkeeping coach.
“Canterbury United had a German coach Willy Gerdsen and Fabian wanted to go there, so he sent him lots of tapes. But because I was always scoring on those videos, Willy said ‘who is this dude?’ and signed me up,” tells the striker who landed in Christchurch late 2015 and never left.
While playing in the New Zealand National League in the summer and the local club league in the winter, Chang Urrea cut his teeth in his first coaching role, managing the second-string girls team at St Andrews College, a prominent private school in Christchurch.
With plenty of spare time on his hands, he offered to help out Head Coach Alana Gunn, who was looking after the school’s first girls team, with some analysis work.
Gunn, who claimed several National League titles as the Canterbury United women’s coach, was impressed and recommended the novice coach to local club Coastal Spirit.
Chang Urrea still works at St Andrews College as their Sports Coordinator, but says “it all started with ‘Gunny’.”
“So years later, at the OFC U-16 Championship, it was amazing that Gunny ended up on the other bench as head coach of the New Zealand U-16 national team and me coaching Samoa when we played each other in the final.”
While many coaches envisage a career and glory managing male footballers, Chang Urrea seems to have a gift inspiring women footballers.
He coached Christchurch club Coastal Spirit to five championships and four knock-out trophies in succession, made the final and two semi-finals of the national Kate Sheppard Cup competition, and was named Coach of the Year four years running.
The local success did not go unnoticed, and Samoan women’s coach Paul Ifill recommended Chang Urrea to the Samoan federation as coach for the U20 women’s team at their OFC World Cup qualifiers.
“We finished third and we were only one win away from making it to the World Cup. They told me Samoa had never made it to a semi-final before so that was pretty huge.”
The Guatemalan’s world tour then took him to the Solomon Islands as Ifill’s assistant-coach at the Pacific Games where the Samoan women’s team also made the semi-finals.
When Ifill resigned for new opportunities, Chang Urrea was given the reins for the Olympic women’s qualifying tournament in February where Samoa again fell at the semi-final stage.
As one of the lowest ranked teams in Oceania, the Samoan U-16 women initially had to play in the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship Qualifier in Auckland with the two other lowest-ranked teams, which they won convincingly, before embarking on their historic campaign to qualify for next year’s FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco.
Chang Urrea attributes his coaching success to consistency and perseverance.
“Consistency is vital, especially in the youth age groups, to gain their trust. It’s massive. And not just with the players, but with the parents, to send them the message that you’re trying to build something with players and parents.”
Chang Urrea provides one example of earning that trust, when he flew halfway across the world to get face-to-face with Brielle Tautua and her father.
“She was on the verge of playing for us, but she wasn’t sure, so I flew to the US, rang my sister in LA and asked her to give me a ride to this Starbucks somewhere in southern California to talk to them about the opportunity. Amazing family.”
A few months later that same Brielle Tautua was named Player of the Match in the pivotal semi-final against New Caledonia to earn Samoa their first ever ticket to a FIFA World Cup.
Asked why he has been so successful with women’s teams, Chang Urrea refers to his upbringing in a household with strong women.
“My dad worked very hard and was not home much and my brother was still in Germany, so I grew up with three sisters and my mum and I learned how to stay on the good side of all those females,” he grins.
“I have been part of many men’s locker rooms and have worked with many female players and I discovered the big difference in football.
“Men need to play good to feel good. Women need to feel good to play good.”