University of San Francisco Athletics

Lothar Osiander was born on November 8, 1939 in Munich, Germany. His family moved to San Francisco in 1958, and he attended Mission High School. He attended City College for his freshman year and then USF, where he played on the men’s soccer team, under coach Steve Negoesco. In 1966, they won the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship. He graduated with degrees in Physical Education and in Spanish in 1968. He gained his citizenship in 1965. Soon after graduation, he started his soccer coaching career as Assistant Coach to the California Surf, based in Anaheim, CA, in the North American Soccer League (NASL). He then returned to the Bay Area and became a waiter at Graziano’s restaurant while playing and coaching in the city’s soccer leagues.
 
In 1974, Osiander coached for the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF), traveling across the country to hold clinics with Walter Chyzowych. He became well-known as an excellent coach and teacher and was hired by the U.S. Olympic Committee as a West Team Soccer Coach, and worked for them from 1978 to 1988. Concurrently, he coached the San Francisco Greek-Americans to a National Challenge Cup Title in 1985. He moved into the Head Coach position of the United States Olympic team as it was being rebuilt. Osiander qualified his team for the 1988 Summer Olympics in games against Canada. After an initial loss to them 2-0, they won the second round, then defeated Trinidad and El Salvador. In Seoul, however they failed to make the second round with a 1-1-1 record. In 1989, the USOC released Osiander despite his record of Olympic qualification and successful first round World Cup qualification. His international record was 13-7.
 
Osiander continued teaching B-teams, including the U-23 national team. When the USSF began signing players, they formed an A-team and Osiander coached the U-23 team to a gold medal at the Pan American Games in Cuba, and then helped prepare them for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. But for some reason, Osiander benched his leading scorer, Steve Snow, and the team lost 2-1 to Italy. Snow played the next two games, but they failed to make the second round. The USSF president fired Osiander from the Olympics.
 
When he was not coaching, Osiander continued to work at Graziano’s and was promoted to Maitre d’ until the restaurant was sold and he was let go. Unemployed, he worked as an Assistant Coach to the Palo Alto Firebirds in the American Professional Soccer League (APSL), and coached the San Francisco Greek-Americans to a second U.S. Open Cup Title, but was forced into full-time coaching. The A-League Atlanta Ruckus hired him as its first coach, and he was honored as A-League Coach of the Year. He was recruited by the Los Angeles Galaxy in the Major League Soccer Club, and they finished with a 19-13 record. They went on to play the championship game but when they lost to the D.C. United, he was fired. In January, 1998, the Tampa Bay Mutiny hired him as an Assistant Coach, and he left in 1999 for the MLS Project 40 Team. Later that year, when the MLS Project was eliminated from the United Soccer playoffs, he began coaching the San Jose Earthquakes, then known as the Clash. He was fired at the end of the next season when the team finished 7-17-8. He returned to San Francisco to coach the Greek-Americans, and local youth teams, including the U-17 Ballistic Boys who won the 2003 California State Cup. He also coached the San Ramon United, the U-16 Tri-Valley Boys, and the U-19 Tri-Valley Arsenal. In 2007, the NSCCA awarded Osiander the Walt Chyzowych Award.