Interview: Ike Opara and his first coaching job

Fan favorite defender Ike Opara recently was announced as the assistant coach with Sporting KC II. Opara was teammates and podcast host with the new SKC II head coach Benny Feilhaber.

Opara is a two-time MLS Defender of the Year (2017 with Sporting KC and in 2019 with Minnesota United) and he won the 2013 MLS Cup and two Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup championships over six seasons with Sporting KC from 2013-2018.

This is Ike’s first professional coaching job after a brief scouting job with Nashville.

We had a chance to chat with Ike for a few minutes on podcast row during the United Soccer Coaches Convention last week. Ike talked about why he decided to start coaching, coaching with Feilhaber and the responsibility of coaching.

Other interviews from the convention:

Matt Besler felt free to talk and he really opened up.

Please subscribe, rate & review wherever you get your podcasts! And be sure to follow Cody @ThatCodyTho, Thad @TheBackpost, and Robert @SpKCLife so you can tell us what we’ve done wrong each week.

Spotify | iTunes | Megaphone.fm | Stitcher