U.S. soccer coach Anthony Hudson has two passions. Rescuing dogs is one of them

Away from the field, however, Hudson spends much of his time working with the Forgotten Dogs Foundation, a nonprofit he founded to help homeless dogs find safe haven through creative work with communities, shelters and animal care and rescue programs across the country.

“The pet overpopulation in most countries, but especially in this country, is the issue,” he said. “People are breeding these dogs and they’re literally just ending up on the streets. If they don’t get adopted, they get killed. That’s where it starts.”

The idea for the foundation was one Hudson, 42, long considered but repeatedly put off because of soccer. After a 10-year playing career with four teams in three countries, Hudson embarked on an even more peripatetic coaching career, working in Wales, Bahrain, New Zealand and MLS before joining U.S. Soccer in Chicago three years ago.

“I kept saying, ‘I want to do something,’ and then because of my job, I always said I was too busy,” said Hudson, who has used his travels to volunteer at animal shelters around the world. “When I came to Chicago, I’m like ‘I’ve got to stop using that as an excuse.’”

U.S. coach Anthony Hudson shakes hands with players on the bench before an international friendly against Colombia on Jan. 28.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

Instead, he used soccer as a platform, naming former Premier League coach Harry Redknapp and women’s national team players Rose Lavelle and Jane Campbell to the foundation’s 10-member board while holding soccer clinics and tournaments as fundraisers.

“We wanted to use soccer and our contacts to raise money for programs that are doing really, really good things,” he said.

Those programs include Tails of Redemption with the Cook County (Ill.) sheriff’s department, in which jailed detainees work with troubled shelter dogs to increase their chances for adoption. Or the MLS’ Chicago Fire assisting with fundraising soccer camps and the Chicago Red Stars taking the pitch before an NWSL game last season alongside shelter dogs needing forever homes; all four dogs were quickly adopted.

There are budding partnerships between the foundation and homeless facilities in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago that provide space, food and other supplies for people seeking refuge with their pets.

“Shelters here in Chicago wouldn’t allow dogs in and the city doesn’t provide anything for dogs,” Hudson said. “That’s something the foundation is trying to change.”

Dyer and Junior show off their support for the U.S. men’s national soccer team.

(Anthony Hudson)

In California, his foundation has supported Assembly Bill 1215, which would make it easier for shelters to accommodate and care for pets, a law that would have immediate benefits for as many as 7,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County.

While all that has proven to be a labor of love, Hudson also has other labors to worry about.

After Berhalter’s contract with the national team expired in December, Hudson was appointed interim manager while U.S. Soccer conducted its standard performance review of the former coach. That process has since been complicated by Berhalter’s admission he was involved in a physical altercation 32 years ago with the woman he would later marry, and by the departures of Earnie Stewart, the federation’s sporting director, and Brian McBride, general manager of the men’s national team program, the two men charged with conducting Berhalter’s review and selecting a new coach.

As a result, Hudson’s temporary gig has been extended indefinitely — meaning more time away from home and his Ridgebacks. For Hudson, who is unmarried and has no children, it’s like leaving family — which is why he grimaces when people ask if he’s ever hounded by his devotion to the dogs.

“My mom — she knows my schedule and the responsibility — she says, ‘do you ever regret it?’ It’s never crossed my mind,” he said.

“There’s mornings I walk around the city with my dogs and people are rushing to work and there’s always a moment where someone will walk past and they’ll look at the dogs and smile. Who else can have that effect?”