It is safe to say both male and female coaches are capable of possessing all the qualities you want in a great coach: motivational, committed, knowledgeable and can lead by example.  I’ve had more male coaches in my life than female coaches—-mostly male though high school and then two sets of women coaches in college. Across the sports, both the men and women I played for possessed these qualities, that is, that the large majority of their coaching styles overlap.

My initial reaction was to say the biggest difference in my experience was that the female coaches were stricter and the males were more laid-back. But that can most likely be attributed to the fact that the women coaches level of play was much higher... and the men I played for happened to be laid-back because that was their individual personality, not necessarily because they were male. There may be too many variables to make a conclusive call.

I know female soccer players who say they prefer a male coach, some even saying they couldn't see themselves playing for a female.

Personally, I think it comes down to what you know, what you've grown up with. Someone who's played for both male and female are probably more open-minded than someone who's grown up with just one and has had success that way.

They sometimes do: Coaching (Soccer) like the Congress is male dominated and women in both sometimes adapt their style to to that of the majority.  I think  girls and boys definitely learn differently; and, that must be understood to successfully coach either gender.  Whether the coach adapts his/ her style to his audience is up to the individual coach's ability and knowledge.

Re Female coaches being more strict than their male counterparts:  That may stem from the same reason that fathers tend to be less critical of their daughters and mothers of their sons.  Fathers are probably more objective of their daughters than their sons because they look at them as they are: without any experiential personal  factors re their own childhoods.  I'm not sure that coaches don't sometimes fall into the same trap.  If true, a male coach may be better and more objective when coaching womwn than his female counterpart-all other variables being equal.  Obviously, the same would hold true for female coaches and male players. 

in my opinion there shouldn't be any distinction between them  both. Maybe the physical aspect of training should differ slightly, but endurance and speed no....