After guiding the Montreal Impact through a solid expansion season, Jesse Marsch has stepped down as Impact head coach.
Marsch and the Impact came to a mutual agreement on Marsch's departure.The announcement came on Saturday morning, a week after the Impact ended a season that saw them set a new MLS record for wins in a season by a Canadian team.
Former Chicago Fire head coach Denis Hamlett is in Los Angeles and will
interview for the vacant Chivas USA job Tuesday, a source told Soccer America Monday night. Hamlett
has been mentioned in various reports as a candidate for the position, along with Real Salt Lake
assistant coach Robin Fraser, U.
Peter Lowery in action for the Chicago Fire (Photo via Getty Images)
After a seemingly prolific youth career and bountiful collegiate accolades, I found myself vying for a roster spot on a very good Chicago Fire team. With midfielders like Justin Mapp, Chris Rolfe, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Logan Pause, John Thorrington, Patrick Nyarko, Steve King and other hungry young pro's all vying for starting roles, it was always going to be difficult to succeed in Chicago.
Now that we're through the holidays its time to get back to business. Hopefully KSE will make a
coaching choice this week, as this debacle of an off-season can't go on much longer. More on that
in a moment.
When a story surfaced almost a month ago detailing issues between Colorado head coach Gary Smith
and technical director Paul Bravo, it was clear one of them wouldn't be back for 2012.
As it turns out, Smith will be the one not returning.
The Colorado Rapids parted ways with Smith on Monday, announcing that they would not renew the
contract of the coach who led the Rapids to the 2010 MLS Cup title.
The Vancouver Whitecaps have parted ways with assistant coaches Denis Hamlett and Colin Miller,
the team announced on Wednesday.
With incoming head coach Martin Rennie taking the reins and acting head coach Tom Soehn moving
back to the front office, it's not a big surprise that Rennie would want to bring in his own staff,
but the move leaves two experienced assistants available for other positions.
New Chicago Fire interim head coach Frank Klopas went right to work on Tuesday conducting his
first training session and his first media sessions. The sports press was out in full press with
cameras galore. You might have even noticed the coverage on the local news stations yesterday. I
think this was in part due to Klopas' history in Chicago as a player and a famous soccer
figure.
Chicago Fire interim head coach Frank Klopas said Tuesday that the evaluation process of Carlos
de los Cobos, who was fired on Monday, began at the end of the 2010 season, when the Fire failed to
make the playoffs for just the second time in franchise history.
In any league, and in any sport,there's always going to have to be a handful of teams that
aren't doing to well. It's just the facts, and it will periodically happen to just about every
franchise.
Of course, most teams won't look at this as a chance to serve the greater good and accept the
position, and all will eventually make moves to fix whatever ails them.
The Chicago Fire never did get going under head coach Carlos De Los Cobos, and the lack of
results ultimately led to De Los Cobos departure.
The Fire fired De Los Cobos on Monday (though the team's press release said the sides have
"parted ways") and former Chicago Fire standout and front office exec Frank Klopas has been chosen
to take over as head coach.
The Vancouver Whitecaps began their inagural season in MLS with so much promise, delivering a
season-opening thrashing of Toronto FC making many wonder if this expansion team might be more
successful than most past expansion teams.
The Whitecaps haven't won a game since, and head coach Teitur Thordarson paid the price for that
on Monday by being fired by the club on Saturday night, after the team's 1-1 draw vs.
The Chicago Fire look to end their 5-game winless streak tonight. The Vancouver Whitecaps look
to pick up their first road victory in MLS history. Something's gotta give although it could end up
being a tie. Denis Hamlett returns to Chicago as an assitant coach with Vancouver. The next Chicago
Fire player to score the next goal will score the 100th Fire goal at Toyota Park.
The Strikers announced today that Daryl Shore, 41, will return as head coach of the south
Florida club previously branded as Miami FC. Shore took over the Miami FC head coaching reins
last July and guided them to a five-game unbeaten streak to end the 2010 season.
There are a couple of good stories on the Chicago Fire, Section 8, and everything Chicago soccer
that should not be missed. Let's start with Guillermo Rivera of Fire Confidential with some quotes
from Frank Klopas. On the players taking part in the MLS SuperDraft Combine right now, Klopas had
this to say:
These players have been off for a few months so it's tough to judge guys on these games, we've
seen most of them before now so we're looking for the best fit based on who's available when we
pick.
Juan Carlos Osorio, a former head coach for the Chicago Fire and New York Red Bulls who has been
coaching in Colombia, will become the new coach for Chivas USA, multiple sources, including a club
official, confirmed Wednesday to ESPN Los Angeles.
Chivas USA officials plan to make an announcement after Christmas.
Jesse Marsch wasn't afraid of going up against David Beckham in his playing days at Chivas
USA.
The 2010 season for Chivas USA wasn't really a disaster but it was certainly a disappointment
for a club that had seen the playoffs and success the previous few seasons before it. With Martin
Vasquez gone the club has to go into a new direction and get someone who can get the club headed
where the team needs to go.
To recap for any Fire fans that may have missed it yesterday, a bit of bittersweet news broke.
Former Fire defender and fan favorite Bakary Soumare is coming back to MLS. Unfortunately, it won't
be with the Fire. The Philadelphia Union gave up an undisclosed amount of cash to Vancouver to move
to the top of the allocation list and sign Soumare to a multi-year contract.
The Colorado Rapids are set to hire FC Dallas assistant and Academy Director Oscar Pareja has
the team's new head coach, the Denver Post reported on Tuesday evening.
Pareja has beaten out a group of candidates that included Denis Hamlett, Tom Soehn and Richie
Williams. The Rapids are expected to make the announcement this week.
Well, that time off was a grand total of 3 days. Within the last hour the Rapids have announced
that Gary Smith will not be returning as head coach in 2011.
Smith was out of contract and it had been reported a month or so ago that Colorado and Gary had
agreed on financial terms for a new contract.
With Steve Nicol's tenure on the New England Revolution sideline coming to an end, the search
begins to replace a coach who was a fixture with the organization for the last decade.
Former longtime Nicol assistant Paul Mariner has to be on the radar, even though he took a
position with Toronto FC as director of player development prior to this season.
Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney writes of the Vancouver Whitecaps' hiring of Denis Hamlett to add
some MLS experience to their coaching staff.
During its job search the Vancouver Whitecaps made it clear to potential candidates that it needed
someone with MLS experience to join the staff as an assistant.
Quote: Juan Carlos Osorio, a former head coach for the Chicago Fire and New York Red Bulls who has
been coaching in Colombia, will become the new coach for Chivas USA, multiple sources, including a
club official, confirmed Wednesday to ESPN Los Angeles. So reported Scott French last week.
The last remaining head coaching vacancy in Major League Soccer sits in Colorado, where the
Rapids are expected to make a decision on their replacement for Gary Smith this week.
Four candidates have emerged as Colorado's leading contenders. Denis Hamlett, Oscar Pareja, Tom
Soehn and Richie Williams are the four men sources have told SBi are the finalists for the job.
It is almost never a mistake for a team to fire a coach. It's like a relationship - once it gets to
the point where you're seriously asking whether you should break up, you should probably break
up.
The mistake almost always ends up being the choice of replacement. In many cases, the choice could
end up being so poor that it calls into question the original decision to can the previous coach.
Chivas USA will announce Robin Fraser as its new head coach on Tuesday, according to the Salt
Lake Tribune and ESPN Deportes. The 44-year-old has spent the last four years as an
assistant with Real Salt Lake, where he has helped Jason Kreis build one of the more dominant sides
in Major League Soccer.
It's kind of hard to argue with this Ives article at this point. And man, I'm envious. Ives writes
an article trashing the living crap out of someone, and the following Saturday he lives down to
every single word. Me? I write something nice about someone, they're sure to be busted selling
crack at the preschool within 48 hours.
Sorry I went AWOL on everyone (which I'm guessing is about 5 readers at this point in the offseason
;)) for a few days, stomach flu sucks. A couple of interesting news items came out this week.
Colorado declined the options on Miguel Comminges, Danny Earls, Steven Emory, and Michael
Holody.
Holody's 3 years of service means he's eligible to be selected by other MLS teams in next week's
re-entry drafts.
First of all, Colin Clarke's name has been floated in some circles as a possible candidate, but he
just accepted the Carolina Railhawks job, so we can rule him out.
Today Jeff Plush did an interview with ColoradoRapids.com that lays out what they're looking for in
a coaching search, and a bit about what happened with Gary Smith.
A report out of Serbia claim that the Fire is interested in two young Red Star Belgrade players.
One is 25 year old striker Aleksandar Jevtic and the other is 20 year old attacking midfielder
Darko Lazovic.
Here's a Lazovic highlight video (albeit a few years old) and a look at Jevtic in action.
A recent article by SI.com's Steve Davis got me thinking about the Fire's current coaching
situation and the dismissal of the previous coach. Some members of the national media have taken
the opportunity to point out that Denis Hamlett was relieved of his duties after two consecutive
trips to the Eastern Conference final and have painted his dismissal as some egregious miscarriage
of justice.
Today's Reserve Game has so many different storylines. There's O'Brian White's probable return
to the lineup. There's the attempt by Seattle to remain perfect in this lower level competition, as
they are currently 7-0-0 with a +8 Goal Differential. Is the game open to the public or not? Which
seems like it should have a simple answer, but there were conflicting reports yesterday, and the
Vancouver Whitecaps statement on the subject provides little clarity.
