Dave Sarachan, Toribio Rojas, and John Ellinger

Okay, time for a comparison. Midway through the season, an underperforming soccer team has fired their head coach. This has happened three times this year. It’s probably instructive to see what happened in each case.

The Chicago Fire

With today’s firing of Dave Sarachan, the Fire are looking to turn things around. Dave had been a successful MLS level coach, but lately seems to have lost his touch with the team. Instead of hiring a new coach right away, the Fire have opted to make Denis Hamlett (an assistant coach with the Fire since ‘98) their interim coach. This move should let them look around for an established coach, while letting Hamlett potentially win the job for himself.

While interim coaches aren’t always a good thing, the Fire have given themselves some room to work, and have put a coach in place (for now) who knows the team. We’ll see how things work out over the next month or so.

The Puerto Rico Islanders

On May 22nd, Colin Clark was hired by the Puerto Rico Islanders to replace Toribio Rojas. Colin Clarke is an experienced coach, who managed teams in the USL A-League, had a stint as an assistant coach for the MLS Dallas Burn, and went on to coach them to a Western Conference Championship. Prior to his hiring, the Islanders were 0-3-3, since his hiring, they’ve gone 2-0-2.

Real Salt Lake

Back on May 3rd, RSL fired John Ellinger and replaced him with former player Jason Kreis. Ellinger’s tenure as coach was widely viewed as a failure; he failed to develop players, produced a losing record, and was seen as managing games ineffectively. His replacement, Kreis, retired as a player the night before the move was announced, has had no coaching experience at any level, and has been the public face of numerous front office mistakes. Prior to the change, RSL was 0-2-2 (with one non-MLS win). Since the change, they are 0-3-4 (with one non-MLS win and one non-MLS loss).

Summing it up

Three coaching changes, and (not surprisingly) three different approaches. While it’s too early to tell about Chicago, it certainly seems that Puerto Rico did it right. Jason Kries was (and is) saddled with a lot of problems that aren’t his fault, but it’s hard to believe that RSL wouldn’t have done better making him an assistant coach and hiring (or at least looking for) an experienced coach for him to work under.

USL1 Coaches: Gavin Wilkinson

Gavin Wilkinson is a former New Zealand national team defender (38 caps, 1 goal), with a 10 year professional career that includes stops in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, and the US. Since retiring at the end of the 2006 season, he’s become the coach of the USL1 Portland Timbers.

As this is Wilkinson’s first year as a coach, there’s no history to post, but they’re in the middle of the table and seem to be playing better than last year.

USL1 Coaches: Colin Clarke

During his club career, Clarke was a hugely important player for the Northern Ireland national team, for whom he scored 13 goals (second behind David Healy) in 38 appearances and played in the 1986 FIFA World Cup. During his club career, Clarke played in 361 English league games, scoring 146 goals, for teams including Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Queens Park Rangers. —from Wikipedia

Richmond Kickers

Year	League	Reg. Season	Playoffs	U.S. Open Cup
1998	USISL A-League	1st, Atlantic Division	Conference Semifinals	Did Not Qualify
1999	USL A-League	2nd, Atlantic Division	Second Round	Did Not Qualify

San Diego Flash

Year	Division	League	Reg. Season	Playoffs	U.S. Open Cup
2000	2	USL A-League	2nd, Pacific	Conference Quarterfinals	3rd Round

Dallas Burn 2003, 2004, 2005

Year	Reg. Season	Playoffs	U.S. Open Cup
2003	5th, West	Did not qualify	Round of 16
2004	5th, West	Did not qualify	Quarterfinals
2005	2nd, West	Quarterfinals	Final
2006	1st, West	Quarterfinals	Quarterfinals

Virginia Beach Mariners

(team folded before the season started)

Puerto Rico Islanders

Colin Clarke was named the head coach of the Islanders on May 22, 2007. Taking over for Toribio Rojas, who will stay on with the clubs’s player development programs.

USL1 Coaches: Chiquinho de Assis

I’ve had a terrible time trying to find information about Chiquinho de Assis, the first, and only, coach of Miami FC. Most of what I’ve found has come from the press release that announced his hiring.

Before coaching, de Assis played as an offensive midfielder for a number of brazilian clube from 1970-83.

He has a great reputation for discovering and developing young talent—for example, he’s credited with discovering Dida and Adailton. He’s been a very successful coach in the youth soccer program of the brazilian club Vitoria da Bahia. He’s led them to three Philips Cup Championships and one the Professional Bahai cup twice.

2006, Miami FC/s only year of operation so far, has been quite successful for an expansion team. They played to a 11-11-6 record, and made it to the quarterfinals in the USL1 playoffs. Four games into the 2007 season they’re not doing as well, sporting an 1-3-0 record.

Season	League	Regular Season	Playoffs	US Open Cup
2006	USL First Division	5th	Quarterfinals	2nd round

USL1 Coaches: Nick DeSantis

Nick DeSantis, currently the coach of the Montreal Impact, looks like a great MLS coaching prospect. He played the game (as a midfielder) in Canada and the US for 16 years, and has recently met with incredible success as a manager. The only reason he shouldn’t get a job with the MLS would be the promotion of the Montreal Impact to the MLS (they’ve been leading the USL in attendance and on the field for the last couple of years)—and since there’s no promotion/relegation opportunity (too bad), I guess we don’t need to worry about that.

As a player:

Montreal Supra	1987-??
Montreal Impact	1993-98, 2000-03	219	21
Raleigh Express	1999
Canadian MNT	1988-97	9	1

• 2nd in games played for the Impact
• 4th on scoring list for the Impact

As a coach

Montreal Impact

2004-

84 games

49-14-21

Titles: * League Champion: 2004 (A-League) * Regular Season Champion: 2005, 2006 (USLD1) * Voyageurs Cup: 2004, 2005, 2006 * Can Am Cup: 2004 * USL1 Manager of the Year finalist 2004, 2006 * USL Manager of the Year 2005 * 15-game undefeated streak (10-0-5) in 2005

Montreal Impact standings under DeSantis

Year	League	Regular Season	Playoffs	Voyageurs Cup
2004	USL A-League	1st	Champion	Champion
2005	USL First Division	1st	Semifinals	Champion
2006	USL First Division	1st	Semifinals	Champion

If you’ve enjoyed this, please take a look at the other USL1 coaching posts I’ve made.

USL1 Coaches: Laurie Calloway

Laurie Calloway played professionally in England and the US for 18 years, from 1960-77 and 1979. He played for a variety of english clubs reaching as high as the second division (with the Blackburn Rovers). He spent his entire US career playing in California, playing for the San Jose Earthquakes.

Calloway coached the ASL Southern California Lazers in 1978, then went back to playing for a year in 1979. Since then, he has been coaching full time.

Years	Position	Team	Notes
1980	various assistant coaching positions	unknown
1981	Head Coach	California Surf (NASL)	folded after the 1981 season
1983	Head Coach	Seattle Sounders (NASL)	3rd in Division, folded after the 1983 season
1985-88	Head Coach	San Jose Earthquakes (WSA)	1985 WSA conference title, 1988 3rd place in WSA, folded after 1988 season
1991-95	Head Coach	San Francisco Bay Blackhawks (APSL)	1991 APSL championship, 1992 CONCACAF semifinals
1996-97	Head Coach	San Jose Clash (MLS)	fired midway through season
-2002	Head Coach	Des Moines Menace (USL PDL)	2002 Coach of the Year, 2002 undefeated regular season
2003-04	Head Coach	Syracuse Salty Dogs (USL2)	26-20-10, team folded after the 2004 season
2005-	Head Coach	Rochester Raging Rhinos (USL1)	2nd both seasons, reached USL1 finals in 2006, US Open Cup quarterfinals in 2005

Calloway is also know for an extensive feud with Eric Wynalda.

USL Coaches: Chris Agnello

Next on my list of coaches is Chris Agello, a coach with some deep Utah roots. He enjoyed a lot of success in what’s now the USL2 with the Utah Blitzz—winning two league championships, five conference titles, and being named Coach of the Year in 2002. His five year record was 64-21-11.

Utah Blitzz

Year	League	Regular Season	Playoffs	Open Cup
2000	USL D-3 Pro League	2nd, Western	Conference Finals	Did not qualify
2001	USL D-3 Pro League	1st, Western	Champion	2nd Round
2002	USL D-3 Pro League	1st, Western	Semifinals	2nd Round
2003	USL Pro Select League	1st, Western	Semifinals	2nd Round
2004	USL Pro Soccer League	1st, Western	Champion	3rd Round

Following his success with the Blitzz, Agnello served as an assistant coach with RSL in 2005. He then moved on to a Coach/GM role for the USL1 Portland Timbers. He didn’t fare as well there, lasting only one season, and posting a 7-15-6 record before resigning.

According to his bio at the RSL website,

Agnello was the first coach in the USL to achieve both the national title and the regular season championship.

I don’t know what Chris Agnello is doing now—google hasn’t helped much, can you?

US Men's Coaching Decision

Well, it looks like Bob Bradley won’t be the interim head coach much longer. Steven Goff’s article claims Bradley will become the ‘real’ head coach sometime in the next to weeks.

While I think Bradley’s the right man for the job, this is a change that should have been made months ago. Sunil Gulati has drawn this out, and in so doing, has created an ugly spectacle for nothing.

I hope the final word comes down soon, and I wish Bob Bradley and the USMNT the best of luck.

USL Coaches: Bob Lilley

Bob Lilley is currently the coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps, and used to coach the Montreal Impact. I can’t find a lot about him, but here’s what I’ve learned so far:

Montreal

• Voyageurs Cup: 2002, 2003
• Can Am Cup: 2003

Year	League	Regular Season	Playoffs	Voyageurs Cup
2002	USL A-League	2nd, Northeast	Conference Semifinals	Champion
2003	USL A-League	1st, Northeast	Division Finals	Champion

Vancouver

• Cascadia Cup Champions – 2004, 2005
• Nations Cup Champions – 2006

Year	League	Regular Season	Playoffs	Voyageurs Cup
2004	USL A-League	2nd, Western	Semifinals	4th
2005	USL First Division	3rd	Quarterfinals	2nd
2006	USL First Division	4th	Champion	3rd

It certainly looks like he’s been successful over the last several years. I wish I could find out what he was doing before 2002 — anyone want to share?

Coaching Merry-go-round: Who might be next?

With the recent “coaching change”: at RSL, and with the ongoing watch over other MLS coaches, I’ve been thinking about who might make good replacement coaches in the MLS. One source that I realized that I don’t know enough about are the USL1 coaches. I thought it would be worth doing the research—and then sharing it here.

Here are the current coaches:

Team	Coach
Atlanta Silverbacks	Jason Smith
California Victory	Glenn Van Straatum
Carolina RailHawks	Scott Schweitzer
Charleston Battery	Mike Anhaeuser
Miami FC	Chiquinho de Assis
Minnesota Thunder	Amos Magee
Montreal Impact	Nick De Santis
Puerto Rico Islanders	Toribio Rojas
Portland Timbers	Gavin Wilkinson
Rochester Raging Rhinos	Laurie Calloway
Seattle Sounders	Brian Schmetzer
Vancouver Whitecaps	Bob Lilley

Not listed are a couple of other names tied with both the recent USL1 and MSL are:

• Colin Clarke (who coached the now defunct Virginia Beach Mariners)
• Chris Agnello (who coached the Portland Timbers last year and was closely associated with Utah Soccer before that)

I'll follow up with more information about these coaches (as I have time to research and write things up). In the meantime, feel free to leave your comments about any and all of them.