Chivas USA fires Coach Martin Vasquez
Chivas USA fired Coach Martin Vasquez on Wednesday following a disappointing season in which the team finished last in the Western Conference and missed the MLS playoffs for the first time in five years.
“After this difficult season came to a close we decided to move in a different direction,” Stephen Hamilton, the team’s vice president of soccer operations, said in a statement.
Last Saturday, after the team’s season-ending 4-1 loss to the Chicago Fire, Hamilton promised the first-year head coach would be back. But Chivas decided to change course during organizational meetings earlier this week.
Vasquez, a former assistant with both the Galaxy and Chivas USA, got his first head coaching job last December after a 10-month stint with FC Bayern Munich, where he worked under Jurgen Klinsmann. But Chivas started slowly, winning just three of its first 13 matches and suffering through a franchise-record six-game losing streak. And the team never really got any better, losing six of its final seven to finish 15th in the 16-team MLS with an 8-18-4 record and 28 points.
“In the end, the results just weren’t there and we weren’t able to turn it around,” Hamilton said on the team’s website. “Ultimately this was a move we felt we had to make.”
With the MLS playoffs beginning Thursday, Hamilton said there was no timetable for naming a replacement but added that the team had already begun reviewing its options.
“Obviously, the sooner we find the right guy, the better, since we need to start preparing for 2011,” Hamilton said. “But we will make sure to find the right person for the job.”
