“The sack race.”
Those three words and their equivalents in other languages are deeply woven into the fabric of many leading soccer nations, a leading topic for fans and pundits and one of the most popular off-field betting lines for gamblers. Namely: Who’s getting fired?
Coaches tend to live on short leashes in the world’s top leagues. There were nearly as many managerial changes in the English Premier League last season as there were clubs, and it’s been a similar story in the current edition of Italy’s Serie A. Brazil’s top clubs are only a few weeks deeper into their 2024 campaign than MLS is, and already eight bosses have moved on, be it through resignations, firings or the vacancies created when one moves on to fill a new, presumably more desirable opening.
With nine weeks gone, no one’s pulled that trigger in MLS yet, despite five teams at the bottom of the standings that have won just one of their first eight league games.
That phase is nigh, though. Last year’s first in-season changes arrived on May 8, when in a strange coincidence both Gerhard Struber (New York Red Bulls) and Ezra Hendrickson (Chicago Fire) parted ways with their teams. In 2022, it was April 18, the long, slow decay of Matias “Pelado” Almeyda’s San Jose Earthquakes tenure finally reaching its official conclusion, quickly followed by D.C. United handing Hernan Losada his walking papers two days later.
While the rate of coaching churn in MLS has gradually increased over the years, it’s still widely seen as a place with more patient clubs and greater opportunities to methodically build a project. Some point to the salary budget and convoluted roster regulations, others to the lack of promotion/relegation and its other North American eccentricities.
“Our rules are really complicated. The rules don’t necessarily allow a new coach to come and go, ‘I don’t like these seven players, get rid of them and let’s get seven other players.’ It doesn’t really work that way,” Sporting KC’s Peter Vermes, the league’s longest-tenured manager at 14-plus years, told Soccer America earlier this year. “So there’s this chipping-away aspect at it, and you have to figure out a way to find some success along the way with what you have, while you’re getting to where you want to be.
“Time is an important aspect in Major League Soccer. It’s maybe not as much overseas, just because the rosters are built in such a different way.”
Even as investment, and thus the stakes, have risen over the past 10 years, most dismissals transpire late in the game, due perhaps to the forgiving nature of the playoff formats. In 2021 and 2020, the first in-season departures took place in July; in 2019 and 2016 it was May, in 2018 it was June. In 2015, the first axe didn’t fall until late August.
All that said, seats are quite warm at several spots around the league, and Matchday 10’s results did nothing to dispel the restive sense of clocks loudly ticking in several places. In descending order, here’s a look at the five coaches presently feeling the most pressure around MLS.
Nico Estevez, FC Dallas
“A constipated attack with ponderous possession.”
“With Dallas, the eye test, the underlying numbers, and the results all align.”
“Everything they try is a mess right now.”
Those are a few of the unflattering descriptions attached to Estevez’s team in recent media coverage, as performances have tailed off along its ongoing seven-game winless skid since an opening-day victory over San Jose.
The injury- and illness-imposed absences of key regulars Alan Velasco, Paxton Pomykal, Marco Farfan and Jesus Ferreira, the awkward implementation of a new 3-4-2-1 formation, the unexplained benching of linchpin center back Nkosi Tafari and plain old bad vibes — plenty has gone wrong in Frisco, some of it beyond Estevez’s control and some very much within it.
Things got worse last weekend. After back-to-back scoreless ties with St. Louis and Seattle gave at least a surface impression that the North Texans had staunched the bleeding, Saturday’s visit to the rebuilt Colorado Rapids seemed like a promising chance to pick up points. Alas, the visitors laid another egg, with an own goal on either side of halftime paving their way to a 2-1 loss in which the expected goals count was far more one-sided: 2.5-0.8 in favor of the Rapids.
“We didn’t show up, like, at all. Defending, attacking, or anything,” fumed Estevez postgame. “We were having an amazing week of training, with some confidence that we got from the game against Seattle, and then we show up here, we talk about a lot of things, everyone was ready to go, and we were late. We were seconds late to every play. And then when we get the ball, we didn’t have determination to go and score goals.”
With three of Dallas’ next five games against its in-state rivals from Austin and Houston, both the quality and spirit shown by the players will be revealing. Estevez must hope Ferreira finally returns and shows some chemistry with Petar Musa, the club-record winter signing from Benfica who cost north of $10 million and scored his second MLS goal vs. Colorado.
Luchi Gonzalez, San Jose Earthquakes
The only team below Estevez’s in the West is the Quakes side led by his predecessor at FCD. It can be argued that Gonzalez’s seat is even hotter, considering the Quakes sit dead last in the overall standings at 1-8-0 and lack a clear identity or contemporary track record of sustained competitiveness.
San Jose has shown a bit more fight, however, most notably in Saturday’s Cali Clasico loss to the LA Galaxy, in which it fell behind 3-0 after half an hour, then hauled itself back into contention with the help of a man advantage after Eriq Zavaleta’s red card, eventually losing 4-3. That’s cold comfort for supporters who already watched their team lose to their downstate rivals on home turf last month.
The Quakes have often looked outgunned, with a hefty talent gap compared to the top teams they’ve faced to date, and have dawdled with their open Designated Player slot despite a stated desire to sign a playmaker all winter. San Jose clinched the acquisition of Hernán López Muñoz, a 23-year-old River Plate playmaker currently on loan at Godoy Cruz, just before Tuesday’s MLS transfer deadline. But gaping holes remain.
No one in MLS has leaked nearly as many goals as the 24 conceded by the Quakes; they’ve allowed at least two in every game, and in such fashion as to raise doubts about their entire back line. Next week a showcase game looms: San Jose is hosting LAFC at Levi’s Stadium, the nearby NFL and 2026 World Cup venue, and will be keen to avoid embarrassment in front of what’s likely to be a bumper crowd of local soccer fans who don’t regularly turn up at PayPal Park.
Frank Klopas, Chicago Fire
Despite new ownership, big spending on multiple roster overhauls and a sentimental move back to Soldier Field, the once-proud Fire just can’t seem to figure it out. Rousing home wins over Montreal and Houston had allowed some degree of hope, only for that fragile progress to crumble in less than 45 minutes on Saturday.
Weathering a decent start from the hosts, Real Salt Lake rolled out to a 3-0 lead before halftime and eventually won 4-0 via clinical exploitation of Chicago’s errors. The defense is persistently brittle. Marquee creative presence Xherdan Shaqiri continues to underachieve. Record-breaking winter signing Hugo Cuypers has been starved for service, and homegrown phenom Brian Gutierrez picked up a knock in warmups before the RSL match.
Klopas’ long history with the club, first as a founding player and later as a front-office executive and coach, complicates questions about his job security, as does the context around his superiors. The Fire re-signed sporting director Georg Heitz and technical director Sebastian Pelzer last fall despite little success in their previous four years at the helm.
So dismissing Klopas, who they gave the coaching job on a permanent basis after his work as an interim successor to the fired Hendrickson last year, despite the Fire still not reaching the postseason, might only increase the scrutiny on the duo’s own role in the chronic underachievement.
Chicago will induct goalkeeping coach Zach Thornton, the shotstopper in its halcyon days at the turn of the century, into the “Ring of Fire,” the club’s hall of fame, when Atlanta United visit Soldier Field this weekend. A welcome break from the current gloom, or a reminder of what’s been lost?
“We all put a lot into the club, and we have people here that really care that have put the jersey on, and we love the club. We really hurt when the club has setbacks like last week,” said Klopas on Wednesday. “I don’t sleep well. Zach doesn’t either. There’s a lot more former players that are involved here now. We take it to heart, but we come the next day and try to find solutions in a positive way.”
Gary Smith, Nashville SC
Widely seen as a model club for its sensible, sustainable approach to expansion life since its 2020 MLS entry, NSC has gone stale. It’s a particularly bitter turn of events considering how passionately captain Walker Zimmerman had laid out his team’s urgent ambitions to evolve beyond mere ‘contender’ status and become legitimate members of the league’s elite.
The Coyotes have sleepwalked to a 1-3-4 league start and crashed out of Concacaf Champions Cup in an error-strewn display vs. Inter Miami. The extensive absences of Zimmerman, a cornerstone center back who made a painstaking recovery from an Achilles tendon issue only to suffer a knee injury in the Miami series, have been destabilizing.
Yet that alone can’t justify Nashville’s sudden leakiness: Their 16 goals against in MLS play ranks among the league’s worst. And there’s been little in the way of increased attacking dynamism in return; notably, record signing Sam Surridge has four goals in his first 942 MLS minutes since arriving last summer.
A side built on defensive stability and tactical pragmatism hasn’t shown much of either, and a crippling vulnerability persists on set pieces. It all doesn’t reflect particularly well on Smith, the only head coach NSC has ever known, dating back to their USL days in 2018-19. The Englishman earned plenty of credit for his role in the club’s solid start to MLS life, yet now must prove he’s also the person to chart the course to a new chapter.
Caleb Porter, New England Revolution
Taylor Twellman noted on his “Offside” podcast this week that Porter’s four points from his first eight league games (1-6-1) in charge of the Revs is the second-worst start to a coaching tenure in MLS history. A roster with seemingly ample amounts of talent and relatively recent pedigree in the form of a 2021 Supporters’ Shield has been stunningly woeful relative to its stated trophy ambitions.
Still, firing a coach after just a few months in charge, particularly one with two MLS Cup titles at two different clubs on his resume, would constitute extreme measures by MLS standards. It would also risk dredging up the conflict and confusion around Bruce Arena’s suspension and subsequent departure last year, which scuppered the Revs’ 2023. Players and staff had seemingly warmed to Porter’s more structured approach during preseason, and star playmaker Carles Gil’s decision to renew his contract through 2026 was a key signpost.
Acquiring center back Xavier Arreaga from Seattle and signing unattached goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic just before the close of the transfer window suggests sporting director Curt Onalfo will give Porter time and resources to find solutions. As woeful as New England has been, even in last place in the East it’s still just seven points back of the final playoff spot currently occupied by Charlotte.
Other notables
Austin’s Josh Wolff and New York City FC’s Nick Cushing featured in many ‘hot seat’ lists as their sides stumbled out to rough starts blemished by some ugly displays, but look more comfortable now that improved results have pushed them into mid-standings. And while Seattle has fallen far short of expectations, the Sounders’ struggles would seemingly have to stretch out quite a bit longer before longtime boss Brian Schmetzer — winner of two MLS Cups and a Concacaf Champions League — nears the chopping block.