Figured it was time for a thread for our search for a new head coach. The 3 names that have been floated so far: Wilmer Cabrera: Apparently out of contract as Rapids assistant coach. Former head of the U.S. U-17 team. Robin Fraser: Currently RBNY assistant coach. Prior head coaching experience with Chivas USA, being fired after the 2012 season. Colorado experience as a player for the Rapids and Foxes (which means he played for current Rapids assistant coach Dave Dir). John Spencer: Currently not coaching. Prior head coaching experience with the Portland Timbers. First choice of the Rapids after Smith left, but the Timbers refused to give the Rapids permission to talk with him. Fired midway through the 2012 season. Colorado experience as a player with the Rapids, member of the Gallery of Honor.
I almost think it might be best to go Bravo as interim coach while new one is found over a hurried search. Man did i just say that
Maybe they could bring Rapidman out of retirement and let him hold the bench while they search.... Long live Rapidman!
Cabrera or Fraser. As others have said, Spencer would be a fan favorite but his coaching style at Portland was outdated.
Probably not happening ... BUT ... Terry Cooke ~ he's a fantastic youth coach, local and keeps developing players at all levels.
Seems to me if Cabrera was angling for HC job it wouldn't matter if he had signed a new contract as asst coach, it would of been superseeded with new position. More is going on here and from my view or take it looks like we have a toxic environment that no coach wants to put up with. Wasn't OP's response when asked at end of season something like coaches always have bags packed and never once said he wanted to stay here period? To bad we have little real reporting going on to get the real truth, Rapids will leak out some BS blaming something and OP will keep his mouth shut and MLS leadership will work out some deal for him to go to Dallas.
I have no info and this is just speculation - so don't take this as a rumor or inside info: Isn't Claudio Lopez still connected with the Rapids?
Put yourself in a prospects shoes: The Rapids have a reputation of being the club that hired Clavijo, because he was the cheapest Club is two years removed from removing a coach after he went to the press making everyone aware that there was conflicts between him the FO and the TD. The club then had a total make over in the front office. The club followed that with one lousy year and one average one. Veteran players left the club - no love lost for many of them, but it doesn't look good either. Club has just lost a coach who came off an average season and still has a lot to prove, but decided that for whatever reason he'd rather be unemployed than stay. It doesn't look like a great situation when Hinchey, Bravo, and Pareja were supposed to be a team that were gonna fix the Rapids: more outgoing than Plush, Bravo and Pareja on the same page... three f'n musketeers. Whatever else one might say about the three of them, I always felt like they weren't burdened by this sort of dysfunction. Turns out they are. Maybe it's not toxic, but it don't look healthy either.
Can we save the Pareja discussion for the other two threads on the topic and keep this one for discussion of the search for our next coach?
On the flip side: - Lots of young talent to work with and grow to a new coaches style. - Some serious talent on offense to work with in Torres, Brown, and Sanchez. -Taking over the helm for rookie of the year (refer to #1) - Overall the team itself is not in a shambles. If Thomas and Rivero stay there's only a couple holes to fill. - The "average" year you mention was accomplished with a lot of youth and a lot of wins with an injury ridden team, something that makes the year a bit more than "average" IMO. - OP left b/c he wanted to be in Dallas. Not CO, not NY, not Philly. Seems just as plausible as your scenario #6. Ultimately KSE and the RFO need to be willing to pay a new coach reasonably. I think more than anything if salary is not there then the Rapids will get what they pay for, or they find a diamond and then lose it.... This is one reason I'm afraid Cabrera won't be interested. He's been right next to OP through his tenure here and I am guessing he sympathizes with him. I don't know enough about Fraser to comment but his season's results at Chivas USA are concerning to me.
I'm not excited about any potential candidates named yet. I'm not as convinced as everyone else that Spencer would not work here - people have this impression that the last two years of Rapids' soccer were much more beautiful, possession-based soccer than the actual grind-it-out pragmatism with long-ball that we saw when we were actually winning games. But his overall technical acumen and ability to adjust while with Portland were pretty poor, and I don't imagine him being the guy to lead us to greatness. I want nothing to do with Fraser. I saw our reserve team records under Cabrera and he doesn't strike me as a leader of a first team. Plus I have a feeling both he and Dave Dir are on the way out with Pareja. Given the situation, I'd like to see if Pablo would be willing to come on in an assistant coach role of some kind. Don't want him as a head coach. The Claudio Lopez idea is intriguing...but he's got no coaching experience that I know of, so I'm probably intrigued mostly by his lack of a bad track record when compared to the source-reported candidates, and by the fact that it'll probably never happen. As long as we don't start thinking about guys like Onalfo, Sarachan, Soehn, etc. I won't have to bust out the CAPS lock. Given this year is already shaping up as a trainwreck...bring back Chelis!
In contrast...I'd almost take any of them just because I know they wouldn't receive the enormous cacophony of hug-boxing and knob-polishing that out last coach got (undeservedly I might add).
What prospects would be exciting? Intriguing? Satisfactory? I'm struggling to think of potential prospects. The best that could be said for most of them is that they have experience, or that they were good players (it hopefully following that they're good coaches which is questionable). Experienced (maybe they've learned - easier for a coach than a player): Robin Fraser John Spencer Martin Rennie Jesse Marsch Experience but only as a (somewhat successful) brides maid: Richie Williams Good players, notable careers, but... Terry Cooke Pablo Mastroeni Eric Wynalda Brian Mullan Ramiro Corrales Claudio Lopez Certainly not an exhaustive list, and not overly inspiring.
Not looking at any specific person, but I really hope we get someone that has been a coach previously. I would hate to live through the learning curve OP put us through again. Think of those stupid mistakes where he "over-thought" the lineup or subs. He learned a lot, let's get someone in here who learned on someone else's dime as well. rod.
That'd be my list. I'd actually be rather happy if we had Jesse Marsch under these short-notice circumstances, as he had a rather solid year managing the expansion Montreal team and was only let go because Saputo clearly has no patience to build anything. Marsch himself is not an exciting figure, but he's a guy whom I think I could actually trust not to squander the talent available to us here in Colorado. So I could be at least optimistic about next year. Wynalda would be exciting, but it's somewhere near 80% odds that ends up a total trainwreck. So while I'd be excited, I don't think it's for good reasons and wouldn't actually want him here. Mullan is interesting, but much like Lopez, I have no idea how that would pan out. I think Mullan might be too quiet a personality for coaching, but you never know.