I think so. It is my (uncomfirmed) that Clarke would have to win four games to keep the job. While he still might do so, I think it is doubtful. If the situation had not changed--HSG, new GM--he might have been given a chance next year, but the new people at the top will want thier own people. If it were my choice, I would give the nod to Brian Clough. That new liver will make all the difference. Since I am not in charge, I think it will fall to two people. First, the obvious choice, Dom at San Jose. Almost eqaully obvious, Brian Bliss from KC. Dom is the GMs man, Bliss is from another HSG organization. Whilst both are under contract, a team will never refuse to give an assistant coach a chance to get the head spot, so that will not be a problem. The biggest problem is that none of these men, except Cloughie, will be able to improve his team much. Given time, Clarke would be an excellent coach. Pity he will not be given the time.
There's also talk of Mo Johnston. However, I'm not too jazzed with what happened the last time we hired Bob Bradley's top lieutenant.
http://www.impactmontreal.com/news.asp?no_id=215 "Coach of the Year" wants to move on. Similar in age to Frank Yallop. Hmm......
There has been some rumors Dominic wants to stay with SJ long enough for Yallop to take the Canadian National team job... leaving Dom the SJ seat. Don't forget Clarke Hunt was a captain for Scheullus when he played at SMU.
Have there been any coaches who graduated from the A-league to coach MLS, at least since 1996? I genuinely don't know, but it doesn't seem like it happens a whole lot. I would be happy to give him a chance, though, he's been very successful with Montreal and Hershey.
Bob Gansler comes to mind, I'm sure there are others. It certainly wouldn't hurt to have the name "Bob Lilley" in the Dallas media market.
It's a pity that Soccer America sucks so bad when it comes to Dallas. They never have covered the team to any degree, and now that the coaching situation is in flux on a team that is as low as low gets in MLS, they have ZERO to report on hiring a new coach. When was the last time MLS Confidential actually had something you didn't know? Now multiply that by ten for Dallas. I think a number of coaches could be successful here. A head coach from the A-League that produced two winning seasons...that's a long shot. The guy from Wave United interests me too, but I don't know how many years he has there. I am betting Schellas is the guy. The NCAA season will be over soon, and I'd bet that within 14 days of SMU's last game, he's named coach. Since they will probably make it to the playoffs, it could take until the finals in December. Still leaves a lot of time to plan for a draft. he's the winningest coach in NCAA history, and the fact that he never won the title means not that much to a pro team. Wisconsin won the NCAA title. Once. Does that make that coach qualified to coach in MLS? No. Schellas built a program, he can recognize talent, develop raw and young talent, and he would probably get the approval of the coaches' "union." do I want him to coach the Dallas Whatevers for the HSG? Only if wins MLS Cup. If he does not do that, he'll be fired too.
Is this a teaching posistion? With the current make up of the team and all the draft choices for next season, is it more important that the new coach is a teacher, for the youngsters, and less important that he/she is a modivator, for the over 30 crowd?
I'm not a Lilley apologist, but let's set the record straight. http://www.montrealimpact.com/news.asp?no_id=1 That's pretty damn impressive for a professional coach. Especially one so young. If you want to call him a longshot, so be it. Only Alan Hinton has won two "Coach of the Year" awards like Lilley. And Hinton did it with the same team, the Seattle Sounders. Impressive that Lilley did it with two different teams....
thanks for the link. It explains why you think he's even got a chance. He does have a nice record with teams that are not Charleston, Rochester, Milwaukee, the sort of better financed clubs in the A-League. To me that would mean he's better than a hell of a lot of coaches out there. Thing is, I cannot see HSG hiring anyone out of the A-League. I think they will lean to an MLS assistant, or a college head coach. It's just too big a risk for HSG as operator. Gansler was not much of a risk because he was a former nats coach. If they risk their stadium debut season on a coach who has not been in a better league than the A-League, I'll be really surprised. It might not be fare, but it's risk-averse
I see the "risk-averse" point, but hiring Elliot as GM strikes me as "thinking outside the box". HSG has gotten burned (pardon the pun) by making the "safe" hire. Look at the promotion of Andrulis in Columbus. The hiring of Jefferies, the assistant to the hottest team in MLS at the time, Chicago. Those moves seemed "logical", but they proved to be disasters in the long run. SJ hired Yallop with no previous head coaching experience. Sheer genius in hindsight. There is talk of bringing Kinnear to Dallas. Again, he has no head coaching experience. Will he be another Yallop? Maybe, but he could also turn into another Jefferies. On the other hand, Lilley has proven he knows how to run an effective soccer francise not just once, but twice. His rejection of a contract extension tells me one of three things: He's leaving soccer to persue other interests (unlikely because of his age and the fact he's "on top" of his peer group) He's thinking of making a serious bid for the Canadian National Team Coaching gig. He thinks his Montreal connections are strong enough that he will get the support to run the national team. (perhaps a bit more likely, but it's strange to turn down the offer of a contract extension before the announcement of the National team coach. You would think he's just say "let me think about it for a little while" and wait until he's hired by the federation before leaving Montreal.) He's pretty sure he's going to get a shot at the "big leagues" (re:MLS). Perhaps he's already been assured of a job and is just waiting until the season is over (and the person he's replacing has finished his contract). This makes the most sense to me.
Does not mean anything in itself, but I noticed that SMU is not in the top 25 in Men's soccer this year. I don't know how much Nuñez is playing, but it seems odd SMU is not in the top 25. Maybe a bad season would make the Burn look good to Hyndman. Idle speculation.
#11 Nunez, Ramon 13 games (of 14 by SMU) 3 goals, 5 ast 11 pts 2nd on team as a 17 year old. SMU is 8-5-1.
How about this guy? With the fall of the WUSA, Omid Namazi who coached San Diego to their first ever playoff appearance would be a good candidate. He has played at the highest level in the country, and has won championships both as a player (Washington Diplomats, Mayland Bays, Philadelphia Kixx), and as a coach (Philadelphia Kixx). I remember when he was hired for San Diego last year there were a lot of doubts about him, but he went in there and got the job done. San Diego was actually one minute away from making it into the championship game. This guy is a winner. I was talking to Tatu the oter day, since Tatu knows him from indoors, he had a lot of good things to say about him!
Is this good, or not? If you think I'm kidding, I'm really not. I am distrustful of college soccer now for reasons I explained and won't repeat. But, I went to the SMU roster and saw, maybe, 3 seniors or something. Little wonder their record is not that great, they are still learning. Barring something weird, their season ends Nov. 6. Well before MLS Cup.
For a playmaking midfielder that is pretty good. Espically as he does not have a ton of help. But far more important is the ability to rasie his game to the next leve. Having seen him first hand at Burn practices he is very capable of playing at that level now. He is not someone you pick if you need help NOW. But he will be real good real soon, and has vast upside.
Nunez isn't going to be some sort of savior for the Burn. Yes, 3rd Degree thinks he's going to be a very good player, and I'm in no position to argue that, but I'd be surprised if he turned out signiifcantly better than Martino or Guevara or Memo or a number of other attacking mids in the league. I would love to have the kid on the team, but the coach should be chosen foremost based on his qualifications as a coach. The fact that he might bring a talented young player with him means pretty much nothing, considering that the Burn need more than one talented player to rebuild the roster, and that we will have 4 of the top 11 picks in next year's draft, plus an allocation. I don't think Hyndman is the best candidate, but if HSG decides he is, I sure hope it's based on a lot more than the fact that he has a relationship with Nunez.
The Martino analogy is a good one. Nunez seems a bit tougher to me, but otherwise that is pretty close. I too am not high on Schellus, for various reasons. At this point, after listening to Elliott, my gut is telling me it will come down to Colin Clarke and Mo Johnston.
If that's the case, then I'll stick with Colin Clarke. What exactly has Mo Johnston done? He's been an asst coach for what, one season? Maybe two? The Metros aren't exactly tearing it up, a la San Jose. And as El Jefe so rightly pointed out, Bob Bradley disciples haven't exactly had the same success as the Bill Walsh or Bill Parcells followers. At least Colin Clarke has seen "what not to do." If you can learn from someone else's mistakes, Colin Clarke should be a genius.