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FC Dallas fires Steve Morrow

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FC Dallas has fired head coach Steve Morrow, the club announced on Tuesday.

The decision comes just two days after FC Dallas suffered an embarrassing 5-1 defeat against the Los Angeles Galaxy at Pizza Hut Park, running the club’s winless streak to four straight (0-3-1) after starting the season 2-0-2.

Reports of dissention in the FC Dallas locker room began surfacing last week (which sources close to the team have downplayed) as the team’s struggles came to a boil against the Galaxy, which tore the Hoops to shreds in front of a sold-out crowd at Pizza Hut Park.

Morrow compiled a 15-17-8 record in a season and a quarter with FC Dallas.

Who will replace Morrow? Assistant coach Marco Feruzzi is purely a stand-in for this week but a replacement has to be on the way. Leading candidates include SMU head coach Schellas Hyndman and former Dallas Burn standout and U.S. Under-17 national team assistant coach Oscar Pareja. Red Bulls assistant coach Richie Williams was also in the running when Morrow was hired and should be on the short-list, assuming the Red Bulls give FC Dallas permission to speak to Williams.

As for Bruce Arena, don’t bet on that one. Arena in Texas would NOT work. He wants a job at a stable club with some experienced leadership in place. FC Dallas isn’t that club.

What do you think of the decision? Was it too soon? Just the right time? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I know Oscar Pareja played for the Revs and Dallas.

    What else has he done? Did he play in Europe, or did he come straight from Columbia?

    Pareja was a great player, but can this translate into motivating players?

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  2. Good. I don’t understand all of the people saying it was too soon or unjust. Someone needs to fire upper management too for hiring so many lousy coaches. Dallas NEVER plays as good as their roster, and their roster is usually pretty good. I’m sure Frank Yallop would love to have half the team Dallas has. No more boring incompetent British coaches! Actually, if they insist on hiring yet another British coach, give Paul Mariner a chance.

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  3. Sorry to see Morrow go,…he seems like a decent chap,…but FC Dallas was underperforming. Packed house in a beautiful stadium against a team Dallas should roll over,…and they mail it in??? Something was really wrong.

    $5 says Richie Williams is the next FC Dallas coach. (If I am not mistaken,…I think he speaks fluent spanish which is nice when pandering to the Mexican community)

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  4. What good coach would want to take a job with a GM who is on his last year of his contract (which Hitchcock is)…

    This is a panic decision where the GM clearly has no plan… Either he is the very best poker player or the sound of his voice on the conference call today gave away that he doesn’t know what comes next…

    Not saying Morrow shouldn’t have gone, because the on-field silliness is his own construction, but to dump him with no plan B is just f-ing stupid…

    And do NOT hire the SMU coach. His teams choke year after year.

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  5. Steve Sampson was a world class moron. *THAT* is why the US did poorly at World Cup ’98. Btw, he probably needs a job …

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  6. Keep Richie Williams in NY! He needs to keep developing his coaching acumen here and we would do well to always have a good back-up coach, just in case…

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  7. Morrow before Soehn? Seems strange and DC fans will not be happy if Arena goes to Dallas because Soehn didn’t get dumped in time.

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  8. Its going to be the guys who coached PUMAS of Mexico the brazilian. Feretti i think is his name. Has an eye for young talent from what i hear.

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  9. I thought it was to soon, but after having read the fan blog of 90+ post after the game at least half of them were calling for Morrow’s Head.

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  10. Seems premature to me. They were 2nd in the West before the last game. That said, I didn’t get the impression they were getting any better any time soon. I guess they relaised they had gone as far as they could with him at the helm.

    Will they get a better coach? Who knows…

    Personally, I think Toja’s flat form probably cost him this year, man he’s been hit hard by the sophmore slump…

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  11. My first reaction was “huh?” I thought Dallas was pretty good last year; this year, not so much. But I assumed they were just off to a rough start. And I just like Morrow, too, not that I’ve followed his career very much. If there was trouble in the locker room they’ve done a pretty good job of keeping it under wraps – at least it hasn’t shown up in the sources I rely on for my news.

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  12. Apparently Morrow had lost the locker room and then fired the assistant that tried to mediate.

    Don’t know if it’s true, but it’s one possibility.

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  13. White Kix: Harkes as coach?? you want to reward the man who single-handedly torpedoed our 1998 World Cup campaign?? Remember, it was his REFUSAL to play the position assigned to him by Steve Sampson and his poisoning the attitude of the rest of the team that resulted in us being in complete disarray going into the World Cup in France. True, we had a tough draw with Germany as our first game, but we also lost to IRAN!!!!! IRAN!!!!! Harkes created the exact same type of poisonous locker room atmosphere that is plaguing Dallas now. And you think he should be a coach?? Unbelievable!

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  14. Generally speaking, I’m in favor of giving coaches more time. Especially after last season where FCD basically had LAG’s second half schedule in the first half of their season (lots of condensed games, Thursday match followed by a weekend road game, lots of road matches). I thought he did a terrific job with FCD last year. Normally that should win time. But I also agree that FCD really seems to suddenly emploded. People can reference DCU and Soehn but the difference is that FCD is a team that works hard, that Toja is an inspirational player and yet to have a string of games where they’ve played flat and a defense daydreaming despite players like Sala and Toja tells me something is internally wrong.

    As for replacements, traditionally this organization has stayed internal, coaching with assistant coach promotions. Somehow I don’t see that happening with Feruzzi. I think Pareja has to be a strong choice (team connections, coaching experience, knows MLS, an inspirational leader). I wouldn’t be surprised if either Mariner or Spencer got consideration, even though it’s mid-season.

    One guy who is tan, ready and rested….and has ties to the club…plus international pedigree…Hugo Sanchez! Plus he always said he wanted to beat the USA. If he can’t take down our NT or our Olympic side, maybe he can try to beat a club or two.

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  15. This is good……. They have to send a message to other coaches that they need to put up good numbers… Dallas has their own Stadium have a nice team.. they should not be going thru a bad spell like the one they are in now… to lose to glaxy 5-1 at home is something that they shouldnt allow to happen…. Next coach now understadn either you win or your out!

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  16. The Western Conference will be in a lot of trouble if they bring Pareja in. He’s gonna be a good one–intense and no-BS like Preki.

    There’s still plenty of good talent on this team, it just needs to be motivated (in its native language, it seems).

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  17. I think in MLS (and the US Nats, Bruce gone after the Italy game, we would have beat Ghana)we keep some coaches around too long. If they bring in Harkes as the new coach, then it was a great move, and that way he’ll be ready to take over for Bradley after 2010 (Hopefully sooner, but as I said earlier, we keep coaches to long).

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  18. As an original MLS Burn/FCD fan I can tell you that the lifeless performance against LA had to mean something. Years of hard work to build a stadium, you fill it on a beautiful day with a huge Spanish TV audience, and the team just flatlines? This is a team with heart and passion- Toja, Cooper et al- they can’t play that poorly on that stage without there being something huge lurking in the locker room. Hey, don’t bet against the Bruce- Dallas likes the big names. I hate throwball comparisons but that other Jersey guy Parcells did pretty well here.

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  19. Dallas defense plainly did not give two s***s, on any of the first four goals (when I stopped watching), as they did not even try. And Morrow just sat on the bench, doing whatever, rather than putting a boot into that defense.

    But Tom Soehn still has a job …

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  20. what about Spencer, houston’s asst. After almost becoming Chicago’s head coach, is he being considered for this gig?

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  21. A few weeks back he was linked to the manager post at Walsall in England

    “Ex-Arsenal midfielder Steve Morrow is a contender to be Walsall boss. (Daily Star)”

    from the BBC Gossip Column May 8, 2008

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  22. Hard to say without knowing exactly was going on in the locker room, but on the surface it seems way to soon to see off a coach of his quality.

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  23. Too soon. I think every head coach should get 3 years to put something together, unless they are truly toxic.

    This might have been the case in Dallas, or it might have been what happens when a talented team fails to get results on the field.

    I’m not enough of an insider or guy with good tactical knowledge to know if axing Morrow is going to make for better on-field decisions or a better locker room, but I tend to come down on the wait and see end. Continuity and stability are key ingredients to winning. See Columbus and Colorado right now and NER and the Dynamo over the past several years.

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  24. I can see the front office’s side of it. I think that with their roster, their results should have been better, and the team has looked disjointed on the field to say the least.

    So who are some candidates to replace him?

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