Top Stories

Yallop leaves Earthquakes by mutual consent

FrankYallop1 (Getty)

By DAN KARELL

Just seven months after leading his side to the Supporters Shield, Frank Yallop’s second stint as head coach of the San Jose Earthquakes is over.

The Earthquakes announced that they had agreed to part ways with Yallop by mutual consent, naming assistant coach Mark Watson the interim coach. The move ends a nearly six-year run at the Earthquakes since taking over in 2007. Yallop also coached the original San Jose Earthquakes prior to their move to Houston from 2001 to 2003, winning MLS Coach of the Year in 2001 and in 2012.

“After John and I met this week with Frank, we all decided that it was in all of our best interests for us to part ways,” Earthquakes President Dave Kaval said in a statement. “We would like to thank Frank for all his hard work and dedication over the past six years. He has led us to some great successes as a club, including last year’s Supporters’ Shield, and he has been a true professional during his time with the organization.”

What next for Yallop? As a coach with multiple MLS Cups on his resume, he should not stay unemployed very long. It should be noted that D.C. United attempted to speak to him for their head coaching position before hiring Ben Olsen, only to have San Jose deny permission for D.C. to speak to Yallop.

What do you make of this news? Did you see this coming? Who do you see taking over in San Jose?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. This is all about Kinnear coming to SJ…maybe after the season. That is the sole reason that Doyle has been kept around, to have an inside track on Kinnear. I feel awful for Yallop. He has built this team from scratch several times with players that were unwanted on other teams…with no money at all. This is the thanks he gets after everything he has done for SJ…he gets thrown out the door on the verge of a new stadium being built…sickening…bad bad karma…this will be our 100 year curse…

    Reply
  2. Never thought Frank Yallop would be fired the very next season after winning the Supporters Shield! But SJ’s poor form this year has been unexpected also. I would think the DC has to be seriously considering making a move to get him and change the situation down there.

    Reply
  3. San Jose needs extra reinforcements for CONCACAF Champions League, mainly in the midfield (DPs types), and by then, maybe San Jose already already gelled as a team.

    Reply
  4. When Dom Kinnear was asked what did he learn from Frank, he responded with one word — “Honesty.” A good man taking the fall for a small budget and some dubious player moves. Compare his performance this time at SJ with other start from scratch expansion teams.

    Reply
  5. Well, I’m extremely disappointed, but ultimately what this means to me is the Quakes will make a hard push to bring Dom back home. I’ve often wondered if there were any wink-wink deals associated with the league moving the Quakes and the entire coaching staff to Houston. The fact that Doyle is the GM and is very tight with Kinnear. (they both played youth ball for Hugh Kinnear’s legendary South Bay team Fremont Celtic) definitely helps the scenario. Kinnear is still under contract with Houston, I believe until 2015, but stranger things have happened. I think he’d jump at the chance to come home, especially with a new stadium being built. I think there is a lot more to this than the recent performance of the Quakes. You simply don’t get rid of someone of Yallop’s caliber unless you think you have a shot at someone as good or better. And I would argue there is none better in the league than Yallop. I wish him the very best, he’s pure class.

    Kaval and Doyle – if you don’t have a line on Kinnear, you’ve made a huge mistake…you’re on the effing clock.

    Reply
  6. Gotta laugh at all the Frank Yallop criticism. This is a guy who got helped make Wondolowski into a 27 goal scorer, who managed to construct a supporters shield winning team that plays in the league’s worse facility into the supporter’s shield winner. Yeah, the style wasn’t pretty. Yeah, they had a lot of late game heroics last year. But given the budget and the facility, I don’t think there’s another coach who could have done that job. If I am DC, Chivas, or any other team with a limited budget that sucks right now, Yallop is my first call. Seriously, I can’t believe the criticism from Quakes fans for what this guy has done under the circumstances… (and as a recent Norcal transplant who has season tix for the new stadium, I’m disappointed)

    Reply
    • Cairo, you are spot on. Unfortunately, there are a lot a clueless Quake fans who think Yallop is the problem. Yallop is as good as Dom, Sigi and is a better tactican than Arena…if he had Arena’s budget, you wouldn’t be able to touch him. I’m absolutely sick over this.

      Reply
    • Why focus on 2012?

      What about the Quakes record in 2013?
      What about the Quakes record in 2011?

      The team is unwatchable. People don’t want to pay to watch Jon Busch boot the ball up to the opposing team’s center backs fifty times per game.

      Reply
      • I’ve been four times this year to see the Quakes, and my eyes haven’t burned out of my head, so the unwatchable charge certainly seems misplaced. They certainly aren’t Barcelona, but if you like excitement, banging bodies in the mixer, and an almost always unbelievably entertaining last 10 minutes of a game, then the Quakes are more than worth the very low ticket prices.
        If you’re blaming Yallop for their bad years, then maybe a little credit for the good ones is warranted. Again, give any coach in the league those resources and they will not do better. This is not the Galaxy budget…

    • Wow. I understand you like Yallop, but to insult Wondo like that? YALLOP is the reason Wondo scored 27? Wow.

      Like I said above, with Yallop, the luck was always more entertaining than the soccer.

      Reply
      • Love Wondo, and he deserves all the credit for what he’s accomplished on the field. But Yallop is the guy who gave him a chance on the field, and who built a style that suited Wondo’s poaching abilities. Put Wondo in another team’s system and I’m pretty sure you’re not seeing double digit goal totals every year…

      • I see your point but have to disagree. Wondo was given a shot, yes, but over who? Bunbury? Weaver? Not much competition there. And if he’s so good at developing talent, why didn’t Kei Kamara blossom at SJ? I think Yallop is a decent coach, but that’s about it. He’s more… hmmm… practical than tactical. How’s that? Bottom line is that the league is now beyond him, and he needed to go.

      • We can at least agree on the “go usa” chant. But Yallop will coach again in this league if he wants to. The comment that its passed him by is actually hilarious. In a league where the payroll of almost every team is less than five million dollars, Yallop is still a valuable commodity

  7. There was a sense that the tactical complexity of the league had gone beyond his comfort zone. He is known to set the team up a certain way (usually a 4-4-2) and expect the team to “figure it out” on the field. It seems like that wasn’t cutting it anymore. I’m interested to see who might replace him; there are some great pieces in San Jose to build a team that plays an attractive style of soccer. It’s also good timing in terms of the summer transfer window, could bring in a couple pieces to fill some holes in the squad.

    Reply
      • Love the rays from the soccer ball – doesn’t look like clip art at all. Bad city logo, even worse shield for a soccer club. Bet they sell a ton of merchandise with such a classic AYSO look.

      • Don’t be so defensive. Any corporate logo is fair game. Its not as if there is some deep poetic meaning hidden in the logo.

        Note: As you completely ignored the conjunction in his sentence your argument is both invalid and extremely rude. I will avoid using stronger language. But think about what you would call me…. and know i feel the same about you.

  8. I don’t follow the quakes too much bur for all he’s done for them in two stints didn’t he at least earn a little more cred to try to work it out?

    Reply
    • Yallop is a kick and pray coach who can’t keep his team in line. Always was, even with the early success. MLS just sucked just enough in 2001-2004 to make him look good. I thought last season was a blessing (wins) and a curse (Yallop stayed longer than he should have… should’ve been out after 2011. we won a total of 5 games that year). With Yallop, the luck was always more exciting than the soccer.

      Reply
      • You have no idea how good Yallop is. Quakes’s championship teams played some of the most attractive soccer the league has ever seen…unbelievable midfield play and ball movement. This idea that Yallop is strictly a boom ball coach is ridiculous.

      • Correct, I have no idea how good he is, because it seems to me he’s no good at all. It was attractive? Maybe by the standards of MLS circa 2004, but even that was a result of the players, not the coach. DeRo and Donavan in their mid-20s, Cerritos (when in form), to name but a few. None of that credit goes to Yallop. Dom, on the other hand, was and is class. I’ve been waiting for Yallop to be axed since 2010.

    • From comments on Twitter from Jeff Carlisle, Dave Kaval didn’t go into the meeting intending to fire Yallop. So either the conversation went downhill really fast, or Yallop came to the realization he wanted out. It wouldn’t surprise me if he wanted out. In his unsuccessful stints at LA Galaxy and the Candian MNT, Yallop found himself in no-win situations and seemed relieved to move on. The past few games, he was resorting to increasingly desperate measures to try to cure the team’s scoring woes. Three target forwards? A rookie forward as attacking midfielder? An unused midfielder in central defense? Nothing was working, and the team seemed devoid of ideas and confidence.

      I also have a suspicion that the actions of the refs and the Disciplinary Committee to card or suspend SJ players at every opportunity played a part in this “mutual consent” decision. I’m not saying some of those weren’t warranted, but they’ve been handed out unequally. A team can’t succeed if their key players are constantly suspended.

      I’m sad it ended this way, after last year’s great season. Good luck, Frank, and I hope you land on your feet in a good situation.

      Reply
      • I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the meeting. Must have been a major falling out between JD and Yallop. I’ve recently felt there was a lot going on in the locker room with a lack of player leadership… to the point where they needed some major personnel changes…more of a transition than a few tweaks to get the team back on track. Maybe Yallop wanted major changes and JD was on the opposite side of the fence, who knows. We’ve seen what the Quakes looked like without Yallop or Kinnear and it was awful…There aren’t a lot of coaches that can be successful on a bargain basement budget. Man, this is going to completely ruin the Galaxy game at Stanford.

      • Just watch the film with an open mind and you’ll see the league is making an example it if the quakes and let far worse tackles go without even a question example is Eddie Johnson.

    • Oh, and as for those Coach of the Year awards:

      2001 = Landon Donavan + MLS at that time
      2012 = Wondo + a whole lot of luck

      Reply
      • Finally somebody had the courage to say it!

        And you know Fergie, Jose, Pep, Carlo, Roberto, Gus, Rafa, it’s about time they get called out as well.

    • Yallop like Kinnear is a system coach but I think system teams have not been as effective in a talent diluted expanded league — 20 teams rather than 12 — where teams like LA can trot out 3 DPs. Even Kinnear’s not won since 2007.

      Yallop’s recent teams overachieve relative to talent but this year I think they’re playing to their level, not unlike DC cross-country who overachieved last year. Lightning in a bottle does not last forever, and suddenly it matters who you have.

      I also think last year’s playoff reversal of fortune underlined the importance of Bernardez (sp), and he’s still not back. Sometimes an over-achieving player or two goes out and a hustling team isn’t very good anymore. Houston doesn’t look anywhere near as good when its ideal XI is not in place.

      Even if Yallop is a roll the ball out coach that some suggest, the inconsistent performance would indicate the team itself needs help. The more apt criticism of system coaches is they tend to err on the side of trusting a system and starters and struggle to adapt to roster issues, injuries, in-game adaptability demands. Some would say that reflects limited coaching quality and I sometimes criticize Kinnear for his issues adjusting tactics to get results. But giving credit where it’s due, there is something to be said for the ruthless installation of a system with roles players suited to their jobs, Klinsi hasn’t even quite accomplished that with the USA.

      Reply

Leave a Reply to QuakerOtis Cancel reply