photo by Troy Taormina/USA Today Sports
By FRANCO PANIZO
For the third time in their four seasons in MLS, the Montreal Impact have made a coaching change.
The Impact announced early on Sunday morning that they have fired head coach Frank Klopas and replaced him with assistant Mauro Biello on an interim basis. Klopas’ dismissal came hours after Montreal suffered a 2-1 loss on the road to Toronto FC to fall into seventh place and out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Only one point currently separates the Impact from the postseason picture, but the club has struggled mightily this month. Montreal has gone six straight games across all competitions without a victory, and recently lost in the Canadian Championship finals to the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Still, Klopas had the Impact in the hunt for a playoff spot with about two months left in the season. Montreal also has four games in hand over sixth-placed Orlando City, which is sitting on 29 points right now.
None of that could save the Klopas from losing his job just two days before his 49th birthday, however. He departs the club after less than two years at the helm, but with a longer stint than its two previous MLS coaches, Jesse Marsch and Marco Schallibaum, that lasted just one season in Montreal.
Klopas is four months removed from helping the Impact reach the CONCACAF Champions League finals, which they lost to Club America. He did not guide Montreal to the MLS playoffs in 2014, and will not have a chance to try and do so with a squad that recently added famed striker Didier Drogba.
Biello now takes over for the second time as the Impact’s interim head coach. He previously held the position from November 2012 to January 2013, replacing Marsch until Schallibaum was hired.
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What do you think about the Impact firing Klopas? Is it a good move? See it as an unnecessary distraction that could hurt Montreal’s chances of making the playoffs? How does the club approach its next head coach hire?
Share your thoughts below.
I’m wondering if any body on this board has put together any evidence that a coaching change at this late juncture has actually achieved it’s goal?
I can think of maybe one. That’s when Doug Hamilton, the General Manager of the Galaxy, fired Sigi Schmid in mid summer and brought in Steve Sampson who went on to win the MLS cup that year. However it’s interesting to know that the Galaxy were in FIRST place in the Western Conference and were leading the MLS when Schmid was fired. This fact was widely commented on at the time and was strange for the Galaxy to fire a extremely popular and successful coach. It was now known that Doug Hamilton had been acting extremely irritable and was getting into arguments with Shmid as well as several of the Galaxy staff and front office, with someone later relating that Mr. Hamilton was suffering with some unknown maladies including but not limited to sleep apnea .Lack of sleep can make people irritable and loose focus. It was only months after that that Mr. Hamilton suffered a massive heart attack and died, which some have conjectured that his physical problems which may have influenced his judgment when he fired Sigi Schmid, although it must be noted that although Schmid had won an MLS Cup for the Galaxy 1n 2002, an Open Cup and the CCL Champions cup (forerunner to the CCL) the first round loss to the San Jose Earthquakes in the now infamous 5-2 comeback in the 1st round of the MLS Western Conference playoffs, has the Galaxy coach under fire from several sources. There was so much tension then that Sigi Shmid actually addressed the team and prepared them for his departure, but it was thought the,n that, as AEG owned so many MLS franchises at that time, it was thought he would be “transferred” to another team.
Mr Saputo though, has no maladies except for an under performing team. But it was under the management of Klopas that the Montreal Impact had one of he best title runs ever in the lead up to the CCL finals, a competition, which, put the Impact front and center in the eye of international football. With several games in hand and only points away from a position in the playoffs, it was widely thought that the addition of Drogba, the Impact were favorite to reach the playoffs. So it’s a wonder that the release of Klopas so late in the season, and the appointment of a temporary replacement with a manager with NO MLS experience, although a long time lower division Impact player, The Saputo know what they are doing. Is history with them? Is this a typical clueless owner move?
I always kind of pull for former USMNT players who become coaches. Considering how well they did in the CCL, I think this is rather undeserved and a shame for Klopas.
That’s so Toronto.
Montreal should hire Petke as a replacement. A proven winner.
Poor Frank….just can’t get it right no matter where he goes. Anyone think he’ll ever coach in MLS again?
I do give Saputo credit for spending some big money on Drogba, but unfortunately, so far he’s been a dud. I mean seriously, a toe injury? He should get off his assss and play.
Doesn’t Montreal have a turf field?
If Drogba has “Turf toe”, that injury has ended the careers of a few NFL players. Granted it is not the same game but I’m told you can’t really run with that inury.
Drogba was a carcass of his former self last year. Don’t expect much, Montreal.
Guess the Montreal brass listens to the SBI show…(Ives ranted about no coach being fired this year so far just last week).
Meh. Owners are closer to the situation than we are. Could be knee-jerk, could be the team was tanking some on Klopas.
Still a big ask to beat a TFC team that has Bradley and Giovinco in the form they’re in, but they had their chances to do it. Could also be ownership was also Sending A Message to the players: make the playoffs, or expect big changes in the offseason.
Not a move I personally would have made, but the French mentality is a lot more hair-trigger than mine is, and things…go differently, in the French-speaking world.
“the French mentality is a lot more hair-trigger than mine is,”
The owner, Joey Saputo is an Italian- Canadian, who also sits on the board of Bologna FC, by the way.
There are stereotypes about Italian hot blooded temperment as well but if you are going to stereotype people based on their ethnic background you ought to get it right.
I stand corrected. 😉
“French” is not an “ethnicity”, by the way. It’s a nationality. And a state of mind.
Of course French is an ethnicity. It is also a nationality. Whether it’s a state of mind or not, I can’t say.
quozzel,
Montreal is in the province of Quebec, Canada not France.
France is in Europe, not North America, which is where Canada is.
While there has been more than a little controversy over the years regarding separatist movements, at present the French speaking population of the province of Quebec are not a nationality; they are an “ethnic group”.
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/ChurchillEN.pdf
If you are going to negatively stereotype the “French mentality” then you have to be more specific.
It’s a bad idea to insult people other than the ones you really meant to insult. You wind up with more people attacking you than really needs to be the case. …
I feel bad for the Impact fans. They have an owner who is a joke. Not giving Klopas the final 8 weeks with 4 games in hand and only one point off the playoffs is absurd.