A coaching change has been made in San Jose.
The Earthquakes have parted ways with Luchi Gonzalez, the club announced Monday. Assistant coach Ian Russell has been named interim head coach, while assistant coaches Steve Ralston, Luciano Fusco and Adin Brown will remain in their current roles.
Gonzalez, a former U.S. men’s national team assistant coach, joined the Quakes following the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Over the past two seasons, Gonzalez posted a 13-24-16 record, leading the Quakes to the MLS Cup Playoffs last year.
“We want to thank Luchi for his hard work, commitment to the club and professionalism,” said general manager Chris Leitch. “Luchi and his staff have worked extremely hard the past year and a half, but we have not met expectations this year as a club. We felt that we needed to make a change, and it was in the best interests of the club to move in a different direction.”
The 48-year-old Russell steps into the Quakes’ head coaching role after serving as an assistant coach for the past year-and-a-half. He was part of the Quakes’ Supporters’ Shield-winning side in 2012 as an assistant coach, and also lifted two MLS Cups as a player with San Jose.
A former Quakes player from 2000-05, Russell was also head coach of San Jose’s former USL-affiliate, Reno 1868 FC. He was named USL Co-Coach of the Year in 2020 and was a USL Coach of the Year finalist in both 2017 and 2019.
He guided his team to the postseason in all four seasons, becoming the second-fastest coach in USL history to win 60 regular season games.
San Jose sits bottom of the West with 11 points earned through 19 matches.
“There are definite underlying problems at both Dallas and San Jose, though.”
What problems? Inquiring minds would like to know.
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I’m much more familiar with Dallas so here’s what I’ll say. Dallas has not done a very good job of bringing in talent from outside. Musa seems like a good signing, Velasco has had moments put the knee injury left a big hole. They certainly haven’t been able to replace their big sales with big buys. For all the fanfare of the academy there aren’t a lot of academy players on their first team roster. Guys seem to either be sold or don’t make it. Ferreira the only big one right now. Injuries have hurt them as well, which is just bad luck. Pomykal hasn’t been right since 2020 and the previously mentioned Velasco injury, even Ferreira and Arriola have missed strings of games the last 12 months.
Not to mention the same issues at San Jose. Lack of a good academy, lack of spending on transfers, and lack of a coherent organization management. San Jose is in a talent rich area. I would also say Houston falls in the category of a lack of organization management. I lived and played soccer in the Houston greater metro area for 4 years. I know how much talent there is. No reason Houston should not have a much better academy system in place to identify talent.
The Earthquakes have been in the bottom half of their division for seeming forever. They change coaches almost as often as some people change clothes. People in San Jose need to start asking questions. This type of situation strongly indicates that their problems are above the manager level..
Berhalters previous assistants dropping like flies. There are definite underlying problems at both Dallas and San Jose, though.
Hudson also stepped down in Qatar. Josh Wolfe still hanging on in Austin. Allegedly Bj is heading to Nashville after Copa America might not be a great move.
Seems like there might be more problems than just the manager. The team doesn’t really seem to invest in players or at least not very wisely. Lopez has been good but the team gave up 21g in last 4 matches so I understand why they made a move but, they’ve barely made the playoffs the last 10 yrs.