Chivas USA fires coach, cleans house
Chivas USA fired Coach Robin Fraser on Friday, less than two weeks after finishing a disappointing season last in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference with a 7-18-9 record.
Fraser’s dismissal had been rumored since Mexican businessman Jorge Vergara and his wife Angelica Fuentes took full control of the franchise in late August. And Fraser did little to help his cause after that, going winless in his last 14 games, a franchise record.
Also let go Friday were assistant head coach Greg Vanney, a longtime Fraser friend, and the team’s technical director and head scout Simon Elliott and head trainer Brian Lee.
The moves are the latest in a front-office housecleaning that has seen the club replace its president and fire the vice presidents for both sponsorships and marketing since the final week of the season. And more moves are expected.
It is the second such housecleaning in less than two years for Chivas, which hasn’t made the MLS playoffs since 2009.
Fraser, 45, a Jamaican-born defender who played for the U.S. national team as well as for three MLS teams, including the Galaxy, had never been a head coach before taking over for Martin Vasquez on the eve of the 2011 season, becoming the team’s sixth coach in seven years. Fraser was a combined 15-32-21 in two seasons with Chivas and this year’s seven-win finish was the team’s worst since its inaugural season in 2005.
Efrain Flores, 54, who coached in the Mexican league with Atlas, Leon, Chivas and Pachuca, and served as interim coach of the Mexico national team after the 2010 World Cup, was said to be high on Vergara’s list of possible replacements for Fraser.
Vergara has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday where he is expected to publicly discuss his plans for the franchise for the first time since he and Fuentes assumed sole ownership.
