Monday, September 2, 2013

Crew Coaching Changes, Warzycha Removed


Columbus Crew head coach Robert Warzycha has been let go by new owner Anthony Precourt. Assistant Coaches Ricardo Iribarren and goalkeeping coach Vojislav Stanisic were also "relieved of their duties" according to a report by the team website.

A lot will be written and remembered about Warzycha. He has been with the league and the Crew for as long as both have existed. Eighteen years with or doing anything is a very rare feat in any walk of life and is to be respected.

What will probably loom large over his tenure as head coach will be keeping Guillermo Barros Schelotto on the bench for the opening leg of the 2009 MLS Cup Playoffs (which they lost) and the handling of the 2010 offseason when many of the players that brought the club so much success the previous three years were let go.

While not playing Schelotto is certainly on him the decisions made at that time crippled the organization in 2010 and lost "the room" are not.

Since then the Columbus Crew have stumbled through league expansion years (in just about every aspect) to the point where now they are close to rock bottom as a sports franchise in any major professional league in North America can be.

Warzycha, Iribarren and Stanisic are likely only the first to go.

Over the past handful of years (some say since 2004) he Crew, as an organization, have built a bubble in which they have preferred to exist. Shaking off critical voices in the press, players, bloggers, fans of the sport of soccer, relationships with Columbus area businesses and corporations. The list goes on.

In some regards it is unfortunate that these three were let go because they probably had the least to do with what the Crew have become.

General Manager and Team President Mark McCullers and Technical Director (and now interim head coach) Brian Bliss are still there in their same roles and they are the guys that have been steering the ship for the past half decade.

Until the decision makers are removed or placed in correct positions nothing will change over on 1 Black and Gold Blvd. it will just be a fresh coat of paint on top of a half decade of rust and rot.

"@APrecourt 30 Aug
Fresh paint for tomorrow's match. What do you think? New sound system to boot! Place is in good order."

No, not yet.

2 comments:

bob.os said...

Over the past handful of years (some say since 2004) he Crew, as an organization, have built a bubble in which they have preferred to exist. Shaking off critical voices in the press, players, bloggers, fans of the sport of soccer, relationships with Columbus area businesses and corporations. The list goes on.

That's saying a lot without anything to back it up. "Players" and "bloggers" are easy enough, but do you care to back up the rest of this statement with evidence?

Larry W Johnson II said...

Thanks for the comment. A little bit of conjecture there, I agree. Here is were some of it comes from...

Average attendance has never reached back into 16k since 2004 (regardless of 'papering') http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Soccer_attendance

Adam Jardy (Dispatch beat writer) has been banned from practice, per his own admission on twitter.

No stadium sponsor despite Columbus having largest cluster of Fortune 500 companies in US + and private discussions.

Fans of the sport comes from conversations with 'Crew 96-ers' (many who attend the Massive Report podcast). I even asked one to write about it earlier this year... http://www.massivereport.com/2013/5/15/4334986/to-crew-or-not-to-crew

Hope that helps.