Miami FC parts with coach Dalglish; candidates emerge
Miami FC announced on Monday that it parted ways with coach and technical director Paul Dalglish, who had been with the club since replacing Italian legend Alessandro Nesta in January 2018.
Dalglish posted a goodbye on Twitter that read, in part: “To all that fans that have stood by us through thick and thin, thank you … a massive thank you to Riccardo [Silva], an amazing owner who wasn’t scared to fight for what he believed. … Despite the ups and downs, my main priority was to leave a positive impact on the South Florida soccer community, hopefully I did that.”
The team won back-toback NPSL national titles and a NISA championship under Dalglish, and this season finished in fourth place in the USL Championship Atlantic Division with 16 wins, 10 losses and six ties. Miami FC reached the conference quarterfinals and was eliminated 1-0 by Louisville City.
According to a league source, among the coaches being considered to replace Dalglish are Ian
Russell, an assistant coach with MLS club Toronto FC; Inter Miami assistant coach Anthony Pulis; and Kenny Arena, son of New England Revolution coach Bruce Arena. The younger Arena coached a season at FIU and went on to become an assistant coach at Los Angeles Galaxy and Los Angeles FC.
— MICHELLE KAUFMAN
More soccer: Italy will have to go through the playoffs again in its bid to reach the World Cup. Switzerland and England are heading straight to Qatar. By drawing 0-0 at Northern Ireland, Italy — crowned European champion only four months ago — had to settle for finishing as the runner-up in its qualifying group behind Switzerland, which beat Bulgaria 4-0. The Italians also failed to secure automatic qualification for the 2018 Cup and wound up losing to Sweden in a two-leg playoff for one of the darkest moments in the Azzurri’s soccer history. This time, they’ll need to get through two one-leg matchups to advance in a newly devised playoff system. The draw takes place on Nov. 26. … England needed only a point to finish in first place in its group but got a lot more — a 10-0 win over San Marino for its biggest win in a competitive fixture. … John Souttar scored in his first international game in three years to give Scotland a 2-0 win over Denmark to secure a home draw in the playoffs. Denmark had already won Group F. … Lionel Messi
will play for Argentina when it faces Brazil on Tuesday in a World Cup qualifier missing Neymar
because of left thigh pains.
ETC.
College basketball: Gonzaga, UCLA and Kansas held the top three spots in The Associated Press’ first Top 25 rankings of the regular season while Michigan climbed two spots to No. 4.
College football: Florida coach Dan Mullen is sticking with quarterback Emory Jones for Saturday’s game at Missouri and probably the rest of the season.
Tennis: Five-time champion Novak Djokovic reopened his ATP Finals account and beat
Casper Ruud 7-6 (4), 6-2. He’s attempting to match
Roger Federer’s record of six titles at the elite season-ending event for the top eight players.