Earthquakes fire coach Kinnear
The Earthquakes fired Dominic Kinnear on Sunday, parting ways with a coach who grew up in the Bay Area and has deep ties to the franchise.
The team named former player Chris Leitch as Kinnear’s replacement. Assistant John Spencer was also fired, and Alex Covelo was hired to replace him.
Assistant coach Steve Ralston and goalkeeper coach Tim Hanley were retained.
“First and foremost, we would like to thank Dominic for his hard work, professionalism and contributions to this club over the years,” Earthquakes general manager Jesse Fioranelli said in a statement. “He worked hard this year and was a first-class person all the way. This decision was made after a lot of thought and evaluation. We decided that we wanted to go in a different direction as we continue to build the identity of this club.”
The Quakes are 6-6-5 with 23 points, good for fifth place in the Major League Soccer’s 11-team Western Conference. Kinnear, whose family moved to Fremont from Scotland when he was 3, was hired in 2015 — when San Jose opened its state-of-the-art, soccer-only Avaya Stadium — for his second stint coaching the Quakes after also directing the club from 2004-05, compiling a combined record of 54-45-48.
“I would like to thank the ownership group for giving me the opportunity to coach the club,” Kinnear said in a statement released by the club. “I want to thank my staff for all their hard work and I wish the players the best of luck going forward.”
As a player, Kinnear played from 1989-93 with the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks/San Jose Hawks franchise in preMLS professional leagues. In the MLS’ second season, 1996, Kinnear played for the San Jose Clash, which was later renamed the Earthquakes.
Leitch, 38, retired from the team following the 2011 season and has been working in various capacities, promoted to technical director In 2014. He was the interim general manager last year after the dismissal of John Doyle. Leitch played in MLS from 2002-11, playing with the New York Red Bulls before signing with the Quakes in 2009 and playing 58 matches with the franchise. Confederations Cup: At Sochi, Russia, world champion Germany reached the semifinals with a 3-1 victory over a Cameroon side reduced to 10 men after further confusion with experimental video replays — initially, the wrong player was sent off.
By securing the top spot in Group B, Germany will play Mexico on Thursday. In the other semifinal, on Wednesday, Portugal will play Chile, which finished second in Group B after drawing 1-1 with Australia in Sunday’s other game.
Timo Werner scored twice and Joachim Loew got his 100th victory in his 150th match in charge of Germany.