KLOPAS’S PUZZLING DECISIONS HELPED SEAL HIS COACHING FATE
It was a game within a game. The uncertainty and status of former Impact head coach Frank Klopas hung closely over the head of everyone in the Montreal organization.
There was little chance Klopas would avoid the axe if his team fell to rival Toronto FC and extended its winless streak to six games. The Impact lost the match 2-1 and, as expected, Klopas was sacked. The under-fire coach was given the bad news late Saturday night by the man who brought him in, Nick De Santis.
Although Klopas had his blatant flaws, the players did him no favours in recent weeks — including against TFC in a game they very much could have won. Here are my pros and cons from the loss, the final Impact assignment for Klopas:
Pro: Despite being without injured playmaker Ignacio Piatti, the Impact outshot TFC 18-14, including a 6-4 advantage for shots on target. Didier Drogba will be happy to hear that the Impact also delivered 20 crosses, compared with TFC’s seven. This area of the team’s attack has finally improved in recent weeks, and ultimately provides an effective alternative to an otherwise predictable offensive approach.
Con: For the second straight game, the Impact was reduced to 10 men after a player was sent off. Defender Laurent Ciman picked up his second yellow card in the 77th minute for a reckless foul along the sideline, just three minutes after the Impact had scored to cut the deficit to 2-1. There was no way back after that, and the Impact left Toronto still looking for its first victory at BMO field.
Pro: Dominic Oduro got his just reward in the 74th minute, when he latched onto Andres Romero’s cross and snapped it past TFC ‘keeper Chris Konopka at the near post. The speedy Ghanian once again worked his socks off for the team and led all players with shots (six) and shots on goal (three). It’s fair to say Oduro has rebounded from his poor 2014 season. Oduro scored only two goals in 35 appearances, including 23 starts, with former teams TFC and the Columbus Crew last season. In 2015, Oduro already has seven goals from 18 appearances, including 12 starts.
Con: Goals change games. I’ve been hearing that from coaches for as long as I can remember. Had Oduro scored on his glaring chance in the seventh minute, the entire complexion of the game would have been altered. Instead, Oduro’s miss will be in contention for Miss of the Year, while it denied the Impact an all important nerve-settling early goal. Oduro missed another great chance in the 40th minute when he failed to make clean contact on Maxim Tissot’s cross. The loose ball on that sequence fell favourably to Johan Venegas, but the Costa Rican shot wildly over the bar from seven yards out. By halftime, the Impact had more clear-cut chances and should have been at least on level terms with TFC, if not ahead 2-1.
Pro: If there were any doubts about the capabilities of goalkeeper Erik Kronberg, they should have been eliminated after his past few games. Since giving up a bad free-kick goal against Vancouver in the first leg of the Canadian Championship on Aug. 12, Kronberg has made a number of spectacular saves to keep the Impact in games. Against TFC, Michael Bradley thought he had scored his second goal of the match in the 62nd minute, which would have extended TFC’s lead to 3-0, but Kronberg denied Bradley from piercing the top corner.
Con: Klopas’s lineups had been a talking point virtually throughout his tenure as Impact head coach. True to form, it was no different against TFC. Seven of the Impact starters against TFC were playing their third match in only seven days. That’s a tough request. Two of the other four starters were playing their second match in only four days — not exactly an easy task, either. Both of TFC’s goals exposed the Impact’s high level of fatigue. It’s not like Klopas had no other options. In fact, he had multiple reliable and well-rested choices: defenders Eric Miller and Wandrille Lefèvre; midfielder Eric Alexander and striker Anthony Jackson-Hamel who all started on the bench. Klopas did use Miller, but made a mind-boggling change when Miller was substituted into the game in place of Romero, an attacker, with the Impact down a goal in the 80th minute. It was a head-scratcher, one that only Klopas could try to rationalize. It’s no wonder the unhappiness and frustration of the players had been so evident during the past several weeks.
Pro: A new era began immediately after the loss in Toronto when club legend Mauro Biello was told he would lead the team as an interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Biello has his work cut out. Among other notable issues, the Impact remains winless when it concedes the first goal, the team’s form away from home is still abysmal and its best players, Piatti and Drogba, are injured. But what Biello will have that Klopas no longer had, is a group of players who actually want to play for him.