Colorado fires winless head coach Anthony Hudson; Conor Casey named interim coach.
Hudson, who went 0-7-2 this season, to be replaced by Casey
COMM E RC E CITY» The Rapids fired head coach Anthony Hudson on Wednesday only nine games into his second season.
Hired in November of 2017, Hudson was in charge of the Rapids for 43 MLS games. The club went 8-26-9 in his tenure, which was the second-worst mark in the league over that span.
“This is a results-based business,” Rapids executive vice president and general manager Pádraig Smith said Wednesday. “We have not progressed the way we want to. Results dictate everything. We have the talent to be playoff competitive.”
Following Colorado’s 1-0 loss in Atlanta on Saturday, which dropped the team to 07-2, Hudson made comments to the media calling out the team’s ownership and front office and said his roster was not talented enough to compete.
“We come to a place where a team full of superstars and big-money players and a massive, massive gap in class,” Hudson said. “We are fighting down at the bottom with a bottom group of players, and we have to find a way to pick up a result.”
The comments stirred the front office and the Rapids’ fan base, which was already displeased with the team’s performance under Hudson.
“Today was just another example of the real gulf in class,” Hudson said Saturday. “If this was a promotion-and-relegation league, we’d have been relegated by now.”
Smith fiercely disagreed with Hudson’s statements. He has repeatedly said the Rapids have enough talent to compete for a playoff spot but did not said whether Hudson’s comments impacted his decision to fire him.
“When we look at this season, there are still 25 games to go,” Smith said. “We don’t want to let the season get away from us. Our group is not an 0-7-2 bunch of players. I think we should be winning games.”
Denver native and former Rapids striker Conor Casey will serve as Colorado’s interim coach. He rejoined the Rapids as an assistant in 2017 following the conclusion of his playing career.
“He’s a club legend. He’s going to bring a local spirit to it,” Smith said of Casey. “I expect him to rally the troops. I know he believes he has a team there.”
Last week, Hudson told The Denver Post that he was not worried about his job security and that the team takes priority over his own self-interest. “If I thought I wasn’t capable of seeing the team through a certain period and buying enough time to fix things … I would say so. The club is more important than me, that’s not something I worry about,” he said.
Hudson, 38, was the 10th head coach in Rapids history. He led Bahrain and New Zealand national teams before coming to Colorado.