Looks like it could be a long year for Peter Nowak. (Getty Images)

I know folks like myself and other writers out there didn’t make this one easy going into the season. We all kept saying the Eastern Conference was the weaker side and how it would struggle against the West.

After two weeks of the new season, that statement rings true. Outside of Kansas City and Houston – who are both off to strong 2-0-0 starts – nearly everyone else in the East has stumbled out of the gate. I’ll ignore Chicago and Montreal for the moment too. The Fire have only played a single game and it was on the road while Montreal is an expansion team, and we can’t expect the world from them yet.

The same can go for Toronto FC and the Columbus Crew. The Trillium Cup rivals have both only played a single game in league play as well but neither were good in the process. Toronto has had two extra CCL games to their name which makes me want to leave them out of this discussion. Should their league play continue to be dreadful in a month or two, I’ll talk about it then. Columbus should bounce back in my mind this weekend as they host Montreal.

So that leaves the likes of the Philadelphia Union, D.C. United, the New York Red Bulls and the New England Revolution. All are 0-2-0 with negative goal differential.

Only New England has failed to score a goal out of the gate (they join Chivas USA who is the lowly Western Conference side to be 0-2-0 and score no goals) but I’m giving Jay Heaps a bit of a pass at this point.

Two teams have coaching issues going on (Philly and NY) while DC is struggling through some growing pains in Ben Olsen’s second full season as manager.

Only in towns like New York and LA do two losses raise such questions but with the Red Bulls those questions are being raised left and right. Consider what Hans Backe has done so far this season with his starting lineups. While on the road for both goals Backe made it down right tough on his star player Thierry Henry to get any sort of offense going. Yes, no Luke Rodgers or Rafa Marquez didn’t help the situation out but in neither Dallas or Salt Lake did the Red Bulls look really dangerous.

As for the Union. Things are sliding quickly out of control after Peter Nowak’s latest debacle involving Danny Califf. Nowak suddenly leaves Califf out of the line up due to a knee injury that was never really reported. Then the Union go on to lose a rare home game against a 10-man Colorado team. Fans are still feeling the burn of the preseason trade of Sebastien Le Toux as well. **

I haven’t done a coaching hot seat post yet but if I were do to one today Backe and Nowak would certainly be on it*. I do however think that Nowak has a little more leverage with the Union front office. He’s made every move for this club thus far and will continue to do so. I think it will take a massive collapse by his club to get him fired this season. As for Backe, lose two more games (both at home) and that hot seat will be burning.

So is panic mode setting in on these clubs? Maybe, it certainly is very early to tell but I would imagine most of the fans for these clubs aren’t feeling too comfortable about their club’s outlook today.

Where do you stand with your club today after two weeks? Feeling good about things or are you close to hitting the panic button?

Gary Smith is now out as head coach of the Colorado Rapids. (Getty Images)

You could see the writing on the wall with this for several weeks. Gary Smith was not happy and neither were the folks above him with the Colorado Rapids.

Today, they made it official as the club announced they would be parting ways with the only head coach in their club history to guide them to a MLS Cup.

“After meeting with Gary, we decided it would be in the best interest of both parties to move in a different direction,” said Colorado Rapids Managing Director Jeff Plush. “We’d like to thank Gary for his many contributions to the Colorado Rapids organization. He was instrumental in the Rapids winning our first-ever MLS Cup last year, and we wish him nothing but the best as he explores new opportunities.”

Smith had a 39-31-35 (W-L-T) record with the Rapids over three seasons.

Again, this isn’t a shocker. Smith and Technical Director Paul Bravo were not on the same page with one another for months. That even made headlines in Denver.

Colorado will now go on a coaching search, something they haven’t had to do in a while (Smith was an assistant under former boss Fernando Clavijo). Smith will likely be a candidate for jobs like New England or possibly overseas.

Hans Backe and New York are on the brink of disaster. (Getty Images)

It has been a while since I last updated my coaching hot seat post. In fact I don’t believe I’ve updated it since Carlos de los Cobos was about to be let go in the Windy city earlier this summer.

There really shouldn’t be too many surprising names on this list below. Some are on it due to the league passing them by in terms of how things are structured now. Others are on here because their owners don’t put enough behind them to help them out. And then there are those that had such high expectations placed upon them at the start of the season.

1. Hans Backe (New York Red Bulls) – In New York, the coaching carousel goes and goes. Backe is really the first coach in a long while to last more than a year with this club and it seems as though two years may be all he will get if this club doesn’t start winning. His offense is fine but he hasn’t been able to put together a solid enough defense over the last year and a half to really make things worthwhile. If things don’t change in a hurry with this club they could somehow miss the playoff this season. It’s hard to believe that this club, with so much promise and talent, could miss the playoffs. Remember when Backe was talking about how important things like the Supporter’s Shield were at the start of the year? Seems like a distance memory now.

2. Frank Yallop (San Jose Earthquakes) – This falls into a two prong kind of thing for me. For one, he and GM John Doyle probably need to go if this club fails to reach the playoffs this year. And two, this club needs a restart in a bad way. Yallop hasn’t had true success in this league since 2003, when times were drastically different and the competition was very thin. The club barely reached the playoffs last year and had it not been for a shocking win in New York and a crazy goal-scoring run by Chris Wondolowski, the team likely wouldn’t have had any hype going into this season. Injuries have played a part of this season for the Quakes for sure but at some point its also coming down to coaching. The club didn’t make any splash going into the season and waited until their season looked to be on the brink of a collapse before they made a move this summer. They’re still in the hunt for the playoffs but just barely. Things need to change regardless though in San Jose.

3. Steve Nicol (New England Revolution) – One of those where the league has passed him by a bit and his owners fail to pour any money into this club to help him out. I think we’re seeing more and more how important it was for Nicol to have Paul Mariner by his side too. Since Mariner left a couple years ago the Revs have been in nothing but a declining position. I bring it up because I see some of the moves Toronto is making right now and they clearly have Mariner’s finger prints on them.

But back to Nicol, he’s a great coach here. Don’t get me wrong, the talent has been there with this club over the years but in a way Nicol has run out of gambles and crazy moves that somehow worked a few years ago that don’t come close now. The Revs need to go on a ridiculous run to reach the playoffs this season and judging the way things have gone this year, it just isn’t going to happen.

4. Peter Vermes (Sporting Kansas City) – Before KC fans go crazy, hear me out. Vermes did a good job getting his club from a ridiculous road trip to start the season to a place where they could reach the playoffs. Key word there is could. With so many home games left and the club tying many of their first home games against fairly weak sides, it takes a little bit of the excitement out of KC opening that beautiful stadium. I still believe this club is going in a solid direction but I’m not sure Vermes is the right person to lead the charge. I’ve said for a couple months that something is just lacking with this club and its a reason why they aren’t blowing people away with that offense that should be scoring goals by the buckets.

Other not far away:

Frank Klopas (Chicago Fire) – He’s an interim coach, I know, but at some point he’s gotta hand over the keys to this club to someone who knows what they’re doing.

Dominic Kinnear (Houston Dynamo) – The Orange are lucky to be in the Eastern Conference right now, that much is true.

“Absolutely,” Soler said if Backe will direct the team the rest of the season.

“He does, in my opinion, as good a job as anybody can. It’s not about Hans or not Hans. This is about the team effort, starting with myself, with Hans, the coaching staff around the team and the players. We have a responsibility within the whole group to turn it around. I think we can.”

Oh the dreaded vote of confidence. We see it nearly every season. I wrote at the start of the year that Backe would be on the hot seat as long as the club was not doing as well as expected. With a team built around star players it isn’t shocking to see him have this on his shoulders as the club has underperformed all year long. I think there was maybe a month or so back at the start of the year when the club last looked dominant.

Right now for this club it is MLS Cup or bust. Anything less than that will likely mean Backe (and who knows even Soler) will be on his way out.

With only 30 points on the year, just barely good enough for 3rd place in the Eastern Conference, the Red Bulls cannot afford to drop easy points here. Ten games remain on their schedule this year and with tough ones ahead against LA, Dallas, Salt Lake, Philadelphia and a surging Kansas City squad, the Red Bulls won’t have it easy.

With the new season upon us here, it is always a good time to take a quick glance at which team’s coaches could be on the hot seat last year. Over the last few years I’ve monitored the Coaching Hot Seat fairly close and for the most part I’d like to say I’ve done pretty good at forecasting when coaches are close to getting canned (I’ve really only been off on one or two).

You may be thinking that going into this season that there really aren’t any big candidates for the coaching hot seat. Well, think again. I will say this year is different in that we have two new clubs and a couple new managers taking over other clubs. But there are a couple coaches out there that could be coaching for their jobs this season.

Think I’m way off on one of these below or missing a coach that should be on here, let me know below.

1. Carlos de los Cobos (Chicago Fire) – I’ll be rather honest about the Fire here, I was a bit shocked they brought him back after a pretty dismal 2010. The amount of talent that has left this club since he took over is pretty big (then again if you go even further back the amount of shocking). I believe if the Fire aren’t doing well by the middle of the season here in an Eastern Conference that is widely viewed to be pretty open for at least two of the three automatic playoff spots, then you could see a pink slip given in the Windy City. Fire fans deserve a winner there and they certainly will not put up with another playoff-less season.

2. Steve Nicol (New England Revolution) – I do feel a bit odd putting his name down here but let’s face the facts a bit here, the Revs have been passed up over the last two or three seasons by smarter clubs. Nicol built a solid blueprint for success in MLS a few years ago but more and more clubs are taking that model and are improving it in ways Nicol and his staff can’t compete with. Yes injuries have played a huge part but then again so have some roster moves. While I think some big pressure will be on Nicol to get his club back into the playoffs this year, I do still think that a pink slip could be another year away in New England. Gotta remember the Krafts (New England’s owners) are all about keeping things as stable as possible. I can’t imagine they’ll want to deal with a coaching change in midseason either but they may have to if the club continues to regress the way its been doing.

3. Robert Warzycha (Columbus Crew) – Hard to imagine any club blow up a roster the way he did and not be under some heat. If it works out he’ll be touted as a genius but if the Crew slide into the no playoff zone this season then he’ll be a failure that forced one of the best players MLS has ever seen out the door in Guillermo Barros Schelotto.

Others possibly with heat:

Now this group is more about the coaches that have pressure on them no matter what due to where they coach. And mostly it is due to who they coach and their club’s history of firing coaches.

1. Hans Backe (New York Red Bulls) – I have to imagine there is a lot of pressure on Backe to win a lot this year not matter what. I don’t see the pink slip coming out for him unless for some reason the Red Bulls mail it in somehow this season and fail to reach the playoffs, which shouldn’t happen. Still a coach in New York is one to always keep an eye out for given the pressure to win there.

2. Aron Winter (Toronto FC) – I don’t even know where to begin with this one, should upper management decide out of the blue that they don’t want to wait it out for Winter’s system to take over  for the long term, then he could be outed. My gut tells me the fans will complain more than the management will though about the Reds this season.

3. Robin Fraser (Chivas USA) – The AmeriGoats are nearly as bad as New York and Toronto at canning a coach without given them their just due. I don’t see it happening with Fraser after one season though. Things have to go really bad in a hurry for Chivas USA to think of getting rid of Fraser.

Update: I added Warzycha to the list above…I had him on an initial list I was putting together and then completely left him off. Thanks to a couple Crew fans for point it out.

“We have decided to move forward without Chris for next season,” said manager, director of soccer Mo Johnston. “We want to thank Chris for his contribution to the club over the last year and a half, and wish him all the best in the future. For us, the work now begins on finding a new coach, and getting him in here before pre-season starts February 1st.”

Again, it doesn’t come to much of a surprise to most folks. Toronto needs to find some stability though moving forward and Cummins just wasn’t the right guy for the job. I would imagine that fans will expect a big hire for this position as no one has been able to get things going in the right direction with this club after three years in the league. I would say that this season was a decent step in the right direction but getting to the playoffs was certainly a must for this bunch and it didn’t happen.

Could Preki be on the move after this season? (Getty Images)

I must say today has been full of good stuff. From MLS playoff scenarios to U-17 World Cup rosters to other items it has been a full day. Needless to say if you have missed some of these items you are in luck as I have saved some of the best links of the day to discuss here tonight.

First up I wanted to get into an excellent post from SBI about some potential coaches out there that are for hire around Major League Soccer. This all stems from the news that long-time New England assistant Paul Mariner would be leaving the Revs to coach at his old club Plymouth.

Without Mariner in the field the list of potential coaches is indeed a little thinner. But Ives brings up some points that I have been touching on for weeks in my coaching hot seat. One being that look for both Preki and Denis Hamlett to not be where they are currently at right now in 2010. I’ve been saying for weeks now that Preki is perfect for the make-over at Kansas City (his old club) and I believe Hamlett would be a good fit in somewhere like Chivas or even San Jose if they were to drop Frank Yallop (doubtful).

A few other names out there are interesting like Robin Fraser, a RSL assistant. Most of you know I’ve been saying Jason Kreis will not be with RSL next year, well Fraser may just be the right replacement as most in the MLS circles believe he is due for a job in the very near future.

There’s probably going to be at least three or four jobs open this winter. Some people don’t like that their club may be involved in this but its just part of the game.

————————————————————

Top 10 Games at Giants Stadium

Link

Even for non-New York/New Jersey folks out there like myself this is still a worth while read. The history at the Giants Stadium is pretty impressive for soccer. I knew of Pele playing there in the old NASL days but man there was some rich soccer there over the years.

————————————————————-

Marketing MLS To Big Kids…or Adults

Link

Some real solutions to getting more butts in seats at MLS games. Something I’ve been calling for a while now, real marketing for adults. Far too long have clubs marketed towards families, soccer moms and that group. While I think marketing towards that group some works, I still believe those out of that group will come no matter what. MLS needs more young adults in their crowds and the only way to get them is to really market the league towards them. Some clubs do a better job at it than others but let’s just say more need to figure out how to get it right and start selling out games.

——————————————————

U-17 Roster Announced For World Cup

A few headliners in some folks eyes line up for the US at the U-17 World Cup this month in Nigeria.

Goalkeepers: 21-Keith Cardona (New York Red Bulls), 1-Earl Edwards (Nomads SC), 12-Spencer Richey (Crossfire Premier)

Defenders: 6-Zachary Herold (West Pines United FC), 4-Perry Kitchen (Chicago Magic), 20-Boyd Okwuonu (Tulsa Thunder), 3-Tyler Polak (CSA Legacy), 2-Jared Watts (North Meck SC.), 15-Eriq Zavaleta (FC Pride)

Midfielders: 5-Marlon Duran (Latino Americana), 10-Luis Gil (Pateadores), 14-Carlos Martinez (Wilmington Jr.), 17-Will Packwood (Birmingham City, England), 11-Nick Palodichuk (Washington Premier FC), 8-Alex Shinsky (Super Nova FC)

Forwards: 16-Juan Agudelo (N.Y. Red Bulls Academy), 19-Victor Chavez (Real So Cal), 18-Andrew Craven (First Coast Kickers), 7-Stefan Jerome (West Pines United FC), 9-Jack McInerney (Cobb SC), 13-Dominick Sarle (BW Gottschee)

First up, the coaching hot seat update.

Basically nothing has changed in my mind since my last update. I do think that Chris Cummins stands the best chance to keep his job if his club reaches the playoffs. Without a playoff trip he will easily join Tom Soehn and Jason Kreis in the pink slip line.

My big question is however if Tom Soehn does get fired by DC United this off season, how long will it take them to get former United star Richie Williams as their new coach? Believe me that would be a great hire for them and for Williams. I know he is currently the interim manager at New York right now but we all know they are looking for a bigger name to help open that new stadium next year.

I really do believe the likely candidates for firing are Soehn and Kreis here. Both had clubs with very high expectations this year and each have under delivered on those expectations. Soehn did have a rough schedule with a load of extra games but that won’t be good enough in DC. As for Kreis I think it comes down to management seeing if he has taken this club as far as he can, which the answer is yes. I just don’t see RSL going any further than a below average club each year under Kreis.

Also, don’t sleep on someone like Denis Hamlett getting canned at the end of this year as well. His Fire have massively under produced this year based on the very high expectations placed on them. I know they are close to clinching but they haven’t exactly lit the league up this year like most thought.

———————————————————-

MVP Update:

With Landon Donovan winning the player of the week award (again) this past week I had to wonder how that will affect his MVP status this year. To be honest it did help it but there are still a couple more candidates out there that are far better than what Donovan has been this year. And don’t get me wrong, Donovan has been great in 2009.

Right now if I had to vote today my three votes would go to (in no particular order):

1. Shalrie Joseph (New England)
2. Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus)
3. Jeff Cunningham (Dallas)

I won’t give away who I’d be placing as the top choice yet because I still don’t even know that one yet. Joseph has pretty much put a New England side that is ravaged with injuries on his back. He leads the club in scoring and continues to help them push towards a playoff spot. For the Revs to not have Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston, Chris Albright and now Jay Heaps healthy this season you’d think they would have had no shot at the playoffs. But with Joseph leading the way it is possible.

Now I really shouldn’t have to explain GBS here. His stats don’t lie and even though he totally missed a PK this past weekend against Seattle I would still vote for him.

As for Cunningham, I go back and forth on him. Since the trade of Kenny Cooper he has scored a lotta goals. He’s scored 15 goals in 12 games. Yes 15 goals in 12 games. Even though Dallas really has no shot at the playoffs they do have a go-to scorer in Cunningham. People may not like him as a MVP selection but if he continues on his current pace he could end up with 18 or 19 goals on the year and be the Golden Boot winner.

——————————————————–

Garber Sees MLS Model As More Stable Than Euro Leagues

Link

Its a bold statement anytime Don Garber opens his mouth out the league in European territory. Why do I say that? Because he usually comes up with statements like the league is more stable based on the salary cap than the current situations in most European leagues. Yes very bold but also yes to being pretty true. While I think we are ages and I mean ages away from seeing top leagues in Europe adopting the MLS structure for player contracts and a salary cap I do think it could happen. If enough owners in Europe are tired of big clubs spending away then it could happen.

With so many clubs in debt over seas can you blame Garber for being so happy to say his league’s model is working? No. I’m willing to bet in the next few years that most MLS clubs will at least be on good terms each year when it comes to balancing the books, if not happily in the green each year.

——————————————————————

Beckham Rising?

Link

Go down to number 8 on Steve Davis’ weekly MLS wrap and read the part about David Beckham. Boy does Davis speak truth to ever bit of what Beckham is doing these days in the league. While the hype is down on him the play is definitely up. He truly has found his own here in the league. With him in the lineup the Galaxy have gone 5-2-2 with 1.44 goals a game. Without him they’ve been slightly worse going 6-4-9 and only 1.11 goals a game. You do the math, the Galaxy are better with him.

I’ve gone back and forth on a couple coaches, which is why they may appear on the fringe of this list. But for the most part the top guys on this list are there for a reason and have a lot of work to do to get out of the hot seat.

Two clubs will are searching for a coach as we speak right now. Both New York and Kansas City have interim coaches and are probably keeping a very close eye on what’s going on around the league right now.

With that said here is what should be the final WVH Coaching Hot Seat of the year. The order is really just a list, I think each are just as much under fire as the next here.

Chris Cummins (Toronto FC): The only thing that may save this guy is a trip to the playoffs. With a workable schedule it is possible but any stumbles on the way only put more fuel on this man’s fire. This club has the talent but under Cummins they really haven’t progressed any more than they did under John Carver.

Tom Soehn (DC United): Again playoffs will save this guy but I still kind of wonder if that will even be enough at times. It could be safe to say that he will need to guide his team to the conference finals to really be safe from a pink slip here. This club has so much talent yet lacks any consistency to get solid results game after game.

Frank Yallop (San Jose Earthquakes): Yallop nearly fell in the fringe category for me but at the end of the day I just don’t know if this is working out in San Jose. It could also have something to do with the partnership with John Doyle in picking out talent that isn’t working out there. I don’t see a change coming this winter unless this club really bottoms out to finish the season. Look for his butt to remain hot going into next year. Year three is going to decide a lot in San Jose.

Jason Kreis (Real Salt Lake): Another guy that needs a playoff run to save his job. I still wish he would have become FC Dallas’ coach instead of RSL’s a couple years ago but it is what it is down here in Dallas. But back to Kreis and his job. Playoffs will certainly be enough to keep him around for another year but anything less and I have to believe he will be out of the door by the end of the calendar year.

The Fringe Category:

Schellas Hyndman (FC Dallas): There’s no way Hyndman will get canned in Dallas even though the team is pretty much a train wreck. Hyndman is building his club the way he wants it though and its just going to be a thing that Dallas fans have to wait out and see if it works. I’m on the fence to believe that it will work out for him in Dallas. Honestly you can’t keep signing former SMU players for this club, it just won’t work out well that way.

Denis Hamlett (Chicago Fire): With expectations so high this season surrounding this club, Hamlett really needs a deep run, if not actually making it to MLS Cup 2009 in Seattle to save his butt. I really believe that after this season the Fire are going to lose a lot of key guys and if they don’t finish well it could be Hamlett that sees a pink slip because of it. He’s on the fringe now due to where his club is at here this season but with how things have gone on in the locker room this year you have to wonder if he is the right fit for this club.

Preki (Chivas USA): Okay this one really isn’t about a pink slip. For some odd reason I have a feeling that no matter how Chivas finishes this season Preki will move on from Chivas USA to go to Kansas City. Just a gut feeling. He won’t get fired but he will some how resign as Chivas’s coach after the season. Call me crazy but I see that going down with him.

Jeff Agoos and Juan Carlos Osorio have messed up a lot of player picks, thankfully rookie Jermey Hall isn't going to be one of them.

Red Bull fans can celebrate something, the two men responsible for this terrible season will not return in 2010 according to Stefon Bondy of The Bergen Record (NJ). Juan Carlos Osorio and Jeff Agoos will not return with the club next year.

�They know it�s important to make this move, but they know the problem isn�t just about one or two people,� a source told the Record. �With the new stadium opening, the team is approaching one of the most critical points in its history.”

From the sound of things nothing will happen until after this season finishes. It is still weird that the owners would let this terrible season ride out with Agoos and Osorio still kind of weird. Instead of letting assistant coach Richie Williams take over for the remaining part of the season would make sense but nothing has made sense in New York this season.

Who the club will go after in the off season will definitely be a story to follow. Let’s hope for Red Bull fans sake they go after someone who can actually coach and scout in this league.