It’s been a fairly busy day around these parts. From catching up to things, to getting back to the daily grind at my normal job, and to getting back to work on things with this site. I wanted to kick off with a couple items that a few of your have emailed me and commented on recently here. Its mostly end of year items and seeing how we are towards the end of the season it is fitting to revisit some of these things.

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.

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I don’t have too much going into tonight’s Evening Links and Thoughts. I mainly wanted to touch base with the current coaching hot seat situation in Major League Soccer. I don’t expect any coaching changes to take place until at least after the regular season finishes here. Something crazy would have to take place for any of these teams below to even think about making a switch with so few games left.

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.

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Its nearly time to call it a day on the Juan Carlos Osorio experiment in the Big Apple. (Getty Images)

A few of you have asked me lately when I was going to write about the good ol’ MLS coaching hot seat again. Last season I updated it pretty regularly during the year since there was plenty of bad coaching to discuss. Thing is I wanted to wait a while this season so we could get a better measure of which coaches were going to be good and which were going to have a seat that was a little warm.

First and foremost I’d like to say that in most situations I am not a fire the coach kind of guy in the middle of the season. I think most of the time you can wait the course and allow the season to do the work for you before you can a guy or not. Thing is soccer just like most sports (and life for that matter) isn’t always the case. Coaches either resign on their own before getting canned or management finally says to hell with them and sends them the pink slip.

So this year I gave most coaches at least 11 or 12 games to let me see if they were good or not for the job. Right now I’d say a few guys are feeling the heat just a bit. Now again before you see your coach and think there is no chance in hell he will get fired, sit back and be reasonable about it. I have no emotional connection to any of these clubs or coaches so it makes this a lot easier to see after watching 12 weeks worth of games. Just be reasonable-objective guy (or gal) here and not super-emotional guy/gal. I know in most situations these guys aren’t gonna get canned anytime soon.

Also, if you think for some reason I missed a coach on this list, please list him below with your reasons.

MLS Coaching Hot Seat: 2009 Edition:

1. Juan Carlos Osorio (New York): Right now according to SportsClubStats.com (great site by the way), the Red Bulls have a 0.5 percent chance of making the playoffs this season. After 14 games there is really little hope that this club will turn it around and a big reason why is not just the coaching from Osorio but the talent HE brought in for this season hasn’t paid off. I think over the last two seasons we have seen exactly how overrated of a coach he really is. While canning him now won’t help the club on the field it will help them out in terms of talent brought in this summer since he wouldn’t be making the moves. The more talent he brings in the less successful this club has been. Continue Reading…

Okay, while I was gone a lot changed in the landscape of Major League Soccer. And by a lot, as you all probably know by now means a lot. One club punched their ticket into the post season while everyone else made it a little more interesting to see just who will get in the playoffs.

East v. West

One thing that is funny is how we talked all year how great the East is and how poor the West has been. Funny story though, right now four eastern clubs are in the playoff picture and so are four western clubs. That’s exactly what MLS went for when they changed their playoff format in the manner that they did. It created more push for the playoffs and right now its all about who’s got the hot hand and out west you are seeing some hotter hands.

Not to say the East is losing their steam this season but it means the West is finally waking up and realizing that in order to play for a MLS Cup you have to reach the playoffs to do so. A 30-game season is long, and as some say its a marathon and not a sprint. The clubs that have paced themselves the best are doing the best while the others who ran out in front too soon lost momentum and now are looking at a top three draft pick in January.

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