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.

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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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

2. Frank Yallop (San Jose Earthquakes): Yallop is nearly in the same boat as Osorio as far as the bringing the wrong talent in.  However I do believe his butt is cooling off a bit here with recent moves and recent play. You are seeing him unload some talent to make a couple serious moves this summer that could help in the long run. Still nine points in 12 games is not progression for the second-year Quakes. I don’t think Yallop will get canned this season but he does need a good turn around soon if he wants to return next season.

3. Schellas Hyndman (FC Dallas): For the most part it isn’t the poor moves to the roster that has doomed Hyndman in Dallas it is really a lack of quality coaching and tactics on his part that has hurt this side more than anything this season. He is given a very long rope from management to do whatever he wants with the club. This means some moves are slowly paying off but others are still failing to work out in this league. Sadly enough it will take a whole lot for Hyndman to go in Dallas.

4. Jason Kreis (Real Salt Lake): Sometimes high expectations can cause a lot of heat when things aren’t met right away. A lot of people had RSL as their projected Western champs this season. I wasn’t buying into it as much as others. While I like Kreis and believe he is a good fit in Salt Lake I do believe some of the moves he has made haven’t worked out. Throw in the fact that his club has been flat and lacking quality energy for the past month and a half is really dooming their playoff chances for this season. Let’s not forget that this side was an average 10-10-10 side last season. Some moves need to be made quick to save this season and get this club back to where everyone expected them to be at the start of the season. Its still going to take a bit to get him canned but another average season like last year and management may have some serious thinking to do this winter, especially if this bunch fails to reach the post season.

5. Chris Cummings (Toronto FC): Cummings is one of those that will feel heat no matter what I believe. TFC fans are some of the best in the league and deserve a quality side. Thing is I am wondering if Cummings is the right man for it right now. A lot rests on whether or not his club gets a quality striker this summer or not.

6. Curt Onaflo (Kansas City Wizards): Onaflo is one that is kind of luke warm right now for me. His club is currently in playoff contention and should be there in contention for the rest of the season. Thing is his constant switching around his offense is puzzling when you have a true goal scorer like Josh Wolff. I feel his club is good but not getting the right results consistently at home is hurting them. I doubt Onaflo will get fired this season, but I do question whether he is still a good long-term fit for this club.

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.

MLS Calendar Still Sucks

MLS Commissioner Don Garber told Luis Arroyave last week that there is still little that can be done to help out the clubs in terms of scheduling.

“There are 13 weekends affected by international play and we have a 30 week season,” said Garber. “To not play on those dates is impossible.

“In those markets — and Toronto is one of them — where they can play a disproportionate number of games during the week, then we’ll schedule more games during the week up there. But most markets are unable to handle that.”

“Starting at the end of February would be a little difficult to do here [in Chicago],” Garber said. “Even the first or second week in December would be almost impossible to do in most markets.

“We could look at extending it a week or two, but we can’t fit those 13 weeks into our schedule while we’re playing in this part of the world and have a fan base that disproportionately comes to games on weekends versus during the week. In almost all markets, the difference in attendance is over 50 percent for games played on a Wednesday or Thursday night than a Saturday night.”

Read more of Arroyave’s interview with the Don here, its pretty typical stuff really but worth a read when you get the chance if you haven’t already.

Probably the biggest nugget we got from that interview is SuperLiga and CONCACAF Champions League discussion. It sorta sounds like the league is listening to people when it comes to which clubs they send to which tournaments. Again I am all for the league sending its top three (plus USOC champion) to CCL and the next four to SuperLiga. Its a win-win for all in my book.

Speaking of CCL

The MLS clubs are still struggling. Surprise right? Also those USL teams are still rolling. Crazy right? I’d honestly love to see a USL club do well in that tournament and so far we are seeing two USL clubs do extremely well. I guess low expectations do breed good results sometimes.

Coaching Hot Seat Update

Keeping Carver at the top again. But adding KC’s Curt Onalfo to the bottom between DC’s Tom Soehn and New York’s Juan Carlos Osorio. I think it is safe to say all four should feel heat. For some reason should RSL really bottom out I would consider Jason Kreis, even if their management really does have a boy crush on him.

Hot and Not

Hot

Dallas: Probably one of the hottest clubs at the moment thanks to Jeff Cunningham. Looks like that deal is working out after all for the Hoops. Three game unbeaten mark right now has them within reach of a playoff spot. Not just an automatic spot but a wildcard spot as well.

Not

New England: The Revs chances of a MLS Cup look slimmer and slimmer to me after seeing them drop a vital home game to Columbus. The Revs will still be in the top three in the east but don’t be shocked if they just run out of gas by the start of the first round.

Hot

Colorado: Maybe this club really just needed to get rid of Fernando Clavijo sooner. They’ve been on a solid run as of last and their big win against New York (5-4…gotta love those scorelines in New Jersey) has their fans believing once again. I’m starting to think that final game of the year against RSL will determine which of those two head into the playoffs.

Not

Toronto: Look at who Mo Johnston has gotten rid of in the past couple seasons: Edson Buddle, Jeff Cunningham and Alecko Eskardarian. Yup, at least the first two have produced plenty of goals. Oh yeah, he also had to part with Ronnie O’Brien and others who just didn’t want to be there. Tough times. At least they have around a million (yes a million) in allocation money and few early draft picks.