Somehow this man still has a job. (Getty Images)

In light of Kansas City dismissing manager Curt Onalfo yesterday evening, I figured it was high time I updated my coaching hot seat look once again. Funny thing was yesterday I was already set to work on this and got caught up in something else, by the time I went back into it last night the news came down about Onalfo.

And yes, if you are wondering he was going to be on the list.

But looking at the rest of the sack race here I figure it is easier to break things up into a couple different groups. See we all figure coaches with clubs near the bottom of the table need sacked but in the case of a couple teams, that just won’t happen, at least not this season. In other cases there are a couple coaches that should feel some heat based on how their clubs are doing and based on pre-season expectations placed on them. Lastly, there is a group that just needs to go and saying that it really could be just a matter of time.

As always if you think I am missing on any coach below or think I need to add another to a certain group, feel free to post below.

The Heat Is On But They Don’t Mind

In this group we have two coaches that very well have every right to be fired (except based on this past weekend’s results for each). Of course I am speaking of FC Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman and San Jose Earthquakes coach Frank Yallop. Each have lead their club to a fairly unsuccessful campaign so far and up until the thrashings they put up this past week each side had little to be gitty over this season.

Neither seem to be under any sort of pressure from their ownership. Hyndman for one pretty much has the job security that anyone would want these days. Most around Dallas view that the job is his for however long he wants to keep it. In San Jose it may be a little different for Yallop but I don’t see GM John Doyle parting ways with Yallop anytime soon. We’ll talk this time next season if things haven’t changed out there and the club is still near the bottom of the pecking order.

Feeling Some Heat

This category is a bit different, its for those that aren’t expected to get a pink slip today but could down the line if things don’t turn out like expected. Based on high pre-season expectations and some owners that like to stay active with their clubs I see two coaches that could feel some heat if things don’t go as planned. Now this category will get me some heat and I know that but if you strip emotion out of things for a second and think about it, these two guys do have rights to be on this watch list.

Tom Soehn (DC United): I put Soehn on here yet again for a number of reasons. While DC has enjoyed a decent campaign so far this year, a lot still hasn’t gone very well. With a 6-4-10 record, one could say that United are just slightly above average. Being one of the worst clubs in the league when it comes to keeping a lead and coming up lame at home in the CCL play-in round last week could get Soehn in some hot water if his club doesn’t turn things around. A lot will depend on if his club can get into the group stage of the CCL and how far DC goes in the MLS Playoffs this year in regards to his job status this winter. I think he is safe for now but there is definitely some heat there in DC.

Denis Hamlett (Chicago): One guy that not a lot of folks will want to see on here is Hamlett. I put him here because his club continues to confuse me. Very good on the road but very below average at home. I know he has had to deal with injuries to key guys, along with loads of international call-ups this season but who hasn’t here? Chicago has all the talent to win MLS Cup this year but with home play against strong clubs the way it is one has to worry about their chances. Don’t worry Fire fans, the heat is low but if you base things on expectations and things don’t pan out, then you should be worried.

Pink Slip Coming Soon

Last and certainly not least is the category that is pretty self explainitory. Most of you know who will be in this category but some of you will not like one of the coaches mention here. For months I got a lot of negative comments over placing KC’s Onalfo on the coaching hot seat based on not getting his club to progress the way people thought they should, well the same story is going on elsewhere in the league.

Jason Kreis (RSL): I put Kreis on here for a reason, like Onalfo his club really hasn’t progressed at all during his time. Sure he got them to the playoffs a season ago but their record wasn’t a thing at all to brag about (10-10-10). The same old story has been here this season, good for the most part at home, yet terrible on the road. I think Kreis can be a good coach in this league since he grew up in the system and knows how it works. I just don’t see him progressing any further in Salt Lake at this point. I don’t see him getting the boot during this season unless they start dropping games like flies. If they fail to reach the playoffs I think the ownership will have to take hard look at where this club is going with Kreis.

Juan Carlos Osorio (New York): Yeah this one really does go without saying. A lot of people wonder why he hasn’t been canned yet. Well it is simple, the ownership at the Energy Drink is waiting to see how the club does in the CCL play-in round. I think a lot depends on if they progress forward in that competition before they let Osorio go. If they do progress I don’t see him getting fired until after the MLS season is over. With little to play for it doesn’t make sense on spending money to get another head coach in there now. More than likely he will finish out the rest of the season with the club and be let go after that.

Chivas keeps rolling...but for how long? (Getty Images)

Looking back on this past week and even a season as a whole up until now there are plenty of questions surrounding these clubs. I think we are seeing who is contending this season, who is pretending and who is already playing themselves out of contention.

I’ve been jotting down a few notes recently about a few clubs and how they are playing. Some are coaching questions as we move into the first edition of the coaching hot seat (coming up soon I promise), and other random thoughts I’ve had so far this year. You all may be able to answer some and if not they could be good topics of discussion.

So let’s get to it shall we?

Just How Good Is Chivas USA?

This may be one of the biggest questions on everyone’s mind right now. Seven games in and this club has 16 points are the best club in the league. Or are they?

Let’s look at who’ve they beat so far:

FC Dallas (twice)
Colorado
Columbus
Seattle

They’ve also tied LA (then again who hasn’t by now) and lost to Toronto on the road (Chivas is never a good turf club).

I’ve had a couple emails asking my opinions on just how good this club really is. From first hand experience they are good. But there are concerns that I do want to point out about them here. First of all their defensive depth will come into question before long this season. It just has to. Secondly, how long can Zach Thornton keep up his current pace? All legit conerns.

One bright note too is that this club is playing well despite the fact that Sasha Kljestan has not been playing well this season. We’ve seen little to no production out of him and it makes me wonder if he even really wants to be there any more.

Then there is the reality that is what will Preki do once he gets a healthy Ante Razov and Maykel Galindo to go with his current starting XI? Start’em? Sit’em? Trade’em? Honestly, I see one of those two getting traded this season. Its a weird gut feeling I’ve had all year, even before the season started that probably Galindo or Razov would be traded away for allocation or something. It just seems like it is going to happen, especially once they are healthy.

I don’t know though, this club has all the makings of a playoff side and I fully believed they would be anyways before the season. There is just the worry I guess that this club will pull a New England from last year and just flame out after a really hot start. We’ve seen it happen a few times in recent years, a fast start followed by a playoff birth in the middle of the year followed up by a flame out at the end with no deep run into the playoffs.

I sort of see their current run continuing on in May. Three out of five are at home and the two road games in San Jose and KC are definitely win-able games. In other words they aren’t games on turf.

For me though I still need this club to learn to come from behind. Historically it’s not something they’ve been able to do. We didn’t see them do it in Toronto this past week either which raised the concerns about them from a few folks.

Why is FC Dallas so bad?

I look at the roster in Dallas and really wonder why on Earth this club is sitting with record of 1-4-1 on the year. Defensively they are a joke still and I think it could be safe to say that a lot of the issues are coming down to coaching on the part of Schellas Hyndman.

Sad part is the club is producing offensively but defensively they can’t seem to figure things out. Another sad part is that Hyndman isn’t even anywhere close to a hot seat even though he normally would be in most situations.

Any Worries in the Windy City?

What’s going on with the usual dependable defense that is in Chicago. Bakary Soumare for one has been shaky at best lately. Don’t be shocked to see Dennis Hamlett make a change for a game or two to get things back in gear for Soumare. He had a couple possible fouls in the box that could have been easily wistled for a PK.

Overall though the Fire are the only undefeated club left on the block. They are still the deepest club in the league and really should have no worries right now. Of all the clubs I think their start is in line for a great summer run to break away from the rest of the eastern conference. Once they get going here in the coming weeks we could see the making of a Supporter’s Shield type club.

Possible Coaching Hot Seat

I’ve mentioned before that I am close to starting up a coaching hot seat list for this year. John Carver in Toronto was looking to go this way until his club pulled off two straight home wins this past week…also his resignation with the club changed a lot of what could go on this season with this list. Anyways…early candidates include:

Juan Carlos Osorio (NY)

….and that is about it. Most guys have a little bit of time on their hand but I put Osorio on the initial list due to the poor performance of his club through seven games. Not to mention his new additions are not paying off…again.

Guys with a little heat though:

Schellas Hyndman (FCD): Obvious reasons mentioned above

Frank Yallop (San Jose): Its a low simmer kind of heat but if his club doesn’t start turning around by the end of the year he could see more heat.

Bruce Arena (LA): Club can’t win…but on the flip side they aren’t losing as much.

Crew Blunders

Will Columbus make the playoffs this year? Only two defending champions failed to do so the next season (DC in 2000 and LA in 2006) so it can happen. But why is it happening? The club isn’t hungry at all. Injuries finally caught up with this club unlike last year.

Mainly I think it comes down to a lack of fire and sharpness. Point blank they are missing guys like Frankie Hejduk too much and it is costing their club dearly.

Contender/Pretender

I love playing this game, even this early into the season. I won’t go into any in-depth reasoning here because its more for fun than anything right now. I really only see a couple true contenders and a few pretenders. There is just a lot of muck in the middle.

Contenders:

Chivas USA
Seattle
Chicago

Mixed in the middle (for now)

Real Salt Lake
Kansas City
Toronto
DC United
Colorado
New England
Houston

Pretending:

San Jose
New York
Dallas
Columbus
LA

I felt Soehn was as good as gone after not making the playoffs this year but the club is doing a smart thing in letting him stay on to fix the mess that was started this past year. In all fairness he had a slew of injuries to deal with and a bunch of poor roster moves made by the club’s management.

At the end of the day stability is what counts in this league and DC is hoping they can get back to their stable winning ways with Soehn. They have a lot of work to do but Soehn is still a capable guy to do it in my book. First of all they need to get healthy and get some good defenders for them to move on here into 2009.

What do you all make of this news? Is DC doing the right thing in keeping him on board for another year or will they regret not getting rid of him sooner?

So with that said it is time to figure out who is next in line or who is getting a warmer seat.

A little recap though for those keeping score at home. Below are the three coaches that have either been fired or have “resigned” on their own terms.

Fernando Clavijo, Colorado Rapids: Saw it coming from day one of LAST year. Finally happened though it probably wasn’t the way we all expected it to go down.

Ruud Gullit, LA Galaxy: I had him on the hot seat for the majority of the season, even during their decent spell of games that they won earlier in the year. While I didn’t expect him to get the boot this year the writing on the wall was pretty clear about it happening.

Steve Morrow, FC Dallas: Just as I start to mention him on the hot seat he gets canned this year. I previously mentioned at the start of the season that he would feel the heat and be in the discussion to get the boot if his club didn’t play well. Yeah, we all know how that one went.

So who’s next here? I’m closing the poll on the side of the page about this because of Clavijo’s resignation, most of you felt that it was his time to go as well but a few of you have picked on the other candidates that I provided.

Some of you have been pointing out to me about the top three now on the site and have asked why I put the three that I have. Simple, I will tell you as I always do. Pretty much this list is more geared towards this fall and winter. I highly doubt any more coaches will get the boot during this season but it is never too early to look ahead at these types of things.

1. Juan Carlos Osorio, New York: Osorio is feeling the heat because he is coaching in New York. The club has never been stable in terms of coaching and Osorio is trying to buck that trend. I for one hope it happens but until I see it he will be on this list, near the top, because of where he is at. Not to mention his club hasn’t been all that great this season anyways. His last two games have certainly helped his cause and some of his new players are making him look smart once again.

While I think New York will keep him for next year here it wouldn’t shock me to see him go if the club fails to reach the playoffs this season. They are in the playoff picture right now with 28 points and their schedule is certainly doable from here out. But some stumbles in games they should win will not give Red Bull fans hope for this club in the playoffs with as tight as the eastern conference is this year. They don’t appear to be a lock for an automatic bid at this point with the way Columbus, New England and Chicago have been playing…not to mention DC is right now there in that mix.

A wild-card at best right now for this club. If they stumble in the playoffs look out.

2. Tom Soehn, DC United: I put Soehn near the top for a couple reasons. One, his club has been largely inconsistent all year due to injuries and a packed schedule. Secondly, some questionable roster moves early will be blamed on him for not working out by some people (which isn’t always the case but does happen).

People in DC expect winning and at 9-10-1 right now, that isn’t exactly winning. Again, blame a slow start, a packed schedule, injuries, whatever things just aren’t as good as we’ve seen out of this bunch as before.

DC should make the playoffs but another stumble out will not work out well for Soehn this year.

3. John Carver, Toronto FC: Even with some recent moves I think Carver has to get a mention. I usually hate putting first year coaches on this list but with someone like Mo Johnston running the show in the background I wonder exactly how well things are working in Toronto. Plus, look at all the comments Carver makes in the presses, he isn’t exactly thrilled with how things go in MLS.

Should this club fail to reach the playoffs, expect there to be some serious heat on Carver. He’s had to juggle a line up a bit this season and in all honesty he needs some help in certain areas from Johnston in terms of players on the roster (defensively and up until the Ruiz trade, offensively).

If he reaches the playoff he will be fine but for now he has to be feeling some heat going into the final third of the season.

A couple to keep an eye out:

Preki, Chivas USA: While I think it would be a big injustice to Preki due to all the injuries his club has had to deal with it wouldn’t shock me to see this club try another direction if they fail to reach the playoffs this year.

Curt Onalfo, Kansas City Wizards: A lot of Wizards fans hate me for putting their coach anywhere near this list but come to reality folks, even with a  young roster if you fail to produce results, then things have to change. I highly doubt he will get the boot anytime this year (offseason included) but I’m still not overly thrilled with the roster this club has right now. I think come the middle of next year if things are still floating around where they are now he will definitely be feeling the heat.

“A lot of things happened through the year that I was not happy with in many ways, but I think because of family now I’ve decided it’s the right time to put all my energy into my family and recharged my batters and myself, too,” Clavijo said.

Like I said last week, I believed it was one of those things were he was getting out before he was outed in the offseason. The front office decided not to do anything to him during the year but you can tell they gave him little confidence that he would be returning next season as the head coach of the Rapids.

Even though we all know he was going to get the boot at the end of the year it is almost always better to see someone leave on their own power.

Clavijo said he will inform the team of his decision and endorse assistant coach Gary Smith, who lead the team to a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City last weekend. My bet is Smith will carry out the duties for the rest of the season and Colorado will push heavy for Houston assistant John Spencer in the offseason.

Are you shocked at all to see Clavijo stepping down right now? What does this mean for the Rapids?

According to reports he will not be back in time for the club’s weekend match with Kansas City, but he did not rule it out completely.

The situation comes at a time when speculation is surrounding his future with the club. His contract runs through this season. Currently the Rapids haven’t won a game since their July 4th blowout against New York. At 6-10-3 on the year, the Rapids are the second worst club in the league.

Its one of those odd things really, he knows his time is limited with the club right now. So does he go ahead and just bolt town before he gets the pink slip? We will have to watch and see but something like this always screams that the person is leaving on their own terms and not at the hands of some suit in the front office. Either way it doesn’t sound too good for this club right now.

What do you make of this news? Is he as good as gone here or is this just a thing to fuel the presses?

Its about time right?

Yeah, considering the Rapids have been pretty terrible in recent weeks (1-5-3 in their last nine). Plus Clavijo’s all-time mark with the Rapids now stands at 39-49-24. Those aren’t exactly numbers that he promised when he started with the club. I think I recall him even saying by year three they would be a MLS Cup contender or something to that effect.

What happened in year three? The Rapids missed the playoffs.

This move could be coming in a matter of days so I will keep you up to date on what I hear.

I’ve been that way from the beginning with Lalas and to a lesser degree with Ruud Gullit.

Today as we all know both have left the Galaxy either on their own accord or by way of the ol’ pink slip. Again, most of you know I’ve been saying Lalas would be gone before long anyways regardless of what would happen this season unless that result was a MLS Cup win for the Galaxy. And now it looks as though that may have not been enough with his firing today.

Let me get Gullit out of the way here first. The Dutch coach put it out there for people to see with his recent sale of his LA home. Sure he said his wife didn’t like the place but that as we all know was a poor excuse for what really was going on here. While I never thought he would be a success in the league, I did think he would be a decent short term fix for the club seeing how he would know how to handle having a super star like David Beckham around.

We know both Gullit and Lalas didn’t see eye-to-eye. Hell, Lalas rarely sees eye-to-eye with any coach he works with. From San Jose to New York to LA, all stops on the post-Lalas playing days have been a disaster for not just Lalas but the club he has left. San Jose may be the only that was still decent after he left but I’m sure there are even some that point the move to Houston on Lalas just for kicks.

The writing has been on the wall for Lalas. For months, and months, okay, and maybe a year we’ve been waiting on this day as either a Galaxy supporter or a non-Galaxy supporter.

Let’s all hope this is the last stop on the Lalas as GM/President tour we see in MLS. I’d honestly like to see him just ride this off into the California sunset and not back into an ESPN broadcast booth like I suspect will happen.

Whether it was the moves that made little sense, the out landish Super Club comments, or just the litte understanding of how to run a MLS club are all reasons for getting rid of Lalas over these past few years.

Now let’s hope the club can rebuild like they should have and like they’ve done in the past, being stable from top to bottom. Stability works in this league, look at New England. To a lesser degree patience works, look at the plus side with Columbus and Sigi Schmid and to the lesser side with all the coaches that have passed through New York over the years.

Cobi Jones now steps in as the coach, don’t be shocked if after this year he becomes the general manager and that is a good thing. Jones is a solid leader who won’t incert his foot in his mouth (or his ass) like Lalas would. Plus he honestly knows the league better than anyone right now I believe. I see the Galaxy going after a Paul Merinar or a John Spencer to then coach this club if Jones heads to the front office. Both are smart moves for this club.

Even with today’s shake up I still believe the Galaxy have what it takes to turn it around in the short run and make a play for the playoffs here. As forgiving as the western conference is they are not yet out of things here. With a big match against Chivas USA coming up they could do little harm to getting back on the horse with a win over their HDC rivals.

Some moves will still be made shortly. I still see a move to ship Carlos Ruiz out of this club before long. I doubt Paul Bravo or Tom Payne will wait around for a great offer for a guy that isn’t doing much on the field and that is eatting up a bulk of their salary cap space.

So what is really next for the Galaxy. Its a wait and see kind of thing but I doubt we will have to wait too long before something does go down.

No one has been fired since but seeing that we are now at the “All-Star break” here (well sorta, there is a game tonight) it seemed like a good time to revisit this once more.

To be honest, I have kept up a little bit on the sidebar with this list but haven’t gone into any detail about it. The names you see are in the heat. Though I did have to take Real Salt Lake’s Jason Kries off the list due to his club’s recent success in the standings.

So who makes this list? Who is feeling the heat now at the All-Star break? Well, its still a couple of the same names and maybe one or two new ones that are fairly close to going on the hot seat. Let’s see, shall we?

1. Fernando Clavijo, Colorado Rapids: I think at this point we all know that Clavijo is and will forever be on the hot seat. He is a lame duck coach right now and I honestly see no way of him being resigned by the Rapids this winter. The only way however would be a MLS Cup run, meaning either get to the game and win it all or just get to the game. That may really be the only way to save him at this point is a trip to the MLS Cup.

It won’t happen though. His club is like his coaching style, inconsistent. Sure, they are currently still in the run of things here but its that inconsistent play that continues to haunt them. For the first couple months of the season it was win-lose, win-lose. No winning streaks and no losing streaks. By summer we finally saw streaks but none of them have been a winning streak. I believe the only other club this season to not have a winning streak of at least two games is San Jose. That’s not good company to be in.

An all-time record of 52-67-32 leaves me wondering why he has had a job this long in the league.

If they are to get back on track the games coming up will certainly help. Three straight at home coming up, but then another three straight on the road. Their final two months see them play the likes of Houston, Chicago, RSL, and New England at home. Not the clubs I’d like to face late in the year.

2. Juan Carlos Osorio, New York Red Bulls: Ah yes, another year and another New York coach feeling the heat. That’s probably the biggest reason why this club has yet to see success in it’s history, they quickly give up on a coach. Will that happen to Osorio this year? Well, it still may.

The club currently sits below .500% at 5-6-6 on the year. I know they recently sign a slew of players, while losing Jozy Altidore to Europe and seeing Claudio Reyna retire. Not to mention their best player has been injured a majority of this season. I get that, I do.

But aside from all of that this club has a terrible defense that was expected to be so much better with Osorio. I don’t know if it was because they cased too many former players of his like Wilman Conde before the season that they forgot to actually sign talent. Some people thought their defense was really good at the beginning of the year but over time its gotten to be pretty bad (26 goals allowed, tied for second most allowed in the league).

Now if these new players that Osorio has gone out and signed this summer actually work. There is some hope with a guy like Jorge Rojas but one guy isn’t going to turn around that defense over night.

I look at that remaining schedule and while they have plenty of winable games to get them in contention, all of their road games look rough (at SJ, twice at Chicago, at RSL, at Columbus, and at DC). All of them are places they don’t play well at. With 13 games left, they have to make the most of their home games. They can get it done but its going to take a lot of work and some Osorio magic to take place.

3. Ruud Gullit, LA Galaxy: They’ve been great at times and have been absolutely bad at times this season. We know the offense can score, we do. And we know the defense can’t defend a team of 90-year old women, we do.

Management has said that its MLS Cup or bust for this club. Now I don’t know if that means they would buy-out Gullits contract that was for a couple years or if they would just up and fire the guy. I think most still would like to see them fire Alexi Lalas regardless of what happens this season.

If he can improve that defense before the end of the year, this club has what it takes to win it all. With that offense you can pretty much beat anyone on a good day. Plus it doesn’t hurt that the MLS Cup is in the HDC this year.

Their schedule left sees them on the road eight times. Yikes, only five home games! Well, okay six because they play Chivas one more time. Still, for a club that isn’t great on the road, that isn’t a good thing. Not to mention with the up coming World Cup qualifiers this fall, they will be without Landon Donovan for some time, Carlos Ruiz (if they don’t trade him), possibly David Beckham, and possibly Edson Buddle. All key parts to this club.

Others close to the fire:

• Curt Onalfo, Kansas City Wizards: Another season with no playoffs could be trouble for Onalfo, even with a young team. I doubt he will really get the boot this year or even in the winter but their offense and defense leaves me little reason to get excited about them this year.
• John Carver, Toronto FC: Should the Reds see another second half stumble like last year you can bet Mo Johnston won’t think twice about pulling Carver off the job. But Mo better be finding Carver a striker ASAP. Ten goals in the last nine games isn’t going to cut it.
• Dominic Kinnear, Houston Dynamo: No way Kinnear will get the boot but the fact that his club sits currently at 4-4-8 on the year isn’t too good either. I’m hoping SuperLiga put a spark in this club.

Who is missing here? Let’s hear it, did I miss a coach that deserves to be on the hot seat right now? Don’t like the main three that I picked? Comment below.

I wasn’t told if he would hired as the head coach and as the technical director as previously reported. My bet is that double hiring is still going to happen. I’d honestly be shocked to see it does not happen as a duel hire.

My opinion really hasn’t changed on this matter. Its nothing against Hyndman but I honestly believe he isn’t the right hire for this club at the moment. He comes into a mess of a club for the most part from the front office down to the reserve roster. He isn’t likely to bring that much of an impact and is really just a personal hire of the owners.

I doubt a better hire would have been done by GM Michael Hitchcock either though. So it makes sense for the owners to get someone they want and not someone the GM wants. They’ve seen the GM doesn’t deal well with the coaches at this club. And its pretty apparent that whoever the GM wanted would have been a lame duck anyways.

Dave Sarachan and Oscar Pareja were probably two better choices, I still wanted to see Pareja get the nod but it still looks like Colin Clark wanted his old SMU coach at the helm of his club. My mind may change once I am around Hyndman more but for the most part its not the best of moves for this club.

Also, I still think with this hire, especially if its the duel-role hire like I think it is, Hyndman will coach the rest of this season and then find another coach for the club. I seriously believe he will then take on just the role of technical director (Hitchcock will more than likely be out of the picture by then as well). Sort of like Mo Johnston in Toronto. He can find talent, I will say that, and that is why I am feeling this way.

No word yet on what this means for current interim coach Marco Ferruzzi. I honestly think he should have just been given the keys to the car for the rest of the year here. But I suppose not.

Then again you just never know. What do you all make of this hire? Wrong move or right?

UPDATE: Just noticed this news over on Ives’ site as well (though I think he beat me to the punch). Lots of interesting comments on his post about this matter.