VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Coach Vanni Sartini was fired by the Vancouver Whitecaps on Monday, 2 1/2 weeks after the team’s elimination in the MLS playoffs.
Sartini became the 10th MLS coach to depart since the start of the 2024 season. He took over from Marc Dos Santos in August 2021 at first as an interim coach and then was given the job that November.
Vancouver had 13 wins, 13 losses and eight draws in MLS this season, beat Portland 5-0 in the play-in round of the postseason and lost to Los Angeles FC in a three-game, first-round series that ended Nov. 8.
“The desperation on my side is absolutely there,” CEO and sporting director Axel Schuster said. “I had to make a professional decision (for) how we can get the biggest impact to make this step forward and to get to a progression.”
The 47-year-old Sartini, who is from Florence, Italy, had a MLS regular-season record of 44 wins, 40 losses and 32 draws and had 57 wins, 51 losses and 39 draws in all competitions. He joined Vancouver as an assistant in 2019 and became coach of its under-23 team in September 2020.
He was suspended for the first six games of this season, fined $20,000 and ordered to complete a league-approved behavioral assessment after criticizing referee Tim Ford following a season-ending 1-0 playoff loss to LAFC and making a joke about being a suspect if the official were to be found dead.
Vancouver has not won the MLS title since starting play in 2011. Its deepest postseason runs were to the quarterfinals 2015 and ’17. The Whitecaps won their third straight Canadian championship, beating Toronto 4-2 on penalty kicks after a 0-0 tie.
“I took my time with this decision, and it was not taken lightly,” Schuster said.
Other teams that changed coaches this season include Nashville’s Gary Smith (May 16), Atlanta’s Gonzalo Pineda (June 3), Dallas’ Nico Estévez (June 9), San Jose’s Luchi Gonzalez (June 24), St. Louis’ Bradley Carnell (July 1), Austin’s Josh Wolff (Oct. 6), Chicago’s Frank Klopas (Oct. 19), Philadelphia’s Jim Curtin (Nov. 7) and Miami’s Gerardo “Tata” Martino (Nov. 19).
Replacements include Nashville’s B.J. Callaghan (July 3), Chicago’s Gregg Berhalter (Oct. 8), Austin’s Nico Estévez (Oct. 25) and San Jose’s Bruce Arena (Nov, 7).
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
