MONTREAL – Normally a performance like the one the Montreal Impact exhibited last Saturday would have had seen head coach Frank Klopas lose his job. And it’s not just because the Impact are last and the 2-0 loss to Toronto FC on the weekend was their sixth in a row, but because the Impact players, for the most part, didn’t really seem to care.
Given the Impact’s situation in the standings and after everything that happened at the club last week – Nick De Santis being relieved of his functions as Sporting Director – and especially since they were facing their rivals at home, you’d have expected the Impact to at least show some urgency and energy in their play in front of their fans, but there wasn’t any, and Toronto comfortably controlled the game.
It’s one thing for a team to not play well, but for the Impact to look so tepid in a game which meant so much is grave and it ultimately reflects badly on Klopas, because it’s his job to motivate the players, and clearly he was unable to.
“The reaction wasn’t good and at the end of the day it’s my responsibility,” Klopas said in the post-game press conference.
Klopas’ job isn’t at risk, however, as club president Joey Saputo assured last week that, no matter what, he would respect Klopas’ contract, which runs until the end of 2015. Not only will Klopas remain as coach, he has also assumed De Santis’ functions as sporting director, which means that he has carte blanche to build the roster he wants for next season.
While there have been mistakes, it’s difficult to blame Klopas for the Impact’s troubles this season. Without any significant changes to the roster in the offseason it was always going to be very difficult for Klopas to replicate last season’s exploits of making the playoffs. There’s only so much he could have done with what he was given. And though Klopas was named “director of player personnel” on top of his coaching duties, ultimately it wasn’t a title that meant very much. There were players that he wanted, and could have received, but that in the end didn’t arrive, because De Santis didn’t want them.
Klopas doesn’t have anyone in his way anymore. He has total freedom to build the team that he wants.
And it’s not a new situation for Klopas. He was Chicago Fire’s technical director from 2008 to 2013 and in 2011 he also became the club’s head coach.
But Klopas’ record in Chicago wasn’t stellar. His signings were a hit or miss. As a coach he only made the playoffs once.
Between his time in Chicago and this current season in Montreal, Klopas doesn’t have a winning record in MLS. But he’s fortunate, because the Impact already fired two coaches in their previous two seasons and simply couldn’t fire another so quickly. So Klopas has been given an exceptional chance to redeem himself, to turn the Impact around. Fortunately, the results can’t really get much worse.
The main concern for Klopas is whether or not the players are behind him. But in the offseason at least, he’ll have a chance to clear out the ones that are not, a privilege that Jesse Marsch and Marco Schällibaum wished they could have had.