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Some three weeks after parting ways with former head coach Preki, Chivas USA has settled on its new head coach and the Goats have settled on a familiar face.
Chivas USA will hire former assistant and former Bayern Munich assistant coach Martin Vasquez, sources told SBI on Tuesday. Vasquez beat out former U.S. national team manager Steve Sampson for the job. Former KC head coach Curt Onalfo was among the other candidates to interview.
The early front-runner for the position before facing competition from Sampson for the post, Vasquez will return to MLS after having spent a year as Juergen Klinsmann's assistant with Bayern Munich. Prior to that, Vasquez spent time as an assistant coach for Sigi Schmid in Los Angeles and with Bob Bradley at Chivas USA. This is Vasquez's first professional head coaching position. He also becomes the club's first Mexican-born head coach (unless you count the brief term of interim head coach Arturo Javier Ledesma).
What is my take? Vasquez spent five years as an assistant coach in MLS before his stint in Germany, but is still a relatively inexperienced coach. That said, he is considered more of a player's coach, which Chivas USA wanted after parting ways with a task master in Preki. Onalfo would have provided more experience, but Vasquez's ties to the area and the club's desire to hire a coach with Mexican roots gave Vasquez the edge over two Spanish- speaking non-Latino candidates in Sampson and Onalfo.
With the Chivas USA position now filled, the three remaining posts to be filled are Chicago's, New York's and D.C. United's. All three are expected to be filled in the next two weeks.
What do you think of Vasquez's hiring? Like it? Were you hoping for another Sampson era in MLS?
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