Thursday, August 21, 2008

Clavijo's done

It's probably not the way anyone wanted his tenure to end but Fernando Clavijo's days with the Colorado Rapids are over.

Clavijo resigned due to personal reasons as he and the Rapids reached some sort of mutual agreement that allowed the two to part ways.

Still, Clavijo probably shouldn't have been around this long to being with.

Colorado has been one of the most head-scratchingly irritating clubs in MLS in recent years. They always seem to have better talent than their record would indicate yet they've played in the Western Conference final in 2005 and 2006. Now, the latter is a byproduct of MLS' asinine playoff system more than anything but it's also probably what allowed Clavijo to stick around as long as he had.

Colorado has some great talent this year as well. Christian Gomez has been one of the league's best players for several seasons; Colin Clark looks like a future star that is on the cusp of a breakout season at times; Pablo Mastroeni is solid, Facundo Erpen, Herculez Gomez, Omar Cummings... some really solid talent but it hasn't come together.

That usually is a sign of the coach's ability to put the talent together, and yet Clavijo has stuck around.

On a personal level, it's tough to finish out a job this way and there seem to be some worries about his loved ones.

On a soccer level, this move is nearly two years too late. Who knows how the players will react? It's good an assistant is taking over as there is some sort of stability but the players have just 10 games left to sort this one out.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Supposedly his brother died.

But it seems he was unloved by Colorado fans anyway. Fernando, not his brother.

HERCULEZ.

Anonymous said...

Hey Luis,

Is he general manager material? I mean, isn't he partially repsonisble for the New England roster? I heard he's a good evaluator of talent.