List of Columbus Crew SC head coaches
Columbus Crew SC is a professional soccer team in the United States. The team is a member of the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer, the top professional soccer league of the United States and Canada. Crew SC has had eight different head coaches since joining the league in 1996. Timo Liekoski, the only Finnish head coach in MLS history, was the first head coach in 1996, but started 6-16 and was fired midseason to be replaced by Tom Fitzgerald.[1] Fitzgerald is the club's leader in career wins (86) and playoff wins (nine), and is tied with Gregg Berhalter for first in playoff appearances (four).[2]
Greg Andrulis, Fitzgerald's replacement, was the first head coach to lead Columbus to a major tournament victory in 2002 by winning the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.[3] In 2004, Columbus won the Supporters' Shield for having the best record during the regular season,[4] but Andrulis, who had been with the team since 1997 as an assistant, was fired during the 2005 season.[5][6] When Sigi Schmid began the 2006 season, it was the first time since the team's founding that a new coach took over in the off-season. He coached the team from 2006 through 2008 and led Crew SC to its first (and only) MLS Cup Championship in 2008, a season in which he also won MLS Coach of the Year.[7] After that season, Schmid left to coach the newly-formed Seattle Sounders FC, and former player and assistant coach Robert Warzycha replaced him. This would be Warzycha's second tenure as head coach after coaching 16 games as interim head coach in 2005.[8] Warzycha was the Crew's head coach from 2008–13, and his overall record of 70-59-41 leaves him tied with Tom Fitzgerald (1996–2001) for the most regular-season wins (70) as head coach of Columbus.
On November 6, 2013, Gregg Berhalter was named as head coach.[9]
Coaches
- As of October 6, 2019[10]
Coach | Tenure | MLS Regular Season | MLS Cup Playoffs | U.S. Open Cup | Honors | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
W | L | D | App | W | L | D | W | L | |||
Timo Liekoski | December 5, 1995 – August 2, 1996 | 6 | 16 | – | 0 | — | — | ||||
Tom Fitzgerald | August 2, 1996 – May 17, 2001 | 70 | 67 | 7 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 3 | |
Greg Andrulis | May 17, 2001 – July 16, 2005 | 49 | 43 | 32 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 3 | U.S. Open Cup – 2002 Supporters' Shield – 2004 MLS Coach of the Year – 2004 |
Robert Warzycha (interim) | July 16, 2005 – October 20, 2005 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 0 | — | 0 | 1 | |||
Sigi Schmid | October 20, 2005 – December 16, 2008 | 34 | 33 | 25 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | MLS Cup Champion – 2008 Supporters' Shield – 2008 MLS Coach of the Year – 2008 |
Robert Warzycha | December 23, 2008 – September 2, 2013 | 63 | 53 | 38 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 4 | Supporters' Shield – 2009 |
Brian Bliss (interim) | September 2, 2013 – November 6, 2013 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | — | — | ||||
Gregg Berhalter[11] | November 6, 2013 – December 2, 2018 | 67 | 58 | 45 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 5 | Eastern Conference Champions – 2015 |
Caleb Porter | January 4, 2019 – present | 10 | 16 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
References
- Timmerman, Tom (September 1, 1996). "New Coach, Goalkeeper Spark Crew's Push Toward Playoffs". St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
- "2011 Columbus Crew Media Guide" (PDF). Columbus Crew. pp. 89–95. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 25, 2012. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
- Dillman, Lisa (October 25, 2002). "Galaxy is Cut Down by Crew". Los Angeles Times.
- "Crew runs unbeaten streak to 18 and wins Supporters' Shield after 1-1 tie at Colorado". OurSports Central. October 17, 2004.
- Danborn, Joe (July 12, 2005). "Crew fire Andrulis as Coach". USA Today.
- "Former WSU soccer coach to lead Crew". Dayton Daily News. May 18, 2001.
- "Crew caps historic dream season with storybook ending in MLS Cup 2008". OurSports Central. November 26, 2008.
- Mitchell, Shawn (December 23, 2008). "Crew promotes Warzycha to head coach". Columbus Dispatch.
- Jardy, Adam (November 7, 2013). "Gregg Berhalter named coach". Columbus Dispatch.
- "Columbus Crew SC coaching history". ColumbusCrewSC.com. Columbus Crew SC. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
- "Gregg Berhalter". statscrew.com. Retrieved December 2, 2018.