List of Columbus Crew head coaches

Robert Warzycha was the head coach of the Columbus Crew from 2009-13.

The Columbus Crew 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. The Crew has had five different head coaches since the joined 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 currently the all–time leader in regular season wins (70), playoff appearances (four) and playoff wins (nine).[2]

Greg Andrulis, Fitzgerald's replacement, was the first head coach to lead the Crew 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 the team 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, 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 a Head Coach of the Crew.

On November 6th, 2013 Gregg Berhalter was named the head coach.[9]


Key

# Number of coaches[lower-alpha 1]
Seasons Full or partial seasons coached
W Wins
L Loses
T Ties
App Playoff appearances
Honors Individual or team awards won during tenure

Coaches

A memorial dedicated to Tom Fitzgerald at Columbus Crew Stadium. Fitzgerald is the winningest head coach in Crew history.
# Head Coach Seasons W L T App W L T W L Honors
MLS Regular Season MLS Cup Playoffs U.S. Open Cup
1[2] Timo Liekoski 1996[lower-alpha 2] 6 16 –[lower-alpha 3] 0 – – – – –
2 Tom Fitzgerald 1996–2001[lower-alpha 4] 70 67 7 4 9 8 0 7 3
3 Greg Andrulis 17 May 2001–12 July 05[lower-alpha 5] 49 43 32 3 2 4 3 8 3 U.S. Open Cup – 2002
Supporters' Shield – 2004
MLS Coach of the Year – 2004
4 Robert Warzycha 12 July 2005–20 Oct 05 [lower-alpha 6] 7 6 3 0 – – – 0 1
5 Sigi Schmid 20 Oct 2005–16 Dec 08 34 33 25 1 3 0 1 2 3 MLS Cup Champion – 2008
Supporters' Shield – 2008
MLS Coach of the Year – 2008
— Robert Warzycha 23 Dec 2008–02 Sep 13 63 53 38 3 1 4 0 3 4 Supporters' Shield – 2009
6 Brian Bliss 2 Sep 2013–6 Nov 2013[lower-alpha 7] 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
7 Gregg Berhalter 6 Nov 2013–present 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Notes

  1. ↑ A running total of the number of coaches of the Crew. Thus any coach who has two separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
  2. ↑ Liekoski was fired on August 2, 1996
  3. ↑ MLS games could not end in a tie until the 2000 season.
  4. ↑ Fitzgerald was fired on May 17, 2001.
  5. ↑ Andrulis was fired on July 16, 2005.
  6. ↑ Warzycha was named interim head coach on July 16, 2005.
  7. ↑ Bliss was named interim head coach on Sept 2, 2013.

References

  1. ↑ Timmerman, Tom (September 1, 1996). "New Coach, Goalkeeper Spark Crew's Push Toward Playoffs". St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
  2. 1 2 "2011 Columbus Crew Media Guide" (PDF). Columbus Crew. pp. 89–95. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  3. ↑ Dillman, Lisa (October 25, 2002). "Galaxy is Cut Down by Crew". Los Angeles Times.
  4. ↑ "Crew runs unbeaten streak to 18 and wins Supporters' Shield after 1-1 tie at Colorado". OurSports Central. October 17, 2004.
  5. ↑ Danborn, Joe (July 12, 2005). "Crew fire Andrulis as Coach". USA Today.
  6. ↑ "Former WSU soccer coach to lead Crew". Dayton Daily News. May 18, 2001.
  7. ↑ "Crew caps historic dream season with storybook ending in MLS Cup 2008". OurSports Central. November 26, 2008.
  8. ↑ Mitchell, Shawn (December 23, 2008). "Crew promotes Warzycha to head coach". Columbus Dispatch.
  9. ↑ Jardy, Adam (November 7, 2013). "Gregg Berhalter named coach". Columbus Dispatch.
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