although there are reports he was pushed -- as coach and sporting director Monday.
Yallop apparently found his own unique parachute -- another team and a new challenge in the guise of the expansion San Jose Earthquakes after his resignation Sunday night.
When they took over the MetroStars in March 2006, Red Bull promised the team would have a new name, new start and new identity.
Yet in many respects, the Red Bulls have followed in the path of their predecessors, switching coaches as though they were underwear. They inherited Mo Johnston from the MetroStars. replaced him on an interim basis with Richie Williams, hired Arena and now have dumped him. Assuming the Red Bulls hire someone by the end of the month, that will be four coaches within 21 months.
Not even the MetroStars, who had set some amazing MLS standards of a revolving door policy, had that many coaches over such a short period of time.
When they brought in Arena after the U.S. World Cup failure in the summer of 2006, the Red Bulls made an ill-conceived splash. Arena also made a mistake by jumping at the reported $1.2 million a year contract Red Bull dangled in front of him. He looked tired and should have taken a nice long golf vacation.
Here he was barely a couple of weeks after the U.S. being eliminated, ready to jump into the fray again. He could have waited a year. He wasn't exactly going broke with his lucrative contract from U.S. Soccer.
One MLS insider questioned whether Arena's heart was in his job. "I think he was laboring," he said. "He wasn't into it."
This wasn't the same MLS Arena had left in 1998. Teams and coaches had become more sophisticated.
In his first time around, Arena, like all the other coaches, started from scratch. Yet, he did have one big advantage. He stocked the original D.C. United team with players from his NCAA Division I champion University of Virginia to form the core of the first two MLS Cup champion teams. Add to that a couple of talented Bolivians in Marco Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno, and voila, an intimidating and eventually entertaining side was born.
In August 2006, he inherited a Red Bulls team that had been rebuilt by former coach Mo Johnston and ex-club president and general manager Alexi Lalas.
After the Red Bulls were eliminated in the opening round again, Arena was given a pass by the New York/New Jersey media in his first season.
Arena oversaw the latest rebuilding.
He certainly got high grades and praise for bringing over Juan Pablo Angel as a designated player. But two other major acquisitions haven't fared as well -- goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus, who will retire professionally, and former U.S. captain Claudio Reyna, who was injury prone. Then there was the trade of defender Todd Dunivant to Toronto for Kevin Goldthwaite, who was a disappointment and essentially left a hole on the left side until midfielder Dave van den Bergh was inserted there late in the season.
Some of Arena's tactical decisions and player decisions were also questioned. Players seemed to go in and out of his doghouse. Clint Mathis, such a revelation early on, became an invisible man down the stretch, even though he showed a lot more attacking vitality than Reyna in central midfield. He used Jozy Altidore as a wing at midfield and not as a forward in Game One of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Altidore is not accustomed to playing that role.
Arena also could not decide on a No. 1 goalkeeper -- an old habit over from his United days -- as Waterreus played in 18 games, Jon Conway in only 12, although the latter demonstrated he was more consistent.
While Arena liked to talk about gradual progress in the rebuilding process, Juan Carlos Osorio has guided the Chicago Fire into the Eastern Conference finals after taking over in midseason.
"It just goes to show that with the right chemistry and teacher on the bench, you can change things around fairly quickly," Red Bulls managing director Marc de Grandpre said.
The dumping of Arena means continuing yet another old club tradition -- the annual rebuilding of the team. A new coach means new players, no matter who you are.
In two weeks, Yallop will start building his new team from scratch.
One thing is certain. As one of the best and most respected coaches in the league, Yallop proved to be a poor ringleader of the circus surrounding David Beckham (it's not Beckham's fault, just the baggage that follows him). Unrealistic expectations and hype were the norm in L.A. and Beckham fits in perfectly.
"I like Frank as a person and I think he's a great coach," Landon Donovan told The Los Angeles Times. "The unfortunate part is, he hasn't been allowed to show what a good coach he is this year.
"He's not been able to be himself. He's had people in his ear telling him what to do, and he's not been able to just get on with it. When he finally was left alone, we went on a seven-game unbeaten streak.
"I don't think anyone wants to work in those circumstances."
So perhaps someone like a Jose Mourinho, late of English Premiership circus team named Chelsea, will be better suited with all the off-the-field goings-on with the Galaxy.
Yallop signed a three-year contract with the Quakes. The club gave the Galaxy a third-round pick in the 2008 SuperDraft for Yallop, who directed the 2001 and 2003 San Jose sides to MLS glory.
"As we're starting anew, this is a step in the right direction," Quakes general manager John Doyle was quoted by the San Jose Mercury News. "Frank has history here, his best years of coaching were here, and he has a great way with players. We needed a good name and good coach, and we have that in Frank."
What of Arena? Well, he could always hook up with ESPN to do color commentating for MLS playoff games and U.S. national team games on a much more frequent basis since he has done it in the offseason.
Arena's successor at the moment is not as cut and dried. You can bet your bottom dollar that Red Bull, following the MetroStars tradition, will go after a big name. Former Real Madrid and A.C. Milan coach Fabio Capello heads the rumor list, although Juergen Klinsmann and U.S. under-23 national coach Peter Nowak have been bandied about as well.
Despite boasting some of the best and high profile coaches domestically and internationally, the Red Bulls/Metros have had their share of playoff futility, failing to get out of the opening round eight of nine times, including the last five seasons.
The MetroStars' famous coaches graveyard included (in chronological order) former Cosmos coach Eddie Firmani, former Portuguese national coach Carlos Queiroz, now at Manchester United, Carlos Alberto Parreira, who guided Brazil to its first World Cup crown in 24 years at USA '94, former U.S. national coach Bora Milutinovic, who earned a reputation as a national team miracle worker by coaching five countries in the World Cup, and Bob Bradley, the current U.S. national coach, among others.
Out of the last four U.S. national team coaches, only Steve Sampson hasn't directed the team. But who knows? He could wind up on the Red Bulls' list.
While there is nothing wrong about having a foreign coach, it has been proved that Americans or foreigners who are familiar with the U.S. soccer system and the U.S. players (i.e. the New England Revolution's Steve Nicol) -- have fared better than ones from Europe or South America.
Reminded that foreigners haven't quite cut it over here, de Grandpre replied, "We will consider the best coach for the job, someone who's going to get our players to do what they ultimately don't want to do so they can achieve their goal of winning championships. That's the end of the line. If it's someone from Europe or someone from South America or someone from North America, we're going to find the right coach that's going to motivate our players, develop our players, and make them capable of winning every game week in, week out."
Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
