GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Former New York Red Bulls and Chicago Fire coach Juan Carlos Osorio resigned from Puebla FC on Wednesday after five consecutive defeats and a series of off-the-field disputes.
Puebla directors said they would give Osorio one more game to turn things around after the team’s 1-0 loss last Sunday in the Estadio Cuauhtémoc against San Luis, but Osorio decided to walk and has not, as yet, given his reasons.
"We would’ve liked the coach to stay for many years to give some continuity,” Puebla sporting director Hugo Fernández said in a statement released by the club. “Lamentably, the results weren’t good enough.”
US international DaMarcus Beasley was a regular under the Colombian coach, but the team currently is languishing in 16th place in the Mexican Primera División. La Franja are winless at home, have only eight points and need a miracle to make the playoffs.
Osorio took the reins at Puebla early last December, and there were signs of problems straight away, not least regarding the signing of striker Eddie Johnson.
The US international was first confirmed as joining the club and then let go in the first few days of 2012, with Puebla claiming that the now-Seattle Sounders striker arrived unfit.
Johnson has since told reporters that the real reason he didn’t stay was that Fernández didn’t want him there, although Osorio did.
There have also been problems with Mexican tax authorizes, with Beasley posting a photo on Twitter of repo men coming to the club to strip it of some of its possessions back in January.
In the last week, there have been other reports of unrest around the club. Former Chivas USA striker Juan Pablo García was dropped from the squad indefinitely on Monday, with the local press suggesting that “El Loco” had a heated argument with Fernández.
Puebla's Under-20s coach Daniel Bartollota will assume temporary charge of the first team when it hosts Cruz Azul on Sunday.
Tom Marshall covers Americans playing in Latin America. E-mail him at tom.marshall.mex@gmail.com.
