Montreal Impact Fire Head Coach John Limniatis
The CBC is reporting that the Montreal Impact have fired head coach John Limniatis on Thursday, the day after the team lost 1-0 to Toronto FC in the Nutrilite Canadian Championship tournament.
Since the demoralizing 5-2 loss in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals to Santos, Montreal have not looked to be the team of quality that was present in the 2008 season. They are currently 0-3-1 in USL-1 League play.
The 41-year-old Limniatis, who was named head coach June 10, 2008, led Montreal to the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals and to the semifinals of the USL.
“After having analyzed the situation over the last few months, we have realized that the team was not playing to its level and that the positive results were not there,” said Impact technical director Nick De Santis. “The message was no longer getting through in the locker room. John will nevertheless remain in the Impact family and he continues to be one of our great team builders.”
Marc Dos Santos was named interim head coach until a replacement can be found. Dos Santos was the assistant coach of the Impact since June 10, 2008. He becomes the eighth head coach in the team’s history. According to Full-Time, Dos Santos was also the head coach of the Trois-Rivières Attak for two seasons, in 2007 and 2008. Dos Santos took training internships with three first division clubs in Portugal: Boavista FC (November 2004), SC Beira Mar (November 2004) and FC Porto (March 2007). He has the UEFA B license since July 2006 and is currently in the process of obtaining his UEFA A license.
“It’s an honour for me to become interim head coach for the Impact,” said Marc Dos Santos. “I am ready today to take on these new responsibilities. It’s a great challenge in my coaching career and it’s a mandate in which I will invest myself fully. I have acquired a solid experience in the last years with the Impact and the Attak, as well as in Portugal. I will do everything I can for the team to be successful again.”
John Limniatis Bio:
After beginning his pro career in 1987 with the Ottawa Pioneers of the Canadian Soccer League, Limniatis played professionally in Greece with First Division side Aris F.C. in 1987 and ’88 and Panetolikos in the Second Division from 1988 to ’92. He then joined the Montreal Impact in 1993 and remained with the club until 1998, then played again for them in 2000 and 2001. Liminatis played both outdoors in the A-League and indoors in the National Professional Soccer League both with the Impact and the Kansas City Attack in 1995-96. He later played on loan from Montreal for the Charleston Battery in 1999. Limniatis was named 1994 A-League Rookie of the Year and 1996 and ’97 Defender of the Year. He spent his last years with the Impact as their assistant coach, indoor head coach, and later director of operations before being named head coach.
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Good riddance … this coach was a hot head, who would mix it up with opposition players after the game (Seattle v Montreal, playoff 2008, for example … unable to find old link to photos).
Guess we’ll only be able to get Adam Braz to melt down when the Impact visit the NSC this season.
The Santos collapse was embarrassing, it is not as though they were beaten by wonder goals. If the person in charge cannot get his players to show more composure than that this type of end result is inevitable.
I would have to agree with that. Although some of it may have been composure but some of it was coaching. You don’t go into a game like that against a better opponent and think you can defend for 90 minutes.
I didn’t spell everything out in the article yesterday but this article pretty much sums up what I think might have happened.
http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/blog/post/229348
I agree, that meltdown versus Santos was the beginning of the end. I really thought Montreal was going to run at the top of the USL-1 table this season … there is still a long season ahead, and it’s certainly possible for them to climb back, so there’s no taking the Impact lightly.
We can look forward to the Impact’s return to the NSC with: tailgate featuring Parking Lot Poutine; the return of Stephen DeRoux; followed by a meltdown by Adam Braz.