Tuesday, December 2, 2008

It's not the coach

Tuesday's Cancha cover shows Efrain Flores all smiles. Flores was kept on as coach of Chivas de Guadalajara despite the club missing the postseason.

Still, this is the right move. It's not the coach's fault that Chivas isn't a contender each and every season. In fact, if they could find some sort of stability they may become just that.

After all, look at the remaining four teams in the Mexican league playoffs. Cruz Azul's Benjamin Galindo, Toluca's Jose Manuel de la Torre and Santos' Daniel Guzman are all former Chivas coaches.

Cancha has a breakdown of the former coaches and why each was fired. Guzman was there when Jorge Vergara took over and Vergara apparently just did not like Guzman and wanted someone else in there.

Galindo was let go for a dispute between the club for some extracurricular activities the players had to perform.

De la Torre, meanwhile, was sacked for not following the Chivas philosophy as he played defensively at times. I thought his tenure would have been long considering success he had in league and Copa Libertadores.

So maybe now Flores can manage without feeling as if he will be fired if he loses his next game. Or maybe not. Maybe this move will only prolong the inevitable. If so, he'll undoubtedly have success elsewhere. History suggests as much.

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