Mired in disappointing season, Atlanta United fires coach Gonzalo Pineda

ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta United fired coach Gonzalo Pineda on Monday, less than 24 hours after another loss took the team out of the Major League Soccer playoffs.

The team announced the change after a 3-2 home loss to Charlotte in front of more than 61,000 fans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

United has just one win – a surprising 3-1 road win over Lionel Messi and MLS leaders Inter Miami last week – in its last 11 games with Pineda on the sidelines. The team is 1-6-4 over that span, falling to 13th in the Eastern Conference and 24th overall in MLS.

Assistant coach Rob Valentino will serve as interim coach while Atlanta searches for Pineda’s successor. The team said there was no timetable for finding a replacement, indicating Valentino would stay on until the end of the season.

“We are grateful to Gonzalo for his commitment and dedication to the club over the past four seasons,” club CEO and president Garth Lagerwey said in a statement. “We made this decision with the aim of taking the team in a new direction. As we continue to evaluate all aspects of our sports operations, Rob will have our full support in turning our season around in the second half.

United also fired assistant coaches Diego de la Torre and Eugenio Villazon. Goalkeeping coach Liam Curran will retain his current role.

Pineda led Atlanta to a 34-34-39 league record after taking over as head coach during the 2021 season. The team has made two playoff appearances in his four seasons at the bar, but was eliminated in the first round each time.

Pineda, 41, became United’s fourth full-time coach after serving as an assistant with the Seattle Sounders for nearly five seasons. He took over a club that quickly became one of the best in MLS after joining the league as an expansion team in 2017.

Atlanta made the playoffs in its inaugural season, won the MLS Cup in its second year and reached the conference finals in 2019, developing a passionate fan base that has set numerous attendance records.

But the team is far from matching the success it enjoyed during the two-year tenure of its first coach, Tata Martino, or the first year of his successor, Frank de Boer.

De Boer was fired during the pandemic-ridden 2020 season after United went winless in the “MLS Is Back” tournament. Gabriel Heinze was fired after winning just twice in 13 games to start the 2021 campaign, a tumultuous tenure marked by run-ins with star striker Josef Martínez and accusations that league rules had been violated during sessions training.

Pineda was hailed by United as one of the league’s most promising young managers, but his tenure was marred by inconsistent play, baffling defeats and an increasingly disgruntled fan base.

The loss to Charlotte was the fifth straight at home and followed many other defeats with Pineda as coach.

United created many more scoring chances and took a 1-0 lead, only to give up an own goal five minutes later, leveling the match. Then, in the second half, two defensive errors gave Charlotte the victory.

“I would say that in a way the performance was similar, outplaying and creating many more chances than the opponent,” Pineda said after what turned out to be his final match. “When you don’t score goals in key moments, you suffer.”

Atlanta entered the season with high hopes with a revamped roster that included Giorgos Giakoumakis, Stian Gregersen and Thiago Almada as designated players. But all three missed time due to injuries, which was a trend throughout Pineda’s tenure.

Even more troubling, Pineda never seemed to get the most out of his team or find a way to correct the repeated breakdowns.

“Our will to win must be stronger,” he said. “When you analyze the games, I think a lot of them had a similar story, especially the home ones.”

Valentino has held several positions at the club since 2018, including 10 games as interim head coach in 2021. He switched to a 4-2-2 before Pineda took the job.

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AP MLS: https://apnews.com/hub/major-league-soccer