HARRISON, N.J. (AP) – Sandro Schwartz was fired Monday as coach of the New York Red Bulls after two seasons, and his replacement will be the team’s 21st coach in 31 seasons.
New York missed the playoffs and finished 10th in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference with 12 wins, 15 losses, and 7 ties. The team finished seventh in 2024 and advanced to the MLS finals, but lost to LA Galaxy.
The Red Bulls have announced that Julian de Guzman will replace Jochen Schneider as sporting director next year, and that assistant coach Volkan Bulut will not return in 2026. De Guzman appeared in 89 games for Canada from 2002 to 2016, including 25 as captain, before joining the Red Bulls as sporting director in February 2024.
The Red Bulls, which began playing as the New York/New Jersey MetroStars in 1996, have never won an MLS championship. He has also been coached by Eddie Firmani (1996), Carlos Queiroz (1996), Carlos Alberto Parreira (1997), Alfonso Mondello (1998), Bora Milutinovic (1998-99), Octavio Zambrano (2000-02), Bob Bradley (2003-05) and Mo Johnston. (2005-2006), Richie Williams (2006), Bruce Arena (2006-07), Juan Carlos Osorio (2008-09), Richie Williams (2009), Hans Bakke (2010-12), Mike Petke (2013-15), Jesse Marsh (2015-18), Chris Armas (2018-20), Bradley Carnell (2020), Gerhard Struber (2020-22), Troy Lesene (2023).
Eight of MLS’s 30 teams have changed managers since the start of the season. Montreal also left Laurent Courtois (March 24th), Peter Vermes of Kansas City (March 31), Olof Melberg of St. Louis (May 27), D.C. Troy Lesene (July 10th), Caleb Porter of New England (September 15th) Ronnie Deila of Atlanta (October 19) and of Colorado. Chris Armas (Monday too).
___
AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
