List of Columbus Crew head coaches

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A memorial dedicated to Tom Fitzgerald at Mapfre Stadium. Fitzgerald is the winningest head coach in Crew history.

Columbus Crew SC is a professional soccer team in the United States. The team is a member of the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer, the top professional soccer league of the United States and Canada. Crew SC has had eight different head coaches since joining the league in 1996. Timo Liekoski, the only Finnish head coach in MLS history, was the first head coach in 1996, but started 6-16 and was fired midseason to be replaced by Tom Fitzgerald.[1] Fitzgerald is the club's leader in career wins (86) and playoff wins (nine), and is tied with Gregg Berhalter for first in playoff appearances (four).[2]

Greg Andrulis, Fitzgerald's replacement, was the first head coach to lead Columbus to a major tournament victory in 2002 by winning the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.[3] In 2004, Columbus won the Supporters' Shield for having the best record during the regular season,[4] but Andrulis, who had been with the team since 1997 as an assistant, was fired during the 2005 season.[5][6] When Sigi Schmid began the 2006 season, it was the first time since the team's founding that a new coach took over in the off-season. He coached the team from 2006 through 2008 and led Crew SC to its first MLS Cup Championship in 2008, a season in which he also won MLS Coach of the Year.[7] After that season, Schmid left to coach the newly-formed Seattle Sounders FC, and former player and assistant coach Robert Warzycha replaced him. This would be Warzycha's second tenure as head coach after coaching 16 games as interim head coach in 2005.[8] Warzycha was the Crew's head coach from 2008–13, and his overall record of 70-59-41 leaves him tied with Tom Fitzgerald (1996–2001) for the most regular-season wins (70) as head coach of Columbus.

On November 6, 2013, Gregg Berhalter was named as head coach.[9]

Coaches[]

As of June 20, 2021[10]
Coach Tenure MLS Regular Season MLS Cup Playoffs U.S. Open Cup Honors
W L D Apps W L D W L
Finland Timo Liekoski December 5, 1995 – August 2, 1996 6 16 – 0 — —
United States Tom Fitzgerald August 2, 1996 – May 17, 2001 70 67 7 4 9 8 0 7 3
United States Greg Andrulis May 17, 2001 – July 16, 2005 49 43 32 3 2 4 3 8 3 U.S. Open Cup – 2002
Supporters' Shield – 2004
MLS Coach of the Year – 2004
Poland Robert Warzycha (interim) July 16, 2005 – October 20, 2005 7 6 3 0 — 0 1
Germany Sigi Schmid October 20, 2005 – December 16, 2008 34 33 25 1 3 0 1 2 3 MLS Cup Champion – 2008
Supporters' Shield – 2008
MLS Coach of the Year – 2008
Poland Robert Warzycha December 23, 2008 – September 2, 2013 63 53 38 3 1 4 0 3 4 Supporters' Shield – 2009
United States Brian Bliss (interim) September 2, 2013 – November 6, 2013 4 4 0 0 — —
United States Gregg Berhalter[11] November 6, 2013 – December 2, 2018 67 58 45 4 4 8 3 3 5 Eastern Conference Champions – 2015
United States Caleb Porter January 4, 2019 – present 26 24 15 1 4 0 0 1 1 MLS Cup Champion - 2020

References[]

  1. ^ Timmerman, Tom (September 1, 1996). "New Coach, Goalkeeper Spark Crew's Push Toward Playoffs". St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
  2. ^ "2011 Columbus Crew Media Guide" (PDF). Columbus Crew. pp. 89–95. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 25, 2012. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
  3. ^ Dillman, Lisa (October 25, 2002). "Galaxy is Cut Down by Crew". Los Angeles Times.
  4. ^ "Crew runs unbeaten streak to 18 and wins Supporters' Shield after 1-1 tie at Colorado". OurSports Central. October 17, 2004.
  5. ^ Danborn, Joe (July 12, 2005). "Crew fire Andrulis as Coach". USA Today.
  6. ^ "Former WSU soccer coach to lead Crew". Dayton Daily News. May 18, 2001.
  7. ^ "Crew caps historic dream season with storybook ending in MLS Cup 2008". OurSports Central. November 26, 2008.
  8. ^ Mitchell, Shawn (December 23, 2008). "Crew promotes Warzycha to head coach". Columbus Dispatch.
  9. ^ Jardy, Adam (November 7, 2013). "Gregg Berhalter named coach". Columbus Dispatch.
  10. ^ "Columbus Crew SC coaching history". ColumbusCrewSC.com. Columbus Crew SC. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
  11. ^ "Gregg Berhalter". statscrew.com. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
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