Whitecaps sack Sartini as head coach

VANCOUVER — Head coach Vanni Sartini paid the price Monday for the Vancouver Whitecaps' mediocre results this past season and subsequent first-round playoff exit.

His firing came about two weeks after the Major League Soccer team won a play-in game before falling to top-seeded Los Angeles FC in a three-game series that went the distance.

"The desperation on my side is absolutely there," said Axel Schuster, the Whitecaps' sporting director and chief executive officer.

One of the reasons for the change, he said, is everyone in the organization, including himself, needs a reminder that playoff success next year is imperative.

"We cannot not get there."

The Whitecaps haven't reached the conference semifinals since 2017.

In a one-hour availability with reporters, Schuster noted the team had the second-worst home record in the Western Conference this year and recorded just two points over its last seven regular-season games.

He referenced the need for fresh energy from a new coach and added there was no firm timeline in place for a replacement to be named.

"I had to make a professional decision (for) how we can get the biggest impact to make this step forward and to get to a progression," he said.

The Whitecaps' late-season slump dropped them to eighth place in the West with a record of 13-13-8. Vancouver won a play-in game at Portland before dropping a 1-0 decision at LAFC in the deciding game of the series.

Vancouver also won its third-straight Canadian championship this season, beating Toronto FC 4-2 on penalties after the final ended in a 0-0 tie.

“I took my time with this decision, and it was not taken lightly," Schuster said.

Sartini, a 47-year-old from Florence, Italy, took over coaching duties on an interim basis in August 2021 after the Whitecaps dismissed Marc Dos Santos. He was officially named head coach that November.

“For the last three years and three months, it has been an absolute honour to be the head coach of Vancouver Whitecaps FC,” Sartini said in a release. "I will always be grateful to Axel Schuster and ownership for entrusting me to be the technical lead of this club in such an important time.

"Vancouver will always have a special place in my heart and my wife’s heart," he added.

He posted a record of 57-51-39 across all competitions.

The exuberant Italian made headlines in November 2023 when he publicly criticized a referee following a playoff game and made a joke about being a suspect if the official were to be found dead.

He was suspended for the first six games of the 2024 MLS campaign, fined US$20,000 and ordered to complete a league-approved behavioural assessment.

The coach later apologized for the comments and his suspension was cut to four games.

Sartini came to Vancouver in 2019 as Dos Santos' assistant coach and spent two seasons with the first team before being named the club's "director of methodology" and taking over coaching the U-23 team in 2020.

Before joining the Whitecaps, he worked as a coach educator for the Italian Football Federation and the U.S. Soccer Federation, and coached several different clubs in Italy.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2024.