Spain has made a coaching change just two days before the start of the World Cup in a move that will be heavily scrutinized over the coming weeks.
Was it a surprise move? Absolutely.
But the history of coaching dismissals in soccer and every other sport is littered with strange timing http://www.bengalsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-billy-price-jersey , strange decisions and strange circumstances. Now Julen Lopetegui’s case joins them.
Lopetegui was fired as Spain’s national team coach on Wednesday after accepting a job to lead Real Madrid next season . He will be replaced by Fernando Hierro for the country’s match against Portugal on Friday.
Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales said firing Lopetegui wasn’t ideal, but had to happen after Madrid’s announcement.
”It’s a difficult situation, but we are not the ones who determined the action that had to be taken. The federation has its values and it has to maintain them,” Rubiales said. ”It may look like a weakness now, but with time this will make us stronger.”
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Here’s a look at some other high-profile coaches in the United States who have had strange circumstances surround their dismissals:
LANE KIFFIN, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Kiffin’s self-described dream job ended with a spectacular thud in 2013 after he was fired during a 3 a.m. meeting at the Trojans’ private airport terminal. His dismissal came just hours after the team lost 62-41 to Arizona State. At the time, USC athletic director Pat Haden said ”It’s never the perfect time to do these things, but I thought it was the right time.”
WILLIE RANDOLPH, NEW YORK METS: Randolph’s firing in 2008 wasn’t necessarily a huge surprise because his job security had been a constant topic, but the timing was definitely strange. General manager Omar Minaya flew to the West Coast when the Mets were on the road and fired Randolph in the middle of the night, a few hours after the team had earned its third win in four games.
DAVID BLATT Ozzie Albies Atlanta Braves Jersey , CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: Blatt led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in 2015 and had the team sitting at the top of the Eastern Conference standings in 2016 with a 30-11 record when he fired. Wins alone didn’t tell the whole story – Blatt and star LeBron James had an uneven relationship. Cleveland elevated Tyronn Lue to head coach and the Cavaliers won the championship later that year.
HUGH FREEZE, MISSISSIPPI REBELS: Freeze led Mississippi to a 39-25 record and a Sugar Bowl victory over five seasons. He looked like he was going to survive a lengthy NCAA investigation into the program, but was fired just before preseason practice in 2017 when school officials found a ”pattern of personal misconduct” that started with an investigation into a one-minute call to an escort service.
JOE GIRARDI, FLORIDA MARLINS: Girardi led the Marlins to a 78-84 record during the 2006 season which was quite an accomplishment considering the franchise had a $15 million payroll which was the lowest in baseball that season. His firing wasn’t necessarily about things that happened on the field: Girardi and team owner Jeffrey Loria clashed after Girardi asked Loria to stop yelling at umpires from his seat behind home plate. Girardi would eventually be hired by the Yankees and lead them to a World Series title in 2009.
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The Buffalo Bills were so dull during their lean years, comedian Nick Bakay feared his body would fuse to the couch while watching them play.
”It’s an incredibly disturbing image,” Bakay said of wasting away Sundays witnessing his hometown team sleepwalk through one loss after another during a 17-season playoff drought that ended last year.
”I never missed a Bills game. But I was always slumped on my couch. I was never sitting forward. I was never jumping to my feet,” said Bakay, who wrote ”Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and its sequel, and produced and appeared on the TV sitcom ”King of Queens.” ”You sit on your couch, and your couch slowly eats you.”
No different for fans of Buffalo’s other pro sports franchise, the NHL’s Sabres Bo Scarbrough Color Rush Jersey , who finished last for the third time in five years and extended their franchise-worst playoff drought to a seventh season.
In a shot-and-a-beer town where the winters are interminably long, Buffalo sports fans ride things out on the notion of renewal always being just around the corner.
And there’s a new, palpable optimism for this hearty fan base, thanks to a three-day stretch which showed potential to alter the trajectory of both teams.
First, the Bills made a pair of splashes in the first round of the NFL draft on April 26 by trading up to select Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen and Virginia Tech linebacker Tremaine Edmunds.
Two days later, the Sabres won the NHL draft lottery – something Buffalo lost the previous two times it finished last – and the opportunity to select projected No. 1 pick, Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.
During the NFL draft, CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor got dirty looks from his wife during a rare dinner date sneaking peeks at the Bills’ picks. He then yelped with excitement upon learning the Sabres won the lottery while attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington.
”I had just resigned myself to never winning it,” Glor said. ”But listen, I always have hope.”
In Buffalo, there’s a fine line between affection and affliction for hope.
”I always try to keep it in check a little bit http://www.49ersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-mike-mcglinchey-jersey ,” said Glor, who grew up in the Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda.
”Unfortunately, you get conditioned to where there are times you can be defeatist. And you try not to be. But you just don’t give up.”
Fans have little choice but to persevere in a place where nickname-worthy moments are tied to losses.
For the Bills, it’s ”Wide Right,” after kicker Scott Norwood missed a last-second field-goal attempt in a 20-19 loss to the New York Giants in the 1991 Super Bowl – the first of four consecutive Super Bowl losses.
For the Sabres, it’s ”No Goal,” following a 2-1, triple-overtime loss to Dallas in Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup Final. Brett Hull’s Cup-clinching goal stood even though replays showed his skate in the crease.
Those were the so-called glory days.
The Bills and Sabres have won five playoff games combined since 2008. By comparison, the NHL’s expansion Vegas Golden Knights have already won eight in their first year of existence.
Buffalo joins Nashville, Tennessee, and Charlotte Jonathan Allen Color Rush Jersey , North Carolina, as the only North American markets with two or more major pro teams to not have won a title.
”I think it builds character in a way. I joke with my friends that one day my kids will have to go through therapy because we are Sabres, Bills and Mets fans,” said former VH1-cable TV chief Tom Calderone, who’s from Long Island, New York, but got his broadcasting start in Buffalo and maintains a home in the city. ”It’s easy to be a Cowboys fan or a Patriots fan. But it takes true dedication to be a Bills or Sabres fan.”
Calderone sees more hope reflected in signs of resurgence for the city itself.
The former site of the Erie Canal has been transformed from vacant gravel lots to parkland, a water park that doubles as an ice rink in winter, and an entertainment/hockey complex built by Bills and Sabres owner Terry Pegula.
Housing prices have tripled and a medical corridor is newly bustling along Main Street, where shuttered and boarded-up buildings have been renovated or replaced by new steel and glass structures.
Buffalo still has its rust-belt blemishes as one of the nation’s poorest cities. Racial inequities, failing schools and a crumbling infrastructure remain issues.
The Bills and Sabres aren’t immune to troubling headlines. Last week Mike McGlinchey Color Rush Jersey , the two teams’ president Russ Brandon resigned amid allegations of having inappropriate relationships with female employees.
Buffalo might never regain the industrial-age prominence it held in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the city became a Great Lakes shipping hub as the gateway to the Erie Canal.
Nor, however, should it become the punchline comedian Jon Stewart once delivered during a stop in Buffalo, calling the city the gateway to the Ontario border town of Fort Erie just across the Niagara River – population 30,000.
Watching a documentary on former Bills running back O.J. Simpson, Bakay was reminded of the gloomy times in the 1970s when the steel mills began closing and legions of people left to find jobs.
”It depressed me so much,” he said. ”Every shot of Buffalo looked like a moose that farted into the sky.”
The decline led to Buffalo investing its psyche into its sports teams as a way of remaining part of the national conversation.
”Our teams were the only way we could punch back and say, `Yeah, we.
