New Contracts for Zavagnin and Savic, Dufty Promoted to Sporting Position

Sporting KC made further announcements about their game day coaching staff today in a press release. The team announced that assistant coaches, Kerry Zavagnin and Zoran Savic had signed new contracts with the club. At the same time, the club promoted Swope Park Rangers goalkeeping coach, Alec Dufty to the same position with Sporting KC, taking over the position vacated by John Pascarella as he leaves to take over the Des Moines Menace of the PDL.

Zavagnin continues his long running tenure with Sporting KC, having been with the club since 2000 when Sporting KC drafted him in the Superdraft (at the time the Superdraft included the ability to draft players who were in the US minor leagues as well). After a nine year playing career with KC, where he became the club's all-time leader in appearances, starts, and minutes played, Zavagnin jumped right into the coaching ranks, becoming an assistant under Curt Onalfo in 2009. He continued as an assistant under Peter Vermes after Onalfo was fired mid-way through the 1999 season. Zavagnin has been a part of all six of Sporting KC's trophies in their history, from the 2000 MLS Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup, to 2015's US Open Cup.

Savic is also a staple in the Kansas City soccer scene, having been a player and a coach for the Kansas City Comets indoor soccer team back in the 1980's and 1990's. After a stint as an assistant with Chivas USA under Preki and as an analyst on the Kansas City Wizard broadcasts, Savic joined Vermes' staff when he took over as head coach.

Dufty, the newest member of Sporting's staff joins from the Rangers, where he'd spent the 2016 working with Jon Kempin, Zac Lubin, and Adrian Zendejas as the Rangers made it all the way to the USL finals. Dufty had a career that saw him bounce in and out of MLS for a few years. He started his career in 2009 with the New York Red Bulls, making his one MLS appearance. He bounced around as a league goalkeeper before signing with AC St. Louis in the USSF D2 Pro League. That same season he was loaned to the Chicago Fire and signed with the Fire for the 2011 season. After his playing career, he spent time coaching in the college ranks before being named an assistant coach with Toronto FC 2 in 2015.

Pascarella Leaves Sporting for Des Moines Menace

For the first time in a while, Sporting KC will have to replace a member of their coaching staff. Today it was announced that assistant coach, John Pascarella, was departing the club, taking the head coaching position with the Des Moines Menace of the PDL. Pascarella departs after spending eight years with the club under two different head coaches. Pascarella joined the club in 2009 after a stint as head coach of the Northern Virginia Royals of the PDL. After initially serving as the club's goalkeeping and fitness coach, he became an assistant coach in 2011.

Pascarella has worked with two of the better goalkeepers in the club's history, Kevin Hartman and Jimmy Nielsen and had spent time working with KC's current crop of goalkeepers. Replacing him will be interesting to see what direction KC goes. If they go with an internal hire, do they look at Swope Park Rangers goalkeeper coach, Alec Dufty, who also has academy coaching duties, or Andy Gruenebaum, who is also an academy goalkeeping coach and is no longer one of KC's on air personalities for game days. They could also look outside the organization if they wanted to, some fans have already thrown out another Sporting KC goalkeeping legend, Tony Meola. Meola had last been head coach of the Jacksonville Armada before being fired in early August, just nine months into his first stint as a head coach.

Besler, Zusi on US Roster. New Assistant for SKC?

Two bits of news today regarding Sporting Kansas City. The first is that Sporting KC's Matt Besler and Graham Zusi have both been named to the US national team provisional roster ahead of the USA's CONCACAF Cup match up against Mexico at the Rose Bowl on October 10th. The match will decide which country will represent CONCACAF in Russia at the 2017 Confederations Cup. The team will be cut down to 23 later. The good news for KC is that they are off from MLS play that weekend which means Besler and Zusi wouldn't miss any league games for Kansas City while away if they make the final roster for the game.

The other news today is that it appears that KC will have a new assistant coach next season. Today the head coach of the Ottawa Fury, Marc dos Santos announced that he would be stepping down at the end of the season to pursue a coaching position within MLS. Immediately speculation turned to Montreal, where dos Santos had been an assistant and head coach back when the club had been in the lower divisions. It appears though that dos Santos is instead heading to Kansas City to join Sporting KC's technical staff as an assistant coach.

If nothing else changes, it'd be the first time that KC has four assistant coaches since Octavio Zambrano left after the 2011 season. Since then, Peter Vermes' assistants have been Kerry Zavagnin, Zoran Savic, and John Pas. The other option is that KC could do something similar to what the LA Galaxy did when they set up "Los Dos." Rumors have been around for a while that KC will be fielding a "two" team in the USL next season instead of having an affiliation with the Oklahoma City Energy. When LA added their USL team last year, assistant coach Curt Onalfo moved from being an assistant under Bruce Arena to being the head coach of "Los Dos." It wouldn't surprise me if KC does something similar with Zavagnin and he gets his first head coaching job with the USL team. With Zavagnin's tenure under Vermes it would probably create an easier transition between the second and first team as Zavagnin would likely be instituting the same style as Vermes uses with the first team.

Dos Santos on the surface appears to be a solid hire for Kansas City. I don't follow the NASL a whole lot, but from reading people that do, this is a good move for Kansas City.

Zambrano to Colombia Official

Word out of Colombia earlier today stated that Sporting KC assistant, Octavio Zambrano, had accepted the position to coach Colombian second division side, Deportivo Pereira. Throughout the day there was word that nothing was quite official and that Zambrano was just on personal leave from the team. But late today, the team officially announced the departure of Peter Vermes top assistant. Zambrano came to KC after Vermes was named the permanent head coach during the offseason after the 2009 season and had spent two years as his assistant. It'll be interesting to see who, if anyone, Vermes will replace Zambrano with before the 2012 season. Currently he still has Kerry Zavagnin, Zoran Savic, goalkeeping coach, John Pascarella, and fitness coach, Mateus Manoel, so Vermes may not look to add another assistant. But it'll be interesting to see how KC does next year. When Zambrano was a head coach in the league his teams were fairly high scoring, and KC had turned into a high scoring team this year. It'll be interesting to see how much of that was due to Zambrano this next year. Good luck to Zambrano in Colombia.

Zambrano on Way to Colombia?

Sporting KC could possibly be on the look out for a new assistant coach this offseason along with looking to improve their roster as well. Word from Goal.com is that current assistant coach, Octavio Zambrano is on his way out of KC and on his way to Colombia where he would take over Deportivo Pereira, a team in the Colombian first division. Zambrano came to the team a few years ago, in Peter Vermes' first year as a full head coach. He seems to have been Vermes' top assistant. If Zambrano does leave it'll be interesting to see how Vermes replaces him.

Zambrano New Wizards Assistant

First brought to you today by Thad at The Back Post, the Wizards named former Metrostars and Galaxy coach, Octavio Zambrano, their new assistant coach. There had been rumors since the Wizards were looking for a new coach that Zambrano could be on his way to Kansas City in some form. His time in Hungary and the Wizards trailing one of his former players were just two hints that there was some relationship forming. Zambrano has the second-best winning percentage in MLS history.

I personally like this move, Zambrano was know for his attacking style, and that's certainly something the Wizards have lacked not only last year, but for the last few years. The team has never been know for their attacking ability since Ron Newman left. So bringing in a guy that has been more attacking minded throughout his career definitely can't hurt in Peter Vermes attempts to improve the Wizards poor scoring record last season. Here is the Wizards release on the signing.

New Assistant Coach Rumor

There's very little in this rumor right now, so take that for what you will. In a post by Ives Galarcep earlier today about the MLS coaching carousel, he makes a passing mention of Octavio Zambrano, who used to coach in MLS but has most recently been coaching in Hungary. Ives mentions Zambrano as a potential new head coach for Chivas USA, but also mentions that Zambrano is "believed to be in the frame for an assistant coaching position within MLS (with Kansas City a possibility)..." In a way this rumor makes sense, with head coach, Peter Vermes' connection to Hungary and his scouting over there, including Ferenc Béres, who played for Zambrano at his last position at FC Tatabánya. On top of that, you have comments that both Vermes and Robb Heineman have made in regards to potentially bringing in another assistant coach. With all that there's certainly enough dots to connect to think that there are some legs to this rumor. We'll see if anything comes of this rumor.