COMMERCE CITY, Colo. -- A week and a half ago, after their second straight shutout at home, Colorado Rapids head coach Fernando Clavijo and his players knew something had to change.
"Desperation has come about," Clavijo said after another loss in which his team dominated play, controlling possession and overwhelming Toronto in shots and shots on goal, but couldn't score a goal to salvage a sinking homestand.
Wednesday the change finally came, as Clavijo and the Rapids parted ways, reaching what the Rapids termed "a mutually amicable agreement." Assistant coach Gary Smith, who guided the team to victory Saturday against Kansas City while Clavijo was home in Uruguay attending to a family emergency, has assumed the head coaching duties on an interim basis for the remaining 10 games of the season.
"We appreciate all that Fernando has done for this team over the last four years and wish him and his family the best," managing director Jeff Plush said Wednesday. "He has worked tirelessly on behalf of our organization and brought us some of our greatest successes. We are poised to achieve great things, and when we do we will look back fondly and appreciatively of Fernando's tenure with our club."
The move was no surprise to Clavijo, who has heard the rumblings and rumors from both within the organization and without since the Rapids failed to make the playoffs in 2007, the first time the team had missed the postseason since the league's inaugural year of 1996. The struggles continued in 2008, with the club showing great promise but little consistency.
"Realistically, I saw this start in December of 2007," Clavijo said Thursday. "I felt a lot of things were unsettled. I was not happy about a lot of things. I thought it was a matter of time, to be honest with you."
One of the unsettled matters last year was Clavijo's contract, which expires at the end of the current season. But the Hall-of-Famer had also identified key needs to elevate the team and was frustrated that the organization was never able to address those needs.
"I'm not going to put blame on anybody," Clavijo said Thursday. "I am the coach. I am making decisions. But I wish that things would have happened a different way, absolutely. I noticed at the beginning of the year that we needed a striker. We've played extremely well. The team has never given up. But we're missing chances. We keep missing chances. We outshot Columbus 23 to 5, and we lost 2-0. So it was an issue that I knew of. It was an issue I addressed at the beginning of the year that I needed help there. But it was never addressed properly. We have a great prospect in the younger players, but we don't have the final product."
The Rapids struggles in 2008 led to a 7-10-3 record at Clavijo's departure, an admittedly mediocre season to date, despite the Rapids sitting just four points out of second place in the Western Conference. He remains optimistic about the club's fortunes, having watched elements of their game flourish over the three-game homestand, despite the two shutouts.
"I have no doubt they can make the playoffs," Clavijo said of the Rapids' race to the postseason. "There's no question about it. They have the talent."
Though Clavijo has only once led a Rapids team to a .500 finish while compiling a 40-49-2 regular record season, he took the team to the Western Conference Championship in each of his first two seasons, and has shaped the team over his four-year tenure, bringing in every player on the roster with the exception of team captain Pablo Mastroeni, who is in his seventh year with the club.
"If you look at the first two years, we made it to the Western Conference finals both years," veteran defender Mike Petke said Thursday. "That's one step away - that's the third-best team in the league. He found a way to get there. Last year we didn't make the playoffs, but that was a combination of everybody, not just one person individually. This year it wasn't going too well. So change always happens, whether it's players, whether it's front office, or whether it's the coach. Someone's head is always on the chopping block. It's bound to happen, and this time it happened to be the coach."
There's no question that Clavijo has left his mark on the team, adapting to the challenges of building from within to create a solid core that is on the cusp of taking off. The Rapids have never been a team to pursue marquee players, but in Clavijo's tenure, the team developed a stable of players capable of pursuing the MLS Cup that Clavijo kept clearly in his sites.
"We gave opportunities to a lot of younger players," Clavijo said. "That's how we based ourselves. We based in younger players. I'm very proud of what we've done the last couple years. I knew when we were dealing with younger players that it was going to take time and we were going to make mistakes. But that's the only way to give them experience to play. I'm very proud of the way they did things."
The players responded in kind, developing a comfortable rapport with the coach and developing a unique brand of soccer as they settled into their new stadium over the past season and a half.
"Fernando's an easy guy to work with," Petke said. "He's a family man. If you have issues off the field, he's never had a problem with that. He gives you time to sort out your business. He came and did what he thought was right. The results this year didn't go the right way. It's unfortunate, but he had four years here. I'm sure he's going to resurface somewhere and do well."
That characterization of Clavijo as a "family man" has become increasingly important to the coach over the years, and the recent family crisis at home in Uruguay helped put things in perspective for the 52-year-old father who followed his 15-year career playing on the U.S. national team and in the American Soccer League, the North American Soccer League, and the Major Indoor Soccer League by beginning a seven-year coaching career with New England and Colorado.
Though he was disappointed that his family situation wasn't kept private as he'd hoped, he was deeply appreciative of the support he has received from fans in Colorado and around the league.
"Since I've been in this country, through the years I've lost my parents, both of them, a brother and a brother-in-law about a year ago," Clavijo said. "So it became more of an issue than ever before. I value my family more and more. I always did, but I always also put a lot of attention into my work. I was pretty much forced to make this decision based on the past and what I needed to do.
"But everything is better. I wish they could have kept it away from the press, but that's the way, people want to know. Fortunately I have received a lot of good wishes from the fans here in Colorado and all over the league. It's good to see that, and I definitely appreciate it. That means a lot for me, and I just want to thank all of them. [My family] is doing better. Everything is back almost to normal."
For Clavijo, however, it won't be normal without some soccer in his life. He fully intends to take the time to reflect on his tenure in Colorado, to catch his breath, and to "heal" on several levels, but he does not envision a future without some level of involvement in the league that has been his home away from home.
"Many people look at [my departure] as a failure," Clavijo said. "I've said all along, if you don't try something, you will never fail. People never try because they are afraid to fail. I'm not afraid to fail. And I will keep trying.
"I think I've done a very good job in Colorado," he continued. "What I can tell you is I'm leaving the team better than when I took over, that's for sure. I'm going to take some time off to try to look at things. I'm going to keep myself open. The league is growing. The sport is growing. We're going in the right direction, and I want to make sure that I'm a part of that."
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