21 Jul 2005(Thu)

JULY 20 -- It had to happen, didn't it?

7-1, 7-0, 6-0....it's difficult for a manager to survive a crisis like this, and Ossie Ardiles is out of a job again.

A few months after steering Verdy to the Emperor's Cup, the Argentine coach was fired by Verdy on Tuesday.

Verdy had given him every chance to turn the sinking ship around, but the 6-0 defeat at Iwata was the last straw.

Ardiles has paid the price for the club's lack of activity during the seven-week break, while the club will have learned a valuable lesson.

A "gutsy" -- to use Ossie's own word -- performance earned Verdy a 0-0 draw in the Tokyo derby the other week, and seemed to have put them back on course after the seven-goal maulings by Gamba and Reds.

In the next match they led Vissel 3-1, but were lucky to survive in a 3-3 draw when Atsu Miura led Kobe's comeback.

Then...6-0 away to Jubilo, where Maeda was very impressive for the home team.

The Verdy team is a typical Ardiles outfit...a nice, technical team, playing attractive football where it should be played, on the ground. They have several extremely talented players, such as Daigo and Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, Yoneyama, Soma and Morimoto, but, also like previous Ardiles teams, they have a soft centre and lack defensive discipline.

They do not possess the physical quality to battle teams, except up front, where Washington, Hiramoto and Morimoto are all strong, and, from a team spirit point of view, Ardiles had lost them as a group.

Even with proud Verdy fighters like the captain, "Yamataku", the team could not motivate itself anymore.

And when this happens, there's only course of action open to the club.

Ardiles, however, leaves Verdy with enough good players to survive, but they need a tough coach to push them harder and tighten the play. Anyone know where Troussier is these days?

Or Perryman perhaps?

ends