No mercy. That is what some national teams are showing their respective managers after a poor Copa America—a tournament in which the USMNT, Mexico, and Peru bombed out in the first round.
Other managers, such as Marcelo Bielsa of Uruguay and Nestor Lorenzo of Colombia, have been able to cement their projects in this tournament. However, a few managers have seen their time with their national teams come to an end.
Here are the sackings and possible sacks of the 2024 Copa America. Some of these managers have barely had one year in charge of their programs.
All the sacked managers of the Copa America
The first casualty of the Copa America was Ecuador’s Felix Sanchez, who was sacked following La Tri’s penalty kick shootout loss to Argentina. One would think that losing to the current World champions on penalties would provide some security, but that was not the case.
Sanchez was fired after winning 10 of his 19 matches with Ecuador and guiding them well during World Cup qualifying. Despite being on a four-year deal, he never really had the approval of most of the Ecuadorian federation’s top brass. It seemed they were waiting for one slip-up, and they got it.
Paraguay’s Daniel Garnero was also sacked as manager of the Paraguay national team after the group stage exit at the Copa America. Garnero is yet another Argentine managerial flop in a long line of Argentine manager disappointments for Paraguay. Worse yet, he is the Albirroja’s third national team manager in just 10 months.
Paraguay has become a mess of a program and sits seventh in World Cup qualifying, out of the qualifying positions.
Another manager feeling the heat and could be out of a job shortly is USMNT boss Gregg Berhalter, whose second stint with the USMNT has seen the program stagnate and regress. A decision on the 50-year-old could come as early as mid-week.