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The 2025 Major League Soccer regular season has come to a close. While 16 of the league's top teams compete for the MLS Cup, the remaining 14 have some serious reshuffling to do. Three teams — Atlanta United, the Colorado Rapids and the New York Red Bulls — closed out their dismal regular seasons by firing their head coaches. But why? What happened? And who is in line to turn things around for each club? Atlanta United What happened? Atlanta entered 2025 desperate to recapture its pre-pandemic, MLS Cup-winning magic. Under the watchful eye of proven MLS coach Ronny Deila, midfielder Aleksei Miranchuk, winger Miguel Almiron and striker Emmanuel Latte Lath were expected to bring Atlanta back to the top of the Eastern Conference. It didn't happen. Atlanta's expensive leaders failed to gel, and the team finished the 2025 season third from bottom while shouldering the league's third-highest wage bill. No one in MLS spent more to achieve less. Was it a coaching issue? Sort of. Atlanta's 2025 roster construction turned out to be a big swing and a miss. Knowing what we know now, it's hard to see any coach delivering results with that lineup. Deila did, however, struggle mightily to adapt his style to Atlanta's needs. Who's in line to take over? There's really only one name on Atlanta's wish list, and it's a familiar one: Tata Martino. The Argentinian coach was the architect of Atlanta's 2018 success and the man who led Inter Miami to its first club trophy in 2023. (He did, to be fair, get a heavy assist from Lionel Messi on that last one.) Tata's return is an exciting prospect for Atlanta fans ... but after a failed year of partying like it was 2018, it does feel slightly alarming to see the front office leveraging that approach yet again. Colorado Rapids What happened? The beloved Pids fielded a team of unheralded prospects and failed to challenge their moneyed, experienced peers. Things came to a head this season when coach Chris Armas sold the team's best player, USMNT fringe candidate Djordje Mihailovic, to Toronto FC in the summer window. Seeing Mihailovic go was bad enough; seeing him go to a rival franchise was infuriating. Was it a coaching issue? Not until the very end. It's not Armas' fault that Colorado prefers to run lean; it was also, by most accounts, not Armas' fault that Mihailovic was sold to Toronto. But Armas is a big, sensitive character, and he publicly crumbled under the pressure when Colorado failed to make the playoffs this season. (He later apologized.) Who's in line to take over? No one yet — Colorado is considering its options. If it wants an ex-USMNT player in the Armas mold, it could do worse than consider former Austin coach Josh Wolff. If it wants energy, drama and a hit of flair, it might want to look at former Portland coach Gio Savarese. The Venezuelan has been on the market all season and deserves another shot. New York Red Bulls What happened? The unthinkable. After 15 consecutive playoff appearances — the longest active streak in American sports, period — the Red Bulls missed out on the postseason. Was it a coaching issue? Not really, no. This failure came down to the front office, not the coaching staff. The team needed a DP striker and was unable to secure one despite months of effort. Other high-profile signings, like German defender Alexander Hack, flopped spectacularly, and the whole season left the Red Bulls' front office looking rather foolish. Who's in line to take over? It's Jim Curtin, it has to be. The MLS and Philadelphia legend took himself out of the running for every managerial vacancy in the league except for this one — it keeps him close enough to his Mid-Atlantic family to make long-term sense.
