Saying he needs to spend more time with his family, Eric Wynalda will no longer be the Silverbacks’ manager. He will remain as technical director, a job he can do from afar.
His last game as manager will be against Edmonton on Saturday. Jason Smith, who managed the Silverbacks from 2005-08 and took them to the USL Pro finals in 2007, will take over and will report to Wynalda.
“I just couldn’t be here as much as I wanted,” Wynalda said. “We had to do what we thought was best for the guys.”
Wynalda’s decision comes slightly seven months after he was elevated to the job after serving as the team’s technical director since 2012.
He took over as manager with a plan to use technology to help him monitor the team from afar so that he could also honor his contract as a studio analyst with Fox Sports.
However, his job with Fox changed to him becoming an in-game commentator for matches across Europe. Four-hour commutes to Atlanta from Los Angeles became 14-hour commutes from Europe. As a result, he wasn’t able to spend as much time with his family in his native California, or with the Silverbacks.
The team didn’t get good results under Wynalda during the NASL’s Spring season, going 3-1-5. However, it did advance to the quarterfinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, falling to Chicago 3-1 last week.
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