Chris Armas

[laughs]

Look, look, I believe in, I believe in Chris Armas ball, however.

I do wanna talk to him.

[laughs]

[laughs] Okay.

Little midweek gym.

Hey, I'm taller than Chris Armas.

Little kicks.

I think I've only seen the, the Summit just summarily beaten this season twice, and both times were by the KC Current.

Um, I, I got to know Chris Armas when, when he was the coach of the Rapids, and I always text him before and after the matchups.

So I texted him after this match and I was like, "Damn, Chris, you didn't have to do us like that." [laughs] And he texted back.

He's like, "Thanks for reaching out.

Mm.

And I'm just in the back sweating, and I'm just like, "This is not fun." Anyways, uh, Chris Armas, better than Jeremean.

[laughs] He made you feel better?

It did.

So if you wanna hear the full episode, search Soccer Wise on the on-demand player or anywhere you get your podcasts.

But yeah, this was, this was, I think, the defining moment of the season, defining moment of the first year under Chris Armas.

And you, you could see his reaction.

They scored the first goal, and he's, like, screaming.

Yes, although Mark Dos Santos won't be the first coach we have around MLS.

Chris Armas is the first one that comes to mind of may go down as a great assistant because the relationship you have with a player as an assistant is different.

And as head coach, it's why it's like really hard to shift at the same club because you go from the guy that they come and bitch to you about the head coach with and you're like, totally, dude, he's crazy.

But, you know, just keep working.

... you, Clint, Gooch, Casey Keller, Frankie Hejduk, DaMarcus Beasley, Josh Wolff, Gregg Vanney, Landon Donovan, and John O'Brien.

Oh, and Chris Armas.

Chris Armas.

Wow.

Chris Armas.

What a squad.

Yeah, 2005 Gold Cup Final.

So, so at 28, I knew this was pretty much now or never.

Do you think that the players' hearts are in it? And I'm going to follow that up with, are we getting the best from the coaches? Because a lot of the coaches were Vladko hires, right? They worked with Vladko last year.

Like, Armas didn't bring in his own team.

Like, there's not one assistant coach that's an Armas guy.

Like they're all Vlatko hires and who have been with Vlatko for a long time or worked with him over the last couple of years as part of like the major rebuild on 24 and 25.

Now that Vlatko is out and it's Chris Armas solo, right? Is the team as a whole, is their entire heart into it? Because why? Why would why would it be?

Yeah, exactly.

And that goes back to my earlier point is like because of all the decisions of the past nine months and seeing some of your teammates go like that's that's heavy on a roster.

The club hasn't really put a, a finger on what he was doing.

We had Chris Armas on, uh, pre-season.

When he first took over he talked about being in the opening meetings with Vlatko and sort of their shared identity and shared style.

And now Vlatko Andonovski's departing Kansas City, a city that has been home to him for a very long time, a club in multiple iterations that have-

Um, but as you mentioned, like, they were a last place team.

They've built something really strong.

Uh, and then Vlatko steps into the front office, but it's not his longtime assistant who takes over, it's this outside party in Chris Armas who's brought into the club.

Clare Hutton leaves, a couple other big names leave.

Same can be said for him at Colorado.

Under Chris Armas in 2024, he was awesome in a role that he liked.

And in 2025, not so much.

And Matt Wells, the new coach at Colorado, felt that they were better off with different options in midfield.