When the story broke, everyone was excited. New Amsterdam FC, a New York expansion side in NISA, had made a massive splash by adding former USMNT legend and experience head coach, Eric Wynalda to the staff. And in the weeks that follow (three to be precise), there was much excitement about what he would bring to the club tactically. This was a big PR move, of course, but Wynalda has coached multiple high-profile clubs and it felt like he could make this fall season one to remember for the expansion side.

Until this morning anyway, when New Amsterdam announced that Wynalda was leaving the cub for family reasons. Hard to speculate what that means at this point, though it appears to be a mutual agreement between the club and coach. What led to his decision is pure speculation and we won’t participate in that. We fully respect his privacy and wish him well on his new journey. Family health, especially with recent events, is no laughing matter. Already there are trolls making jokes on Twitter and it’s actually pretty disappointing. Guess the clout is more important than the class.

This leaves NAFC, just five days out from their opening match, in a bad place. One could argue that Wynalda hadn’t been around long enough to impact his club enough for his departure to be upsetting. However, anytime you lose a coach of this stature, it will affect the club. Who the club is lining up to fill the vacancy isn’t known yet, but they better hurry, Cosmos are lurking.

- Dan Vaughn