Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports activities

The Houston Sprint have fired Sam Laity earlier than the completion of his first season as head coach, the membership introduced on Wednesday. The transfer comes with the membership at present in tenth place within the 12-team Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League, six factors off the NWSL playoff locations with 4 matches left to play.

Sources inform The Equalizer that the choice was made on Tuesday with a membership assembly held with the gamers on Wednesday morning. The Sprint misplaced 1-0 to the San Diego Wave final Sunday. Houston performed over an hour with 10 gamers after Michelle Alozie was proven a purple card within the first half.

After 10 years as an assistant in Seattle, Laity was employed in December 2022 by the Sprint in his first senior head teaching position. He leaves Houston with a 4-6-8 report within the common season. The Sprint completed the Problem Cup group stage with a 2-4-0 report, which implies over 24 matches in all competitions the Englishman gained 25% of his video games.

“We’ve excessive ambitions and constantly work to construct a aggressive group that can symbolize the town at a excessive degree,” Sprint common supervisor Alex Singer stated in a press release. “After appreciable analysis as to what’s finest for the group presently, we made the choice to make a change.”

The group didn’t instantly identify an interim coach.

Expectations had been raised previous to Laity’s arrival in Houston. In 2022, underneath interim head coaches Sarah Lowdon and Juan Carlos Amoros, the membership completed fourth within the NWSL standings and certified for the playoffs for the primary time in membership historical past.

As an alternative, the group has regressed in nearly each offensive statistic. Whereas Laity could be proud that his Sprint group boasts the very best defensive report within the NWSL, in addition they personal the worst goal-scoring report within the league by a large margin, with solely 12 targets scored in 18 video games.

With the season nearly misplaced, no win within the final eight common season matches, and a poor exhibiting within the Problem Cup, the membership seen Laity as unable to show issues round and opted to maneuver in a unique path.

Within the brief time period, meaning getting as many factors as doable from the 4 remaining matches of the NWSL common season. The Sprint will identify an interim head coach within the coming days, with first assistant Lowdon, who has acted as an interim earlier than, anticipated to imagine the place.

Ought to Houston declare 10 and even 12 factors from its ultimate 4 matches of the season, there may be nonetheless an opportunity the membership can climb its approach again into the playoffs.

For now, the long run is unknown. Laity was Singer’s first head coach rent as common supervisor. It hasn’t labored out and Singer will seemingly be underneath stress to get the following head teaching rent proper.

Firing Laity earlier than the tip of the season has on the very least set the usual for the kind of membership the Sprint desires to be when it comes to outcomes and place within the NWSL standings.

The Sprint return to league play on Sept. 15 once they journey to face Racing Louisville FC.