Chris Armas directed Toronto FC to only one win in 11 games.

For the second time within a year, Chris Armas has been fired by a Major League Soccer club.

He was given the axe by Toronto FC in the wake of an embarrassing 7-1 defeat at D.C. United Saturday night.

Toronto FC (1-8-2, 5 points) is in last and 14th place in the Eastern Conference and had a league-worst goal differential of minus 14 and had allowed the most goals of the 27 teams (27).

Last Sept. 20, the Brentwood, N.Y. native was sacked by the Red Bulls.

Toronto FC assistant coach Javier Perez will guide the team against the New England Revolution Wednesday night.

“The way we have been losing, especially since returning from the three-week break has been very difficult to watch,” Toronto FC president Bill Manning said during a press conference. “And when you see a team concede like we did yesterday, we just saw no way back outside of making the coaching change.”

Toronto FC had lost its last six matches, dating back to a 1-1 draw at New York City FC May 15. The team’s lone win was a 2-0 victory over defending MLS champion Columbus Crew three days prior.

Manning said he spoke to Armas after a 3-2 defeat to Orlando City Sc June 19. Toronto allowed the winning goal in the 84th minute.

“I just said, ‘Hey Chris, we just need to do whatever it takes to get results right now.’ And he got it, he understood,” Manning said. “But we had those three games in seven days, and lost two of them late, and then didn’t have a good performance against Cincinnati and then obviously, this result. The results were not there.

“For me, especially after last night’s game, it was clear as day that we needed to make this change. It’s unfortunate. Chris Armas is very good man. But we have to win.”

Allowing so many goals also didn’t help.

“You can’t win when you’re conceding two-plus, three goals a game,” Manning said. “And so certainly we have to shore things up defensively. That to me is the most important thing.”

Armas had a major rift with striker Jozy Altidore, which didn’t help. Altidore has been training on his own for more than a month. GM Ali Curtis said that he has had some conversations with the veteran and his representatives.

“We got the game on Wednesday but then the game after that is on the 17th,” Curtis said. “I don’t want to say anything before having a conversation with Jozy, but once we have those conversations with Jozy then we’ll be able to give you a better update as to what the next game looks like.”

Armas, 48, was regarded as the best MLS defensive midfielder during his playing career, playing 66 times for the U.S. men’s national team.

 

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.