Wilmer Cabrera is named Impact head coach

MONTREAL – The Montreal Impact announced on Wednesday that Rémi Garde was dismissed from his duties and Wilmer Cabrera will replace him as head coach.

Assistant coach Wilfried Nancy and goalkeeper coach Rémy Vercoutre will remain in Cabrera’s coaching staff. Patrice Bernier will also join the first team technical staff as assistant coach, while assistant coach Joel Bats and fitness coach Robert Duverne will not remain with the Impact.

“Because I have so much respect for Rémi as a person and as a professional, it was a very difficult decision to make and it was well thought, but our latest series of failures in the past couple of months and the way the team acts on the field led to that change,” said Montreal Impact president and CEO, Kevin Gilmore. “We hope to bring back confidence to this group of players for the last stretch of the season, to get a playoff spot and to perform in the Canadian Championship final. I would like to sincerely thank Rémi Garde for his commitment and his professionalism with our club since he joined in November 2017. I wish him only but the best in the future.”

With Rémi Garde as head coach, the team had a record of 24 wins, 29 losses and eight draws (86GF-103GA) in MLS regular season action, missing the playoffs in 2018 after finishing seventh in the Eastern Conference standings.

Wilmer Cabrera, 51, from Colombia, was still recently head coach of the Houston Dynamo since the beginning of the 2017 season. He notably led the Dynamo to the Western Conference finals during the 2017 MLS Cup playoffs and won the US Open Cup in 2018.

In MLS, he was also head coach of Chivas USA during their last season in club history, in 2014, and was assistant coach with the Colorado Rapids during the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Previously, he was notably head coach of the U17 US national team, from 2007 to 2012.

As a player, operating as a defender or a midfielder, he spent most of his career in Colombia, playing for different clubs from 1985 to 2001. He also wore the colours of Argentinean club Independiente in 1997-1998, as well as those of Costa Rican club CS Herediano, from 2001 to 2004. With his national team, he played 48 games, scoring three goals, between 1989 and 1998, playing in the 1990 and 1998 FIFA World Cup, as well as in the 1989, 1991, 1995 and 1997 Copa America.

