Octavio Zambrano Viera (born 3 February 1958) is an Ecuadorian football coach. He is a former player with international coaching experience. Zambrano has coached in North America, Latin America, and Europe. He holds a UEFA "A" diploma and a USSF "A" coaching license.
Zambrano was a successful coach in
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
during the late 1990s and early 2000s. His .587 regular season winning record ranks second to
Bruce Arena
Bruce Arena (born September 21, 1951) is an American soccer coach who currently serves as the head coach and sporting director of the San Jose Earthquakes.
He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame and the NJCAA Lacrosse Hall of Fame. ...
's .604, according to the 2015 MLS facts and record book.
Playing career
Zambrano was born in
Guayaquil
Guayaquil (), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital (political), capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is ...
, Ecuador. He was an attacking midfielder and made his professional debut with Unión Deportiva Valdez of the Ecuadorian First Division. He moved to the United States from his native Ecuador in 1980 to attend
Chapman University
Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California, United States. Encompassing eleven colleges, the university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The school maintains its foundi ...
, and later played two seasons with the
Los Angeles Lazers
The Los Angeles Lazers were an indoor soccer team that played in the Major Soccer League, Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) from 1982 to 1989.
History
Jerry Buss, the owner of California Sports, the parent company of the Los Angeles Lakers, Los ...
in the
Major Indoor Soccer League.
Coaching career
United States
In 1990, Zambrano was an assistant coach to Rildo Menezes (Ex-Santos of Brasil and New York Cosmos) with the
California Emperors in the
American Professional Soccer League
The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. ...
. In 1992, he became both the assistant coach with the
Los Angeles Salsa of the APSL and head coach of the
East Los Angeles Cobras of
USISL
The United States Interregional Soccer League (USISL) was a semi-professional men's outdoor soccer league that played six seasons from 1989 to 1994. It was the first outdoor league to be operated by the organization known today as the United ...
. He also coached the successful largely ethnic team from Southern California, LA Salsa U-19, a McGuire Cup finalist and was the 1994 USISL Western Division Coach of the Year. Following his work with the LA Salsa Zambrano was hired as director by the Mission Viejo Pateadores, one of the United States Top Soccer Academies.
He joined MLS as an assistant for
Lothar Osiander
Lothar Osiander (born November 8, 1939) is a German soccer coach who has served as head coach to the U.S. national and Olympic teams as well as the Atlanta Ruckus, Los Angeles Galaxy and San Jose Clash.
Biography
Osiander moved to the United ...
with
Los Angeles Galaxy
The Los Angeles Galaxy are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Gal ...
reaching the MLS Cup final the first year of the league. Zambrano assumed head coaching duties when Osiander was fired early in the 1997 season. Zambrano's 1997 team went from last in the conference (3-9) to a record of 15-13, finished the season with 6 straight wins and made the playoffs. The 1998 Galaxy went 24 and 8 and broke all MLS scoring records, ending the year with 85 goals scored and a 2.66 goal per game average, the 1998 Galaxy became the first North American professional soccer team to make it to a CONCACAF clubs final against Cruz Azul of Mexico. Zambrano coached the Western Division All Star Team and the Galaxy 97/98 achieved the record for most consecutive regular season wins (12). But in the playoffs they faltered, falling to expansion team
Chicago Fire. Five games into the 1999 season, Zambrano was fired, the Galaxy made it to the MLS final the same year, losing against DC United.
Zambrano re-surfaced as the head coach of the
MetroStars in 2000, replacing the much-traveled
Bora Milutinović
Velibor "Bora" Milutinović ( sr-Cyrl, Велибор Бора Милутиновић; born 7 September 1944) is a Serbian former professional footballer and manager.
He has managed at five editions of the FIFA World Cup, tied for the record al ...
. He coached the team for three years. In 2000, he led the team from last in the East to first, winning the first trophy for the franchise, the MLS Eastern Division championship. For the first time, the MetroStars advanced the playoffs, defeating the
Dallas Burn
Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
. Zambrano was fired after the 2002 season after failing to reach the playoffs.
From 2003 to 2006, Zambrano served a three-year term as elected Vice-President of FENODE (Ecuadorian/American Sports Federation).
Europe
In 2006, Zambrano was hired as the head coach for
Tiligul-Tiras Tiraspol in Moldova. In 2008, after successfully taking Tiligul from the relegation zone to a fourth place overall, he left Tiligul and moved to
Tatabánya
Tatabánya (; ; ) is a city with county rights of 64,305 inhabitants in northwestern Hungary, in the Central Transdanubian region. It is the capital of Komárom-Esztergom County.
Location
The city is located in the valley between the Gerecse an ...
in the Hungarian
Soproni Liga. In 2009, he left Tatabanya.
Americas
Zambrano was hired by FIFA to write the CONCACAF Technical Report for the Gold Cup 2009. On 3 December 2009 Zambrano was hired by
Kansas City Wizards
Sporting Kansas City is an American professional soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The administrative offices are located in downtown K ...
now Sporting KC as assistant head coach, during his two-year term Sporting KC went from a non play-off team in five years, to the league semifinals and within one goal of the MLS 2011 final.
In January 2012, Zambrano was named head coach for
Deportivo Pereira
Deportivo Pereira is a professional Colombian football team based in Pereira, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium.
History Early years
While there are several am ...
of the Colombian
Categoría Primera B
Categoría Primera B, commonly referred to as Torneo BetPlay Dimayor due to Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is the second-division association football, football league in Colombia. The tournament was inaugura ...
.
Deportivo Pereira during the second semester of 2012 broke the record of points obtained in a single season by any Colombian professional soccer team since the installment of short tournaments. The team obtained 43 out 54 possible points, went unbeaten at home for 11 months and 20 days and was the highest scoring team in the league and the least scored against. During the first tournament of 2013, after a good start a string of injuries to main players coincided with a failure to secure a victory in four consecutive games and left the team out of the group of 8. In April 2013, the president and owner of Deportivo Pereira Alvaro Lopez Bedoya, opted to relieve Octavio Zambrano of his coaching duties and assigned him those of manager and technical director. Zambrano resigned his position in November 2013.
In June 2014, Zambrano became a TV game analyst for the Ecuadorian International Network Ecuavisa, as a member of Codigo Mundial, the highest-rated World Cup show in Ecuadorian TV; his participation in this show opened the door to take the reins of
El Nacional, getting the club out of the relegation zone and into the group of 6, trying to secure a berth into Conmebol's International Tournaments: Copa Sudamericana and Copa Libertadores. In July 2015, Zambrano resigned from El Nacional.
Canada
In March 2017, it was announced that Zambrano would become the head coach of the
Canadian men's national soccer team
The Canada men's national soccer team () represents Canada in international soccer competitions since 1924. They are overseen by the Canadian Soccer Association, the governing body for soccer in Canada. They have been a member of FIFA since 19 ...
, replacing interim coach
Michael Findlay.
Zambrano made his Canada debut with the
under 23 team at the Aspire U-23 Tournament in Qatar, where the Canadians defeated
Uzbekistan
, image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg
, image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg
, symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem
, national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...
and
Qatar
Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...
to win the tournament. His debut with the senior team was in a friendly against
Curaçao
Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela.
Curaçao includ ...
on 13 June in a 2-1 in
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
before leading Canada to the quarter-finals of the
2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup
The 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 14th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF, and 24th CONCACAF regional championship ove ...
a month later, Canada's first appearance in the knock-out stage of the
Gold Cup since 2009.
On 8 January 2018, Zambrano was replaced as head coach of Canada by
John Herdman
John Herdman (born 19 July 1975) is an English professional football manager widely recognized for his contributions to Canadian soccer. He is the only coach to have led both a women’s and men’s national team from the same country to a FIF ...
, who had previously headed the
Canadian women's program.
He had lasted just nine months in charge of the program.
Managerial statistics
Honours
As a coach
FAS
* La Primera:
Apertura 2022
References
External links
MISL stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zambrano, Octavio
1958 births
Living people
Footballers from Guayaquil
Ecuadorian men's footballers
Ecuadorian football managers
LA Galaxy head coaches
New York Red Bulls head coaches
American Professional Soccer League coaches
USISL coaches
Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players
Los Angeles Lazers players
Chapman University alumni
Tatabányai SC managers
LA Galaxy non-playing staff
Deportivo Pereira managers
Deportivo Pasto managers
C.D. El Nacional managers
Delfín S.C. managers
Independiente Medellín managers
2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup managers
Ecuadorian expatriate men's footballers
Ecuadorian expatriates in the United States
Ecuadorian expatriates in Moldova
Ecuadorian expatriates in Hungary
Ecuadorian expatriates in Canada
Ecuadorian expatriates in Colombia
Expatriate soccer coaches in the United States
Expatriate soccer coaches in Canada
Men's association football midfielders
Categoría Primera A managers
Ecuadorian expatriate football managers