KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- The Kansas City Wizards announced Tuesday that technical director Peter Vermes has been named as interim head coach through the remainder of the season.
Vermes becomes the sixth head coach, interim or full-time, in Wizards history. He will remain as the club's technical director while assuming the head coaching duties and said a process to find a new head coach will begin after the season.
The announcement comes one day after the club dismissed Curt Onalfo and less than 72 hours after the team lost 6-0 to FC Dallas on the road, dropping Kansas City's record to 5-7-6 (21 points) and moving the team to sixth in the Eastern Conference.
At a late morning press conference following his first training session as Wizards head coach, Vermes expressed interest only in moving forward rather than reflect on what has been widely viewed as an underachieving season for a team that held strong belief earlier in making another playoff run this year.
"I would like to start off by acknowledging the service of Curt Onalfo and [assistant coach] Kris Kelderman," Vermes said. "Their tenure here was filled with some very tremendous times and some great progressions in some things that we as an organization have been striving to become.
"But, the big thing is we're moving forward. It's pretty simple; we realize we have 12 games left. The fact of the matter is, as results are important, right now, performance is even more important. As an organization, the thing that we're going to have to -- and I think the players are on the same page with this -- we have to better our performance on the field."
Vermes said he was asked by team ownership group OnGoal LLC's five-person Board of Directors to take the job.
Doing so in spite of the interim tag, which Vermes conceded adds an additional challenge to the job, doesn't change what needs to be done according to the new coach.
Improving play on the field, along with establishing a different general attitude, was a consistent theme throughout as Vermes made reference to both aspects several times.
"I think the biggest thing is we are going to have to establish a level of expectation of what it is like inside those white lines from game to game," Vermes said. "I think we have a very good group of guys on this team, and I think we need to establish from the very first day, and we tried to do that today, that this is a very difficult game to play, and to be successful in it, you need to be able to perform at a very high intensity throughout the course of 90 minutes. We need to step that up, immediately."
Several players in attendance spoke after Vermes and said they felt some responsibility for Onalfo's dismissal, a part of which was the defeat to FC Dallas.
"If you look at all of our results, I think that's the worst result we've given up in like 10 years," team captain Jimmy Conrad said. "I think the 6-0 makes it a little bit more immediate that you have to look at the situation."
Conrad also described the mood of the locker room.
"A little somber," Conrad said. "We all cared for Curt and K-Dog [Kelderman]. We're going to miss those guys, and I think those guys are going to land on their feet. They have a lot of good qualities. I think they both have bright futures as coaches in this league."
Davy Arnaud has had perhaps the best season of his career thus far, earning both MLS All-Star Team and U.S. national team selections. Despite his own honors, Arnaud said that as a player, it hits home.
"You feel responsibility, no matter what," Arnaud said. "Obviously, the team has to get results on the field, and as of late we haven't done that. You absolutely feel responsibility for that."
Arnaud was also asked whether Wizards players, including himself, saw Onalfo's dismissal as a sign that players would have to reprove themselves between now and the end of the year.
"You have to prove yourself every day," Arnaud said. "Any player will tell you the same thing -- you should never feel comfortable no matter what. I think that's a good thing -- to have to prove yourself everyday.
"Now, with a new coaching staff in, maybe guys who haven't gotten as much of a chance this year think that this is a fresh start for them, and guys who have been playing have to keep playing hard and keep your spot."
The team also announced veteran coach Zoran Savic has been named as an assistant coach. Vermes said Savic was asked Monday to join Kansas City and accepted late Monday night.
Savic has previously served as head coach for the Kansas City Comets and as an assistant for MLS club Chivas USA.
Kansas City is off this week before taking on Eastern Conference foe Chicago Fire at CommunityAmerica Ballpark next Sunday.
Curtis Kitchen is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
