Mississauga MetroStars fire head coach/GM after lengthy losing run

TORONTO — The Mississauga MetroStars have fired coach-GM Phil Ionadi and assistant coach Milodrag Akmadzic-Backo.

At 3-13, the expansion team has the second-worst record in the Major Arena Soccer League (California’s Turlock Express is 2-14). The MetroStars, who have eight games remaining in the professional indoor soccer season, have lost 13 of their last 14.

Rick Titus takes over as head coach with John Williams his assistant.

“I would like to compliment Phil and Backo for all their efforts to date, but management has decided to go in a different direction for the remainder of the season,” MetroStars president Serge Giancola said in a statement.

The 49-year-old Titus, a native of Mississauga, Ont., currently coaches Masters FA of League 1 Ontario as well as the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association’s Sheridan College Bruins. He has also coached in the Toronto FC Academy and served as a regional scout for the Major League Soccer team.

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As a player, Titus spent time with the MLS Colorado Rapids and USL’s Toronto Lynx, Vancouver Whitecaps and Charleston Battery. The Trinidad and Tobago international also played indoors with the Edmonton Drillers, Buffalo Blizzard and Philadelphia Kixx of the National Professional Soccer League.

Williams coaches the OCAA’s George Brown Huskies as well as Scarborough GS United, whose women’s team is reigning Canadian national champion. He played for the Winnipeg Fury and St. Catharines Roma of the Canadian National Soccer League.

Titus and Williams will be behind the bench when the MetroStars host the Baltimore Blast (10-6) on Sunday at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press