Octavio Zambrano

Octavio Zambrano

Personal information
Date of birth	(1958-02-03) February 3, 1958
Place of birth	Guayaquil, Ecuador
Playing position	Midfielder
Youth career
	Union Deportiva Valdez
1980–1983	Chapman University
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1982–1983	Los Angeles Lazers (indoor)	17	(1)
Teams managed
1990	California Emperors (assistant)
1992–1993	Los Angeles Salsa (assistant)
1992–1994	East Los Angeles Cobras
1996–1997	Los Angeles Galaxy (assistant)
1997–1999	Los Angeles Galaxy
2000–2002	MetroStars
2006–2008	Tiligul-Tiras Tiraspol
2008–2009	Tatabánya
2009–2011	Sporting KC ( Head Assistant Coach)
2012–2013	Deportivo Pereira
2014–2015	El Nacional
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Octavio Zambrano (born February 3, 1958 in Guayaquil) is one of the most successful regular-season coaches in the history of Major League Soccer. According to the 2015 MLS facts and record book, his .587 regular season winning record ranks second to Bruce Arena's .604. An Ecuadorian/American soccer coach and former player with international experience, Zambrano holds a UEFA "A" diploma and a USSF "A" coaching license.

Player

Zambrano was an attacking midfielder and made his professional debut with Unión Deportiva Valdez of the Ecuadorian First Division, moved to the United States from his native Ecuador in 1980 to attend Chapman University, and later played two seasons with the Los Angeles Lazers in the Major Indoor Soccer League.

Coach

In 1990, he 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. 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. 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.^[1] He joined MLS as an assistant for Lothar Osiander with Los Angeles Galaxy reaching the MLS Cup final the first year of the league, and 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 play offs. 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. 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. 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).^[2]

In 2006, he was hired as the head coach for CS Tiligul-Tiras Tiraspol in Moldova.^[3] In 2008, after successfully taking Tiligul from the relegation zone to a fourth place overall, he left Tiligul and moved to FC Tatabánya in the Hungarian Soproni Liga. In 2009, he left Tatabanya and was hired by FIFA to write the CONCACAF Technical Report for the Gold Cup 2009. On December 3, 2009 Zambrano was hired by Kansas City Wizards 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 of the Columbian Categoría Primera B.^[4] 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 Club 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 2018 Zambrano resigned from El Nacional.

References

External links

• MISL stats