Breaking: Kurz sacked after 13 games at Victory

Melbourne Victory have fired Marco Kurz as head coach after only 13 Hyundai A-League matches in charge.

The 2017/18 Champions appointed the former Adelaide United boss seven months ago to succeed departing club stalwart Kevin Muscat, who spent six seasons in the Victory dugout.

Assistant Carlos Salvachua has been promoted to the role of head coach for the rest of the season and his first match in charge will be the Original Rivalry clash against Kurz’s former club Adelaide at Coopers Stadium on Friday, 17 January.

Kurz led his team to one win in the first seven rounds of the 2019/20 campaign, a run which which left Victory languishing in 10th place. After 10 games, the four-time champions had recorded their worst ever start to a Hyundai A-League season, collecting two wins and nine points.

A 2-1 Christmas Derby win against cross-town rivals Melbourne City kick-started a mini-resurgence, which Victory followed up with a 4-0 win against Newcastle Jets, despite the absence of injured captain Ola Toivonen, to climb into the top six.

But an astonishing 3-2 defeat against the Central Coast Mariners on Sunday, where Victory led 2-1 heading into the 94th minute, saw the German handed a red card in the aftermath of the dramatic scenes in Gosford.

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Kurz was set to serve a one-match ban for ‘use of offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures against a Match Official’ until Victory made the call to remove him, and assistant Filip Tapalovic, from their posts effective immediately.

Victory remain in sixth place, level on points with the Reds, heading into the Round 15 clash. Only two points separate five teams between sixth and 10th in the chase for a Finals Series berth.

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