Nobody really saw this one coming. 

But maybe they should have.

When the Montreal Impact announced yesterday that they had relieved head coach John Limniatis of his duties, a few jaws hit the floor.

The man, whose message led the Impact out of the USL-1 basement last season and deep into the CONCACAF Champions League, "was no longer getting through in the locker room." 

Those were the words of Impact technical director Nick De Santis as he described the decision. "After analyzing the situation over the last few months, we have realized the team was not playing to its level." 

Limnatis will remain within the organization as a sign of respect and the former assistant Marc Dos Santos will now take over the head coach duties, but the question remains - what the hell happened? 

Was a rough start to the USL-1 season and a sputtering loss to Toronto in the Voyageurs Cup enough to bring the axe down? Nick De Santis, head coach of the Impact last season, only got through half a season before it was clear he had lost the ear of the room. 

This is clearly an organization that has enough wherewithal to continue to demand excellence from its players and coaches. And if they are as sensitive to coaches losing the plot, as the past two moves would suggest, then I would point to one event as the beginning of the end. 

Flashback to February.  

The 37th minute of the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal between the Montreal Impact and Santos Laguna.  

Eduardo Sebrango has just scored the second goal to put the Impact ahead 2-1 and 4-1 on aggregate. 

The team, the city and pockets of our country are all thinking semifinals. 

Then the unthinkable happened. Actually, unthinkable does quite hit the mark. 

Bat shit crazy happens and Santos scores four unanswered goals - including two in extra time to advance.

I'm not a psychologist but that's the kind of thing that can cause some animosity to bubble and perhaps result in ones peers losing faith in an individual. 

Couple that with the extreme high Montreal was riding, followed by the extreme crash that came with the Laguna loss and it makes sense that the Limniatis' fall from grace began right there. 

The withering loss to Toronto may have been the final blow, but Limniatis' departure began that night in Mexico. 

Cheers

ben.rycroft@metronews.ca 

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