German Club Hoffenheim Fires American Coach Pellegrino Matarazzo After Poor Start To Season

German club Hoffenheim fired American coach Pellegri Matarazzo on Monday with team sliding toward Bundesliga relegation zone and failing to score in its last three league games.

Matarazzo h been in charge since February 2023 and leaves with team in 15th place in 18-team Bundesliga and mid-table in Europa League.

team's only win from its last six games in all competitions was against second-division Nuremberg in German Cup. Sunday's 0-0 draw with Augsburg was third Bundesliga game in a row that Hoffenheim didn't score.

It's a far cry from last season, when Matarazzo's team won praise for finishing seventh in Bundesliga to qualify for Europa League, and finished on a high by upsetting Bayern Munich 4-2 on last day of season, causing Stuttgart to overtake Bayern for second in standings.

club h been in a relegation battle when Matarazzo took over and steered it to safety.

Matarazzo’s task was complicated this season by backroom upheaval as Hoffenheim fired sporting director Alexander Rosen and technical director Bastian Huber in offseason. Pirmin Schwegler subsequently resigned as director of first team.

Hoffenheim turned to Sturm Graz for replacements with Andreas Schicker and Paul Pajduch joining as sporting and technical directors, respectively.

Graz coach Christian Ilzer is reportedly a candidate to take over from Matarazzo.