Chicago Stars fire head coach Lorne Donaldson six weeks into NWSL season: Masaki Hemmi takes over as interim – CBS Sports

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Lorne Donaldson is offically out after just six games in the 2025 NWSL regular season. Chicago Stars FC are currently in last place on the league table with just one win and five losses in six matches. First assistant coach Masaki Hemmi will serve as interim head coach as the team begins a search for its next manager. The decision to part ways with the head coach was announced by the club on Wednesday. 
“We are grateful to Lorne Donaldson for the culture, respect, and sense of self-belief he helped build within our squad. We appreciate his work and wish him the best for the future,” said Chicago Stars general manager Richard Feuz.
The decision comes just 16 months after Donaldson was hired as manager ahead of the 2024 season. After a last-place finish in 2023 and a sale of the club to a new ownership group led by MLB Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts, the Stars set in motion a series of new additions across executive roles. His departure now becomes another bullet point on a long list of transactions on the road to getting the club into a stable successful situation. 
The club had its worst season in history when it finished in last place in 2023. The franchise operated under dysfunction and turmoil throughout its existence as a founding NWSL club in 2013. Much of its toxic environment and varying levels of abuse during the Stars’ first decade in the NWSL were exposed after national reports detailed a long history of player and staff concerns being overlooked and ignored.
The club was officially put up for sale in 2022, but like much of the Stars’ history, its players performed under difficult circumstances and reached the postseason for an eighth consecutive year. The club sale was finalized during Fall 2023, and new ownership dismissed then-head coach Chris Petrucelli, as they laid the groundwork to move forward. 
“I do think that we need to get in and really get engaged and get a better sense of the lay of the land … because there are some of the things we’re going to need to address,” Ricketts told CBS Sports shortly after the club sale.
Ricketts and the group ultimately appointed a new club president, and hired Donaldson as head coach, before they added Feuz as general manager. The club even moved forward while shedding certain elements of the past, introducing a new name, crest, logos, and colors — retiring the former Red Stars name for a more soccer business-branded Chicago Stars FC. 
The club’s hiring of Donaldson after his successful stint with Jamaica’s women’s national team brought a brief sense of positivity. The Reggae Girls, during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Round of 16 run, captivated audiences, and Donaldson’s emphasis on organized defense and clinical counterattacks delivered exciting moments during the tournament. 
The club re-signed Mallory Swanson on a new contract out of free agency, reconnecting the franchise player with her former youth club coach. Donaldson quickly got to work incorporating his familiar tactics with the Stars. There were early signs of improvement around training environments, with players and staff expressing happiness with an element of fun that returned to match weeks. 
He led the Stars to a 10-14-2 regular season record in 2024, but there were signs of fatigue and disjointed form over a long schedule during an Olympic cycle. There was a noticeable disconnect and gaps in player talent across the roster, even as Swanson was proactive in vocal leadership on the pitch. 
The squad ultimately managed the highs and lows of a long campaign. But after an impressive start to the first half of the season, they struggled to maintain their early form, stumbling into the playoffs as an eighth seed. They were blown out, 4-1 during their 2024 quarterfinal match against eventual champions Orlando Pride. 
With a short-lived postseason experience, the club made a puzzlingly minimal number of moves over the offseason to address its roster, even fewer than they made in 2024 when they traded for Sam Staab, signed Natalia Kuikka, Shea Groom, and Camryn Biegalski via free agency, and drafted several prospects during what would be the league’s final NWSL Draft event. 
They made 2024 midseason acquisitions as well, with Brazilian international Ludmila and Canadian midfielder Julia Grosso, but the overall middle third was still a point of contention for the Stars after losing so many key veterans over the last two seasons with Morgan Gautrat, Vanessa DiBernardo, and Danielle Colaprico among players who left in prior free agency periods. 
Along with ever-present question marks in the midfield, they had a stark lack of depth on defense, a cornerstone of Donaldson’s tactics, and to add to more roster complexities, the club announced there would be no Swanson to start the season. 
When the club unveiled their preseason roster, they detailed that their star striker would not be with them during the preseason. Included was a statement from Swanson thanking the club and its fans for their understanding of her time away, and a further indication of support directly from the club. 
Being respectful of the player, there were no additional updates on Swanson’s status as the club’s first regular season match week approached, though Donaldson added that she was week-to-week during opening week media availability. Through Chicago’s five-loss struggles to open the season, he emphasized a “we have the players we have” approach, as players continued to operate through similar tactics. 
The roster will now be managed by interim head coach Masaki Hemmi. He joined the Stars under Donaldson from United Soccer League club, New Mexico United, where he served as director of player personnel and first assistant coach. In 2021, Hemmi joined the Japan side, INAC Kobe, of the WE League, as associate head coach ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
Hemmi will work alongside assistant coaches Ella Masar, Karina Báez, and Brenton Saylor. Long-time Stars assistant Masar is a former Stars player and served as interim-head coach for the Stars in the 2023 season after Petrucelli’s dismissal. She recently served as an assistant coach with the U.S. women’s national team during the April international window. 
They will play match week seven on the road against fourth-place Gotham FC at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey. Fans can watch the match on CBS and Paramount+. 
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