JDS/Sigi helps, but the Galaxy need to examine why their academy isn't producing as it should (no more execuses about losing guys to Europe/Mexico) and what they are going to do about the roster next year at forward, fullback, CB, and overall depth if no one stakes claim to spot during the rest of this season. I think guys like BJIV and Villarreal will have to be dealt in the offseason for more consistent depth if they don't make it happen in the remainder of the season.
A reminder that Ante Razov was reassigned as well, which seems to be an under-the-radar move from Sigi, since he was with him in Seattle and must not have liked how that went.
THANK YOU! Nice to see the FO stepping up and addressing a serious issue. Now that's out of the way, about those flip-flops...
As academies go, it's in its relative infancy. I'm not worried. Even the best systems are going to see more failures than successes and most of the guys supposedly "promoted from GII" can't truly be considered pure products of our academy anyway (if at all). It's just not been around long enough to produce that volume.
Given the results of the first team this season it is reasonable to suggest Galaxy II development was stunted by Onalfo. The LA Academy system is still considered one of the best in the league; we’ve probably been limping by on raw talent so a quality coach at the GII level will conceivably get us back on track. Not sure if the Munoz is the right guy. I can’t tell if his dire results are due to Onalfo or if they’re his own. He gets another season or two as far as I’m concerned.
Man, I'm so happy! Sure Sigi is a MLS retread but he's a proven winner. I really hope he can salvage the rest of this season. "Sigi, Sigi, Sigi! Oi, oi, oi!"
Holy crap - shocking news, but hopefully it puts us on the road to turning this ship around. I wonder if Jonathan dos Santos signed on the condition that there would be a change. (Edit: I see lots of you beat me to this speculation.) LAFC got a good coach too - they could be trouble in future years. Hopefully we have a few under Sigi to get it right, and identify the next generation of coaching talent. One thing about Sigi - I'm not sure if there is a better talent evaluator in all of MLS. He should be gold for our academy program. Bye, Curt. Someone should start a thread for Sigi.
BTW, the 2018 date for Sigi lines up with the world cup. It would be interesting to see us go after one of the top international coaches.
An interesting point to note, depending on how you define “foreign” coach in the entirety of MLS only one foreign coach has ever won an MLS Cup (Gary Smith, Colorado 2010) and none have won the Supporters’ Shield. For point of reference I would consider a foreign coach as one who was not born in the United States and did not spend any length of time playing in the NASL/MLS/USL. So Sigi, for example, is technically a foreign coach – he was born in Germany, but his entire coaching career has been in America. Nowak is technically a foreign coach, but as he played in MLS I wasn’t counting him either. Martino and Viera are certainly doing well, but neither has one a single thing in MLS let alone put together a consistently competitive MLS side like Sigi or Vermes or Arena. I’m all for pushing the envelope on the coaching front, but I don’t think it’s as simple as “hire that foreign coach”
I would only have an issue with this rumor If Sigi doesn't suck for us and Bruce wins the World Cup. It would be hard to justify swapping back then lol.
While I am glad that they finally sacked that knob who thought he could manage a football team, I'm still not happy with the choice for replacement. Look rinse and repeat will do us no good in my opinion, the fact that "SigiSmalls" is back should be cause for worry! It lacks of forward thinking and breaking into a new mold in the executive side of the game. Is he better than "No clue Onalfo"? Yes he has won things and that will make things tougher on him, he gets no patience or slack a proven winner needs to win and win now. I don't care what our standing in the league is he needs to make sure we are contending for something from the moment he signed on the dotted line! That is the price to pay to manage a top football club and he gets no sympathy. I was hoping to go the NYCFC or ATLFC route as I believe that will have tremendous impact in the future of those two football clubs respectively. Some how some way we need to be as global with our managers as we are with our players.
We can't effectively judge Muñoz just yet. G2 basically got stripped of all it's experienced players and replaced them with less experienced players. Curt was working with a set of elite USL players who had been simmering in 2014 and 2015 in the USL alongside some experienced lower level talent. Basically we went from something akin to a U23 team to a U20 team overnight and we've thrown the kids to the wolves. Most Minutes Played for G2 in 2016: Jaime Villarreal - 2206 - With the first team nearly full time, two G2 games with G2 in 2017. Lee Nishanian - 2159 - With Harrisburg. Alejandro Covarrubias - 2043 - Signed with OKC, returned in May to provide veteran experience. Clement Diop - 1980 - With first team, two games with G2 in 2017. Josh Turnley - 1976 - Played 8 games this season, hasn't been a starter really. Nathan Smith - 1892 - With the first team full time, one game with G2 in 2017. Jeffrey Payeras - 1717 - Returned to Guatemala. Bryam Rebellon - 1571 - With Jacksonville Armada Jose Villarreal - 1560 - With the first team full time, four games with G2 in 2017. Jack McBean - 1373 - With first team full time, one game with G2 in 2017. Oscar Sorto - 1232 - With Orange County FC. Raul Mendiola - 1143 - With the first team full time, six games with G2 in 2017. Denzel Slager - 1100 - Released, currently without a club. Ariel Lassiter - 1076 - With the first team full time, four games with G2 in 2017. Adonis Amaya - 877 - Still with G2. So there were 14 players who played more than 1000 minutes for G2 last year and only Turnley (who has only played about 40% of the minutes vs 73% last season) and Covarrubias (who only returned two months ago) have returned with significant G2 minutes. It's a huge talent removal from G2. The top 15 G2 minutes this season are: Jean Engola - 1229 - 19 years old Robert Castellanos - 1213 - 19 years old Adrian Vera - 1124 - 20 years old Ryo Fuji - 1110 - 20 years old Ethan Zubak - 1090 - 19 years old Tyler Turner - 956 - 21 years old Andre Zenga - 915 - 20 years old Hugo Arellano - 810 - 19 years old Alejandro Covarrubias - 791 - 25 years old Justin Dhillon - 784 - 22 years old Adonis Amaya - 734 - 20 years old Eric Lopez - 630 - 18 years old Josh Turnley - 617 - 23 years old Jonathan Hernandez - 564 - 20 years old Jorge Hernandez - 556 - 16 years old Only three players appear in both lists (Covarrubias, Turnley and Amaya). In context, there is an obvious drop off in the talent available to Mike Muñoz this year and it's a direct knock-on effect from moving up all our G2 talent into the first team. It was all done too quickly and ended up decimating both sides. Not that I think Muñoz has been great, even in context, but there is a huge asterisk when comparing what results he's gotten this year.
That seems a bit of a double standard, you mention two coaches who have literally achieved nothing in MLS as preferential to a coach who has 2 MLS Cups, 3 Supporters’ Shields and 5 US Open Cups under his belt. Sigi literally has more MLS Cups that Viera’s team has goals in the post season. This obsession with foreign coaches is baffling to me, as I mentioned elsewhere only one foreign coach has ever won MLS Cup, and that was one of the bigger flukes in league history, none have won the Supporters’ Shield. Foreign coaches have historically struggled in this league while enjoying success before or after their stints in MLS. Yes, Martino is doing well, especially with an expansion franchise, he might just join Sigi and Bob as guiding a new team to the playoffs, we’ll see. Viera as well is doing better, but until they put up multiple seasons of being legitimate MLS Cup contenders I remain skeptical of they are any better than Vermes or Sigi or Pareja.
Agreed. I don’t think I conveyed it well in my post, but I think Munoz got handed a bum deal and I’d like to see him get the chance to rebuild the program.
“After a great deal of evaluation and careful consideration, we believe that Sigi Schmid is the best person to coach our team for the remainder of this season and into the future,” said LA Galaxy President Chris Klein. Cant help but laugh at this. Like the we searched all over the globe we think Curt is the best option. Word was Curt was going to be canned after a bad Seattle result. The fact that this happens before the game and before JDS announcement leads me to believe the Dos Santos family pushed the move. I can be alright with Sigi as an interim. At least he is a MLS level coach. We really should be looking at a DP size coach.
Another thought. Sigi has a track record of being able to pick up an occasional diamond in the rough in the draft. I know that the draft is not as important as it once was, but let's face it, this club can use all the help it can get from whatever source.
The problem is that we're not going to be able to get Vermes or Pareja. If we stay with MLS we're either going to get an older retread or a player with no experience. The lack of experience is a particular problem with us since managing egos is necessary part of the job. I think Arena was great, but I wouldn't want him back. He was clearly bored with the job and I think that showed. If you're willing to look at foreign coaches, it opens up the market incredibly.
Who in Europe do you think is going to come over? No one from a top league is coming, probably not even second division from the top 4 leagues. There’s a bigger stigma for coaches coming to MLS than players IMO. So maybe you get a Paunovic, but I’m not sure he’d be substantially more capable of handling big names than Sigi.
I'm not objecting to Sigi so much, although I worry about burnout in the long run. As with players, I don't think you look at the big European leagues. Perhaps the smaller leagues or South America.
This thread was started on Jan 2 2017, and we made it happen in just under 7 months, that's an achievement! (It took us all more than 5 years to remove Klinsie).