GBS asked about the quality players he'll have on offense. He mentions Ibra, Kamara and Alessandrini.... (one name missing, methinks)
Schelotto asked about the Dos Santos Bros: "We're not thinking of one or two players. We're looking at the collaboration of *all* the players. The most important thing is to find the structure of our team." #LAGalaxy #MLS— Amelia Lopez (@AztecaAmeliaaa) January 3, 2019
GBS ended his opening statement with some kinds words about Sigi and how important Sigi was to him in Columbus, not just in soccer, but in life. Very classy and nice to hear.
Te Kloese talks about how GBS and he both want to integrate younger players into the first team and a competitive environment where the best players start, regardless of age. Maybe a subtle message to our hot academy prospects that haven't seem inclined to sign and are looking overseas....?
Something happened between Klose turning down the Galaxy and Porter “turning down” the Galaxy. I don’t know what went down, but the outcome is Klose got what he wanted and Porter is not our coach. That in and of itself is growth. I think Klein’s mistakes were the flawed from the start hiring of Onalfo and promoting then subsequently not firing Vagenas soon enough. I’d be fine with Klein getting sacked for those reasons alone, but I’m also ok that he did recognize those as mistakes and tried to rectify them. Sometimes the sum of the parts is not greater than the whole. Jose Mourinho was a massively successful manager. Manchester United has obscene amounts of money and spent hundreds of millions of pounds on world class players and yet have still failed miserably.
Dominic Kinnear will remain with @LAGalaxy as an assistant coach. Kinnear, the 3rd winningest coach in MLS history, finished the 2018 season as the team’s caretaker coach— Kevin Baxter 🇺🇦🏳️🌈 (@kbaxter11) January 3, 2019 Hmmm. Turns down a one year deal to be head coach and now ends up an assistant.
Wouldn’t surprise me if the money offered was around the same, but this position has more job security. It was clear that Dom would have been just a one year stop gap coach if they would have hired him as HC. Smart play from both sides.
I'm also happy to see Dom stay to help GBS and this team transition into MLS. (Wow, I never thought I'd be glad to see Dominic Kinnear around the Galaxy)
The biggest thing I got out of the conference was that GBS is definitely not a media-friendly coach. At least to the English speaking media. Looked like he did not want to be there at all. Those were some of the shortest, most superficial answers I've ever seen. Except for maybe Bruce when he was in one of his moods. Which I'm perfectly OK with if GBS wins.
He wouldn't have been a stop gap if he'd won!! Also I wouldn't say there's that much job security in an assistant coach from the former regime. But it keeps him gainfully employed until the next good HC opportunity comes along. So from that perspective, a reasonable move on his part.
Yes, I wish the Galaxy could fail as miserably as Man United too. Now we're so used to losing, we are already building in excuses for why we won't make the playoffs again.
The last two paragraphs of the Baxter article make me very, very happy. Hope GBS can follow through: But the Galaxy also gave up 131 goals the last two years, a problem that became obvious to Schelotto as he binge-watched tapes of last season’s games. “I know what we have to do and [at] what position we have to bring [in] some players,” said the coach, who leaves Friday for the six-day MLS combine in Orlando, followed by the league SuperDraft in Chicago. The Galaxy open preseason training camp in a little over two weeks. As much as I dislike Gio fixing the defense is still the most important job. And while tweaking tactics might help the D a little the only way it will be truly fixed is if we bring in better personnel. We could use upgrades all across our back line. And if we want to actually be a top tier team again we need an upgrade at goalie as well. I like my goalies to command the box. Bingham's never been accused of that. But first things first. A space eater center back would be the place to start.
Per Baxter, Zlatan really liked Dom as a coach, so there may have been a reason to keep Dom around. In other words, whatever Zlatan wants, Zlatan gets.
I think keeping Dom around is a great idea. It gives GBS someone who knows the ins and outs of MLS on the coaching staff. I'm pretty sure Dom is fluent in Spanish, and after watching the press conference it's pretty clear GBS is not fluent in English so that will definitely help. I think GBS isn't comfortable with English to explain and elaborate on his answers when's he's being asked questions. I'm sure the press conferences at the end of the season will be much different than the ones at the start of the season in terms of responsiveness. My biggest takeaway from the press conference is that DTK is absolutely the right man for the job. He clearly knows what we need to improve and we need to improve them.
Well, Porter at Columbus is official. It will be interesting to see how both teams fare next season and in the few years to come. At the moment, LA and Columbus are of pretty similar quality based on last year's results. In fact, would have finished level on points at 51 and both just made the playoffs had LA not blown their last 45 minutes. So, solidly mid-level teams that can clearly go either up, down or nowhere. In my book, results moving forward will be a direct reflection of the coaching and management selections by both teams, at this similar, pivotal moment in respective club history. It will be te Kloese and GBS vs Bezbatchenko and Porter. Doesn't get much more a clear cut competition than that. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019...-porter-head-coach-tim-bezbatchenko-president
Pretty fair comment. And I don't know the ins and outs of the Columbus roster. But I don't think they have the equivalent of a Gio albatross around their necks. Also they have brand new owners who may feel they need to splash the cash to get credibility in a market that has been battered. I am not saying AEG is unwilling to,support us, but to the extent the previous mistakes tie our hands there are limits what LAG can do in the short run. As I say, I don't know if Crew have any similar problems.
Who gives a shit about Porter? Unless it's us killing Columbus in MLS Cup, I could care less what they do. Managing Columbus ain't the same as managing LA. If Porter makes the playoffs every year he'll be considered a success for team that was on the brink of being relocated. Every team in MLS is our competition. Right now, ATL are the team to beat both on and off the field.
I care about Porter, and will be interested to see how he does in Columbus. We could have hired him here, but picked GBS instead. Not scared of a little head to head competition, are you?