News: MLS Coaching and Front Office - News & Discussion Thread 2024-25

Is it tho? Vanney was involved in those salary cap decisions and the decision to not place Puig on SEI that resulted in them being in the bind they are now in. The team also is 0-3-10 bad… Pre-season predictions also had the Galaxy as a top 5 team.

 

They were the 4th worst team in 2023, 3rd/4th best in 2024 when they won MLS Cup.

Seems like losing Puig for most of the season would have one expect them to finish maybe middle of the pack and hopefully in a playoff spot for them to make a playoff push with him back in shape. Now, a playoff position is already out of reach.

 

Not being able (or unwilling) to keep Dejan Joveljic has hurt the Galaxy in more ways than one. A couple of years ago, the guy was considered a 'super-sub' when the team missed the playoffs. Last season, he was one of the mainstays on the team and I thought, was rounding into form to have a lengthy stay with the club. I don't understand the ins and outs of salary cap restrictions in MLS (or any other pro league, for that matter), but shipping Joveljic off to Kansas City, coupled with Puig's injury drastically changed the complexion of this team.

 

Bit of random question. How much did trading away Marky Delgado hurt LAG? Hes been a mainstay in Vanney teams, putting in good work

 

At what point do we consider San Diego to have a notable fan problem?

HORRIFIC sights here at Snapdragon Stadium as LA Galaxy fans and San Diego FC fans are in a brawl.@EVT_News pic.twitter.com/bca8W1XGaN

— Francisco Velasco (@FranciscoEfV) May 24, 2025

This is the second game in San Diego against an LA side with fights, they had the p*** chant to start the season, and both home and away San Diego fans caused problems with Rapids fans. They're not even halfway through their initial season and that's at least 5 incidents.

 

Handbags.

 

I've noticed that many expansion teams have these types of fans in abundance early in their existence. Over time, they get stadium bans or move on to the next new thing.
I remember early in the NYC era, we had a fair amount of English hooligan wannabees, neo-nazi extremists and other undesirables. Typically, once they expose themselves for who they are, they don't last much longer one way or another and they will weed themselves out. Most of the troublemakers from the NYC early days have either gotten stadium bans, taken a beating from other fans in the parking garage, or been out on blast on social media.

 

Agreed though even by expansion standards it seems like San Diego is on a fast track.

 

I was impressed by the way NYC let the fans police the fans, even though it got off to a rocky start.

French cops would have been baton charging the bleachers.

 

BREAKING: St. Louis City have fired manager Olof Mellberg, per sources.

Club have just 11 points after 15 matches, scoring only 8 goals. https://t.co/scu6VxZDCf

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) May 27, 2025

 

He has better record than Greg Vanney and he was fired !but Vanney had 3 years extension.

 

Vanney also has the (figurative) scudetto.

 

Olof Mellberg = a Swedish version of Anthony Hudson.

Prove me wrong.

Matt Baker had the best line about Olof. Read his second sentence.

 

The big question for St Louis now is: what playing style are they going to commit to? It's obvious that they weren't all in with Bradley Carnell's style of play (Red Bull Gegenpressing). There's a reason that Philadelphia, the Red Bulls, the Crew, now the Whitecaps, any team coached by Bruce Arena, and Seattle are consistently good. They know who they are, how they want to play, and they sign players that fit. Contrast them with Chicago, Toronto, Atlanta (after Tata), Austin, etc.

One challenge that MLS teams face is when to move players on. I'll use my team as an example. Hindsight is always 20/20. Looking back, the Union should have sold Andre Blake instead of Matt Freese after the 2022 season. They probably should have moved on Jack Elliott and/or Glesnes after 2022 and cashed in on them after career years. Instead, they extended everyone, which while keeping a strong team together, hampered their ability to add more pieces/depth due to salary budget constraints. It's a fine line. How many times have we seen over the years a team extend a player only for that player to force their way out 6-12 months later?

Just imagine if MLS hadn't implented the cash transfer system this past offseason. Where would Cincinnati be? Evander wouldn't be there, and Lucho likely wouldn't be playing for them either. Evander also wouldn't be playing for Portland. Where would Jack McGlynn be?

Getting back to St Louis, what's their identity? As an organization what is their identity? The teams that struggle with being consistently good/competitive don't have an answer for that question.

 

One problem St. Louis have had since the middle of 2023 is that the team has been beset by injuries, and the replacement players haven't responded well enough to pick up the slack. This year, the team's had several players miss games due to injuries on the training fields! Is the team going too hard at practice, or are the training methods employed by the coaching staff too strenuous in the first place? Those are questions that haven't been answered by the higher-ups with the organization. Of course, Eduard Lowen, one of the mainstays on the team, has been in and out of the lineup from injuries of his own, but mostly due to his wife's illness.

Aside from a few players on the roster, one thing I've noticed about St. Louis is that the overall team speed just isn't up to snuff compared to other MLS sides. The phrase 'slower than molasses in January' comes to mind when I watch the team play. Of course, it may come down to conditioning too, as the team falters greatly in the last 15-25 minutes of a match, dropping points galore in 2024 and several times this season.

On May 3rd, 4 players that used to be on the St. Louis roster scored goals: Indiana Vassilev (PHI), Hosei Kajima (DC), Aziel Jackson (CLB), and Anthony Markanich (MIN). The same night, St. Louis was getting killed in Seattle, 4-1 after taking a 1-0 lead, which only lasted for 4 minutes. Whomever the new guy is, they will have their work cut out for them.

 

This.

Right now, CITY's identity is a great soccer city with a fantastic stadium and incredible fan base, run by Euro wanna-be's who think defensively-oriented second division coaches wedded to a stale system can impose that system on players and succeed in the free-flowing offensively-oriented MLS. Successful MLS coaches are flexible and adapt systems to the talent on the roster, opponent style, pitch size and condition, weather, and game situations. CITY has been shut out eight times in fifteen matches this year, and is stuck chasing the game in 0-1 matches constantly. There is a huge difference in chasing the game 0-1 and chasing it 3-4.

A complete house-cleaning is needed to fix this. Olof needed to go, but so do President and GM Diego Gigliani and Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel. I would replace Diego with Peter Vermes, leave Lutz's position vacant until the end of this season, bring in Gary Smith as interim coach, and elevate Gary to Lutz's position at the end of the season. My target replacement coach would be Jim Curtin. (Oh, the irony.)

But I own zero percent of the team, so my opinion and a dollar will buy half a cup of day old gas station coffee, maybe.

 

This article has a pretty harsh comment from Lutz Pfannensteil from the press release. Definitely not “we thank him and his family for all their efforts.” I suspect there were harsh arguments behind the scenes.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/63...ouis-city-fires-coach-olof-mellberg-15-games/

 

From Matt Baker: Olof had the second shortest MLS head coaching tenure.

 

Michael Bradley is now a coach with NYRB II.

 

Head coach.

 

With Philly’s success so far, I for one see the Curtin firing in a different light.

 

SCOOP: John Fisher has hired Moelis & Co. to sell his MLS club, the San Jose Earthquakes. The plan is to find a new control owner for the franchise. @Sportico last valued the team at $600 million.https://t.co/4F5j4qesdg

— Kurt Badenhausen (@kbadenhausen) June 18, 2025

 

Fantastic news…Fisher is among the 5 worst owners in the league.

I know SJ fans are gonna blast me for not putting him DFL, but folks, I’m a DC fan, so I know there’s a lot of crap owners at the bottom.