P/I/P Season 31 Game 14 - LA Galaxy at Seattle, 5/16/26, 6:15 p.m. PDT - Apple TV, FS1

I'd like to see Reus off the bench BUT given Klaus' out until August and Nasci is recovering and loan officially ends after this game I think it is a no brainer for him to start at the false 9 again. I think that will be our best look until Klaus is back and then (best case scenario) Reus can end the season as a killer 30 minute sub.

I also want to see Thommy get another chance. I like his mobility. I don't see any reason why he couldn't be a good ACM with Wynder/Cerillo/Sanabria behind him. I think Greg will be tempted to replace Thommy with Sanabria this weekend.

I also hope Yamane starts over Cuevas again.

 

One of the best performances / results of the Vanney era. And Seattle's sometimes a bogeyman for him.

There was a good conversation on CoG about Vanney before this game, after the loss in SKC. Sophie was guest-hosting, and she landed kinda where I do with Greg: I think he's addicted to tinkering and it physically hurts him to be pragmatic. But I think he found something out a few matches ago, leading defense-first, which is something many of us have been asking for since, well, forever.

I do think Vanney is a good coach, which I've been consistent about (though I do think it would've been the right move to move on from him last year).But he also has a lot of flaws.

 

This wouldn't surprise me at all because there was one season where dang near every valid critique and idea to fix the issues on the pitch were deployed in the very next game and it began to look like we 100% had somebody lurking on behalf of coaching lol.

 

True, you don’t luck into 4 finals unless you are lucky enough to ride the coattails of a stacked team with Giovinco, Altidore, Osorio, Bradley, Vasquez, Moor, Morrow, Beitashore, Haaglund and peak Delgado at Toronto. Kim Kardashian could have coached all those all-time MLS greats and MLS All Stars to an MLS final. BTW with the two of the best forwards MLS has ever seen you manage a total of two goals across the two finals combined. And then you stink at Galaxy except the one season you get the unstoppable Puig, Pec, Paintsil and Dejan working together to create 3 or 4 goals a game to hide your mediocre D and carry you through a playoffs where all five of the other top 3 seeds are eliminated before you have to face them. After you lose just one of those stars (admittedly the best) you immediately return the team to mediocrity or worse. Great coaching Vanney!!

(We will never agree on this! )

 

Highlight Time Folks

This game is the type of bounce back I love to see.
One of those "Hold On To Your Faith" wins over an enemy that you know is just PISSED at the idea of being beaten by you.

It's fairly safe to say that Pec, Glesnes and Reus are all in form at this time. But I just want to take a few minutes to call for a special shout out to the Goalkeeper of this squad.

Marcinkowski has been outstanding in the back. I don't blame him for any of the goals we have conceded over the past few games. He now secures the ball instead of always trying to bat it away when he didn't need to do so; and some of the saves this man has made has reminded me of Josh Saunders in his prime for the team. Keep it up good sir. You have my tip of the hat and my thanks for the work you are putting in at the back. We lose that game with any of the last few goalkeepers this team has had in the back like McCarthy or Micovic.

One more Game to my 5 games to essentially ensure that you can save your job for at least the rest of the season Coach! You can do it!!!

Onward to Planet Houston.

 

I would pay really good money to peer into an alternate universe just to see if this could be even remotely true lol.

 

You could but it would be a major stretch. Bruce was a 5-time National Champion at UVA, a 5 time MLS Cup Champion, coached and coached the US to first WC quarterfinal since1930. In MLS he coached 5 different teams and was extremely successful with 4 of them (in his one RB season he “only” had a .500 record) including taking two crappy ones (NER was in last place and SJ was terrible) to the top.

Bruce’s record of decades of sustained excellence across all levels of soccer (college, MLS, USMNT), all levels of talent is so far ahead of Vanneys 3 good years it isn’t remotely comparable.

Let’s look at the flip side - losing. Across 3 decades Bruce had only two losing MLS season that I’m aware of (Galaxy & SJ first years). Vanney had that many with Toronto alone. The only true coaching “failure” that I’m aware of under Bruce was the 2006 WC where we definitely underperformed.

Bruce is a Hall of Fame coach. Vanney is … well, not that.

 

Putting in stats and honors so everyone can make their own conclusions


Greg Vanney

Team Record
G W D L GF GA GD Win %
Toronto FC 252 113 58 81 428 347 +81 44.84
LA Galaxy 219 85 54 80 366 354 +12 38.81
Total 471 198 112 161 794 701 +93 42.04

Coach
Toronto FC

• 
  
  
  • MLS Cup: 2017[25]
  • Eastern Conference (Playoffs): 2016, 2017, 2019
  • Supporters' Shield: 2017
  • Canadian Championship: 2016, 2017, 2018
  • Trillium Cup: 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019

LA Galaxy

• 
  
  
  • MLS Cup: 2024[32]
  • Western Conference (Playoff): 2024

Individual

• 
  
  
  • MLS Coach of the Year: 2017
  • CONCACAF Coach of the Year: 2017

Bruce Arena

Team From To Record1
G W D L Win %
D.C. United 128 71 28 29 55.47
United States 130 71 29 30 54.62
New York Red Bulls 52 19 13 20 36.54
LA Galaxy 348 166 89 93 47.70
United States 18 10 6 2 55.56
New England 156 71 48 37 45.51
San Jose 53 24 11 18 45.28
Total 885 432 224 229 48.81

Coach

D.C. United

• MLS Cup (2): 1996, 1997
• MLS Supporters' Shield: 1997
• MLS Eastern Conference (3): 1996, 1997, 1998
• U.S. Open Cup: 1996
• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 1998
• Interamerican Cup: 1998

LA Galaxy

• MLS Cup (3): 2011, 2012, 2014
• MLS Supporters' Shield (2): 2010, 2011
• MLS Western Conference (4): 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014

New England Revolution

• MLS Supporters' Shield (1): 2021

University of Virginia

• College Cup (5): 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
• ACC Men's Soccer Tournament (6): 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995

United States

• CONCACAF Gold Cup (3): 2002, 2005, 2017

Individual

• MLS Coach of the Year (4): 1997, 2009, 2011, 2021

 

Taking this a step further, there are very few good coaches who win without talent on the field.

 

I said we would never agree. You attribute his 3 good years to his system and I attribute it to having the most talent in the league. I also put more weight on long term success than on good 5 game runs in post-season play.

I think I have a lot of evidence for my position but you disagree. That’s ok - that’s what discussion boards are for.

In the larger picture you and I agree on 90% of our opinions. If we agreed 100% it would be boring!

 

Does this mean the honeymoon is over?

 

I think 2025 Puig was one of the best, if not the best, central midfielders MLS has ever seen. And the synergistic combo of Puig and our $15 million (or thereabouts) of super-speedy wingers Pec and Paintsil made up a lethal attack seldom seen in MLS. Add in Joveljic and that is an attacking combo impossible to match in MLS.

We took all that attacking talent and because of our mediocre defense we came in 2nd in the WC. Then in the 2024 cup we got lucky to only play lower seeded teams, so the Cup is not quite the flex it might seem.

And this evaluation of superior talent is not an anti-Vanney rationalization. Want proof? Even with my lack of confidence in Greg’s coaching I still predicted on this board that we would finish in top 3, just based on seeing our talent in preseason. In fact you and I rated the team higher than any other BS poster.

So yeah, I think Vanney had massive talent to work with, and we ended up scoring a massive 87 goals counting post-season. And if he could teach defense we would have likely parlayed our killer offense into the SS.

You think that success was due to Vanney having a system that only works with certain players and I think it was due to our stellar player talent in 2024. Evidence for my viewpoint is that, even with Vanney still coaching, our offense completely fell off the cliff without Puig. So to me it appears our offense was player driven rather a coaching effect. But I don’t see how either viewpoint can be proven — that is why I think we are stuck disagreeing.

 

Mrs.Trickhog is clearly a very smart person!

 

Messi, Busquets and the boys of that Inter Miami squad as well as the LAFC 2024 attack would like to have a word with you when it comes to who had the absolute best attack in 2024. Plus you are forgetting that the 2025 squad's attack lost not only Riqui, but it also lost Paintsil for over a 3rd of the season as well as Delgado, Brugman and DeJan who were extremely important as well. Delgado can be argued as being an even bigger midfield loss than Riqui when it comes to the ability to remain defensively sound and yet offensively adaptable. That 2025 roster had the Old Man Legs version of Marco Reus in it versus the Fountain of Youth Water Drinking 2026 Reus. It also had the highly overrated, yet still solid Super Sub Diego Fagundez on it. The latter 2 didn't find their form until the final third of the season when it was already too little to late for the effort to matter. The defense in 2024 had John McCarthy in it who was already not the greatest goalkeeper and Yoshida who is solid but was only ever extremely solid when he had a healthy Garces next to him to make up for his lack of pace. Yoshida however lost his main helper in 2025 for much of the season due to injury as well as repeatedly suffering his own injury setbacks; and the team found itself with Micovic in goal who is younger, cheaper and nowhere near as ready for primetime as McCarthy was unfortunately. So yes the defense as well got much worse that year as a result.

Long story short, "Yes" Vanney like all coaches that win titles, do it with great talent at their disposal. That being said I don't think even Jose Mourinho or Luis Enrique would have been able to coach that exact same 2025 roster to a playoff spot even if they had the whole preseason to prepare them. At the same time I also don't buy that anyone can automatically become a good coach based purely on roster talent alone. My proof of this is based on watching one coach after the other for 10 years straight fell repeatedly to get the same super expensive Manchester United Squad to produce consistent results for 2 consecutive years under their leadership. And this leadership included names like Mourinho even. Such a thing didn't truly happen until Michael Carrick who took over the team twice from bigger named managers and proved that repeatedly kicking out talented players for those deemed more talented was not the answer; nor was the answer to only put your faith in the legends that have coached the game well enough to win. It is a combo of both actually. At the end of the day actions always speak louder than words and patience will only go so far. For Vanney, he will not be able to keep saying to everyone "Please be patient" for too long and will need to instead start focusing purely on getting the team to grind out the ugly victory over the beautiful one. Like I said last game, "Ugly Wins Save Coaching Jobs."

 

Taking Trickhog's point about talent to heart, I have been going back and comparing the MLS Best 11 lists against the records of both Bruce and Greg. I looked at the Best 11 because it showed the truly exceptional difference making players each season.

The only year Bruce won a Cup with 1 Best 11 player was 1996. Otherwise, he only won the cup was when he had a boatload of talent.

• The 1997 DC United team had 4 Best 11 players
• The 2011 Galaxy had 4 players
• The 2012 had 2 (when Beckham, Donivant and Omar didn't repeat from 2011)
• 2014 had 3.

He also had some loaded teams that did well in the regular season, but didn't make it to the conference finals.

• The 2010 Galaxy team had 4 best 11 players
• The 2013 Galaxy had 2 as did the 2016 team
• The 2021 Revs team had 4 players on the list.

Finally, he didn't do so well when he had relatively poor squads as evidenced by the 2022 Revs that didn't make the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Vanney's 2014 and 2015 Toronto squads didn't have any. Nor did his 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025 Galaxy squads. His 2017 Toronto cup winning team team had 2 players on the list, while the Galaxy squad in 2024 only had Riqui.

Note: This doesn't mean that there weren't other good players on these squads, there certainly were. But I hope it puts to rest the theory that Vanney's only wins when he has loaded teams that win despite him, while Bruce has a long history of coaching nobodies to success.

To make this a little longer, I found it interesting that Beckham only made the Best11 list that one time in 2011. In 2007 and 2010, he was not part of the team for the first half of the season and injured most of the second halves. In 2008 he played great until June and then tanked the second. I don't recall a particular problem from 2012 except possibly age.

 

Crazy outcome for Musovski's tooth, according to a Sounders reporter

I don't think we talked enough about the gash on John Nelson's cheek after that hit. Guy must have strong cheekbones to knock out his tooth, root and all.