LA Galaxy extending Greg Vanney now sends a wrong and telling message

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Greg Vanney was in a defiant mood after the LA Galaxy’s 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Union on May 14. It was LA’s 13th straight game without a win to start the season – this one full with a blown 2-0 halftime lead and a winner conceded at the death – and it felt like the ice underneath Vanney had finally cracked. The Galaxy are the defending MLS Cup champions and a storied franchise. But in 2025, the six-time league winners are in an all-time low moment. Vanney hasn’t tried to side-step the criticism. In fact, he’s faced it head-on after each humiliating loss.

As he slouched in front of a laptop for a virtual press conference near the visitors locker room at Subaru Park, Vanney made a point to reinforce the fact that the Galaxy played the Union without their three designated players, after a reporter brought it up.

“I appreciate you for noticing that, because a lot of people don’t seem to notice that when you take three DPs off any team in this league and go on an opposite conference challenge, the margins are so thin,” Vanney said. “I’m not making excuses for our guys because they f—– fought and they battled and … but … like thank you for noticing that, because that’s part of it.”

Vanney led the Galaxy to the league title last year, and he won his first MLS Cup as a head coach in 2017 with Toronto FC. He is clearly an accomplished manager. But he is now also credited with being at the helm of the worst start by any team in MLS history. And despite that, Vanney, 50, was rewarded handsomely with a new contract.

On Friday, the Galaxy announced that Vanney and the club had agreed to an extension, which The Athletic reports is through 2028 and makes him among the league’s highest-paid coaches. The deal was made official six days after a 7-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls in an MLS Cup final rematch on May 10.

In taking that course of action, the Galaxy and MLS put their credibility on the line. LA clawed its way to a 2-2 draw with rival LAFC on Sunday, yet remains winless through 14 games (0-10-4) and sits dead last in the Western Conference and Supporters’ Shield standings with a paltry four points.

Firing a coach doesn’t automatically give an organization high marks in reputability. But the decision by the Galaxy’s front office to stand by Vanney proves that consequences in MLS can be ambiguous, especially when compared to other soccer leagues around the globe. A manager with no wins after this long, no matter his or her résumé or recent success, likely would have been fired anywhere else in the world – and certainly wouldn’t have been extended with a lucrative reward.

Decision-making in professional sports doesn’t follow a pre-written script. Vanney didn’t necessarily need to be fired, but to veer to the extreme opposite and announce this extension during a historically bad stretch made for some bizarre optics and forced the Galaxy – and Vanney – into a problematic situation.

Vanney even told reporters on Friday that he felt “awkward” with the timing of the announcement.

Greg Vanney applauds the LA Galaxy fans after Marco Reus salvaged a 2-2 draw vs. rival LAFC. (Photo by Luiza Moraes/Getty Images)

“What I’m a little bit uncomfortable with is that … there’s a little bit of a spotlight on me that’s something positive,” he said. “Because I feel like, I feel guilty for that moment, when really in the moment, it should be about all of us fighting like MF-ers, if you will, to battle for the next one. It feels a little bit selfish to me.”

Vanney’s extension sends mixed messages to Galaxy fans and to the growing swarm of critics who believe that MLS lacks the high-stakes pressure of other global leagues and sports. When a coach is given a lifeline after such a horrendous start, it reflects poorly on a league that wants to be taken seriously at home and abroad.

Still, it’s important to lay out the entire case. Vanney is highly respected as a winner in MLS, a league that is financially restrictive. Long-term success is rare due to the numerous ways that the league’s salary cap and squad-building mechanisms can limit a team’s year-to-year progress.

The Galaxy’s star playmaker, Riqui Puig, is out indefinitely after tearing the ACL in his left knee during the Western Conference final last December. Pacy wingers Gabriel Pec (hip) and Joseph Paintsil (quadriceps) have been limited to start the year. There have been other injuries throughout the squad that have forced Vanney to tinker with his system. The results simply have not been there despite a willingness to break away from some of his preferred tactics.

The Galaxy started 2025 on a high from last winter’s MLS Cup final victory. It was the club’s sixth league title and first since 2014. Vanney and his players were quickly brought back down to earth after all the injuries, and the absence of all three of LA’s DPs this season has gutted the team of game-changing talent. In MLS, where building depth can be a futile venture, the loss of even one DP can greatly affect the course of a team’s season

A handshake agreement after LA’s 2-1 win over the Red Bulls in the MLS Cup final supposedly led to Galaxy general manager Will Kuntz’s decision to re-sign Vanney. At the time it made a lot of sense. Nonetheless, Kuntz made himself accountable for the team’s current state and said “there’s so much that you can point to that’s not on Greg and the staff.” The logic gymnastics from Kuntz reinforced the inconvenience of the matter at hand.

“I know I’ve talked a lot about roster rules, and I don’t say it to be defensive, but I think it’s a reality of our league,” Kuntz said. “If you’re going to lose a DP and another high-earning player, it makes it really difficult.”

Curiously though, Kuntz recognized that he and Vanney are in a unique position. Despite being among the most well-known MLS brands, and in a big sports market like L.A., the Galaxy are not under any real pressure from fans and local media. Kuntz recounted a conversation he had with a contact at the New York Yankees that took place during the Galaxy’s current skid.

“He was saying, ‘You realize that you would be fired if this was baseball, right?’ And so we understand that it’s a little bit different,” admitted Kuntz. “I think part of why it’s different is that it is MLS. And that’s not to say that the league isn’t a league that does things seriously, but the challenges that the league poses means that you can be a very good team and a well-run organization could be in a situation like this, when a few things don’t go your way.”

Kuntz and the Galaxy’s ownership group had an opportunity to firmly establish that no matter the circumstances, losing as badly as they have in 2025 is unacceptable. If this winless streak didn’t make the Galaxy’s decision-makers flinch, while Vanney’s contract offer sat idle for weeks in the hands of his agent, then what will?

Sporting Kansas City fired general manager and head coach Peter Vermes in late March. His 17-year tenure as SKC manager ended after the club went winless in 13 games (across all competitions) dating back to 2024. CF Montréal fired Laurent Courtois after just five games before that.

While the Galaxy have been poor in most of their losses, and looked like a team that is still building squad depth, Vanney hasn’t lost the dressing room. Puig, the team’s most influential player, immediately posted a congratulatory message after the club made Vanney’s extension official.

LA Galaxy star Riqui Puig was reduced to formalwear for the 2024 MLS Cup final and has yet to play in 2025. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Imagn Images)

“This journey isn’t over yet. I came to LA to win titles, just like we did last season,” Puig wrote on X. “It wouldn’t be the same without our coach by our side. We believe in the process. Let’s keep pushing forward together!”

Most coaches wouldn’t get a second chance – even in MLS, a league that saw 12 head coaching changes in 2024. But Vanney has considerable equity at the club. He’s a former Galaxy player who won a Supporters’ Shield, three Western Conference titles and the 2000 Concacaf Champions’ Cup. Vanney made sure to highlight his past with the Galaxy when he spoke to the press on Friday.

“This is the club that has given me so much opportunity as a player and as a coach,” he said. “We just won a championship, and I believe there’s many more in our future.”

Every year in leagues around the world there are many examples of coaches whose employers don’t have the same amount of patience. The NBA’s Denver Nuggets fired Michael Malone in April despite having won the NBA championship in 2023. Malone had signed a multi-year extension a year prior.

Fernando Gago won nine titles with Boca Juniors as a player. He was hired by the club in October as head coach in what was billed as a homecoming. But Gago was fired in April when Boca led the Argentina Primera División standings at the time. The case against Gago, however, had been mounting. Boca had faltered in the play-in round of the Copa Libertadores, which kept them out of the continental tournament that Boca has won six times. A stinging 2-1 loss to rival River Plate on April 27 ended the short run at his boyhood club.

Former Mexico national team manager Diego Cocca’s rocky coaching career took another turn for the worse in February. He was fired by Real Valladolid after just two months in charge. His dismissal came after the Spanish club lost seven of eight matches and tumbled down La Liga’s table.

In Spain’s second division, Cristobal Parralo lost the faith of his employers at Racing de Ferrol in January. Parralo, 57, had been in charge since 2021. He was widely credited with Racing’s promotion to the second division in 2023, but after one victory in 14 games, he was fired as relegation loomed. And in Brazil, Santos head coach Pedro Caixinha’s contract was terminated after just three games (one draw and two losses) in 2025. Caixinha had been in charge for four months.

In global soccer, examples like Caixinha, Cocca and Parralo are numerous. Vanney and every other MLS coach, however, aren’t burdened by the pressure of promotion and relegation. In the U.S. there aren’t nightly talk shows on major networks that debate whether an MLS coach should be fired or not. Scrutiny in MLS is ephemeral.

A bad loss or a record-breaking skid like the Galaxy’s can be quickly forgotten, especially during an MLS regular season that carries very little weight with 18 of 30 clubs making the playoffs. The Galaxy could’ve changed that narrative ever so slightly last week. Instead, they’ll take a mulligan and try again next year.

(Top photo: Luiza Moraes/Getty Images)

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