Ten months ago, after the Galaxy missed the MLS playoffs for the second time in three seasons under Greg Vanney, the coach was asked if he still was the right man to lead the team.
This week with his team chasing the Supporters’ Shield, the prize that goes to the league’s winningest team, he was asked a different question: Is he the MLS coach of the year?
“I don’t do it for coach of the year awards,” said Vanney, who already has one of those. “I do it to try to position us to win championships.”
The Galaxy can take a big step toward that goal Saturday when they play crosstown rival LAFC at Dignity Health Sports Park. A win would give the first-place Galaxy (15-6-7) a seven-point bulge over LAFC in the conference table and could pull them within four points of Inter Miami for the league’s best record with five games left in the regular season. Most important, it would greatly improve their chances of winning their first Western Conference title since 2011, giving them home-field advantage for the playoffs.
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Even a draw would leave them with a comfortable four-point lead and control of their outcome in the Western Conference race. That’s quite a rebound for a team that went 8-14-12 a year ago, matching the franchise low for wins in a full season while finishing one spot out of the conference cellar.
The turnaround was engineered by Vanney and general manager Will Kuntz — for six seasons the assistant general manager at LAFC — who remade the lineup by adding seven starters who weren’t with the team when he joined 17 months ago.
An LAFC win would stall that momentum and leave the teams separated by just a point. And because LAFC (14-6-6) has two games in hand on the Galaxy, that result would swing the advantage heavily the other way.
“I can read the standings and I understand the urgency from [the Galaxy’s] perspective,” LAFC coach Steven Cherundolo said. “But I think the same thoughts and urgency from our side. I’m not sure putting the added pressure of the table helps.
“But it’s the reality of the situation. It’s late in the season and both teams want and need…