When Mark Delgado made his MLS debut, he was just 17 and even he acknowledges his approach to soccer was unsophisticated.
“Just being a young kid and running around,” he said.
Fortunately for Delgado, his team, the now-defunct Chivas USA, had a rookie assistant coach named Greg Vanney. And while Vanney could do little for the unfocused teenager in their season together, he remembered Delgado and made him the first player he acquired after taking over as manager of Toronto FC in 2014.
Seven years later, after moving to the Galaxy, Vanney spent $500,000 on another reunion with Delgado, who this season notched career highs for games (32), starts (29) and assists (nine, including two in the playoffs). And with playmaker Riqui Puig sidelined because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament, Delgado figures to play an even bigger role in Saturday’s MLS Cup final with the New York Red Bulls at Dignity Health Sports Park.
Read more: Galaxy will lean on other stars, brace for the Red Bulls’ pressure in the MLS Cup final
And for that he has the coach to thank — not just for the faith in him, but also for the mentoring Vanney has done along the way, taking Delgado from a talented if wild teenager and molding him into a player and person so stable and disciplined that the coach called him “the great balancer.”
“To really talk things out with Greg and really study film, I became more of a thinker, right?” said Delgado, 29. “I guess you can say it’s gained his trust. Eventually things worked out.”
Delgado is not the only player who has benefited from a relationship with Vanney. In fact, for all the attention the coach’s technical and strategic acumen has received, those personal connections off the field have become an equally important factor in what has been one of the greatest turnarounds in MLS history.
After winning just eight games and finishing 13th in a 14-team conference a year ago, the Galaxy will play for their sixth MLS title. After winning just two playoff games in the last eight seasons, the Galaxy have won twice that many in the last six weeks. A franchise even its own fans had given up on 19 months ago is 90 minutes away from being the best in the world’s largest…