Bruce Arena Pushes Past Sigi Schmid In MLS Coach Of Year Race

by Dave Clark on Nov 14, 2011 12:21 PM PST in Major League Soccer: News & Analysis

From First Kick to the end of the Season Bruce Arena led the LA Galaxy to strong results and one of the best seasons in MLS history.

When discussing the best coach in the history of Major League Soccer the conversation certainly includes Bruce Arena and Sigi Schmid. Today, Arena earned his 3rd Coach of Year award with Schmid being a solid second. All three voting categories had Arena as first, Schmid as second and Peter Vermes as third for the 2011 award.

Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy had the third best defense by Goals Against Average in MLS history, did not lose at home and had run of the league from First Kick through the season as they cruised to the Supporters Shield and were the first team to lock a playoff spot. The did that despite Schmid's Seattle Sounders applying pressure from the #2 spot. The Galaxy also were the second best road team.

With players regularly called up to national team camp, Arena dealt with some depth issues and squad rotation, and though his squad entered the season as favorites few could have guessed that he'd have one of the greatest seasons in MLS' short history. This is Arena's second win with the Galaxy, his other being with DC United. Schmid had previously won with the Galaxy and with the Columbus Crew.

Arena Trivia - He played one year with the Tacoma Tide in 1976.
Best MLS Coach Trivia - The other man in the best coach in MLS history conversation would be Bob Bradley, currently coaching Egypt's National Team.

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I think there's a totally reasonable argument for Sigi.

In the end though, I think the Galaxy are the best team in MLS history and it’s though to argue with the coach of the best team in MLS history winning coach of the year.

by Aaron Campeau on Nov 14, 2011 12:30 PM PST reply actions

Arena

I’m ok with this but Sigi worked hard too.

I just can’t wait to hear LA Galaxy’s game here next year and to hear Arena bitch about the pitch conditions and then back-handedly comment, "but both teams had to play on the same pitch."

Sigh.

Congrats to both coaches.

by slightlyused on Nov 14, 2011 12:33 PM PST reply actions

agree with the comment re: Arena and the pitch...

…but let hope that the pitch we play on next year will be beyond such criticism. Not having the pitch addressed by CCL would be, in my opinion, by FAR the biggest FO failure of the MLS Sounders.

Congrats to Arena. He didn’t deal with quite as much turmoil as Sigi…but he did lose his starting Keeper for most of the season, lost Donovan for a ton of games due to injury and intl callups, and dealt with an extremely full fixture (almost as full as ours). All the while he juggled and got it done winning Sheild, 1 seed out of CCL groups, and – likely – the MLS Cup (though that is by no means a done deal). Sigi was magical this year too…LA and Arena were just always a step ahead.

by exSlacker on Nov 14, 2011 12:43 PM PST up reply actions

Keep in mind:

the Sounders aren’t the only ones involved in the replacement of the surface. I am sure that, if it doesn’t get done, they’re going to be just as annoyed as the fans.

by Aaron Campeau on Nov 14, 2011 12:47 PM PST up reply actions

it's shared ownership..

..and they have all but promised that it will be addressed. They get no pass on this one.

by exSlacker on Nov 14, 2011 12:53 PM PST up reply actions

It is easy to say the team with the best record's

coach should get this award, and probably 8/10 times that is the right choice. But this seems to be one of those cases where the 2nd place team had a similar record but went through a lot more turmoil that requires great coaching. In addition what does the PPG comparison when you include non MLS competitive games? Is LA still the highest?

by lysander on Nov 14, 2011 12:40 PM PST reply actions

They lost Donovan for a third of the season

Ricketts for half the season

Had so many call-ups it is impossible to track.

And their first place was strong, not close. I didn’t vote for Arena, but I totally understand why he earned the award

I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Dave Clark on Nov 14, 2011 12:49 PM PST up reply actions

Ok

I guess I am too close to the sounders and not enough to the rest of the MLS. I had forgotten the Ricketts injury and not sure I knew about donovan at all.

by lysander on Nov 14, 2011 2:56 PM PST up reply actions

pretty sure they still have us...

We took them out of US Open Cup play and then won two more…but they finished with 2 more points in CCL (and a 1 seed drawing Toronto) and 4 more points in MLS…plus 3 playoff wins so far to our 1-1, loss on aggregate. In non-counting games, they lost to Real Madrid 4-1 and Man City 1(7)-1(6).

by exSlacker on Nov 14, 2011 12:52 PM PST up reply actions