How LA Galaxy returned to the top by shunning the big names

The juxtaposition, in January 2021, was striking. When Greg Vanney returned to Major League Soccer’s winningest franchise, the LA Galaxy, as head coach, he walked past statues and filled trophy cases, to a club that seemed stuck in the past. “There wasn’t really a testing service,” Vanney recalls. The “sports science department…was a one-man computer.” And the result was that the kings of MLS 2.0 were left behind.

The Galaxy once ruled this fledgling league. They transformed it with fame. They increased it with spending. They became its most recognizable brand.

And they won. A lot. They reached nine of the first 19 MLS Cup finals. They won five.

They were the envy of the league, a destination for marketable stars, until MLS began to evolve. As his football became more sophisticated; and as its operations became professionalized; and while owners and sporting directors realized that the way to attract fans relied more on on-field quality than big stars, the Galaxy, for years, failed to evolve with him . And so, for nearly a decade, the Galaxy fell from its throne. Since their 2014 title, they have not advanced beyond the MLS quarterfinals; they missed the playoffs five times in seven years; they did not lift any trophies of any kind.

They also violated the rules of the list. Their transfer activity often seemed unscientific or chaotic. By 2023, their most loyal fans had had enough. Prominent fan groups began boycotting home games. Attendance fell. Accumulated losses. The discontent from outside, Vanney admits, began to affect the humans inside the club.

That, in a nutshell, was the environment Will Kuntz walked into last spring. His task, as senior vice president of player personnel and now general manager, was to revive this stumbling giant.

And a “major” part of his plan – the one that pushed the Galaxy to the top of the Western Conference, in a home quarterfinal against Minnesota this Sunday (6 p.m. ET, FS1) – was to get rid of the superficial identity of the club, to “care less about who a player is, in terms of pedigree”.

“We wanted to move from capturing stars,” Kuntz says, “to creating stars.”

Rebuilding the Galaxy: from star power to strategic scouting

The 29-year history of Los Angeles’ only original in MLS is littered with names you probably know. First, there were national stars, such as Cobi Jones and Landon Donovan. Then there was David Beckham – and Robbie Keane, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, Giovani dos Santos, Jonathan dos Santos, Chicharito and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. One left, the other arrived, because, well, why not? The designated player rule allows clubs to spend without limit on three stars. WHO wouldn’t I Do you want famous people with experience at the top of the sport?

But somewhere along the way, the Why seemed to fall out of the front office equations. Or maybe the equations stray too far from football.

“There was a belief that having these big European stars was part of our philosophy, part of our culture, part of who we are,” Kuntz said.

He saw things differently: “I think it’s a byproduct of who we are and why we won, but it’s not really the heart of the Galaxy. The Galaxy’s main goal is to win, to be the flagship franchise in MLS and to represent the city of Los Angeles with a dynamic and fun team to watch.

“And we can do that with really high-end international players at the end of their careers,” he explains. “But that’s not the most important thing.”

That was his pitch to ownership when he took the job last spring, jumping from crosstown rival LAFC. This was the field as he approached his first offseason with two vacant DP spots. To fill them out, he would ask a single question: “How good is the player?” What will he bring to the group?

“It’s really liberating,” he says, to just focus on this one thing.

And to answer the question, he relied on a scouting system and recruiting process that he, Vanney and others had built and refined for years.

When the head coach arrived in 2021, “a lot of research was done through relationships, connections” and occasional road trips. “It wasn’t a robust system,” Vanney says. It lags behind most other MLS clubs, which have integrated data, full-time scouts stationed on other continents and video.

“So,” Vanney said, “our initial reconstruction of the team was not done through a lot of advanced research. … It was like, ‘We need some fast players, we need some qualities to add to this team… What’s there and what can we get? What can we afford? Who’s ready to move?’

Simultaneously, the club began to create a recruitment department. They developed player profiles. They constructed and maintained shortlists of targets, position by position. “We started becoming more proactive,” says Vanney. They stopped chasing big names or quick fixes, and instead developed a longer-term plan – which they stuck to last year, despite a string of injuries and a 26th-place finish.

Then, last winter, they dove into the shortlists. And rather than looking to football celebrities, they turned to Belgium, where they identified Ghanaian winger Joseph Paintsil; they turned to Brazil, where they found 23-year-old winger Gabriel Pec. They added American goaltender John McCarthy and Japanese defender Miki Yamane. They signed Spanish striker Miguel Barry, but stuck with Bosnian striker Dejan Joveljić as their number 9.

They didn’t actively avoid stars – and signed German striker Marco Reus as a free agent this summer – but applied the same criteria to every target: “How good is he?”

And they quickly realized that the collective response was: Very.

Galaxy proves its worth without pomp

They figured it out, in many ways, before they even won a game. On the opening weekend, they hosted the league’s new glamor club, Inter Miami. They welcomed Lionel Messi and his friends, but not with open arms. They outshot Miami 24-11; they outperformed the eventual Supporters Shield winners, 3.4 expected goals (xG) to 0.6. “We played them head to head and we felt like we were the better team that day,” Vanney said. “We were just as good as them.”

By the final whistle, they were warmed up and somewhat deflated. Sergio Busquets had simulated a foul to have Marky Delgado expelled from Los Angeles. Messi equalized in stoppage time. The match ended 1-1.

But in the locker room later, and in the stands all evening, everyone realized: “This team could be really good.”

Week after week, the players fed off this energy, the opposite of what they encountered last season. They sprinted to the top of the Western Conference, going undefeated at home, and stayed there for much of the season. On decision day, they coughed up the conference leading to LAFC. But they immediately bounced back in the playoffs. Riqui Puig, perhaps the league’s best showman west of Florida, orchestrated Colorado’s first-round rout. The cumulative score over two rounds: Galaxy 9, Rapids 1.

Their resurgence is therefore undeniable, but its final validation awaits. Sunday’s quarterfinal matchup against Minnesota represents more than just a playoff game; it’s a litmus test for the club’s redefined identity. A win puts them on a potential conference final collision course with LAFC, their crosstown rivals and a modern MLS benchmark. They are the second favorite to host and win the MLS Cup. Celebrities seem completely useless.

But a defeat could bring back old doubts. For all the energy and optimism surrounding this team, the path to sustained success in MLS is rarely linear. Yet for Vanney and Kuntz, the big picture remains clear.

“There is so much joy, enthusiasm and energy in our building,” Vanney says. “And our players can’t wait to come play, run and have fun.”