MLS All Time Teams: Coaches

Last week, I picked 18-man all time rosters for each MLS team, with the stipulation of using each player only once. Why not do the same for head coaches? This won't be nearly as long or tough. Let's take a look. Right off the bat, it's more simple because several teams have only one possible selection (which means that I have no other choice but to use them). So Dominic Kinnear, Peter Nowak, and Sigi Schmid go to Houston, Philadelphia, and Seattle respectively. Three teams down. Most of the rest are obvious choices: Chicago - Bob Bradley, Colorado - Gary Smith, DC United - Bruce Arena, Kansas City - Bob Gansler, Miami - Ray Hudson, New England - Steve Nicol, Real Salt Lake - Jason Kreis, and San Jose - Frank Yallop. That leaves seven teams. Chivas USA - With Bradley off the table, Preki is the only reasonable choice (and the only one to last more than a year). Columbus - Schmid was the obvious choice, but he's out (same for the Galaxy). The three candidates are Tom Fitzgerald (1996-2001), Greg Andrulis (2001-2005), and Robert Warzycha (2005, 2009-2010). Games W L D PPG Fitzgerald, Tom 173 74 65 34 1.48 Andrulis, Greg 147 60 52 35 1.46 Warzycha, Robert 100 44 31 25 1.57 Andrulis won the 2002 US Open Cup and the 2004 Supporters Shield, while Warzycha won the 2009 Supporters Shield (interestingly, they're the two worst shield winners in league history). Despite his longevity, Fitzgerald didn't win a trophy. I think Warzycha has to be the guy for now. Unlike the other two, he's yet to have a bad season. I know the fans are down on the team, but he might prove everyone wrong this year; time will tell. And he did do much better than Andrulis in 2005, on an interim basis. Dallas - Schellas Hyndman won coach of the year, but so did Andrulis. Hyndman's barely above .500 in all competitions (30-26-29). Actually, every FCD coach is right around the .500 mark. Colin Clarke (47-43-24) has a slight lead in PPG, while Dave Dir is on the same level (79-78-36). Even though he doesn't have a trophy like Dir (1997 Open Cup), or the longevity either, I have to choose Hyndman simply because I've never seen a Dallas team play as well as they were last season. Though if 2011 is a losing season for the team, I'd likely switch it. Los Angeles - With Schmid and Arena taken, I'm selecting Octavio Zambrano over Steve Sampson and Lothar Osiander. That totally screws the Metros, but I'm sure they're used to it (people, let's get our Metro jokes in while we still can). New York - With Zambrano unavailable, Hans Backe is the easy choice. Zambrano was good with NY, but his 1998 LA team was the best PPG-wise in league history and his record was better there. Arena and Bradley were also unavailable. Did you know both had losing records in their time with NY? Tampa Bay - The 1996 team was the best in Mutiny history, so even though he left fuming after one year, Thomas Rongen gets the nod over Tim Hankinson. Toronto - Despite getting fired, I felt Preki was the top choice. He's already on Chivas though, so I'll take Chris Cummins and his non-losing record (11-11-8). The full list: All Time MLS Coaches (1996-2010) (using each coach once) GP W L D Pts PPG PCT CHI Bradley, Bob 197 103 61 33 342 1.74 0.607 CHV Preki 107 41 39 27 150 1.40 0.509 CLB Warzycha, Robert 100 44 31 25 157 1.57 0.565 COL Smith, Gary 79 31 25 23 116 1.47 0.538 DAL Hyndman, Schellas 85 30 26 29 119 1.40 0.524 DC Arena, Bruce 128 71 29 28 241 1.88 0.664 HOU Kinnear, Dominic 210 86 62 62 320 1.52 0.557 KC Gansler, Bob 270 106 100 64 382 1.41 0.511 LA Zambrano, Octavio 67 39 17 11 128 1.91 0.664 MIA Hudson, Ray 63 34 22 7 109 1.73 0.595 NE Nicol, Steve 331 133 113 85 484 1.46 0.530 NY Backe, Hans 36 19 11 6 63 1.75 0.611 PHI Nowak, Peter 31 8 16 7 31 1.00 0.371 RSL Kreis, Jason 137 50 46 41 191 1.39 0.515 SEA Schmid, Sigi 82 37 25 20 131 1.60 0.573 SJ Yallop, Frank 204 84 74 46 298 1.46 0.525 TB Rongen, Thomas 38 21 13 4 67 1.76 0.605 TOR Cummins, Chris 30 11 11 8 41 1.37 0.500