Offside Sound-off: Tell Us About Your Favorite Team Manager (or Coach)

It happened last summer, in the middle of the LA Galaxy’s excruciating first Beckham year.

MLS had backloaded the Galaxy’s schedule in an attempt to give every team a home game with Beckham. This led to two games per week for weeks on end, most of them played away. Injuries started hacking down starter after starter. The team rarely won a game. An English tabloid dismissed the Galaxy as “a pub team.”

And in the middle of all this came SuperLiga — a tournament with nebulous qualifying standards, played between MLS and Mexican sides. Against all odds, the Galaxy made it through the group stages, and then through the semi-finals, all the way to the final against Pachuca. In that final game, Beckham went down in the first half with the knee injury that would take him out for the rest of the season.

But the players didn’t give up. They played through regular time, equalizing on a beautiful Chris Klein bicycle kick in stoppage time. They played through extra time, still tied. And then they lost on penalties.

After the game, Coach Frank Yallop gave the following speech:

“I’m really proud of the way our guys came out because of all the crap we’ve been f—— through,” Yallop said. “I’m telling you, it’s been difficult to f—— deal with. I’m sorry to swear, but it’s been hard. But they kept going, and that makes me proud. That’s all I can say.”

And that’s when Frank Yallop became my favorite coach ever. He seemed to be the only one thinking about the players.

Frank Yallop is my favorite. (Yes, even now that he’s at San Jose.) Now we want to hear about yours.

We at The Offside want to know: Which coach or manager do you love and why?

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Category: World Football