Praise for Vanney
TFC coach has done an ‘incredible job’ of making players feel like they’re in ‘something together’
Without cameras and recorders rolling, Greg Vanney would probably pick himself. His players certainly would. But on the eve of Major League Soccer naming its coach of the year, Toronto FC’s gaffer offered his own list of coaches worthy of the league’s top honour.
Far too modest and humble to pump his own tires following Sunday’s training, Vanney rattled off names like Tata Martino (Atlanta), Mike Petke (Salt Lake City) and Wilmer Cabrera (Houston).
He highlighted managers who performed minor miracles upon taking over teams that were among the worst in the league entering this season — a repeat of what Vanney did three years ago.
Yet Vanney praised everyone else over the weekend, hours before MLS was expected to reveal who players and staff and media deemed the league’s top coach this year.
“I do my job within the structure of (our club),” Vanney said ahead of Wednesday’s Eastern Conference final with Columbus. “I come to work every day to learn and be the best I can and to challenge our guys to take the right steps forward.”
Vanney later added: “I’ve changed a ton … When I took this job I was an unproven coach who’d worked a lot with young players.”
Supporters used that against him following a lacklustre (2-6-2) end to the playoff-less 2014 season. They questioned Vanney’s competence again a year later.
But impatient outsiders weren’t privy to the culture change occurring inside the dressing room — the often overlooked aspect of a championship-calibre club.
“This doesn’t happen everywhere,” Michael Bradley said of the relationships and commitment and belief inside TFC’s dressing room.
“This is special. We had it with the (U.S.) national team for a period between 2007 and 2011, where we had some really big experiences as a group that allowed us to grow together.
“We have that here,” Bradley continued. “The relationship I have with Greg is a big part of that feeling. I’d do anything for him. I’d do anything for this team. I’d do anything for this club.
“Greg and every other person here would do that for me. When you have that environment, a large part of that is the way the coach has gone about laying that groundwork.”
Much of that groundwork was laid last season. This year’s TFC is simply a slightly more refined version of last year’s team. One could argue Vanney’s 2016 was more impressive than this season.
“I think last year was a lot more about learning with our group as we went,” Vanney responded. “It was about learning what was going to be the best version of ourselves given what we had.”
Vanney added last season was also about the subtle nuances between winning in the regular and postseasons — “two very different animals,” he explained.
“It was about working through that over the course of last year and thinking on a week-to-week and monthto-month basis that led us to some conclusions we were able to use this year.”
However, it’s not just about X’s and O’s with Vanney or assistant coach Robin Fraser or anyone in Toronto FC’s front office.
Bradley hardly mentions tactics when praising his head coach.
“It’s so important that the coach and veteran, big players have a strong relationship, a feeling you’re all in something together,” Bradley said. “Greg has done an incredible job of cultivating that.
“His starting points of how much he loves the game, his humility, his willingness and desire to work means every single guy is prepared in the best possible way for our games.”
Bradley later referred to Vanney as the top coach in the league this year.
A “no-brainer,” he said, despite Vanney’s mantra appearing quite ordinary and basic.
To echo Bradley, though, a majority of dressing rooms don’t have the clarity and refreshing honesty players say permeates throughout the KIA Training Ground.
“We set goals and achievement (in preseason) but a lot of it was about the attitude and character it takes to really achieve those things,” Vanney said. “That, to me, is the most important discussion.
“The only way you achieve goals is if you have the right attitude every day when you go out to work. I think it just became the dialogue within our group and it’s the philosophy of how all of us do business.”
Vanney hasn’t just been the league’s best coach this season. He’s been the best coach for three consecutive seasons — the time it took to build a perennial MLS Cup contender.