Los Angeles Galaxy’s Bruce Arena was named the 2008 Major League Soccer coach of the year Wednesday, after guiding the club to its first playoff berth since 2005.
Arena, now in his second season as Galaxy head coach, led Los Angeles to one of the most dramatic single season turnarounds in MLS history.
In 2008, the Galaxy finished at the bottom of the Western Conference, surrendering a league-high 62 goals.
One of Arena’s biggest priorities during the 2009 off season was to solidify the club’s defense.
Arena drafted University of Maryland star defender Omar Gonzalez with the third overall pick in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft and brought in US national team veteran Gregg Berhalter at centreback.
Arena also handed the netminding duties to first-year MLS goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, a 32-year-old Jamaican international who spent most of his career in Europe. Berhalter, Gonzalez and Ricketts were a big reason the Galaxy cut their goals-against average in half from 2008 allowing just 31 goals this season.
In addition to shoring up the defense, Arena also brought in a host of new players, meshed them together, and helped reconcile the highly-publicized differences between star players Landon Donovan and David Beckham.
Los Angeles opened 2009 slowly, but after Beckham returned in midseason from a loan spell with AC Milan the Galaxy began piling up victories. On Friday, the Galaxy host the Houston Dynamo in the Western Conference Championship match.
