CARSON, Calif. –Bruce Arena and Dominic Kinnear are two of the finest coaches in MLS and on Sunday, the two will duel as the LA Galaxy take on the Houston Dynamo at The Home Depot Center.
Both coaches rank among the top five in most overall wins with Arena sitting at number two while Kinnear is in fourth. The two coaches account for four of the 18 MLS Coach of the Year awards handed out in MLS history as well as appearances 11 MLS Cup titles in total. Arena has won four MLS Cup trophies as a head coach while Kinnear has two MLS Cup titles of his own.
The pair may be two of the most dominant coaches in MLS history, but Arena has had the edge over his Houston counterpart with a 5-4-1 regular season record (4-3-1 while with the Galaxy) against Kinnear while holding a 3-0-0 record in the postseason including two MLS Cup titles.
Ahead of their first and only –regular season—clash, Arena offered his thoughts of his coaching counterpart.
“It’s certainly Dominic’s team. Dominic is that franchise. He’s built it from scratch, they moved it from San Jose, but that’s all Dominic,” Arena told reporters, also stating that he’s known Kinnear since before the 1994 World Cup. “His outstanding qualities as a coach, although he’s not technically he’s not called general manager, he’s fully responsible for putting that team together. He does an outstanding job and his record speaks for itself. He’s won championships, he’s been in God knows how many finals [Six all-time as a coach and four as a head coach]. He’s really done an outstanding coaching job.”
