Greg Vanney: Taylor Twellman has ‘forgotten’ what it’s like to be a player

Credit: Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images / Bailey Holiver-Imagn Images

Greg Vanney thinks Taylor Twellman has forgotten what it feels like to be a player.

The LA Galaxy head coach wasn’t thrilled with Twellman’s on-air suggestion during an Apple TV broadcast that the Galaxy didn’t look like they wanted to be aggressive for a full 90 minutes, and he made that clear during his post-match press conference.

“Taylor has forgotten since he’s living in the broadcast booth of what it’s like to be a player,” Vanney said. “In being a player, when you have traveled 22,300 miles and played double the amount of games as the opposition, you come home after being three games on the road and all the games that we’ve been playing, you’re asking for everything from everybody. We’ve got injuries around there. It’s f*cking hard, and the guys played f*cking hard. He can have whatever opinion he wants. I don’t really care. Our guys battled. I thought we were super aggressive.”

Taylor Twellman, who spent nine years as a player in MLS before transitioning into broadcasting — first at ESPN for 13 years, then at Apple TV when the league signed its landmark deal with the streamer in 2023 — responded on social media, pushing back on Vanney’s characterization of which quote he was actually reacting to.

“I legit just named on the MLS wrap Greg Vanney as the ‘coaches decision of the week’ or smart choice of matchday 10,” Twellman wrote on X. “Not sure what quote was referenced but the first half energy to 2nd half changed into a low blow. That’s a fact, not an opinion.”

When the specific quote Vanney was likely reacting to was pointed out to him, Twellman said his comment was about how good the Galaxy were in the first half, not a wholesale criticism of the team’s effort.

The Galaxy entered Sunday’s match 2-3-4 in MLS, sitting 11th in the Western Conference, and had returned home after a two-match road stretch that included a 2-1 loss to Columbus Crew. Vanney’s 22,300-mile travel figure accounts for the Concacaf Champions Cup run as well — the Galaxy played their way through a demanding April that included the quarterfinal against Toluca in before being eliminated — and for a Los Angeles club whose road trips routinely cross the country, those miles accumulate differently than they do for most teams in the league.