LA Story

Anyone wonder how Lalas was able to hire Yallop so quickly after Sampson's firing? One might think that Lalas was already conducting a coaching search in the days or weeks leading up to the firing, but in reality, Lalas had already conducted his search when he fired Bob Bradley in New York. At that time, Lalas offered Yallop the job, but Yallop's wife did not want to live in New York. Yallop, though, was willing to relocate back to California if the opportunity ever arose. So with Yallop unavailable, Lalas was forced to give the Metro gig to Mo Johnston.

Now in a quirky turn of events, Lalas has left NY for LA after the Red Bull take over, and the Galaxy did a nose-dive under Sampson. That put Lalas in a position as LA's new GM to fire Sampson and hire the guy he wanted all along, Frank Yallop. Lalas knew Yallop would accept the Galaxy job (remember, he had been told by Yallop himself back inSeptemberr of 2005 that he wanted to relocate back to California), so when he fired Sampson, all he had to do was pick up the phone and call Yallop. There was little doubt that Yallop wouldn't accept the job.