It hardly seems like a year has passed since I was first asked to put some reflections on paper after my debut season in charge. Now that the opportunity has come around again, I find myself thinking back to how I felt traveling from the UK to Minnesota ahead of the 2025 campaign.
We had loved our start to life in the US as a young family, and although 2024 ended with disappointment in the semifinals, I felt the season had finished strongly on the pitch. We had created something real to build upon as we went into the new pre-season. Over the course of that first year I learned that, in a league as uniquely demanding as MLS for reasons our supporters know well, consistency is incredibly hard to achieve—both within a single season and from one season to the next.
So at the front of my mind was the idea of taking the best of 2024, developing it, and shaping it to suit a group of players with their own distinct characteristics. All of this had to happen while navigating a season full of varying challenges and ensuring that Minnesota would be a team capable of competing at the highest level at every stage. As a coaching staff, we wanted a team that was sure of itself, one that possessed elite qualities at this level and believed fully in its ability to find a way to beat any of the league’s twenty-nine other teams.
Viewed through that lens of consistency, I’m extremely proud of how the year unfolded. While we weren’t able to string together long runs of victories, every time we lost, we responded. Ultimately, we went the entire season without losing back-to-back league games. That is an important marker of a level-headed group—players and staff—who trust the work that goes into producing a competitive performance every weekend.
At our best, I loved what we were. We were a real team—eleven players fully invested in what defined them—and incredibly difficult to play against. There was a clear distinctiveness to our football. We pushed hard to be elite in several key components of the game; I wanted us to be a team that stood for something, set up in a way that reflected both the strengths of our players and the values of the Minnesota community. Within that context, the development of several individuals has been especially satisfying. Tani’s move to Villarreal was outstanding and a real feather in the club’s cap, and others who reached significant milestones for club and country should feel immense pride. We speak often about the link between team success and individual success and how inseparable the two really are.
If there is genuine pride in our consistency and in our finest moments, there is an equal sense of frustration—shared, I’m sure, by everyone connected with the club—about how 2025 ultimately ended. We have now made three semifinals in two seasons and, this year more than last, found ourselves on the wrong side of very finely balanced knockout games. The next step for us is to reach a point where our consistency in reaching the latter stages of competitions becomes a given, and where we can take those final steps toward winning a trophy. Everyone plays a part in that. As we have discussed in the locker room, the tough losses must mean something as we move forward.
I said to Dr. McGuire recently that the most pleasing thing for me this season was that, on two occasions, we were able to capture exactly what I imagine he hoped for when he envisioned Allianz Field and everything surrounding it. The home match against Inter Miami and the third playoff game against Seattle were phenomenal sporting occasions—football in Minnesota at its absolute peak. The team on the pitch was connected to the supporters in the stands in a stadium purpose-built for moments like those.
2025 has been another year of real growth: for me as a head coach; for us as a family raising our children in such a brilliant part of the world; and for the players and staff who worked tirelessly over eleven months to improve themselves and the team. I thank every one of them for their commitment and professionalism, and I thank every one of our supporters for helping make this year such a memorable one.
