Greg Vanney‘s World Cup career was brief and painful.
 
The LA Galaxy’s head coach was an alternate for the United States’ famed 2002 squad who was added to the roster when starting holding midfielder Chris Armas suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in a pre-Cup friendly. Days later, Vanney was gone, out of the cup with a torn medial collateral ligament suffered in the following match.
 
“It’s the biggest disappointment [of my career], no question,” Vanney told Soccer America. “There’s other disappointments — playing in three MLS Cup championships and not winning one is obviously there — but as a player, as a kid, your dreams are to play in the World Cup, no doubt. … One hundred percent, the most disappointing moment in my career, for sure.”
 
Vanney, a heady left back whose pro career began and closed with the Galaxy, talked about his World Cup experience while chatting with Soccer America about the 2022 World Cup — about what the U.S. accomplished and what it means for 2026; about Sunday’s finalists, Argentina and France; and about the Morocco team’s stunning run to the semifinals — calling the six months leading to that tournament a “whirlwind.”
 
Vanney wasn’t part of the 2002 group for much of the year. He’d been in the January camp ahead of the 2002 Gold Cup but left to sign with French top-tier club Bastia, and “Bruce [Arena] was not all that happy or excited with me for leaving.” The opportunity was too good to pass up, “because it’s kind of career-altering, and so I took that risk.”
 
Arena brought Vanney back for a friendly with Mexico in early April, but “I literally couldn’t move because my back had locked up. I played the next day despite not being able to move, and I couldn’t do anything. So I’m like, ‘I’m done, for sure.’”

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