Football Champions

Jason Kries sent an ‘open letter’ to RSL fans and the Utah soccer community. As a member of both groups, I thought I’d post my initial thoughts in response.

First of all, this is more response (and recognition of just how bad things are) than I ever saw in the John Ellinger era at RSL. On the other hand this open letter is just an IOU until it’s backed up on the playing field.

Belief. Passion. Desire. Determination. Commitment. Sacrifice.

These are the core values inside the Real Salt Lake locker room, the values upon which team success is built and those we demand from every individual that walks through those doors. Nothing but the utmost adherence to these tenets is tolerated.

With the possible exception of the game against DC United, these values haven’t been displayed by the eleven players on the pitch for a full game so far this season. There’s a perception in the online fanbase that it’s better to be an ‘Kreis insider’ than to play hard. Kreis and the team are going to have to work hard to overcome that bias.

Our fans are the best in MLS, and have been since day one. That our fans share the same values — Belief, Passion, Desire, Determination, Commitment and Sacrifice — motivates every player, coach, and administrator in the RSL organization to forge ahead and redouble efforts to emerge from this rut.

I’m glad coaches and administrators were included in this. The front office is taking a lot of heat right now for their apparent bungling of PR, the stadium, personnel moves, etc. While several players have been traded/let go for not living up to these values, there hasn’t been a lot of accountability for the front office staff. These aren’t changes that Kreis can make, they are changes that the team needs to make.

As I said upon my introduction as Head Coach of RSL, “Fortune Favors the Bold.” I believe this in my heart of hearts, and the bold changes we are currently implementing in our team and in our coaching staff will bring imminent fortune.

Imminent, ‘ready to take place’, doesn’t really seem to describe a change in RSL’s fortune. I may be wrong, but to my eye’s it looks like there’s a long, hard way to go before before RSL is a good team. Perhaps a better catchphrase for the RSL players, coaches, and staff to consider is “less talk, more action”.

Color me surprised. Bruce McGuire, over at du Nord put out his list of three MLS coaches on the hot seat. His list looked like this:

1. Fernando Clavijo – Colorado – rumored to be gone any day, but the geniuses who run the Colorado team don’t want to pay him and new coach. So they rot.


2. Frank Yallop – LA – his team stinks, and the rumors of chaos in LA get louder all the time.


3. Jason Kries – Salt Lake – absolutely nothing has changed since he took over except they got rid of one of the best goal scorers ever in MLS. Yes, Kries is green, but I believe he has no chance of turning this thing around. Could it be the Checketts curse? Maybe we should look up the New York Knicks record while he ran that team. I bet it’s sorry and only got worse over time, not better.

The first two names on the list make a lot of sense, and would probably show up on just about anyones list, but Jason Kreis surprises me. Not because RSL is doing well, but because of the awful mess he inherited. I’ve got to think that Kreis will be given at least the rest of the season to turn things around.

While there’s certainly a lot of local unhappiness over the team (see RSLFM, AYL, and KUTV among others), I don’t think that changing coaches again would help that—now if RSL would make some other front office changes, that might go over well.

Of course, there’s no telling what the next step in Dave Checkett’s diabolical plan is, but I hope it’s not dumping Kreis without giving him the time (and training) he needs to have a fair shot at turning things around.

Okay, time for a comparison. Midway through the season, an underperforming soccer team has fired their head coach. This has happened three times this year. It’s probably instructive to see what happened in each case.

The Chicago Fire

With today’s firing of Dave Sarachan, the Fire are looking to turn things around. Dave had been a successful MLS level coach, but lately seems to have lost his touch with the team. Instead of hiring a new coach right away, the Fire have opted to make Denis Hamlett (an assistant coach with the Fire since ‘98) their interim coach. This move should let them look around for an established coach, while letting Hamlett potentially win the job for himself.

While interim coaches aren’t always a good thing, the Fire have given themselves some room to work, and have put a coach in place (for now) who knows the team. We’ll see how things work out over the next month or so.

The Puerto Rico Islanders

On May 22nd, Colin Clark was hired by the Puerto Rico Islanders to replace Toribio Rojas. Colin Clarke is an experienced coach, who managed teams in the USL A-League, had a stint as an assistant coach for the MLS Dallas Burn, and went on to coach them to a Western Conference Championship. Prior to his hiring, the Islanders were 0-3-3, since his hiring, they’ve gone 2-0-2.

Real Salt Lake

Back on May 3rd, RSL fired John Ellinger and replaced him with former player Jason Kreis. Ellinger’s tenure as coach was widely viewed as a failure; he failed to develop players, produced a losing record, and was seen as managing games ineffectively. His replacement, Kreis, retired as a player the night before the move was announced, has had no coaching experience at any level, and has been the public face of numerous front office mistakes. Prior to the change, RSL was 0-2-2 (with one non-MLS win). Since the change, they are 0-3-4 (with one non-MLS win and one non-MLS loss).

Summing it up

Three coaching changes, and (not surprisingly) three different approaches. While it’s too early to tell about Chicago, it certainly seems that Puerto Rico did it right. Jason Kries was (and is) saddled with a lot of problems that aren’t his fault, but it’s hard to believe that RSL wouldn’t have done better making him an assistant coach and hiring (or at least looking for) an experienced coach for him to work under.

The local coverage of RSL is a bit confusing to say the least. There are a lot of articles slamming the team over losing, political misteps, and the like (and, yes, there have been a lot of good reasons to slam the team). There are also a lot of soft, fluffy articles that toss soft questions at the coaches and seem aimed at making people feel good about things.

This morning the big article in the Deseret News was one of the latter. It was all about the positive different Jeff Cassar is already making on RSL, even though it hasn't shown up in the win column. If you don't want to go and read it (I won't blame you), here are some of the main points:

• Cassar is a family guy who loves the Salt Lake Valley. "I was just driving to work the other day with Jason (Kreis) and I just told him I love this place, it feels like home already. The people are great, and I'm a massive family guy, and this place just oozes family. It oozes being outside and mingling and meeting people. It's not like everyone's in their own hole." — I'm not sure what that has to do with RSL, but it sounds nice.


• Even though the discussions that led to Cassar's hiring were a mistake that cost RSL $20,000 in fines and resulted in the firing of Peter Mellor, the Cassar and Kreis don't regret them. "You want to always feel good, safe, secure. You want to have people in who are going to give you honest opinions. It's what every coach would do and should do, as long as the person they're bringing in is qualified for that spot," said Cassar. — the article does point out that neither Cassar nor Kreis has the background to indicate that they're qualified for their position.


• Cassar is given credit in the article for bringing out the improved play in goalkeeper Nick Rimando — too be fair though, Rimando's improved play began before Cassar arrived.

Maybe I just missed the sarcasm in the headline "Assistant coach Cassar already an asset for RSL", but I sure don't see a lot of value so far.

Oh, yeah, I should probably include the bit of news from the end of the article: Cassar and his family are all settling into life in the Salt Lake valley and will be closing on a house in the 'burbs soon — I know that makes me feel better about the coaching change (and, yeah, I'm being sarcastic).

The winds of change are still blowing around Real Salt Lake. Last week, the 3rd Degree talked about Jeff Cassar leaving FC Dallas, probably to join RSL. Early this morning, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that he had signed with RSL, replacing Peter Mellor, and would be joining the team today (along with Esky).

“The decision to let Peter Mellor go was a very difficult one for me. He is just an absolute class gentleman,” said RSL Head Coach Jason Kreis. “The only thing that makes that notion bearable is the fact that we are replacing him with Jeff Cassar, who was a longtime teammate and friend of mine in Dallas. Jeff will add some new ideas, some fresh viewpoints, and a comforting, supporting factor for me, unrivaled by anyone. The players will all enjoy his spirit and he will quickly become an absolute treasure to this staff and to this club.” (from the RSL Press Release dated 05/24/2007 7:52PM.)

Cassar is a former golkeeper for three MLS teams as well as a pair of english clubs. He is joining RSL as an assistant coach.

“Now RSL is even more like the Blitzz. Except the Blitzz won trophies and charged $8 to sit behind the visiting team’s bench.”—comment on the RSLFM Report

Ouch! But I’d sure like an $8 seat behind the opposition’s bench to yell, clap, sing, and generally be rowdy. And, you know, some silverware would sure be nice.

So, how is RSL acting like the Blitzz? Well, they brought in two RSL Youth Development team players for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday’s practices to help fill in for some roster vacancies due to injury and U20 call ups. That’s not quite where the Blitzz were, with a High School player on the roster (though Maybe Freddy Adu counts there) but it does show some out of the box thinking.

Coach Kreis pointed out the value to both the team and the youth players:

“It’s obviously beneficial for us, because we need numbers, but it’s also beneficial to them because it exposes them to this environment, and I think it needs to be a perk that’s involved with being a part of RSL’s youth development teams,”

• Ellinger to stay on as a technical director.


• RSL will be running an national and international search for a new general manager.


• ‘Jason Kries reminds me of Jeff Van Gundy. His will to win qualifies him to be the head coach of Real Salt Lake. He will become on of the great coaches in MLS history.’ (Dave Checketts)


• This will be a multi-year deal, not just an interim thing.


• ‘To those of you who don’t think I can succeed, get in line. And thank you, because you’re just what I need someone to prove wrong.’ (Jason Kreis)


• ‘Fortune Favors the Brave’—Jason Kreis’ recurring theme

• There were rumours swirling that this was not the only news, but that seems not to have been the case. Is there more to come?