Real Salt Lake's Dave Checketts wants to talk ... about Jason Kreis
by Steve Davis on Oct 22, 2010 11:16 AM EDT
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I talked to Real Salt Lake co-owner Dave Checketts this morning; the topic was MLS playoffs and changes that may be discussed at the upcoming owners meetings.
While we wrapped up, he asked if we could talk about one more thing? Well, for a journalist that’s like Zooey Deschanel sidling up on a bar stool beside me and asking would I mind keeping her company for a while? “Well, of course!” He wanted to do some campaigning for Jason Kreis. Checketts and others around Rio Tinto believe Kreis is getting short shrift in current conversations about MLS Coach of the Year.
Checketts was passionate about it; his admiration for Kreis and the young coach’s blitz of achievement over a short career is immense.
“This is a guy who retired as a player just three years ago!” Checketts reminded me.
I told him that I’ve known Jason since he was an MLS pup, a rookie midfielder. (And one who didn’t like to say much, usually deferring politely to older veterans around him when it came to media matters.) And I can say confidently, with abundant personal knowledge, that Kreis is 100 percent class.
As the youngest manager to win an MLS Cup, his growing body of professional work speaks for itself. It’s no stretch to expect Kreis will begin getting more and more national team consideration – although it won’t be today or even tomorrow, but rather in the coming years. He’s 37 today. So he’ll be 41 as the next World Cup cycle commences, with seven years of coaching experience (assuming things continue to go well and that he doesn’t have a gap in his coaching career.)
All that said, as I told Checketts, he’s up against some tough nuts in the Coach of the Year race. That’s because Coach of the Year voters love them some “worst-to-first” stuff.
Neither the New York Red Bulls nor FC Dallas have exactly gone worst-to-first just yet. But managers in both places have certainly orchestrated remarkable turnabouts. Hans Backe was won at a place where winning was practically a lost language. In Dallas, Schellas Hyndman took a formerly wandering flock, herded them in the right direction and will beat or match the league record for fewest losses ever in one season. Plus, most people appreciate the way Dallas plays, always with intent to go forward.
Kreis has one more thing working against him: His team won a championship last year.
Is there accomplishment in managing success after a title? You bet.
Has Real Salt Lake continued to improve this year, spinning that late-season 2009 success into an even better on-field product this year? Yep. You couldn’t possibly argue otherwise.
And, honestly, I believe Kreis and RSL will lift the MLS Cup in Toronto on Nov. 21.
The coach is having an outstanding year, but Coach of the Year is a different matter. The comeback stories are simply too compelling.
Besides all that, I know Jason well enough. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t care a lick about who gets Coach of the Year. He’s got something else targeted.
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My Vote Would Be for Kreis
The most common argument I’ve heard against is, “well, look at the team he has to work with.”
Oh, you mean the team he and Lagerway built painstakingly from the ground up, finding diamond in the rough after diamond in the rough. RSL have one of the lowest payrolls in the entire league. The money is pretty evenly distributed among lots of quality players.
Really, who on the team was an out right star before coming to Salt Lake? Beckerman was the closest, but he was playing in the shadow of Masteroni. Last year we lose a critical forward in Movsysian, but Kreis and Lagerway find Saborio who had been out of favor at his last two clubs and find a true star. A big loss turns in to an even bigger gain.
He has led his young team through a brutal schedule, chasing three trophies, almost unscathed. Even the great Houston teams of a couple years ago saw big dips in form when it came to the brutal stretch of MLS and Champions league games on top of each other. Not so with RSL. His super young b-team just beat the daylights out of a very good Cruz Azul team who were playing lots of veteran starters.
My point is that Kries has done the best coaching job in MLS this year. You simply can’t argue that. He won’t win the award, but there’s a good chance he will have some silverware to make up for it.
No love for Sigi! Sigi! Sigi! (Oi! Oi! Oi!)
Not sure if Sigi deserves the award, but he done something right in the Seattle dressing rooms. Winning the USOC, on a tear in the second half of MLS, and all while traveling the globe to play Champions League (though not getting results there)… Sigi deserves some credit for turning Seattle’s season around.
Hmmmm, Kreis for Nats...
Now I would be all for this, as he is the up and coming American coach. He never got a fair shake as a player for the Nats, so this would be poetic. If it happened today, I wouldn’t bat an eye.
Chad the Ref
Kreis
He definitely is one of the most savvy coaches around. And his best quality is that he’s always learning. Say he makes a tactical mistake that leads to a loss… next time around he does it right and gets a win. And yes, you have to give him and Garth Lagerway a ton of credit for creating the best squad in the MLS.
Kreis may be our best option for USMNT
While Hyndman and the FCD turnaround may have the slight edge for CoY, I believe Kries is a strong candidate.
More important that CoY to me is the fact that his team plays not only stout defense, but a good attacking style that one could argue (and I would agree) is more fluid and effective than that employed by our current USMNT. Seeing as how it seems we will not be getting a big “international” name anytime soon (and I’m not saying we need to…only a select few would be the right ones)…and seeing as how USSF wants someone how understands the “American player”….Kreis is a winner in a landslide for me.
Too bad RSL and FCD may have to meet so early in the tournament as they are the two best and most entertaining teams in the league imo. Still, I hope my FCD Toros will help them win the SS this weekend…RSL deserve it.
RSL vs. USA
There’s no question that RSL plays a more pleasing, and simply more effective brand of soccer than the Nats do. Hopefully Kreis would change that.
On the same subject, I honestly the think a friendly between the USA and RSL would be a very interesting match. I wouldn’t be surprised to see RSL get a creditable result.
Are they going to change this crackheaded playoff format
that somehow (despite a completely balanced regular season schedule) managed to seed the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th best teams into one side of the playoff bracket?
San Jose had a direct, measurable incentive to throw the game against KC yesterday. Winning risked putting them into the West bracket. Losing got them a far easier path to the MLS Cup.
"We don't want our people to be preoccupied with seminude, crazy men jumping up and down who are chasing an inflated object," said Sheik Mohamed Osman Arus, head of operations for the Hizbul Islam insurgent group.
