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Kreis reflects on ‘unfair’, ‘irrational’ NYCFC dismissal

Photo by Greg Bartram/USA Today Sports
Photo by Greg Bartram/USA Today Sports

Jason Kreis landed on his feet as the head coach of Orlando City, but the MLS Cup-winning coach remains motivated to prove his former employers wrong following what he views as an unfair dismissal.

After just one season in charge of New York City, Kreis was let go following the 2015 season. It was a year filled with highs and lows, one which, ultimately, ended without a playoff appearance.

Despite all of the challenges that come with building an expansion team, as well as the absences of key players like Frank Lampard, NYCFC opted to move on without Kreis. Now just days away from his first game in charge of Orlando City, Kreis broke his silence on what he believes was an unjust dismissal.

“I think that the most honest way to say it is that I feel that we were given a job to do and we were allowed to do half of it,” Kreis told ESPN. “I thought that we had made ourselves extremely clear: that to work with an expansion team, to be starting a team from absolutely nothing, there was no team there before, there was no youth academy, there was no training facility, there was no stadium, there was literally nothing.

“To build a team and facilities and an academy and do all of these things, over a one-and-a-half year timeframe, I felt it was completely unfair and downright irrational to remove somebody from that position after one year. I felt that we were on our way to building something that could be successful for a long time, but we weren’t afforded the opportunity to finish the job.”

Kreis’ comments certainly add fuel to the fire of a rivalry between the two expansion partners, who collide on August 28 at the Citrus Bowl. However, before that match, Kreis will be tasked with turning around an Orlando City team that currently sits in seventh place, 10 points behind Patrick Vieira’s NYCFC.

At Orlando City, Kreis says he is afforded several luxuries that he has not yet had during his MLS career. Kreis pointed to the club’s local academy as a main talking point, one which proved to be one of the more important factors in his acceptance of the job. While with Real Salt Lake, Kreis had a talented academy located in Arizona, but the thought of working closely with the club’s youth was an enticing one for the veteran coach.

With stars like Kaka and Cyle Larin now playing for him, Kreis says he sees the tools to push Orlando City toward the club’s short and long-term goals. Having spent the past six months watching from afar, Kreis is ready to get back onto the field following the most trying spell of his career.

“Excited to be down here, really excited to be a part of what I think is going to be one of the best clubs in the league,” said Kreis. “I’m just super excited about everything right now.”

Comments

  1. Jason Kreis definitely got a raw deal. In addition to being one of the most talented US coaches, he’s a great person too. I’m surprised that it took him this long to get an MLS deal. Orlando will benefit from this selection; I just hope they give Jason more time to develop the soccer program.

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  2. My guess is that the star players didn’t respect him. Guys like Bruce Arena have had success in dealing with the big egos.

    Kreis certainly isn’t a guy with sharp-enough elbows for the NY area either. Too passive.

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  3. Regardless of what their successors do, he, Petke and now Sigi Schmidt all got screwed. All are good coaches who did a good job with what they had to work with. Both Kreis and Schmidt have had very successful careers elsewhere, too. It’s a very tough business.

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    • Screwed? Hyperbole much?

      So far, two of the three had their successors perform better the following year with essentially the same squads (which is why I assume you want to discount that – “regardless”) and time will tell with Sigi.

      Ooops.

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    • Kreis built the NYCFC foundation. He had to integrate two DPs in mid-season who were struggling for form. It was pretty obvious that they had to play when healthy. I think Viera is doing a great job but he owes a debt to Kreis.

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    • I don’t think ANY team owner including Abromovich would expect a first year team to come into the league and make the playoffs. There’s nothing about Kreis that tells me he was half assing it. And the fact that they then signed Veira, who has no head coaching expierence, tells me they wanted cache, not immediate success.

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  4. Results oriented business.

    This year, NYCFC has nearly identical points with 12 less games as Kries did for a full season with essentially the same team/roster. Referencing “fairness” ignores everything he knew going into the job. He was aware of the challenges and lofty expectations by the new club and failed.

    If he doesn’t succeed in Orlando it’ll look more and more like he caught lightning in a bottle in RSL.

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  5. I think he got a raw deal, after all he had done in MLS, with one of the worst team in MLS, he gets no chance to show anything.

    We will never know the full story, but my guess is raw deal.

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