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NYCFC parts ways with Jason Kreis after inaugural season

Photo by Noah K. Murray/USA TODAY Sports
Photo by Noah K. Murray/USA TODAY Sports

After just one season at the helm of expansion franchise New York City FC, Jason Kreis is out as head coach.

NYCFC officially parted ways with Kreis on Monday, stating that he did not meet the team’s main goal of achieving an MLS Playoffs spot during his first season in charge.

“The decision to part company with Jason and his team after two years of working together has not been taken lightly and this is a difficult announcement for all involved,” NYCFC president Tom Glick said in a press release.

“We thank Jason for his passion, his efforts and for his contribution to the historic inaugural season of New York City FC. Many memories of this first season will be indelibly etched in the minds of all involved with the Club and Jason and his team have played a huge part in that. We wish him all the very best in what will undoubtedly be a continued successful career in soccer management.”

Under Kreis, NYCFC only secured 10 wins through 34 games. The team finished eighth in the Eastern Conference, 12 points behind Toronto FC, which claimed the sixth and final playoff position in the East.

Along with Kreis, assistant coaches Miles Joseph and CJ Brown have also left the club.

NYCFC has reportedly been having discussions with Italian manager Fabio Capello regarding the team’s head coaching position, but according to the report, NYCFC wasn’t the only MLS team to have approached the former English and Russian national team manager.

What do you think of Kreis’ departure? Think NYCFC made the right call? Who should be the next coach of NYCFC?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. What a ridiculous decision. You look at the player acquisition policies of this so called professional club and then to see them fire one of the brightest young coaches in Amercan Soccer. All I can say is Kreis is blessed to get out of this ridiculous situation. The management of this team doesn’t know what they are doing. I look forward to years of losing from this joke of a management team.

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  2. Meanwhile in Colorado Pablo Mastroeni gets at least a third loosing season before they will even consider a change… Stupid decision by nycfc (did they really think that a half season of pirlo and frank plus a poorly built team would be playing playoffs on their baseball field in year 1?!) but he didn’t seem right there and I like the mentality it sets.

    Most likely places Kreis lands:
    Chicago – now, if he wants to
    Philadelphia – after Cutting gets fired midseason
    Colorado – went they get off their…
    RSL – probably won’t dicht Cassar
    Seattle – if\when Sigi retires

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  3. Would Kreis have any interest in building another team from scratch? Would LAFC even consider him? Would it be a good fit?

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  4. I don’t care if Curtin has been promised, get Kreis here now. With a moneyball GM having a moneyball coach who can bring up younger players would be a win win.

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  5. Do they really think that Kreis was their problem? I guess it’s possible, but I doubt it. I bet they tried to have too much influence over him and it screwed things up, but let’s see what happens to both of these parties in their next ventures. I, like the rest of you am willing to bet Kreis lands on his feet faster than NYCFC.

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  6. Kreis didn’t succeed in nycfc after one year but don’t sleep on Kreis. He’ll get hired by another team and find success again.

    I hope RSL lure him back with a big contract and free rein to build the team into a winning side again.

    If Seattle doesn’t win mls cup this year Schmidt may be finally out and Kreis slides right in to team up with lagerway again.

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  7. Yes Pirlo isn’t a fit for Kreis’ style of play, yes Lampard is past his prime, but let’s take a step back and actually look how Kreis managed the team.

    He had one of the breakout stars of 2015 in poku, and refused to play him.

    He stubbornly tried to play his system when he didn’t have the players, a good coach would have changed.

    He had a full year to build a team the way he wanted and he came out of the gates with a 13 unbeaten streak.

    I know this isn’t going to be popular but I think this is the beginning of the end for Kreis, without Garth building his team it’s hard for me to see him having much success.

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    • Garth Lagerwey is a great GM, but Nick Rimando was brought in before Kreis was head coach. Kreis came in 4 months before Lagerwey and Kyle Beckerman, Javier Morales, Chris Wingert, Fabian Espindola, Yura Movsisyan, and Robbie Findley were all brought in during that 4 month period, so Garth can’t get credit for that. During that 4 month period there was no general manager, so one would assume Kreis had a lot of say, if not all say, in bringing those players in. Lagerwey did draft Beltran and bring in Borchers , Johnson, and Olave, but it was Kreis who also helped bring in Lagerwey, so he should get some credit for that as well and one would have to think that Kreis had ZERO input on those off-season acquisitions. I think he deserves a large portion of credit for how the RSL foundation was built.

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      • Don’t think Reyna or Kries had much say. Been reported neither wanted Pirlo or Lampard. Man doesn’t seem one to tau tau… t’d imagine Kries pushed back behind the scenes coming into offseason. Who the &^%$ wants to be the fall guy for foolish decisions you didn’t make… to try to game=plan for players you didn’t want?

        Seems a boatload of arrogance on the MC side… think they believe they know better than veterans of the league, that all it takes to rule lowly MLS was inserting a few aged stars into the lineup and… viola! Oooops. Not.

  8. You complain if a team won’t move on from a coach to be cheap. Then complain when a team decides to change direction. I’d rather have NYCFC who is willing to change wither right or wrong then Colorado who is content with average. Oh last thing, are you the same guys who said Red Bull was stupid for firing Petke? How that work out?

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  9. I honestly believe this is a big mistake on NYCFC’s part but fortunately for Kreis he gets a free pass to get away from the disaster that’s about to ensue.

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  10. Great coach, terrible terrible team. Pirlo doesn’t move anymore and Lampard’s an egotistical useless piece of crap. So, it’s Villa and a bunch of hacks. What did you think was going to happen?

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  11. I want to contribute to the conversation, however it looks like my sentiment is being covered well. After 20 years it’s nice to have a team that I can now fully hate in MLS.

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  12. Thank you man city lite, it was tough wishing this good coach bad luck all year. Now I can hate this team fully. This club could only be more unlikeable is if bob Kraft was in the ownership group

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  13. Great move by NYCFC kreis is not a good fir in NYC he does not have the personality for NYC. The team never improved , the players never responded to him, 11 game winless streak , he keep playing his players from RSL instead of playing younger players like POKU.

    good riddance.

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    • Tough to gameplan in a narrow short field and then play away on a regulation field.
      If you don’t spread salary cap dollars thoughout your roster and way top heavy with DP’s, eventually you will get exposed. Overall talent level is increasing in a teams 25. Add in academies and most of all second division USL affiliated teams. Coaches have players to pull from that know the teams system.
      Kries will pick his next club being a bit wiser

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  14. The expansion teams prove over and over that instant success requires a solid defense and nobody wants to spend big bucks on defenders. Nor can most teams afford to have expensive midfielders who don’t hold up their end of the defensive job.

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      • Why? Kreis can take mediocre talent and have them play above their abilities. In Chicago, that’s exactly what we have. As a Chicago resident, I would take Kreis over Petke any day of the week!!!
        Players don’t like playing for Petke.
        And as far as I can see, their are no other quality coaches, besides assistants, that are left.

  15. Kreis would be a perfect fit for Philly. Lower budget team with a good market and a great academy – he could do wonderful things there!

    Too bad Curtin has already been promised another year…..

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      • Jay Sugarman (majority owner) stated that Curtin was going to be coach for 2016, but that Ernie was “going to set a high bar.”

        You would think that a Sporting Director would want to start with a clean slate and bring in his people, so this is kind of handcuffing him from the beginning.

    • He’s probably better off getting out now anyway. NYCFC is what it is at this point, I don’t see a great team next year either. Not unless Lamapard and Pirlo want to be payed under the DP cost and they can buy some defenders.

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  16. Ridiculous. I hope NYCFC endure tenfold what TFC have. If NYCFC NEVER make the playoffs that would be fine by me. What a joke of a club.

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    • NYCFC is a club? Really I thought it was just a bunch of rich oil guys who thought it would be a good ideas to own something in MLS

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