Jason Kreis’ time as Orlando City manager is over.
The Lions parted ways with Kreis on Friday, as the club languishes through a losing streak that was extended to six games on Wednesday in Montreal.
Orlando City appeared to reverse the course from its early struggles with a six-game winning streak, but has dropped six games since.
“This is a very difficult decision to take, but sometimes in sports we must make tough decisions with the best future of the organization in mind,” Orlando City CEO Alex Leitão said.
“I have enormous respect for Jason and the work his team did in Orlando,” Leitao said. “He arrived in a difficult moment and is leaving with a legacy of respect and professionalism. Now is the time to look forward, keep our heads high and continue pushing toward the many goals we set this season.”
Kreis went 23-27-12 with Orlando City after joining the club midway through the 2016 less than a year after he was let go by New York City FC.
Assistant coach Bobby Murphy will take charge of the Lions while they go through their coaching search.
this one shocked me when it happened. and it made an impression on me. i could not believe that this actually happened.
Jason Kreis forgot what he wanted in the priority draft, picked wrong for NYCFC
https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2014/9/24/6839679/jason-kreis-mistake-mycfc-orlando-city-priority-draft
“The task for the managers, who represented the two teams, was clear: rank the options 1-8 and when it was your choice, pick the highest remaining one on your list.
And Jason Kreis screwed it up.”
“All he had to do was remember what of the eight things he liked best and then say which he wanted. It wasn’t difficult. But whoops.”
it was kreiss’ first action as manager of nycfc. it was the priority draft for the two new expansion clubs, nycfc and orlando sc. kreiss wanted nycfc to have the number one pick in the nasl/usl ranking. but when it was nycfc’s turn, he misspoke and said they wanted the discovery ranking. so nycfc got the wrong thing. and when it was orlando’s turn, they got the thing that nycfc wanted.
i don’t know if this incident means anything in the big picture. i just was so shocked when it happened. i thought, “how on earth could the head coach of such an important club make such a stupid blunder?”
my guess (and i could be totally off here): HE DIDN’T DO HIS HOMEWORK. he was unprepared for that important draft. that’s how it happened. how else to expain it??
so then after this draft, orlando had the first pick in the 2015 mls superdraft and they picked cyle larin, who went on to get rookie of the year and become the club’s all-time leading scorer, bagging 43 goals in 2015-217 (even more than kaka) according to wikipedia.
might nycfc had opted to be #1 in the superdraft order? was that option available to kreiss? might nycfc have drafted cyle larin?
the reason i ask is that it starts to look like one club did their homework for the priority order draft and the other club didn’t.
I think we’re seeing the limitations of his coaching acumen. When he was coaching RSL, the talent level in the league was just starting to grow. There was no TAM, allocated money, etc that is now going to better talent. Also, the coaching has improved (Tata Martino, Jesse Marsch, Berhalter, Toronto FC’s coach…). He has talent in Orlando but they can’t win consistently. It can only be coaching….
He should have never left RSL.
I think the 11-2 aggregate the last three matches is as influential as the six-game losing streak. Just as it wasn’t that Bob Bradley was losing at Swansea it was how badly they were losing.
i see what you mean, johnnyrazor.
https://www.orlandocitysc.com/schedule?month=all&year=2018&club_options=7&op=Update&form_build_id=form-SHTOZsYaR1zdBoqvPHYar_6FC7O6UMxtEDLyXmU7F5U&form_id=mp7_schedule_hub_search_filters_form
lost 3-0 to nycfc on june 2
lost 5-2 to vancouver whitecaps on june 9
lost 3-0 to montreal impact on june 13
totals: 11-2
yes, and they never made the post season yet. before atlanta, orlando was sort of the golden child of mls for a while, wasn’t it? they sold out the citris bowl for their home opener in march of 2015. club ownership partnered with benfica in portugal. the club got kaka plus two more good players from them. augusto de silva and the club owners paid for a new stadium with private funds. their first year average attendance of 32,847 was second only to seattle (reading a little wikipedia here). but the club never lived up to expectations, did it? they have not even made the playoffs yet. attendance is down 5,000 per game this year. and as you said, johnnyrazor, they lost their last three by a whopping 11-2 goal difference.
my two cents: the owners of orlando always had bigger aspirations for this club. that’s why they ponied up for a new stadium and for kaka. the owners just want results on the field, and you can’t blame the players. i agree with this sacking (and no disrespect meant to jason kreiss).
The focus should be on he GM after the firing. GM’s construct rosters while wrangling with the salary cap. Not being dialed into OC I see two red flag moves. Acquiring Shea after his tumultuous loan to loan and loan in the UK. Then acquiring Dwyer who is more flash then sizzle on the pitch. Shea got traded and I would question Dwyer’s contributions on and off the field. Teams are built around talent but leadership by example gets results.
Regardless of all the sparkle put into marketing results matter in the standings. Ultimately the success of club starts with ownership. Orlando is really important in developing and influencing some of the best athletes in N.America running around Florida to play soccer.
no disrespect meant against jason kreis, but i’m glad that “six game losing streak” = “sack the coach” in mls. it means that mls is growing up. i like it.
Has Kreis success in MLS been because of quality general managers? The league is very formulaic and GM’s are vital in juggling the cap and bringing in talent.