MLSSoccer.com writer Randy Davis posted an interesting story this morning about Real Salt Lake manager Jason Kreis’ ambitions to coach the US national team. Could the current MLS champion be a good fit for the Yanks?
It makes sense for fans, especially MLS-centric ones, to clamour for a championship winning coach. We see it every time coaching vacancies pop up in other sports. Is Kreis ready to make the big step to international coaching? In short, not yet, and Kreis is well aware of the reality that is his coaching career:
“I think it’s going to take another quite a bit of time for me to show that I can lead — my teams have always been .500, although they did win the MLS Cup last year — but for me there are a lot of things that need to happen and it’s just going to take time.”
Kreis makes the most important point of the argument right off the bat, his teams don’t win on a regular basis. Bob Bradley’s MLS teams, ones with much better talent than Kreis’, won championships or played in championship finals on a regular basis (1998 MLS Cup, 1998 US Open Cup, 2000 MLS Cup, 2000 US Open Cup, 2003 US Open Cup). Kreis has just one title to his name, the most recent MLS Cup. He needs to find consistency before he can be considered a legitimate option.
Kreis may be on the road to consistency. His RSL team is much improved this season, and he has seen several of his players get caps or at least appearances in national team camps. Still, RSL failed to even qualify for the US Open Cup this season. Clearly there are still mountains left to climb.
Kreis does have one thing going for him ahead of Bob Bradley. He knows Robbie Findley isn’t ready for starters minutes. That has to count for something, right?
Adam Soucie is the author of Soccer, Not Football, a blog focused on the American game. If you’ve liked this piece, check out his other work. If you haven’t liked it, he promises there’s better stuff on his site.