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How do you like Orlando City coach Jason Kreis now, all of you nattering nabobs of negativity?
Are you still spewing your Twitter litter and demanding his ouster with the hashtag #KreisOut?
Are you still complaining about his coaching style and his intense demeanor?
Do you still want to see him get fired after he choreographed a 3-1 victory over his former team, Real Salt Lake, Sunday to give Orlando City a franchise-record six-match winning streak?
I didn’t think so.
In fact, wouldn’t you say it’s about time Orlando City fans started treating Kreis like he used to be treated by the adoring fans of Real Salt Lake?
There have been times over the years when Orlando City’s coach wondered if he made the right move when he left a Real Salt Lake franchise where he was a championship coach and a beloved former player. Although Kreis says now that Sunday’s victory against his former team doesn’t carry any more emotional weight than any other victory, he admits he has sometimes second-guessed his decision to leave Utah. Especially when you consider what happened in the immediate aftermath.
He left Salt Lake City four years ago for the bright lights of the Big Apple, where he was named the head coach of expansion NYCFC during the same season Orlando City joined MLS. After just one season, Kreis was unceremoniously dumped after failing to make the playoffs and found himself out of work until Orlando City hired him several months later.
“I’m a human being and all human beings have a moment of retrospection and thinking about what-if,” Kreis says. “I don’t know that I went so far as saying, ‘Man, I really screwed up’ — but my wife and I have asked ourselves plenty of times if that was the absolute best decision in the world.
“Interestingly enough, even though we didn’t do what we wanted to do in New York, we’ve both come to the very solid conclusion that it was the right choice because it was time to move on; it was time for a new challenge. Having that new challenge brought us to New York, but, ultimately, it brought us to Orlando. We think this is where we need to be and where we should be right now and we’re extremely happy to be here.”
Hopefully, now, Orlando City fans are finally happy he’s here as well. After all the impatience and impetuousness Kreis has had to endure since taking over for the beloved Adrian Heath nearly two years ago, it’s about time Orlando City fans start appreciating Kreis and realizing what they have.
The guy didn’t forget how to build a roster and coach a team since leaving Real Salt Lake, where he became the youngest coach in league history to ever win an MLS Cup and he nearly won another one but dramatically lost to Sporting Kansas City on penalty kicks in his final game before leaving for NYCFC.
Kreis, perhaps more than any coach in the league, knows what it takes to thrive in MLS as a coach and a player. After all, he is a former league MVP and is sixth all-time in goals scored.
Kreis has taken aim at some of the negativity on social media by ending his two-year hiatus from Twitter to take his message to the masses. He regularly ends his tweets with #TrustTheProcess, which is his way of saying, “Do you want me to use the right materials and build you a nice house that’s going to last or do you want me to slap something together that’s going to collapse during the first stiff wind?”
“I look at building a club and mentality and an identity and a team chemistry as a long process,” Kreis said earlier this week. “I know that there are many, many people out there who would like that process to be a lot shorter … that have been impatient in the process.”
During the offseason, Kreis and Orlando City GM Niki Budalic brought in 14 new players and every one of them, Kreis says, has one common trait. They will never quit and will do whatever necessary on the practice field, on the pitch and in the locker room to win. So far, so good. Orlando City has come from behind to win four of their nine matches this season.
This roster, Kreis says, is starting to remind him of his championship roster he built at Real Salt Lake. “One of the biggest parallels has everything to do with team chemistry and team camaraderie and togetherness and character,” he says. “Those are the things that are nearly impossible to coach.”
His players have obviously bought into Jason Kreis as their coach.
It’s high time Orlando City fans did the same.
#KreisIn.