Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis makes no secret of the team he admires most in Major League Soccer. “From the moment he took over as head coach last season,” writes James Edward, “there’s been a method to Kreis’ madness, a vision shared by General Manager Garth Lagerwey — call it the Houston Dynamo model.”
“I don’t feel bad about saying that,” said Kreis, expounding his belief that the best way to succeeed in MLS is to keep a core group of players together for several years (in this respect, he might have cited New England as well). “Let’s not try and reinvent the wheel.”
Kreis said he preferred not to dwell on lost points earlier this season that might have seen RSL into the playoffs by now because “there’s still so much in front of us.” The team’s progress compared with 2007 is shown by the fact that it’s still in with a chance of making the postseason with two rounds of games to go. “I would say … we are playing better soccer than I thought we’d be able to. I really think that the best teams in our league, it takes them a long time to really click, really start to have subconscious understanding of each other.
“There’s been times during our season I’d say our guys already have that. I honestly feel like if this team gets into the dance [the playoffs], we can come home kings of it, but we’ve got to get there first.” Kings of the dance? Are they like lords of the realm? Still, we get the point. Even a team with a 9-10-9 record can end up king of MLS.