Orlando City coach Kreis happy — but hungry — after first year
In two sentences describing the past year, Orlando City coach Jason Kreis used the word “happy” six times.
Not one for idle chatter, Kreis typically chooses words methodically and curates them carefully. So, the repetition did not seem frivolous as much as a tool for emphasis as he reflected on his one-year anniversary with the club.
“In general, I would say that I’m happy,” Kreis began slowly. “Definitely happy to be involved in a club that I think is really headed in the right direction, happy to be involved with so many quality people, happy to be in an environment that feels very much like a family business, happy to be in a community that I really, really enjoy living in and happy to be involved with a team that I feel is really relevant to the community.”
The year wasn’t perfect. Kreis knows that.
Orlando City announced the club hired Kreis on July 19, 2016, though the news broke and spread nationally a few days earlier. It took time for the new coach to move down from Connecticut and get set-
tled, so assistant Bobby Murphy remained in charge for another week.
Kreis suited up for his first Major League Soccer game on the Lions’ sideline on July 31. With a 3-1 win at home against New England, he gave fans hope he was the right replacement for beloved former coach Adrian Heath.
The Lions then went four games without a win.
“He came into a new team; it's hard to do that,” Lions forward Cyle Larin said. “I think he’s done a good job.”
Kreis has recorded 13 wins, 13 losses and eight ties while leading Orlando City. Each of the 14 matches left this season will be an opportunity to turn that into a winning record, beginning with a home match against Atlanta United FC at 7 p.m. Friday.
Kreis has one goal, the same one he declared when he first arrived: make the playoffs.
At the beginning of the season, when the team was 6-1, most probably thought the milestone wouldn’t be a problem. The team has struggled recently and owns a 8-7-5 record, slightly shaking fans’ faith despite sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference and above the playoff cut line.
“Of course I wish that we had more wins,” Kreis said. “Of course I wish that things were perfect and we never lost. Of course I wish that we played the way we wanted to every single game, but that’s not the reality of life or the job. Dealing with the strains of losing and not playing well…is difficult for me. It always will be, doesn’t matter whether I’m in Orlando or on Mars.”
Off the field, everything is better than expected — although Kreis tries not to have expectations about anything. He did worry how the transition to Orlando would affect his two sons, the older one in particular as it came between his junior and senior year of high school.
“Turns out it’s been a fantastic transition for him,” Kreis said, adding his son made numerous close friends and decided to attend the University of Miami in the fall, a college that was not on his radar before moving to Florida.
Kreis can’t pick just one thing that makes him love living in Central Florida. It’s the shops and restaurants of Park Avenue in Winter Park, the vibe in downtown Orlando, the entertainment options the theme parks and surrounding areas provide, the warm winters and living on a lake for the first time in his life.
He’s not fazed by alligators or the summer heat.
“That’s why we have air conditioning,” he said with a smirk.
It’s a little early to say, but it may be the best place he’s ever lived.
“The one thing that has to happen for it to be my favorite place is we have to win consistently,” he said.
That’s an ongoing struggle. Orlando City’s performances have been erratic, with big wins followed by insufferable losses. Kreis said he saw a similar pattern his first year coaching Real Salt Lake, the team he led to an MLS championship in 2009.
While Kreis prefers to stay in the now — he said questions surrounding the future of Orlando City star Kaká, who is in his final contract year, and leading scorer Cyle Larin, who has interest from overseas, are for upper management to worry about while he focuses on the season — he did for a moment imagine where he will be in five years.
“My absolute goal, and I have zero doubts about this, my absolute goal and dream would be to have this look in five years like what Real Salt Lake looked like five years after we started there, which was a team that had won an MLS Cup and was challenging for MLS Cups every single year, challenging for CONCACAF Champions League,” said Kreis, who moved into coaching after a lengthy and successful MLS playing career.
“It was a measure of consistency, and I guess [assurance] about how stable that situation was and how stable that club was. It was just a really good thing to be a part of, and I would love that to replicate itself here in Orlando.”
If all goes according to plan, he will be around long enough to see that through. CEO Alex Leitão’s vision of Orlando City five years down the road was similar. He imagined Kreis in Orlando “with a lot of rings on his fingers.”
Leitão and Kreis began working more closely when co-founder Phil Rawlins stepped down from his operational duties as president in December. Kreis admitted the move initially worried him because he had such a close working relationship with Rawlins, but Leitão proved to be just as collaborative.
“When I came in, it wasn’t about control for me. It was about collaboration and about having a voice,” said Kreis, who previously talked about a lack of those qualities in his previous job as New York City FC’s head coach. “It was about working with people to make decisions about the players coming in, the players leaving, those sorts of things. From my point of view, absolutely the club has delivered on all the things that I thought it would be.”
The only thing that surprised Kreis was the staff already in place when he joined the club. He said he expected to clean house a bit, but after a period of evaluation, he realized that was unnecessary.
Leitão described Kreis and the assistants he brought with him to Orlando, Miles Joseph and C.J. Brown, as people who share and discuss ideas and who are open to differing opinions.
That included during extensive discussions about the team’s subpar results the past two months.
“We all understood and realized we needed to better and how we could strengthen the roster … and Jason as well understood what he was not doing well and what he needed to do better,” Leitão said. “We try to be on the same page. We are very happy with Jason.”
The team still is a work in progress. There are plans to make roster changes to strengthen the team, a process Kreis said is constantly evolving and will take time. Every transfer window, the team will look to improve, he said, including the current one that closes Aug. 9.
There have been small milestones: winning his first game in Orlando and winning the first game in the new stadium. But Kreis is after bigger “firsts.” “Our clear objective and goal is to be the first coaching staff to lead this team into the MLS playoffs and to be the first coaching staff that leads this team to a first MLS Cup.
“We’re going to continue to try to get this team better and better because we believe this is a club and a community that deserves more consistent success. We’re not all the way there, but we’re not a long way away from it, either.”