After a Disaapointing First MLS Season, NYCFC and Jason Kreis Part Ways
Following a disappointing inaugural season at Major League Soccer, the MLS expansion side New York City Football Club announced last night (Monday, Nov. 2nd) that it is parting ways with Head Coach Jason Kreis.
The club said that it agreed with the Kreis and his coaching staff prior to the club’s first Major League Soccer season that securing a place in the MLS playoffs is an appropriate target for the first year of play.
NYCFC added that a win rate of less than one in three games and a point tally that is the second lower in Major League Soccer is not in line with the targets agreed.
Jason Keris is a decorated former soccer player who spent the majority of his career playing in Major League Soccer. He made a total of 300 professional appearances, was voted Major League Soccer MVP for 1999, and still tied as fifth-highest scorer in history for a regular MLS season with 108 goals.
Kreis stated his professional MLS career in 1996 with FC Dallas, and in 2005 transferred to Real Salt Lake.
In 2007 he became the coach of Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake, with whom he made the MLS playoffs for seven consecutive years.
In 2014, he left Salt Lake to become head coach of the MLS expansion side NYCFC. Despite hefty budgets and a team full of Designated Players that have been football starts in European leagues such as David Villa, Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo, Keris failed to gain traction with the club in its’ inaugural MLS season.
NYCFC stated that is committed to finding a suitable replacement in good time for the 2016 MLS season.
