We all know that Real Salt Lake has been a really strong, remarkably consistent, largely unchanged side over the last five seasons. And despite not having the silverware to suggest it, the Jason Kreis era in Utah is universally viewed as a roaring success.
But the era ended from the moment Lovel Palmer pinged his penalty kick off the crossbar to gift Sporting Kansas City the MLS Cup in 2013. It’s only now that we’re seeing the effects, since Kreis had to take a season off to “learn” the (Manchester) City way and RSL still had their other key off-field cog, General Manager Garth Lagerway, under contract in 2014.
But I talked up RSL enough last week, and one quick glance at the standings (they’re seventh in the West by goal differential, out of a playoff spot) will tell you how well they’re coping under new leadership.
So this week, the focus turns to the Jason Kreis-is that’s developing in New York City. Being winless in eight matches is rough. But two quick and confusing coaching decisions Kreis made during their loss in the first ever Hudson River Derby have left fans dumbfounded. Like this dude when he saw The Undertaker lose at WrestleMania XXX in the GIF of the Week:
Down 2-0 to the New York Red Bulls and up a player since the 36th minute when Matt Miazga was sent off for the Jersey boys, one would assume that Kreis would try to take the match to the Red Bulls and spark the comeback.
It sure didn’t look that way in the 64th minute, when Kreis took out Mix Diskerud, his second-biggest star. It really didn’t look that way just four minutes later, when David Villa, the club’s captain and alpha dog, was taken out as well.
Were they the right decisions? From a purely on-field perspective, probably. The bulk of play from each club leaned towards the right hand side of the pitch. Diskerud was the left side of a central midfield pairing with Andrew Jacobson and had done very little in the way of creating chances (NYCFC in blue, from WhoScored.com)
Villa of course was staring in his first match for a few weeks after recovering from a hamstring injury. He was also being kept out of the 18-yard box, whereas his counterpart, Bradley Wright-Phillips, had scored two from inside the penalty area. Moments before Villa came out, BWP missed a chance at a third by shooting straight at NYCFC goalkeeper Josh Saunders while on a breakaway (NYCFC in blue, again from WhoScored.com).
And as we know, NYCFC did end up pulling a goal back in the 76th minute after both Diskerud and Villa were off. What’s more, the goal was scored by Patrick Mullins (who came on for Villa), while Kwadwo Poku (who came on for Diskerud) was credited with a second assist.
It was a gutsy move by Kreis, but it ended up paying off on the field. Off the field however may be a different story.
Perhaps the only thing that disappointed me more about Villa and Diskerud not playing the full 90 were the ridiculous full bottom-right corner and sides advertisements that came on the screen every 10 minutes. Seeing them come out of the match so early made it look like Kreis was throwing in the towel.
Last I remember, he never did that when he was coaching Real Salt Lake. If that’s what he “learned” on his English escapades, I’m never crossing the Atlantic again.
Had NYCFC not scored, or worse, had the floodgates opened up, I’m sure that a lot more people would be talking about Kreis’ suitability for the job right now. Even though that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t be surprised if he at least lost a few members of the most important room: the fans.
I won’t go on about how New York City FC fans have already been SOL (Screwed Out of Lampard) by the Manchester City mothership. I just want to bring it up as a reminder, because what happened in those four minutes on Sunday night could be viewed as a microcosm of the Lampard debacle.
In the same way over 11,000 people paid to see Frank Lampard suit up at Yankee Stadium, a large contingent of travelling NYCFC fans paid to see Villa and Diskerud lead their club into battle, only to see them taken off with nearly a half-hour to go.
And no, unless you have a Messi, Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic etc. on your side, no one player is above their team. As frustrated as both Diskerud and Villa were when coming off (and they were, very much so), they couldn’t walk over to their coach and say no. This isn’t basketball we’re dealing with here.
All players have good and bad matches. Diskerud and Villa happened to coordinate theirs on one of the worst possible days. But did it really warrant both of them being pulled out so early, leaving the mess of a side that is the rest of the NYCFC roster to deal with the surging Red Bulls for 30 minutes? Not at all.
By the way, NYCFC’s roster really is that bad. It’s essentially some secondary and tertiary pieces from RSL plus one of the franchise’s few bright spots in Khiry Shelton.
Villa and Diskerud have each shown at times this season that they can do great things. But Villa’s switch has gone from injury to incredible goal with no in-between, kind of like Jermain Defoe in the first half of 2014. Diskerud is the undisputed main man in NYCFC’s midfield, but that again doesn’t say a whole lot when the number 2 guy is a declining Ned Grabavoy. And can Diskerud really go toe-to-toe with Kaka, Giovinco, Higuain, Diaz, the Morales’, Kljestan, and the other members of the league’s loaded attacking midfielder pool? Didn’t think so.
David Villa and Mix Diskerud need to be NYCFC’s leaders, or at least keep the club alive until Frank Lampard can help them out. They can’t do any of that from the bench, nor can any of NYCFC’s other players be trusted to carry the burden. They’ve been sent a wake-up call on this instance, but unless their play drops off even more drastically, Jason Kreis can’t be regularly removing them at the hour mark.
If the duo have to be pulled out so early moving forward, this club will have gone beyond Kreis-is mode.
They’ll be put on life support.
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