It took exactly one day into MLS Cup week for the “Jason Kreis is leaving” explosive ordinance to arm itself and threaten to go off with a seriously loud bang.
SI.com’s Brian Straus, citing a source, said via Twitter that Real Salt Lake’s young coach – yep, the guy is still one of Major League Soccer’s younger managers, never mind all that he has accomplished so far – is “almost 100 percent” sure to take the New York City FC post that has apparently been dangled before him.
Kreis’ attitude has never wavered; he has said for two months that his team is the story, and has steadfastly attempted to deflect every query, straining to push the attention back to his club and his players.
(MORE: Examining both sides of the Jason Kreis-NYCFC possibilities)
It’s a noble aim and selfless aim, for sure. But as the game has grown domestically, it’s no longer possible to keep these stories from metastasizing within the larger media vortex. It is what it is, and Kreis has to understand: where he points this successful coaching career is a story, one that will be faithfully followed so long as the Ws outweigh the Ls in his professional world. Still, Kreis keeps trying. Below is his familiar and typically stoic response from Monday.
But afterward on the same video, RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman had some very interesting comments.
(MORE: Does MLS Cup win make Kreis more likely to leave for NYCFC?)
Beckerman basically says that it may happen, and that everyone inside the locker room understands the opportunity before their manager.
It hardly sounds like a locker room vulnerable to distraction. It sounds, in all honesty, as if someone is reciting the old chestnut that says “If you love someone, set them free.”
Here ‘tis:
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