Veteran Real Salt Lake player Jason Kreis was announced Thursday afternoon as the team's new head coach.
He succeeds John Ellinger four games into RSL's third season of Major League Soccer play. During Ellinger's first year, the team finished with a 5-22-5 record, and in 2006 was 10-13-9. So far this season, the team is winless in four MLS games, with two ties.
"Today is a bittersweet day for the franchise," said team owner Dave Checketts. "It's always difficult when you make decisions like this, but I know that the decisions that we've made today are the right ones for our franchise. This is a result-oriented business. Those of us who've been in this for a while understand that. Sometimes we wish it were different, but it is about results."
Kreis, the first player signed by Real Salt Lake for its inaugural season and the league's all-time leading goal-scorer with 109, is in his 11th MLS season. He began his career as a midfielder, then moved to forward, but this year again played the midfield. He has no coaching experience.
"Yes, I believe I could have contributed on the team for some time to come, and yes I know that I'm making a sacrifice," Kreis said. "But the sacrifice is to a club, an owner and a city that I have the utmost respect and admiration for."
Kreis will become the youngest active coach in MLS and the youngest full-time coach in MLS history.
"I believe we have a good team," Kreis said. "My moving from a player to a coach doesn't change that opinion. I'm a firm believer that we have the right pieces in place here. I do think it's going to take a little bit of tinkering. The biggest one for me is there needs to be a mentality change and it needs to be right away."
Real hasn't scored in 309 league-game minutes, dating back to the first game of the season, despite expectations for a high-scoring team this season. Ellinger had assembled a group of quality attackers who were expected to shore up the team's offense.
This was Ellinger's first coaching job with professionals. He previously was a successful coach of the under-17 youth national team.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com