It’s a very high-powered offense, and I think they have an animal waiting to be released from the cage. Now it’s on myself and the coaching staff to put them in the right situation and the right positions to break out of that cage. – Mike Petke
SANDY — When Real Salt Lake fired Jeff Cassar nine days ago, general manager Craig Waibel promised a quick but thorough a process of finding a replacement.
Waibel ended up interviewing six candidates — interviews he classified as lengthy 2-4 hours each — and all six proved to be great candidates. Ultimately, though, Waibel believe Mike Petke separated himself from his peers, and on Wednesday he was introduced as Real Salt Lake’s next head coach at Rio Tinto Stadium.
“He is very organized, very passionate. His experience speaks for himself,” said Waibel. “We like everything about this hire, and we believe that his vision and the things he shared with us in his interview fit what we’re trying to do as an organization.”
Petke replaces Jeff Cassar, who was fired just three games into the season after RSL’s 0-2-1 start.
Petke, a former MLS head coach at New York, seemed a logical replacement for Cassar as he was already on staff with the RSL organization as the Real Monarchs head coach.
“Change is opportunity. Real Salt Lake is a great franchise, it’s willing to go through the door of change to see if there isn’t a different future, a brighter opportunity and see if we can get to a new high,” said Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen while introducing Petke during the press conference.
Petke won’t officially take over the head coaching reigns until next Monday. He doesn’t want to be a distraction for the team as it prepares for this Saturday’s match at Minnesota, and has full confidence in the assistant coaches to put together another successful game plan like last Saturday in New York.
Petke also plans on keeping those same assistant coaches on his staff.
“(Waibel and Hansen) recommended me keeping the staff, but they said it was on me what I want to do, but it was a no brainer to me. I’ve gotten to know them over the last two months, they’ve been welcoming, the knowledge they have of the game, the imprint they have on this team already, it would be foolish to make a change,” said Petke.
Petke was hired last offseason by the RSL organization to take over as head coach of the Real Monarchs, which was in need of a new coach after Freddy Juarez was promoted to RSL assistant coach.
Waibel and Hansen interviewed Petke for the Monarchs job back in New York in the winter, and Waibel said he made it very clear during that interview that they were interviewing for the Monarchs job — not as an eventual replacement for Cassar.
Petke was a believer in the culture of Real Salt Lake, and was excited to get back into coaching after his unceremonious firing from New York after the 2014 season.
Petke was the head coach for the New York Red Bulls back in 2013 and 2014, leading the club to a 30-19-19 record in those two seasons — which included winning the MLS Supporters' Shield for the league’s best record in 2013.
New York finished fourth in the Eastern Conference in 2014 with a 13-10-11 record and advanced to the Eastern Conference final in the MLS Playoffs. Petke’s firing came as a complete shock.
“I was never given a reason to this day,” said Petke. “That’s in the past, life is about moving forward, new opportunities. It brought me here. I couldn’t be more happy.”
Cassar’s firing last week came as a shock for different reasons, as it was the fastest head-coach firing in MLS history.
Cassar spent 10 seasons with Real Salt Lake as an assistant coach and head coach. He was promoted to head coach for the 2014 season after Kreis was named the head coach for expansion club New York City FC. In his first three years as head coach for RSL, Cassar's teams made the playoffs twice as he amassed a 38-35-29 record.
The overall progression of the team early this season wasn’t good enough according to management. It’s something Petke will try to change, and he sees a lot of potential in the roster he’s inheriting.
“It’s a very high-powered offense, and I think they have an animal waiting to be released from the cage, so now it’s on myself and the coaching staff to put them in the right situation and the right positions to break out of that cage,” said Petke
Asked about what formation he might utilize going forward, he was noncommittal and ultimately said he’d like to be a team that could play a number of different ways.
During his two years at New York, Petke. coached a team that spent a ton of money on its roster, highlighted by Thierry Henry. Petke inherits a vastly different roster makeup in Utah.
“We’re a different organization (then New York was). We have quite a few young guys in it, we believe in our young guys, and that’s something we need the coach to believe in as well,” said Waibel.
Mark Briggs will take over as head coach of the Monarchs.