Team Focus: Time for Cassar to Make His Own Mark on Real Salt Lake

Jason Kreis was Real Salt Lake. Having been at the club since 2005 (two years as a player and six years as head coach) he came to embody RSL, with his team reflecting his personality. But now he’s the head coach of an MLS team that isn’t even playing in MLS yet.

The 41-year-old was named head coach of the Manchester City–New York Yankees co-owned New York City FC, due to start play in 2015. His assistant Jeff Cassar stepped into his place for the new season. But could the apprentice step into the shoes of the master? So often in football the answer to that question is no, but Real Salt Lake seem to be the exception to the rule.

Under Cassar Real Salt Lake are the last remaining unbeaten team in the league, occupying second place in the Western Conference standings with 13 points from their opening seven games.

Of course, many will point out that Cassar still has Kreis’ team to work with, with the core of the side remaining in place over the off-season, but there hasn’t just been continuity in personnel but in results as well. So where are the differences between Kreis’ RSL and Cassar’s RSL?

Going on the basis of match ratings, things look pretty similar to last season. Nick Rimando, maybe the league’s most reliable performer, tops Real Salt Lake’s column with a rating of 7.94. Kyle Beckerman (7.52) and Chris Schuler (7.41) also make the top five. Kreis may have left but the spine of the team has remained in place.

Javier Morales, Real Salt Lake’s highest rated player last season, is still the attacking hub of the team, making more key passes per game (2.5) than any other player on the roster. However, are things really going as well as they appear to be on the basis of a stats sheet?

While they recorded a 1-0 win over the Portland Timbers last week, Rimando was their best player, as he has been on many occasions this season. How much longer can RSL rely on the USA international to keep pulling off such performances?

Against the Timbers Cassar’s side were below par, especially through midfield. Beckerman made just 54 passes, down from 68.8 (his average passes per game for last season). In fact, Chris Wingert – a left back – made more passes against Portland than any other RSL player.

The USA international midfielder’s pass success rate is also down on last season, dropping from 81.8% last year to 79.2% in 2014. Of course, that proves little but his key passes are down from 1 per game to 0.7 per game this term, showing that perhaps RSL are missing the creativity from deep they had under Kreis.

Yet even when they’re not at their best Real Salt Lake know how to isolate an opposition weakness and exploit it, and that’s exactly what they did against Portland, demonstrated by Ned Grabavoy’s winning goal.

Just minutes before Grabavoy’s goal RSL constructed an almost identical move, with Wingert striking the base of the post. It showed that Cassar’s team has a capacity for learning from its mistakes, even when the game is playing out.

Perhaps such criticisms of the midfield are harsh on RSL. On the odd occasion they did give the ball away, leading to Portland chances, they recovered and stand as anomalies in their scheme of their season.

Real Salt Lake’s diamond midfield is still the best central unit in MLS, even if their pass success rate for the season (77.8%) only ranks them as the 11th most prudent team with possession in the league. Their average possession share per game (50.6%) is also one of the more unremarkable in MLS, ranking them 9th. From an attacking point of view Real Salt Lake have also been somewhat lethargic, averaging just 11.1 shots per game. Only Chivas USA and DC United have a lower average.

As you would expect, Kreis’s fingerprints are all over this Real Salt Lake team. After all, he did assemble it and take it two MLS Cup finals in six years as head coach. But the signs of decline are starting to show already and there will come a time when Cassar needs to put stamp his own identity on Real Salt Lake.

How do you rate this RSL team compared to last year? Let us know in the comments below