Jason Kreis, in being hired as the new coach of Orlando City midway through their second season in Major League Soccer, didn’t know what to expect when he walked into the locker room for the first time. For many teams, struggles on the pitch can divide players off of it.
“When you go through all the difficult results we’ve had in the past six months or so, you expect that the group would be pretty fragmented,” Kreis relayed. The former Real Salt Lake and NYCFC coach added, however, that the Orlando City players weren’t divided. “They’re quite together,” he said.
Who does Kreis credit as being the glue that held the players together through such an uncertain period?
“I personally attribute that to the great work that Bobby Murphy has done in the interim time,” Kreis explained. “I think he’s done a lot of things to bring the group together and it shows up the very first day of training; the spirit has been great, the intensity of the work rate has been great, I couldn’t ask for anything more”
Bobby Murphy was given the improbable task of steadying the ship in Orlando, but the team placed their faith in him and gave their all, not just out on the pitch, but every single day.
And Kreis hasn’t missed a beat in awarding Murphy the praise he so richly deserves for his role in this transition. The team Murphy left for Kreis excites him, and he owes a lot of that to the once-interim coach.
“It’s fantastic. I couldn’t be more happy.”
