When seeking out an addition to the coaching staff, Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jeff Cassar and General Manager Craig Waibel had a series of standards – boxes to check for each potential candidate.
No matter how many criteria were added to the list, newly-anointed Assistant Coach Richie Williams fit the bill.
An experienced coach? Williams coached at the collegiate level at Virginia before serving as an assistant with the New York Red Bulls for six years, where he twice served as interim Head Coach, before his work with the U.S. U-18 and U-17 National Teams from 2011 until this month.
Someone who knows Major League Soccer? Williams not only spent six years coaching with the Red Bulls from 2006-2011, but also played in the league from 1996-2003 winning three MLS Cups with D.C. United along the way. His work with the youth national teams has also seen him work with several players that are now playing in MLS as well.
Someone who has been successful playing the game? Williams won MLS Cup, Open Cup, Supporters’ Shield and CONCACAF Champions Cup titles during his playing career. He also won championships in college, with the Richmond Kickers in the USISL and Open Cup and was on the 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup winning U.S. National Team squad.
“When you really start to tick those boxes, the list gets really small. And Richie’s name stayed on it the whole time. It became a simple phone call from our perspective,” Waibel said. “Richie’s a great coach. He’s had great experience and he also has credibility as a player.”
What also serves as a bonus on some level is that Williams spent the last four years working with young players. Real Salt Lake has a bevy of young talent all over the field from versatile standout Jordan Allen to budding prospects Sebastian Saucedo and Justen Glad.
Among the players who played under Williams include FC Utrecht forward Rubio Rubin, Borussia Dortmund midfielder Junior Flores and Fulham midfielder Emerson Hyndman, as well as Orlando City SC defender Conor Donovan and LA Galaxy forward Bradford Jamieson IV. Glad and Saucedo also appeared for the U-17s under the purvey of Williams.
Bringing in a coach that has experience coaching young players will help nurture those developing talents while also striking the balance needed to find success on the field as well.
“I’ve had success in my playing career and won championships at different levels. Ultimately that’s what you’re striving for. That’s what you’re trying to do every year,” Williams said. “When you’re coaching in youth, there is that balance between results and development. Now that we are a professional side, the young players have to realize that you are still trying to bring them along and develop them so they are good pros that are playing for you all the time, but you have to do it in the right way and the results are mattering.”
In discussing the hiring of Williams, Waibel not only points to the benefits at hand for RSL’s current players, but also for aspiring young players who could join the team down the line as well.
“We have young guys from our Academy who are extremely promising that need attention. In the melee of the season sometimes we can get lost as a staff in just trying to coach quote-unquote pros,” Waibel said. “It’ll be extremely valuable to have someone who will recognize not only the body language of the developing players, but also the psychological side and be able to identify it a little more readily.”
Williams is slated to work with RSL’s midfield where he will find a crop of players that includes Kyle Beckerman and Javier Morales highlighting the roster. With one of the top play-making MLS midfielders in the last 10 years in Morales and the MLS all-time leader in games played by a field player in Beckerman, he has a solid base to build his coaching around. In Beckerman, he also has a player that plays the holding midfield role in a way that Williams can’t help but admire, even when Beckerman himself was a young player with the Miami Fusion and Colorado Rapids during Williams’ playing days.
“He always had that eagerness to be out there and compete on the field. He’s one of the best players that have come through MLS. He kept becoming a better player even as he got older. You have to put Kyle right up there among the better players that’s played in MLS. He’s always been there, he shows up, he competes and he’s really pushed himself to continue to be one of the best players,” Williams said. “I’m looking forward to working with him and anything I can do to help him be more successful is going to help the team be more successful.”
Williams and the coaching staff will be at the MLS Scouting Combine in January prior to the 2016 MLS SuperDraft on January 14. Preseason begins on January 22 as RSL prepares for its CONCACAF Champions League Quarterfinal matchup with UANL Tigres from Mexico.
