Real Salt Lake announced on Wednesday that the club would be retaining Head Coach Jeff Cassar for the 2017 season and he joined the Bill Riley Show on ESPN 700 following the announcement.
“I feel very blessed and honored to have this opportunity. I’m really excited about the things that we’re doing for the club for 2017 and beyond,” Cassar said in a wide-ranging interview. “It’s very humbling. It’s given me a renewed energy – myself and the staff – to continue to prepare the team for the season.”
Cassar’s club made the playoffs in two of his first three seasons, with RSL undertaking the third-greatest improvement in the league from 2015 to 2016. However, an eight-match winless streak to close out the season left the Claret-and-Cobalt seeking answers and the season ended with a 3-1 defeat on the road against the LA Galaxy in the Knockout Round of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The improvement over the previous season left Cassar with optimism while the sudden end gave him lessons to learn heading into his fourth season.
“I think we made great strides from the previous season. Getting back to the playoffs was obviously a massive goal for the organization,” he said. “Where things went wrong is really the last 8-10 games where we just weren’t able to find our way for multiple reasons. … This is a results business. I believe we can make even more strides and as we do that everything will work its way out. No one is pleased with how it ended, but there’s only going to be one team happy at the end of this year. The rest are going to be disappointed.”
During the interview, Cassar addressed some of his off-seasons goals and RSL’s needs heading into 2017, as well as how the coaching staff will handle the departure of Javier Morales. All-in-all, a busy off-season awaits for Cassar and RSL as the club’s 13th season draws nearer.
“This is an exciting time for our club, for our fans and for our organization,” Cassar said.
To hear the full interview, click here.
