Real Salt Lake announced on Wednesday that Head Coach Jeff Cassar would be retained for the 2017 season after his contract expired following the 2016 season.
Now three years into his tenure as RSL’s bench boss, Cassar has the support of players throughout the RSL roster and some of them weighed in after his signing.
Forward Yura Movsisyan returned to Real Salt Lake prior to the 2016 season after spending six years playing abroad in Denmark and Russia. He finished with nine goals and three assists in his first season back in MLS and noted that Cassar was instrumental in his return to the Claret-and-Cobalt.
“Jeff played a big role for me coming here and integrating into the team and feeling like I’m home. His family has had a lot to do with it,” Movsisyan said. “Jeff has done an amazing job turning the team from one of the worst last year to one of the best this year. I think he’s done a great job and I’m extremely happy to hear that he’s coming back.”
Defender Tony Beltran has played nine seasons in Utah since being drafted third overall in the 2008 MLS SuperDraft. For the entirety of his time with RSL, Cassar has served as an assistant coach and head coach and Beltran has seen his coach develop along the way.
“I’m very happy for Jeff and very happy to have him back next year. I’ve had a front row seat for his evolution as a coach over the last three years. Like anybody in his job, he’s always ready to learn and he wants to learn,” Beltran said. “He’s a very hard worker and he deserves it. I’m very excited to see where he leads our team because I think he can lead us into some very good years ahead.”
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando has worked closely with Cassar since both joined RSL in 2007. He knows that Cassar’s commitment to the club is unmatched in the coaching ranks and that carries weight with the all-time MLS leader in wins and shutouts.
“He’s been a big part of this club for a while now. He knows the players. He knows the club. He knows the expectations,” Rimando said. “To get that taste of the playoffs this year is good and he knows that next year we need to be in those playoffs and go even further.”
In Cassar’s three years as Head Coach, RSL ranks ninth among the 18 teams that have played all three years with 143 points. RSL is among 12 teams to reach the playoffs in two of those three seasons, a list that does not include the likes of the Philadelphia Union, Colorado Rapids and Portland Timbers, each with one appearance, and Chicago Fire, San Jose Earthquakes and Houston Dynamo, who each have missed the postseason in those three seasons. Among the 10 coaches who have led their clubs since the start of the 2014 season, Cassar (143 points) ranks ahead of Carl Robinson’s Whitecaps (142 points), Gregg Berhalter’s Columbus Crew SC (141 points) and Pablo Mastroeni’s Colorado Rapids (127 points). In addition, RSL had the third-best improvement over the 2015 season by jumping five points in the standings, trailing only the improvements of the Rapids (21 points) and NYCFC (17 points).
