After Real Salt Lake announced on Monday that the club has dismissed Head Coach Jeff Cassar after going 38-37-30 in three-plus seasons at the reins, General Manager Craig Waibel was invited on ESPN 700’s OC and Hackett Show to discuss the changes on the bench.
He emphasized throughout the conversation that the need for change was not predicated simply on the results of three matches, but moreso on the progress made in recent months. Waibel’s focus now turns on who will be named the fourth head coach in RSL’s 12-year history.
“There is a sense of urgency to replace him,” Waibel said. “The most important thing is that we find the right person that fits our needs right now and fits where we see ourselves as a club and what we feel we need as a coach. That’s something we are focused on taking care of in the shortest amount of time possible and being as thorough as we need to be.”
Cassar took over head-coaching duties prior to the 2014 season and went unbeaten at 6-0-6 through his first 12 matches. RSL reached the postseason in two of his three seasons at the helm, but fell to the LA Galaxy in the Western Conference Semifinals in 2014 and in the Knockout Round in 2016.
While a winless start through three matches was not the way the club hoped to start the season, that alone was not the trigger to the change.
“These decisions are always cumulative. While the timeline appears to only be three games, evaluation is always ongoing within organizations. There was no smoking gun. There’s no one moment. It was a cumulative moment that goes back over the course of time,” Waibel said. “We definitely made the right decision to extend his tenure as the head coach at the end of last year after two years in the playoffs. However, over the course of the last two or three months, we wanted to focus on the progress of the group and we wanted to focus on the urgency of the organization to address the progress.”
Daryl Shore will serve as Interim Head Coach during the coaching search, but there is no timeline on how long that search will take.
To hear the full interview, click here.
