CARSON, Calif. – Jason Kreis just wanted to stop by and watch Jurgen Klinsmann work with the US national team during its annual January camp in Southern California.
Klinsmann was having none of that.
“He expressed his interest – 'Oh, maybe I'll come by and kind of look over your shoulder,'” the US boss said Wednesday, the third day into a four-week session at StubHub Center. “I said, 'No, before you look over my shoulder, I'll put you to work.'
“And Jason was, 'Oh, I'd love to.'”
And so the former Real Salt Lake and New York City FC coach is now part of the team working with combined senior and Under-23 national team players ahead of friendlies Jan. 31 against Iceland and Feb. 5 against Canada, both at StubHub. It's preparation for the Yanks' World Cup qualifiers in late March against Guatemala and the U-23 team's home-and-home playoff with Colombia, also in March, for a berth in this summer's Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Kreis, 43, one of nine players to score at least 100 goals in MLS regular-season play, is without a job after he was dismissed Nov. 2 by NYCFC following a 10-17-7 campaign in the club's inaugural season. He was in charge at RSL from 2007 through 2013, building the club into an MLS power and winning the league title in 2009.
“I'm always reaching out. I'm in contacts with all the coaches out there ...,” Klinsmann said. “We often have other coaches come into the January camp and work with us, so they see how we do things, because every coach does it differently.
“Everyone has their own methods and his own way of doing it, so I said I'll show you our way of doing it, and then you'll pick out the pieces you like.”
Kreis, who has expressed interest in one day becoming the US coach, impressed Klinsmann with his work in MLS.
“He's a young coach, he's a very, very good coach,” Klinsmann said. “And he will take over, probably sooner than later, another team, and maybe these couple of weeks give him a couple of more ideas of how to do it. It's a pleasure to have him with us.”
