Chrys, Jason

Kreis played for the Gladiator football club from his hometown of Omaha, his parents were among the first to establish their club in Nebraska. Enrolled in Burke High School in Omaha, Chrys was taken to the local football team ^[1] . He remains the only player in the team taken there in the first year of training. After completing the first year, Chrys and his family moved to Mandeville, Louisiana , where he and the Mandeville High School team participated in several 5A class tournaments, but never won the state title, losing to the Lafayette school in the quarter-finals in the final year. In Mandeville, he was also an outstanding player in Baton Rouge United Jags, a junior team that finished second in the U19 U-19 Championship in 1991 and won the prestigious Metropolitan Cup in Washington , DC.

Minor Leagues

In the summer of 1993, Kreis played for the Raleigh Flyers from USISL ^[2] . In the summer of 1994, he returned to Louisiana to play for the New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers , also from USISL ^[3] . After graduating from college in 1994, Chrys signed his first professional contract with Raleigh Flyers in the spring of 1995.

Dallas

On August 1, 1995, Chrys signed a contract with MLS when the league was preparing for its first season ^[4] . Chrys was taken 43rd in the fifth round of the MLS draft, he became a Dallas player. He scored the first goal in club history. In 1999, Chrys became the first player of American descent named the most valuable in the league. This happened due to the fact that he was the leader in the league in goals, he scored 15 goals and gave as many assists. A five-time member of the All-Star team was five times in the lead on his team.

On June 26, 2004, Kreis scored his 89th league goal in a match against DC United , becoming the top scorer in league history, beating Roy Lassiter . Kreis remained the absolute leader in goals for more than three years, until Jaime Moreno broke his record on August 22, 2007. He finished his ninth MLS season with 91 goals and 65 assists, adding four goals and two assists to the playoffs.

Real Salt Lake

On November 17, 2004, Chrys was sold to Real Salt Lake, becoming the first purchase in club history. He left Dallas as leader in matches (247), goals (91) and assists (65). Chrys scored the first goal in Salt Lake history in his second match, but it was only a prestige goal, his team lost 3-1 to Los Angeles Galaxy . Thus, he became the first player in league history to score the first goal in the history of two different teams, the first to be scored for Dallas in 1996. On August 13, 2005, he became the first player in MLS history to score 100 goals. He ended his career at the start of the 2007 season with 108 goals.

Having played only 14 international matches, Chrys has never been able to transfer his success with the club to the national team. He played his first match on August 30, 1996 against El Salvador . Kreis scored his only goal on September 8, 1999, opening an account in a match against Jamaica , which ended in a draw 2: 2 ^[5] .

Real Salt Lake

On May 3, 2007, Chrys left professional football and was appointed the new head coach of Real Salt Lake, before which he was occupied by John Ellinger ^[6] ; at the time of signing the contract, Kreis was the youngest active coach at MLS at 34 years and 127 days. He led Salt Lake to the club’s first playoffs in the 2008 season, and in 2009 the team won the MLS Cup . He is the youngest coach in MLS history to win the MLS Cup. He brought Real Salt Lake to the CONCACAF Champions League 2010/11 , where the team won their group.

On March 24, 2011, Real Salt Lake extended the contract with Chrys until 2013. The club also announced that the number 9, under which Chrys played, will be removed from use on July 4, 2011 ^[7] .

Chrys is known for his interest exclusively in football, as a coach he pays a lot of attention to game preparation. Midfielder “Real Salt Lake” Kyle Beckerman said in 2011, said in an interview about his coach as follows:

New York City

December 10, 2013, Kreis announced the transfer to the position of head coach of the club " New York City " ^[9] . He left Real Salt Lake four days after he was unable to win the second MLS Cup with the club, losing in the Kansas City Sporting penalty shoot -out . After signing a contract with the newly created New York club, Chrys went to England to discuss some issues of working with the franchise owner, Manchester City ^[10] .

Chrys's debut season at New York City ended in disappointment. The club lost an average of every second match of the championship and took eighth place in the Eastern Conference, not giving the right to playoffs. The contract with Chrys was terminated on November 2, 2015 ^[11] .

Orlando City

On July 19, 2016, Chrys was hired by Orlando City, where he replaced the first coach Adrian Heath . Miles Joseph and CJ Brown again became his assistants. ^[12] Together with Chrys, the Orlando team won their first victory in two months. On June 15, 2018, Kreis was dismissed as a club coach ^[13] .

U.S. U-23 team

On March 19, 2019, Kreis was appointed coach of the U.S. U-23 team ^[14] .

• Soccerway Profile
• Player profile and coach profile on the Transfermarkt website