RSL owner Hansen coy on Kreis' contract talks

Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen wouldn't give any hints about the progress of the ongoing contract negotiations with coach Jason Kreis, whose deal with the club ends at the end of this season.

"When you're the most beautiful coach in MLS, you need a lot of attention," Hansen said on KUTV's Talkin' Sports. "I don't say that in a rude way, but a lot of people would love to have our position and have Jason Kreis as their coach."

Pressed on whether Kreis would return, Hansen said, "I've got to come up with a diplomatic answer."

"I think we've got a relationship with Jason and our coaches at RSL that gives him the best place to realize what he wants," Hansen said. "At the same time, he's an extremely talented coach. That doesn't go without notice in other franchises."

Kreis told The Salt Lake Tribune this week that he is letting his agent handle negotiations while he focuses on coaching.

RSL not shy on road

Real Salt Lake is on pace to smash the franchise record for goals scored — a mark of 46 set just a season ago.

And the club hasn't been picky about where it's scoring.

Coming into Saturday night's matchup with the Galaxy at StubHub Center, RSL had actually scored more goals on the road (20) than it had in the friendly confines of Rio Tinto Stadium (19).

"It doesn't feel to me that we're approaching road games any differently than we have in the past," Kreis said this week. "If I had to pick something, I'd say just the quality of our finishing in the final 15 or 20 minutes of a game is better this year than it has been in the past. A lot of that has to do with being able to bring in fresh players to change the game at the end of a match. You bring in players like [Joao] Plata and [Olmes] Garcia, the ability they have on the ball, the ability they have to get behind the defense ... you're going to finish those chances that are there at the end of games."

Shapeshifters

Kreis has moved away from the diamond midfield formation for which RSL has become famous three times this year, and each time it's resulted in a victory.

The switch has helped get gifted attackers Garcia and Plata together on the field more often.

But even if RSL returns to the familiar diamond for the stretch run, the team believes just the possibility of a different shape should keep teams on their heels.

"I'm sure it makes them second-guess it a little bit," said defender Tony Beltran. "Typically we've played the diamond over the last few years and never really went away from that. But the fact that we have so many dangerous players and we can get attackers like Garcia, like Plata, on the wings and on the field at the same time, it really helps."

afalk@sltrib.com

Twitter: @aaronfalk