Real Salt Lake head coach Jason Kreis must now make a very difficult decision regarding his future.
The 40-year old led the Royals to the 2013 MLS Cup final, where they went down on penalties to Sporting Kansas City, and must now decide if he remains with the Utah club.
Kreis has been earmarked as expansion franchise New York City FC's first head coach, and has interest from elsewhere, prompting him to suggest that this will be an extremely tough call.
"It's interesting that the last couple weeks have been so hectic with all the details to consider, all the preparation for the match, families coming to the cup, hotel rooms and tickets and everything else. But all of that was pretty easy. What happens over the next couple days is real hard," said Kreis.
He added: "I'm really, really pleased - over the moon - with what this group did this year. Surprised, I think they overachieved. I think they proved me wrong. It's just been an incredible, incredible year."
As for the future, Kreis was non-committal about his own but positive about what it holds for the club as a whole: "I don't think this team is going to be changed in any large way. Again you have gotten too successful to really do anything else. There's a ton of really young, talented players with this group."
