Warm And Fuzzy Article on RSL and Cassar at the Deseret News

The local coverage of RSL is a bit confusing to say the least. There are a lot of articles slamming the team over losing, political misteps, and the like (and, yes, there have been a lot of good reasons to slam the team). There are also a lot of soft, fluffy articles that toss soft questions at the coaches and seem aimed at making people feel good about things.

This morning the big article in the Deseret News was one of the latter. It was all about the positive different Jeff Cassar is already making on RSL, even though it hasn't shown up in the win column. If you don't want to go and read it (I won't blame you), here are some of the main points:

• Cassar is a family guy who loves the Salt Lake Valley. "I was just driving to work the other day with Jason (Kreis) and I just told him I love this place, it feels like home already. The people are great, and I'm a massive family guy, and this place just oozes family. It oozes being outside and mingling and meeting people. It's not like everyone's in their own hole." — I'm not sure what that has to do with RSL, but it sounds nice.
• Even though the discussions that led to Cassar's hiring were a mistake that cost RSL $20,000 in fines and resulted in the firing of Peter Mellor, the Cassar and Kreis don't regret them. "You want to always feel good, safe, secure. You want to have people in who are going to give you honest opinions. It's what every coach would do and should do, as long as the person they're bringing in is qualified for that spot," said Cassar. — the article does point out that neither Cassar nor Kreis has the background to indicate that they're qualified for their position.
• Cassar is given credit in the article for bringing out the improved play in goalkeeper Nick Rimando — too be fair though, Rimando's improved play began before Cassar arrived.

Maybe I just missed the sarcasm in the headline "Assistant coach Cassar already an asset for RSL", but I sure don't see a lot of value so far.

Oh, yeah, I should probably include the bit of news from the end of the article: Cassar and his family are all settling into life in the Salt Lake valley and will be closing on a house in the 'burbs soon — I know that makes me feel better about the coaching change (and, yeah, I'm being sarcastic).