Our early schedule includes getting 5 points out of 5 matches against the Union and Fire, with draws against the Rapids and Dynamo and a loss to RSL among the non-playoff teams.
The wins we got in our hot streak (June 6-July 26) before Pirlo & the others caused the turnover aren't against total cupcakes. Yes, we beat the Union, but we also beat the playoff-bound Impact twice and playoff bound TFC once. After Pirlo comes in, we would then lose to that same Impact (who still didn't have 100% Drogba yet). So NYCFC got wins against better teams then they were losing to previously.
It's fair to point out that the schedule got harder, with two matches against the Crew, one against RB and one in LA, but it's also fair to point out that NYCFC got plastered in those matches. NYCFC were pretty much run off the field in the month of August. I think that significant a level of dropoff isn't solely explained by the increased difficulty in the schedule, but rather facing that difficult schedule while also trying to figure out basic issues like lineup construction and chemistry.
If anything, the difficulty in schedule is a point in favor of Kreis. In the easier early schedule, he was hampered with no Lampard, an injured Villa, and the basic issues all expansion clubs have. By the time Kreis got the reinforcements, he was facing the best teams in the league while trying to create a cohesive squad.
After that horrid month of August, Kreis then put together a solid four game stretch, with an encouraging display in a loss to FCD outside an atrocious last two minutes of the first half that's all on the players followed up by wins over TFC, a surging San Jose team looking for the last playoff spot, then the win against Vancouver who finished second in the difficult West.
The point here isn't that the results prove Kreis is awesome; it's that the roster turnover makes the results in Season 1 a bad set of data, and more data is required in order to evaluate whether Kreis was the right manager. In that sense, nothing in Season 1 should alter the view we had of him on Day 1, when we were all excited to see him brought on. And there's a reason many MLS teams are being asked about Kreis as their next coach: the smart folks in MLS know that Kreis shouldn't be defined by Season 1 of NYCFC but rather his body of work with RSL.
And to be blunt: CFG didn't fire Kreis b/c he's a bad coach. Their press release was about controlling the narrative in their favor, but there's no reason to realistically demand playoffs in year 1 (look at MLS preseason predictions. It was not unanimous that NYCFC made the playoffs, and those that had us there had us in spot 5 or 6, meaning it was tenuous). They fired Kreis because they needed to hand Vieira a first team coaching gig. That's not a proper way to run a serious club, and fans ought to be outraged.
