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Sandy • The man standing in the hallway just outside of the visitors' locker room underneath CenturyLink Field had a smile on his face. Minutes earlier came the final whistle from the referee, designating a 4-0 loss as the Seattle Sounders disposed of Real Salt Lake on a quaint afternoon in downtown Seattle on May 31.

It was the first loss of Jeff Cassar's head coaching career. But as he elaborated on the loss, on what went wrong, he did so jovially. His message before disappearing into the locker room to address his team was, "I'm trying to make sure our team is going to react the same way I do."

The genesis of Cassar as a head coach starts with him knowing how to only be himself.

"I think Jeff's biggest strength," defender Nat Borchers explained, "is his personality."

Now 27 games through the 2014 Major League Soccer schedule, Cassar and RSL return to CenturyLink Field Friday night to take on the Sounders, a club that sits atop the Supporters' Shield race and atop the Western Conference. He inherited this team because he wanted a shot at leading it. When close friend and former head coach Jason Kreis left for New York City FC, Cassar told management he deserved a crack at it.

His demand was obliged and throughout his rookie campaign as the boss, he's been dealt a sufficient amount of adversity to work around. The club started off the year 6-0-6 while dealing with a rash of injuries all over the pitch. RSL lost stars Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando to the World Cup for eight weeks and lost all-time leading scorer Alvaro Saborio for nearly four months due to a broken foot. But Cassar remains unwilling to concede that his initial year as a head coach has been more challenging than any other coach in the MLS.

"You just see it," Cassar explained. "You're always going to have some obstacles. You're definitely always going to have injuries, suspensions … obviously this year was unique with the World Cup, but again, the whole time, I wasn't stressing."

He may stress, but he sure doesn't show it. Either that, or RSL's coach has an epic poker face. Players explain that's who Jeff Cassar the coach — and person — is.

"I think it's a well-known fact that we have a good team and we have good players and Jeff's done a lot to keep the ball rolling as opposed to just trying something completely new," defender Chris Schuler said. "But at the same time, he has his own ideas."

Following Kreis would have been a tough act to follow for any coach. The familiarity Cassar had with this core group — he's been with RSL since 2007 — led to players lobbying the front office in the offseason for Cassar to succeed Kreis. Inheriting a proven winner has its perks, but with a core group in place comes pressure to secure wins, avoid bad losses and manage a locker room with a championship-or-bust outlook.

"I think that makes it a bit easier to know, not just players' tendencies, but to know their personalities as well," midfielder Ned Grabavoy said. "What buttons to push and how to treat certain players. Every player has a different personality, and I think at this level, managing is more important than the coaching of X's and O's."

Cassar, along with his staff, core players, young players and the front office, have made it to second week of September within striking distance of Seattle without Beckerman, Rimando and Saborio for an extended period of the summer. He's waxed positive on scoring droughts and on the struggles of players. The disheartening situations, too, like losing second-year midfielder John Stertzer to a season-ending injury in a friendly against Club Tijuana on Aug. 12. There was no semblance of a smile that night.

"He goes to bat for guys," Borchers said.

Maybe the first 27 matches haven't played out to the way he imagined when he accepted the post last December, or ran through preseason drills in Arizona in February, but if there's a principle Cassar has carried on at RSL, it's consistency. Yet seven games remain and RSL is tied for the lowest number of losses in the MLS with five and continues into this stretch run with shots at the No. 1 seed in the West and a Supporters' Shield crown. The playoffs look like a lock for the seventh consecutive season.

"Now," Cassar said, "it's just about me being prepared to bring out the right amount of energy, so the guys hopefully feed off of the energy." —

Real Salt Lake at Seattle Sounders

O At CenturyLink Field

Kickoff • Friday, 8:30 p.m.

TV • NBC Sports Network

Radio • 700 AM

Records • RSL 12-5-10; Seattle 16-7-3

Last meeting • RSL 2, Seattle 1 (Aug. 16 at Rio Tinto Stadium)