Jason Kreis couldn't handle the losing.

It drove him darn near wacko, not just to lunacy's edge, but to the brink of retirement from playing the game he had embraced for the better part of three decades.

To him, losing felt worse than winning felt good.

The all-time leader of scored goals in MLS, at least at that time, looked around the Real Salt Lake locker room and saw in too many of his teammates a lack of commitment to winning, too much satisfaction in losing. Kreis, one of RSL's veterans and its captain, wanted to coach, instead, because he thought he could root out complacency and capture victory more effectively from that spot.

"I became more and more disillusioned about how successful the club would be," he says. "I'm extremely competitive. To see players who thought losing was OK was difficult. I was frustrated. It's hard to pour so much of your life into something and see other people who don't feel that same way. I asked myself, 'What can I do to change this?'"

He added: "It drove me to want to coach ... prematurely."

Just a few years earlier, he had signed with expansion RSL, as a fresh boost to a career that had started to sag. As one of a couple RSL originals, he's been with the team since that initial year in 2005.

What has transpired over that span isn't so much a revolution as an evolution, personally and professionally. His job has changed, the team has changed, his influence on the team has changed, and he has changed.

Other than that, everything's been rock steady.

Kreis was approached by team owner Dave Checketts in the summer of 2006, asked what he wanted to do when his playing days were done.

You already know.

Kicking roadblocks

Although he was still good enough to play -- he occasionally practices with his team now -- a plan was hatched for Kreis to become an assistant to then-coach John Ellinger for a couple of seasons, then take over at the top position, kicking Ellinger to the front office.

Four games into the 2007 season, after an unhappy RSL start, Kreis, just 34 years old, was tossed forthright into the mix as head coach.

He didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know the ins and outs of MLS rules, he didn't fully grasp the nuances -- nor the fundamentals -- of trades and allocations and management.

He learned.

Says Kreis: "I'm still learning."

In the early going, the coach was often too resolute, too rigid. He settled on certain attitudes, strategies, philosophies and stayed with them. "I'd look at things too black and white," he says. "I had to be more flexible than I wanted to be, make more exceptions."

That's part of Kreis' personality, part of his attention to detail, a manifestation of his powerfully narrow drive to win.

Some of it emerges out of the chip on his shoulder, a wood block that permanently rests with him, formed out of his primary years in soccer -- when coaches, skeptics, and critics judged him to be too short, too slow, too weak to ever do much as a player.

"I appreciate proving people wrong," he says. "I was a small kid. I wasn't selected for regional teams or national teams. I was always told I couldn't play in college, or in the pros. I love kicking roadblocks down."

He kicked them down to the beat of 108 career goals scored in MLS.

And he's kicking them down, again, leading RSL to its unlikely first MLS Cup final appearance on Sunday night in Seattle, an accomplishment that seemed laughable a few short weeks ago.

Current Real captain Kyle Beckerman says the combo-pack of Kreis' competitiveness, his excessive planning, and the aforementioned willingness to change when necessary, has lifted RSL to new heights in the postseason.

"He used to get so emotional," says Beckerman. "During one game last year, he yelled at us at halftime because we weren't playing well. When we came back to win, there were tears involved. This year, he lets us see things for ourselves, he lets us figure things out. We went seven games this season without winning, and he was positive with us the whole time. We came out successful, and he had a lot to do with that."

'Leader of men'

Kreis is still meticulous, fastidious, downright persnickety, a fuss bucket, not only in the minutiae of soccer, but in the small increments of life.

"I'm borderline obsessive-compulsive," he says.

The coach speaks carefully and eloquently, choosing words and expressions just so. As a hobby, he works with wood, building fine cabinetry to precise dimensions. He fits the mold of an exacting young college professor, or a prim fashion designer. He, in fact, dresses immaculately -- "I'm a leader of men," he says, "I want to look like one" -- on the sidelines, often decked out in swanky Italian suits.

"He's the most fashionable, best-dressed coach in MLS," says Beckerman. "No. 1."

Still, Kreis was not above or too inflexible in changing his general setup partway through this season, going from a 4-5-1 scheme to a 4-4-2, with a diamond in the midfield, all to eventual great success.

Kreis believes in aggressive, ball-possession soccer. He loves to attack and then attack again. His players say the grit and toughness RSL has shown through a terrific playoff run, after a mediocre regular season, is a reflection of Kreis, the small kid with the chip on his shoulder, the maturing coach with winning on his mind.

"He's intense and driven," Beckerman says. "But he's grown a lot as a coach. The players trust him."

More significantly, the players have learned to win for him.

"I can't accept losing," Kreis says.

He doesn't have to, not anymore.

GORDON MONSON hosts the "Monson and Graham Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com .