Here is a brief interview with Kreis and his thoughts on the addition of El Khalifi.
KIR: What are your thoughts on El Khalifi joining you? What does he bring to the table?
Kreis: He’s a player with a lot of European experience obviously. Someone who has played a lot of years in Holland. We felt we needed to add some experience to this group. We have a really nice group of young players, and a really small group of older, experienced, veteran players and so we felt we needed to add more experienced players. And Rachid I think gives us that. He gives us someone who has played in the 4-3-3 system for a lot of years, and he’s a natural winger. So it adds depth and it adds competition for spots – no doubt.
KIR: For those who haven’t seen him play what specific on field skills does he bring? Is he a run at the defense kind of guy?
Kreis: He’s a little bit of a run at defense kind of guy. He likes to get the ball and kind of run at defenders a little bit. Come inside. Go outside. Good server of the ball. Good striker. Just a good, solid, technical player.
KIR: How do you see integrating him into the group, and how quickly do you see him getting action?
Kreis: He’ll be integrated just like anybody else. He’s already been around they guys, and they are all very familiar with him. He was with us in preseason. We have a great group of guys that welcomes people in so I don’t think that will be a problem. As far as how quickly he’ll be in the rotation that depends on him and the group.
KIR: What’s your first impression on fitness, and where he’s at?
Kreis: It’s a little bit difficult to tell just today on what we were doing. We’ll get a fitness test done pretty quick and find out. I know he’s been in the offseason and so it’s a concern. He’ll be on a different track of workouts than the rest of the group. He’ll be doing more.
