Philadelphia Union interim Head Coach Ryan Richter led the team to back-to-back wins in his first pair of matches as the team’s leader, becoming just the second coach in Union history to do so.
Following the six-point swing up the standings at Subaru Park, Richter caught up with Senior Digital Club Reporter Sage Hurley over a cup of Rival Bros coffee to discuss the team's solid start and preview his hopes for what’s to come.
Thank you for joining me after what's been a very very busy week for you!
Thanks for having me on. I've always been a big fan of this this coffee with coach program, so I'm honored to be on it.
Back-to-back wins in your first two matches as the team's interim Head Coach. You're the second union coach to ever go unbeaten in their first two matches at the helm. Has to feel like a pretty solid start?
It was good! Obviously, two wins is the way that you want the results to go, and how you hope that the the second half of the season would have started.
 I'm proud of the way that the guys worked together, the mentality that they showed, and they got rewarded with two wins.
In order to talk about the present, we have to dive into your past. You've been involved in every part of this organization as a player, an academy coach, Union II head coach, first team assistant, now first team interim. How has your experience helped shape your approach to this role?
I've been lucky enough to pretty much work with every age group from the U-8s to the first team, and I was lucky to have a lot of great mentors, a lot of great coaches to learn off of, and a lot of great experience because of everything that every opportunity that this club gave me. I hope that they feel like I earned every step of the way there. But mostly, the players, the families, the people that I worked with on a day-to-day basis, I learned so much, and now, you know, you hope that you can do a good job in this new role.
When the union posted that photo of you and Cavin in a huddle many many years ago, and then the two of you after a win this week, was that a pretty cool moment to see the growth of both of you together?
It's great. I mean, I think that was the first group that I coached with the Union. I think Cavan was eight years old when that picture was taken, and then I coached him at U-11, U-15, then the second team. So, I've seen him grow up into the player that he is right now. At still only 16, he's still a kid in my eyes, and I'll still look at him like he's that eight-year-old kid in the picture.
The one thing that never changed with him is, he was so driven even from a young age. He wanted to be great. He loves the game. His mentality is outrageous for a young kid, and his confidence. You hope that every player has that kind of drive, and you only hope as a coach that you don't mess that up. You try to help them along the way, and now that he's taking the steps, in his professional career, I hope I can do the same. Get out of his way, give him some pointers, and keep him on the right path forward.
Over the past week, quite a few players have been asked what it's like to play for you. Many have mentioned how the hard work on the training field has impacted the games, the resurgence of that Philly mentality and grit. But another two words that players have used quite a bit are freedom and joy. Where do those ideas come into play with your coaching style?
First, I would say I hope that they're not playing for me. I hope they're playing for each other, and myself and the coaching staff were just a part of that to to guide them and give them a structure that they can play out of.
I hope that they're playing for each other more than they're playing for any coach. As far as freedom and joy - I don't know about that. What one of my mentors told me, my biggest mentor, Ian Monroe, is that your job as a coach is to put the players in a shape and a position that you only see their strengths. So that's what I try to do: put them in a position where they can show what they're good at, that you're asking them to do what they're good at, and trying to hide some of their weaknesses and and get them on the same page together. So that's what I try to always do. I don't know if that makes them feel free or happy. I hope it does, but like I said, it's for us to try to help them get out of their way, show their best, fight for each other.
And the only thing I ask of them is that we have to have this competitive spirit every day because, even on the training field, I hate to lose. I hate to lose in everything, and I love to see that that fighting spirit. I'm a strong believer that if you work like this every single day, it becomes easy, and you come together like that on on the matchday on the weekend. So that's the part that I hope that I can give them is that that competitive spirit, because that's what I strongly believe, and I can't control it anyway. So it doesn't really matter whether it's my message or not. They feel that energy for me because that's the way that I approach my career. That's the way I approached coaching kids. That's the way I approach coaching coaching pros. Trying to push them every day to be more and more competitive and and push each other forward.
17 more MLS matches to go, Leagues Cup, and then if all goes to plan, a playoff push. Has there been a moment over the past two weeks, or even over the past two months, that's made you even more excited about what's to come for this team?
Yeah, every time that I get asked this question about what's possible in the future, or the League's Cup or this, it's like -- we play Atlanta on Saturday and my reminder to myself, to the staff, to the team is that the position that we're in, we're taking it one game at a time, and just because we won two games, that doesn't that doesn't change. We stay the course and the focus for this weekend, keep preparing like that, and then the rest of the stuff if we do a good job in this going game to game or week to week, then that part will take care of itself. But let's build on the positive momentum that we got from the last two games. I think you feel the energy from the fans and the energy in the stadium of feeling some positivity, which is nice. But let's put all that energy and all that focus into the game against Atlanta this weekend.
