For the fiery and intense Mike Petke, it was a tortuous, sudden and unquestionably shocking end to his time at Real Salt Lake. The former New York Red Bulls head coach is renowned for his outbursts, his explosive tendencies, his propensity to lose his temper, his calm, his cool, and every other mature quality that a modern-day manager should possess.
Real Salt Lake knew what they were getting into when they hired Petke, and in fact, the club even embraced his hard-nosed style somewhat, playing up to what his proprietors would delineate as ‘passion’, not ‘abuse’.