Soehn = wRongen

[Eastern Bear]

nm...

[JeremyEritrea]

Worse than Rongen, IMO

[Darth Norteño]

It's a bit odd that our worst football has been played under coaches whose surname ends with the letter N...

[DaPrince84]

It's a bit odd that our worst football has been played under coaches whose surname ends with the letter N...
all of United's coaches have had an N in their last name... thats strange...

[Barbara]

Worse than Rongen, IMO

Really?

And, in hindsight, was the problem really Rongen or was it aging star players? Because it's not like getting rid of him was a miracle cure or anything.

[Publius]

Really?

And, in hindsight, was the problem really Rongen or was it aging star players? Because it's not like getting rid of him was a miracle cure or anything.

The salary cap fire sale in that era smelled of panic and may have left the team too young for its own good in '01-'02. The strange thing is that many of the payers jettisoned back then still had productive years left in them in MLS.

I don't know that the current team has any salary cap pressure that makes it necessary to break it up but it doesn't seem that we've got much to offer in a trade unless we're purposely trying to completely rebuild from scratch. That would also presume we had a front office that knew what it was doing with the draft.

[McOwen]

The idea is an insult to Rongen.

Rongen actually won a championship.

[Eastern Bear]

The idea is an insult to Rongen.

Rongen actually won a championship.

You're probably right, but I can't remember the last time I had this much venom flowing through my veins with regards to our coaching.

[dashiel]

The idea is an insult to Rongen.

Rongen actually won a championship.

rongen won a championship with arena's team though. once he started to insert his influence the team went downhill. i know it won't make you guys feel any better, but i think chivas is in the same boat.

[Agent Zero]

Don't they both have the same first name.

No more Toms plz.

[griffin1108]

The difference is that Soehn appears clueless. Rongen always had a "plan", maybe not one that anyone could figure out, but a plan. He also believed in developing players. In that sense, Soehn appears more like Hudson, without the interesting quotes and sideline behavior.

[Knave]

I think griffin1108 is onto something. Even at his worst I always felt like Rongen had a pretty good soccer mind. There was just a huge chasm between what Rongen thought and his ability to get that out of his players. I'll always remember that quote from Presthus about how Rongen always said exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time. I think by the end the team tuned Rongen out because he just couldn't manage them as people in a way that worked. Soehn's problem seems different to me becauese of the way he gets outcoached in almost every single game. That says to me, although he may know the game better than us internet nuts on the board, the other coaches in MLS know the game a lot better than him.

[autogolazzo]

The idea is an insult to Rongen.

Rongen actually won a championship.


Rongen also had a hell of a lot more coaching experience than Soehn, who didn't have any.

Soehn is basically like the guy who replaced Dean Smith for UNC basketball or the guy who replaced John Thompson Sr. at Georgetown. Or, how about this one: Steve Sampson.

Never hire - for a professional head coaching position - a person from within the system who has never had professional head coaching experience.

[SixKick]

Never hire - for a professional head coaching position - a person from within the system who has never had professional head coaching experience.

Why not? Dominic Kinnear, Steve Nicol, Denis Hamlett, and Preki have all done pretty well for themselves.

[mcontento]

The idea is an insult to Rongen.

Rongen actually won a championship.

He actually won the league double, SS + MLS Cup Championship. That's only been done 4 times in MLS history.

[Section106]

I know I'll get flamed for this but I thought Rongen did well with what he had. Had he been given more time to develop the young players, like Stephen Armstrong, I think we would've seen a really good team out there.

DCU's roster was blown-up due to the salary cap. I doubt Rongen would've failed had he been able to coach those same players. I was there for the bad years and Rongen's team didn't give up. This season's team gave up after the loss to Pachuca. I thought it was the schedule but these guys just gave up. that is why the coach needs to go. If he can't motivate them then what's the point?

[marek]

rongen won a championship with arena's team though


Arena couldn't win the championship in his last year with Arena's team

as far as i'm concerned Rongen won his championship with DC United

[Winoman]

Arena couldn't win the championship in his last year with Arena's team

as far as i'm concerned Rongen won his championship with DC United

As far as I know, there are no asterisks next to Rongen's name on the list of coaches who have won MLS championships (*He won with someone else's team). I wouldn't want him back as head-coach, but the man did win a MLS cup.

[mcontento]

As far as I know, there are no asterisks next to Rongen's name on the list of coaches who have won MLS championships (*He won with someone else's team). I wouldn't want him back as head-coach, but the man did win a MLS cup.

He's also the only coach to lead two different teams to the most regular season points (since there was no SS in 1996 I'm not sure we can say he lead two teams to win the SS)

I'm with you I doubt I'd ever want him back to coach but I have to say he is perhps the most under appreciated coach in terms of what he actually won in MLS history.

The guy clearly has a great soccer mind and knows how to win, he just has a problem of keeping his team over time, but then again isn't that the same complaint on Nowak in 2006 that his style caused him to lose his team in the end?

[Marco10]

The Supporter's Shield is retroactive. Rongen can claim two.

But, this equating Cups to the previous coach is interesting. Does that mean Nowak won the Cup with Hudson's team?