Fire Olsen

If he was coaching Cosmos B, one might question his judgment.

 

He wrote this last year (while he was coaching)

at the end of a very long blog post:
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/alecko-eskandarian-soccer-concussions/

 

Interesting to see our baseball cousins just fired Dusty Baker for failing to progress beyond the first round of the NL playoffs 2 yrs in a row. Wonder how long Olsen would have lasted if they owned United

 

Bring Back Bruce.

Ben, we love you. Can you coach the reserves?

 

What did the reserves do to deserve that?

 

Dusty Baker wins an average of 96 games a year during his two-year stay and is fired. Olsen/Ashton doesn't even come close to matching that record over many more years and is apparently untouchable. Discuss.

 

The Nats are ambitious. Olsen will absolutely complete the full year next season. Starting with a massive road trip provides him with yet another, "get out of jail, free," card. Where does Levien set the bar? Is making the playoffs enough? Is performance even the bar?

I suspect Levien doesn't care where they finish next season as long as the playoffs are made and every ticket is sold all season long. There may even be a semblance of a butts in seats measure. The only way I see him getting canned after the season is to not make the playoffs and not sell every seat.

 

his contract is guaranteed through when? 2018 or 2019? I think that plays a big part in their calculations.

I agree that there's already a couple of built-in excuses for next year.

I've decided to vote with my feet. Maybe I'll come back in 2019. FWIW, I know a pretty large number of STHs who are not moving on to the new stadium due to the prospect of paying more and having watched this team play terrible soccer for so long with little likelihood of that improving with the current leadership in place. Now that Bill is gone it's one more nail in the coffin.

I will be shocked if they meet their ticket sales goals.

 

In baseball playoffs matter largely because not everyone gets in. It's bigger news not to make the playoffs in MLS than to make them

 

Didn't know he had a long term contract like that. I guess it shouldn't surprise me, but it does. What other team is going to hire Ben away?

 

Harrisburg Islanders?

 

At least he would be close to home.But seriously, he and his family are so entrenched in DC it would be terribly hard for them to pull up stakes and move. Could he get a college gig nearby?

 

I thought the guaranteed him a front office position once he stops being coach

 

Montreal fired club legend Biello today.

 

Once he gets over the shame of discovering it's the equivalent of being tossed out of a 5.00 cathouse with a crisp new 50.00 in his hand. (That's true in both US and Canadian dollars), Dave Sarachan is available after the US friendly with Portugal in mid Nov assuming they don't decide to keep him on. He has the experience but does he want to be a # 1 again?

 

Dave Sarachan should only ever be an assistant coach. I'd say if you want to swap him in for Ashton fine, but not to replace Ben. He's a damn good assistant but I've seen nothing that indicates he's even mediocre at the head job.
If they're gonna replace Benny (and I'm not agreeing that they should) I hope it's not with a typical MLS retread. I hope it's a young guy (or gal) with new ideas.

As for the Nats firing their manager, I have not heard one "pundit" say it was a wise decision, they all seem to think it is just one of those usual un-long-term-thinking things that bad management is often fond of doing just to say they're doing something.
I hope they suck worse with the new guy.
I'm not a fan of baseball, never really have been but after our personal experience with the Lerners (other than the lovely smart lady who worked for United's FO for a bit, Sarah?) and the Nats while sharing RFK and watching their stadium deal implode ours, I have already seen them succeed way more than they deserve to so I'd like to see them shrink back into oblivion sooner rather than later. But that could just be me, I stay bitter for a long time sometimes

 

I'm with you. Throw in that because of the Nationals I lost my seats in section 219 I promised I wouldn't watch a live Nationals game until DC United got a stadium. Soon I'm going to have to find another reason not to watch them.

 

It's baseball. That's reason enough for me.

 

With the exception of one minor league game, I haven't watched a game since the early 90's.

 

I love baseball and the WS game last night was awesome. I understand that it's not for everyone, but it's not a bad sport. You guys just don't enjoy it based on your own, personal criteria. Just like some of those baseball fans don't enjoy soccer. A world does exist where some of us enjoy both.

 

Physics proves that such a world can't exist.

 

I'm a physicist that likes both baseball and soccer. What does that say to you?

 

That you live in a dream world.

 

I'm not here to defend Olsen/Ashton ... they should both obviously be without their current positions. However, Dusty Baker has a far superior squad than DC United. Coaching does not happen in a vacuum. Records don't exist in a vacuum.