Other teams are (equally or close to as) bad with little talent relative to those at the top of the table or even DCU but had better records. There’s no vacuum here. Philly is shit but had a better year. New England is shit but had a better year. San Jose is shit but had a better year.
Yes, Philly, New England, San Jose are all shit. One just got walloped by 4 in the play-in game and the others did not make the playoffs either. Our team sucks. The comparisons between teams that all suck are worthless. None of those teams are the talent equivalent of Dusty Baker and the Nationals squad, which was the basis of the post. And that difference makes the Dusty Baker comparison with Olsen meaningless. There is enough on Olsen and the GM to decry without pointing to other non-comparable or generally worthless comparisons.
The Nats fired Baker despite making the playoffs, despite putting together a good team and improving players over time and despite having amazing regular season results. The lack of success Baker had is in the end game, the very end game. The gap between what was achieved and what needs to be achieved is miles longer for Olsen than Baker and yet here he is. With that Nats squad the expectation was high with years of trying to make it out of the first round. The expectation was at least round two and he failed. With this DC squad a reasonable expectation would be to at least compete for the very last spot in the playoffs. We didn’t even do that. The question is why is our tolerance so high for utter failure when we used to, not long ago, get good results. Why is making the playoffs in the bottom slot of 6 now even a marker for success? You really have to take a holistic view of things by viewing Olsen relative to all coaches who gve been sacked, good and bad alike.
With this squad the last playoff spot?!?!?! Not with the bunch of garbage roster that started the season. Now if Ariola, Stieber and Canouse were here all year then yes. They however came in at the summer transfer deadline, so no. You cannot suggest that a squad whose best choices in center midfield were Jefferys and Sarvas were capable of making the playoffs.
The expectation for the Nats is to make it past the 1st round? What DC do YOU live in? That team, for the past 5 or 6 years or so, has walked into the season with a realistic hope (certainly locally) of ending with a World Series championship with the talent available (expectation is too strong of a word). Not that they WOULD win it, but that they were certainly CAPABLE of winning it, and that was the goal ... so I would rather use And they havent gotten out of the 1st round. DC United, talent-wise, is a team that I have walked in every season expecting to not make the playoffs. United has been just what I thought. The Nationals have underachieved. Again, Ashton should have been gone YEARS ago. I said Ben should be out of here YEARS ago (hell, I took friendly fire here for saying point blank that he is an asshole on top of his coaching deficiencies). So I am not defending him. But the comparisons to Dusty Baker's situation are absolutely ludicrous.
Oops, I was editing that last message and forgot to remove the "so I would rather use" before I got called away for a meeting. That's what I get for screwing around with bigsoccer while at work.
31 years ago yesterday Sir Alex Ferguson became manager of Man U. Isn't he tired of retirement. A real challenge would be managing DC United with its MLS and ownership challenges.
Montreal FC just hired Frenchman Remi Garde as their new head coach. Previously, owner Joey Saputo said they had had discussions with " a Swiss; a Frenchman; a German; a Spaniard; two Italians; and three Argentines." So there are potential Benny replacements out there for sure.
That's what every under 4 coach tells his/her team on day one. All of you are potential candidates to replace Olsen as coach of United. Some of you are already overqualified
Wait till the Frog gives his first press conference in French and then finds out no one in Canada actually speaks it. Hope he likes mayo on his escargot
NE taps Brad Friedel as their new coach. Carlos Llamosa was released as Asst. Coach. Jay Heaps is still available!
The window of opportunity to win a World Series with the current Nats roster is closing. There defense was pathetic. Their bats obeyed up for these blunders in the regular season, not the playoffs. That fifth ending blunder is still historic; two outs and Nats pitcher throws strike three to end the inning with two on base. Pitch gets by the catcher, hitter's bat hits catcher in the face mask, runners advance while catcher runs back to get the ball. One run scores by the time the catcher finds the ball. Instead of tossing the ball to the pitcher who is now covering home plate, the catcher throws the ball to second to try and get the hitter who just technically struck out. That throw is wild and rolls into the outfield. The runner on third easily scores. Baker's defense should have ended an inning leaving two runners on base with the third strike and final out, instead the batter gets a double and two runs batted in all due to several mental errors. Time for change before it's time to rebuild.