Maybe the most highbrow post ever to grace DC United, but without smoking Gauloise cigarettes, Sartre doesn't work
I disagree, if you’re DC United. It’s no big deal if you have the checkbook of ATL, or either New York club, or Toronto. That leaves 2 spots in a normal season now, so if you’re one of the other teams in the East, if you make he playoffs, you’ve done a good job as an organization.
Bruce Arena was in attendance at AF last night for the United v United match. Wonder if his presence had a motivational factor on Benny?
Cool. That's at least twice now. I'm hoping he gets hired as Director of Soccer Operations, or some other lofty sounding title, and let Kasper return to balancing the books. I doubt Bruce wants the daily grind of coaching, but directing the club he and Payne created could be very satisfying. "The circle would be complete." asitis
Having a guy running the show who can step in as coach should the incumbent get hit by a truck is a plus. No more who do you replace him with.
His post game comments were confusing. We all understand that if Montreal had shooting boots the game would’ve been different but he didn’t seem to appreciate the win, speak to the goal of the 6 point swing, praise anyone, etc. Weird. James
We;ll see how the team responds. Maybe it is a way to have the team look for areas of improvement after a blow out win. Maybe it was Nick Sabanesque.
I was listening to the RFKRefugees podcast this morning and they made a case for Ben Olsen as coach of the year and all I could picture were heads in here exploding. It make me grin.
The truth is that Bob Bradley should be the consensus COTY. You can't give it to Armas because he's only been there a few weeks. You shouldn't give it to Tata because Bocanegra could have pulled a stranger off the street and they would have coached that team into the playoffs. Vermes is Vermes. But here's the case for Olsen, assuming they make the playoffs which is far from assured right now: Olsen started with a bad team, was given a catastrophically difficult schedule, major injuries and tons of adversity, and STILL was able to succeed. That would be pretty remarkable. But make the damn playoffs first.
That's because Rooney is out of the running on a technicality. NTL, atta boy Ben, no go for back to back
Who's responsible for designing and implementing our high pressure? It started before Rooney came, but its success was hit or miss because the final guy (Mattocks) doesn't have a soccer brain, and that caused Acosta to be lackadaisical about it. Now with Rooney being the final guy, the high press is much more successful, but it was here before him. So who on the coaching staff came up with this? Even if its just a copy of what some other teams do, it still has to be taught by someone on the chalk board and walk thru it in practices.
I would’ve loved to see that conversation. At least he is smart enough to know when to step back. James
We're now like an NBA team, where the star can fire the coach. And that's not necessarilly a bad thing. Wayne wouldn't have come here if he didn't feel he could have a good working relationship with Ben. But now that he's here on a fairly long-term contract, Wayne will decide whether Ben stays or goes. I have no doubt that after this season, and every season, the owner will ask Wayne whether to keep Ben. And that will be that. I can see why Wayne likes Ben. Whatever his other shortcomings, he's a player's coach who doesn't put his own ego above the needs of the team. The question will be whether in Wayne's judgement Ben's easygoing approach gets the best performance out of the mixed bag of players around him.
Considering our team is mostly a bunch of cast-offs from other teams, Ben's approach seems to have been the best. He's begun to recognize their strengths and gets them like each other and fight for each other out there on the field. And they tend to over-perform. The real question is what happens when we get more real talent on the team besides just Acosta and Rooney. First cast-off 2 or 3 defenders. And then get a bona fide 2nd forward who has a soccer brain. And then another great mid-fielder. Then an actual experienced quality coach might be necessary to take them to the championship level.
Do you seriously believe there is no other "talent" on this team? Not Arriola? Asad? Canouse? Hamid? Stieber? Mattocks? These are not exactly a "bunch of cast-offs." A couple years ago this club was pretty bare...and they were awful. While they still have holes there is some quality to build upon here...and they are winning. Funny how coaches get better when you hand them some weapons.