Ben Olsen

if the Astros victory parade is tomorrow as planned, they are going to have to push this back a day or two.

 

Is there any link to this news conference on Tuesday? It’s like the club is hiding it from the fans

 

Super.
I'll cancel all my meetings for tomorrow then.

 

so the big announcement was that we extended Steres??

I'm at the "who gives f#ck" stage with this team already and it's not even the new season.

 

Confused. Big announcement suggests that they plugged the announcement of Steres ahead of time. They didn't. The only thing they plugged ahead of time was the Olsen announcement which was supposed to be yesterday but was postponed to today due to the Astros parade.

 

Not paywalled, I could not find a stream. Victor Araiza’s relaying of some of the questions and answers from Onstad and Olsen were not exactly responses that would fire up the fan base.

 

My points of interest from Araiza's recap:

1.) Onstad has me triggered by re-emphasizing the "proactive style of soccer."

2.) Olsen at least says he has the ability to hire his own staff. Onstad had in an
earlier interview said that he didn't see the need for a head coach to do that.

3.) Olsen says his style is "very defensive and not as pleasing to watch, but effective" but then immediately backtracks and says he's excited to have a "more proactive team", "more front foot, more exciting"

I'm left under the impression that we will have more attacking 4-3-3 shoved down our throats regardless of whether or not its effective.

My two cents for Onstad is to focus more on the "effective" then the "pretty to watch" part of the equation.

 

Id take Dom ball back (4-4-2 til I die) if it meant a top 4 West finish.

im left with the impression Onstad hired a coach he’d know that he could control, not necessarily the best coach

 

Olsen may tick the box of controllable, but I don't know. Maybe he can pick a fight and win it if the situation demands. I don't think the GM position as envisioned was initially an all-powerful role. It seems to me more like Jordan gradually accrued power over time by sidelining people like Canetti and then cemented it via booting Cabrera to the curb. That combined with Brener being hands-off and Walker being content to let Jordan run the on-field product into the ground to quixotically pursue maximizing revenue on a non-existent fanbase made the GM position what it is today.

That said, I don't see why that's a permanent situation. A vocal coach and more interested owner could pry power back out of the GM role. Olsen might already have won a fight over who gets to appoint the other coaching staff.

 

Best wishes to our newest Head Coach.

FOREVER ORANGE! and DALE DYNAMO!!!

 

remember when I was told to my face that "we have applications and interest from coaches who have managed in the EPL and have won here in the MLS"?

yeah, that was fun times

ps

there is no way in hell Olsen was the most qualified that applied for the job. This was about nepotism and cheap salary.

 

bullshit hire....we're moving backwards.

 

Or Ramos for that matter.

My frustration is through the roof seeing Olsen make all these quotes about having a pragmatic, defensive, hard-nosed grit it out style and then saying "that's not the goal here. I'm here to excite the fanbase."

This feels like I'm being trolled with the prospect of reviving our old identity before a "LOL JK! It's still high-pressing 4-3-3 and exciting attacking soccer!"

The way Araiza is phrasing this on Twitter, which may be suspect, almost comes across as Olsen pre-emptively making excuses for having to play Onstad's style. Just reads a lot of "My DNA is to play defensive, grit out wins and punch above our weight, but the boss wants me to play "Exciting Soccer." Sure hope that works out!"

 

I do appreciate Olsen speaking specifically on his days playing in MLS and what a trip to Houston to play our old Dynamo teams was like. It was a trip to the dentist if I paraphrase it. Well, he wants that to return.
Get on it Coach Olsen!

 

All this talk about the Dynamo needing to be "nastier." No team in MLS received more Y and R cards than the Dynamo in 2022. I don't know what that really means ... but I don't remember the problem with this team being "toughness" or "nastiness."

What I saw was a deficit in quality.

 

The idea that the current roster is good enough to compete for the playoffs, despite the fact this group has failed to do so year after year, is just pure delusion.

 

bingo.

italy is the only team i've seen pull it off - c. euro 2021 -- and they had a vicious swarming back 7 that would be ready to jump on passes like a team of tyler adamses. then a front 4 who could create goals by themselves, fairly high technical quality since they had no help -- the backs stayed home -- and they got only so many chances. they have to be awesome because when they get a chance it has to be accurately finished. that won't come cheap. the offense then got old and within a year they couldn't hold leads or even qualify for qatar.

marsch at leeds tries to do it and basically you ride it out for 30' and can then go end to end on tired players who can no longer effectively press. if you don't have a lead you get grinded down. his team is relegation bait right now. it isn't a panacea. it may actually be what bad teams do to try and win games they shouldn't.

we have maybe 1/4 of the necessary front 4 who would have to create the offense. sebas needs service and doesn't get it. we don't have the swarming mid defense. 2/3 of the mids we just signed, who would have to execute the important ballwinning part of the press, are overrated as defenders. the backline has some slow players and can't hold their own on their own end much less theirs.

more practically, running around like mad, in the front third, in 90F heat? we'll last 25 minutes. you then break through us and we look like last year.

as someone was saying, what's wrong with the 442? or something like it we see as evolved? say, leicester's counter approach? with sitting back in the heat? which is common sense.

is the idea they don't think they'll be as competitive but think they can buy us being more attacking? we're not snobs. it's generally the aloof yeti we're chasing that will be snobby about tactics and talent. our fans showed up in droves for practical winning soccer. story of the past several years is they don't want entertainment in lieu of results. so why is entertainment still a concern.

 

the mixed signals are comical, like Olsen gets halfway thru a candid answer then remembers what his scripted lines were.

he can’t say “I was brought on to scrape out 0-0 draws on the road and win 1-0 at home more often than not so we qualify 7th in the West for the playoffs”. Ben Olsen teams always seems to me to be Diet Kinnear soda - gritty, effort filled, usually not high dollar guys.