Safe to say that nobody associated with DC United is satisfied with the 3-12-3 record. The heat really had to be on Kevin Payne, Dave Kaspar, and Curt Onalfo from owner Will Chang.
Curt Onalfo is the low man on the totem pole in that list, so he took the hit. With a tenure that’s comparable to Conan O’Brien. Which is a shame really, the team play has been better, especially offensively, since the arrival of Hernandez and Boskovic. The play has been quicker, and not just from those two, they’ve elevated the play of those around them.
But for the first time in United history, a coach was let go in midseason. In the quotes during the aftermath as the dust settles, you hear things. Most of the time, it’s just a numbers game when this happens. Essentially it boils down to the fact that it’s easier to fire one coach (or staff) rather than replace the whole roster.
Quotes out of the front office are kind of strange on this, indicating that the players weren’t playing as hard as they can or that Curt lost the team. Maybe you need to see practices to get that feeling, or maybe it’s misinterpreting the level of talent of skill dropoff as a dropoff in intensity. Most of the team that’s assembled aren’t Onalfo’s, in fact only a small proportion is, notably: Talley, Morsink, Cristman, Hernandez, and Boskovic. Talley, Morsink, and Cristman aren’t the world’s most complete and capable soccer players, but their intensity and commitment to the team is undeniable.
In short, Onalfo came in late due to a comedy of errors and misjudgments, players were brought in before the coach, and he just got a raw deal before he could really get things turned around.
We’re all part of Ben’s (interim) Army
To make the coaching shuffle really strange, United passed over experienced Onalfo right-hand man Kris Keldermann, long time Assistant Coach Mark Simpson, former Assistant Coach and current Technical Director Chad Ashton in favor of fan favorite Assistant Coach Ben Olsen to take over for the remainder of the 2010 season as the interim head coach. Then they said that Ben isn’t under consideration to be the full time head coach. Still scratching your head? OK, so they moved Chad Ashton back to the bench, now creating the perfect meld of the Onalfo and Soehn coaching staffs.
Ben is tasked with three objectives:
- Win the Next Game
- Get the players to commit to the shirt the same way that he did
- Determine Which players want to play for United in 2011
The first and third just kind of seem like boilerplate objectives for a coach. And while the second is a nice goal, that’s quite a high bar to hit.
Right now is a desperate teetering point for United, a good August will make the games in September matter. Results in September makes it a race to the wire and the end of the regular season in October. But it starts now, and it’ll be exciting if things go in the positive direction. Conversely, it’ll be interesting to see how things go if things go in the negative direction.
Not to be pedantic or anything, but it’s ‘Boskovic’ and ‘Cristman’.
A very strange and sad day in DCU history. Onalfo was the fall guy for the team’s failings this year. He got a raw deal, IMO. He should bear some of the blame, but certainly not all of it.
Meant to proofread.
Using that all powerful hindsight, Curt should have been more aggressive in transforming the team.
Right now Tommy Soehn looks pretty darned smart for walking away at the end of last year.
Well, it’s not that surprising that they passed over Kelderman; if you don’t think the coach is hewing the right line, why promote the guy he picked as his assistant?
“Ben is tasked with three objectives:
* Win the Next Game”
Nothing like setting realistic goals.
“Get the players to commit to the shirt the same way that he did”
I’m sure that a big part of a coach’s job is to motivate, to inspire, and to give heart to players. And I would expect Ben to be good at all of that. But surely if the front office doesn’t have the skill or the resources to get the ship back on course (to continue the Titanic metaphor), and the team can see that, motivating players is going to be very difficult. That’s like telling the ship’s crew to jump overboard and fend off the iceberg with their bare hands.
“Determine which players want to play for United in 2011″
At this point, I would be surprised if any of them wanted to play for United next year. Again, with seemingly little interest on the bridge to righting the helm, I would expect the crew to be looking more to the lifeboats than to polishing the brass.