Onalfo Out, Olsen In

D.C. United today has terminated Curt Onalfo as the head coach of the club and replaced him with Ben Olsen as interim manager.

Full story :http://www.dcunited.com/press-release/2010/08/ben-olsen-named-interim-head-coach?r=DL

Personally, I don’t think this was the right move. To me this is the people responsible for United’s poor play and lack of result projecting the blame onto Curt Onalfo who has done nothing but his best for the club. Was Onalfo’s best working? No, it wasn’t but he was never given the right tools to succeed. United did have a promising pre-season but everyone knows that a team’s success can not be based upon pre-season results. Look at the Detroit Lion’s perfect season a few years ago... they won every preseason match and then lost every regular season match. If United truly wants to rebuild, Will Chang needs to replace all the decision makers in the front, they are the ones responsible for building this team.

Olsen as an interim coach, was this a good move? Yes, I truly think this is a good move. Olsen has nothing to lose here. He came on as an assistant coach under Onalfo after retiring in 2009 and coming in as interim he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. If Olsen gets results and United’s season turns around (highly unlikely) he will be kept as head coach and on the other hand if he fails to get results he will just be put back as an assistant again.

Was this the way to right the ship for United? Only time will tell with this one. Ben Olsen was a fantastic player and has the respect of everyone on the team and fans because of his heart. Replacing Onalfo with Olsen will not change the fact that this team can not compete in MLS. At least the Open Cup still looks promising.