Former D.C. United coach Ben Olsen hired to lead MLS’s Houston Dynamo
United’s MLS season is on the horizon, and as the MLS season is a long, long way away from opening, D.C. United’s coach is already trying to figure out his team to win with.
Ben Olsen, who has spent the last 20 years coaching high profile soccer clubs, including in Europe, North America, and South America, is now the coach of the Dynamo. He was previously the manager of D.C., who finished 6-23 in 2013.
Olsen has now made that his first order of business as the head man. And he says it’s hard to come in and not say: I want to do this for the game, for the fans, and for the city.
He said the idea, though, when he was hired in September by owner and president Tod Leiweke, was just, let’s go for it. And when he came to the game, it didn’t take him long to figure it out.
“I think sometimes we’re a little bit too cautious, and thinking too much about how to build a team from the ground up, and maybe we get a little too far in one direction and it ends up not working,” Olsen said. “And I think sometimes we take some shortcuts and sometimes we don’t really do the right things to get closer to your ultimate objective. But with this team I wanted not to have to think about that. I wanted to just go for it.”
Before he was hired, Olsen interviewed with the media, took questions, and answered them. He even showed up in full uniform to talk to the team about the importance of the season.
“My biggest priority was to come in and talk to the players and the fans and really do what I thought would be the right thing for this club and what we wanted to be when I came into it,” he said.
In a press conference that Olsen held on Friday, he said he has to be able to work quickly because he’s been given several roster spots that need to be filled, as well as a handful of starters.
“That’s the most important thing is to get as many players as possible on this field by the time the season starts,” he said
