DC United has announced Curt Onalfo as the team's new head coach, and I'm having a hard time getting excited about it.
Actually the emotion I'm feeling would be better described as "relief".
I don't know if the team is necessarily "settling" for Onalfo, but I'm relieved to have the coaching search done and behind us. Exciting or not, Curt Onalfo is certainly well qualified, and should be a capable coach for our immediate future.
What worries me a little is that Kevin Payne is citing Onalfo's "fluency in Spanish" and "familiarity with our community" as two of his positive traits. Sure, those things are nice, but neither was necessarily a box that needed to be checked during the decision process. Curt Onalfo's resume might be impressive (he's been a player, a national team assistant, an MLS assistant, and an MLS head coach), but I'm still waiting for someone to point out something good about Onalfo that wouldn't be found on his resume. Something intangible. Like how he's a great motivator, or how he has innovative drills focused on developing certain abilities. Anything!
Still, I've got my fingers crossed. And I'm confident that Curt Onalfo will be able to return DC United to the playoffs where they belong.
We demand more than that though. We demand cups. Time will tell soon enough if Curt Onalfo will be the man to help deliver them.
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4 comments:
He was not my first choice. Heck I wanted Paul Mariner. I have my season tickets reserved and I will show up and support DCU as always. I will give Coach Onalfo all my support unless he goes the way of Tom Soehn, I pray he takes us in the right direction!
Vamos United
I agree with all of your sentiments. I am not thrilled with his track record in KC, but I am hoping that he has learned from his mistakes there and is ready to make the next step into greatness here.
Long live the Coach.
I agree with your basic premises.
There's no reason to believe that Onalfo won't have improved as a result of his experience coaching the Wizards, and even a halfway competent coach should be able to get United to the playoffs.
On the other hand, I wouldn't go so far as expressing "confidence" in his abilities just yet . . .
I recall reading that when Onalfo took over the Wizards, he instituted some fitness tests that were considered unusual and cutting edge for MLS (stuff like heart rate monitors on each player, etc). So there's one thing that's a) potentially positive and b) not on his resume.
He also loves to go to a 343 when not winning, home or away, so we should at least prepare for exciting games.
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