WASHINGTON – Ben Olsen winced as he ambled over to speak to a few members of the media at the close of a D.C. United training session last week.
The decade-long litany of debilitating ankle injuries that forced him to evolve from a flying winger to a cagey holding midfielder, and eventually ended his playing career altogether, still trouble the 38-year-old today. Though on this occasion, he has himself to blame for more soreness than usual.
Olsen had pedaled his bike on a loop through the city the night before, he explained, and stumbled onto a pickup game in D.C.'s Adams Morgan neighborhood. Even after nine surgeries on those troublesome ankles, he still craves a chance to play, and so he waded into the action among a multinational group that is typical for this diverse global capital – and when the game's intensity “escalated,” in his words, he was always going to feel the consequences the next day.
“I just needed to get out of the house,” said United's head coach with a trademark wry grin. “I just needed to take a bike ride. And sometimes I find myself in bizarre circumstances in this city.”
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Some observers have mocked Olsen for what they view as tactical simplicity. However, Magee – who served under respected Portland Timbers boss Caleb Porter before moving to D.C. – sees it differently.
“I've been astounded at how instinctual he is, in terms of managing people and managing games,” he said of Olsen. “One of his great strengths is, he doesn't think he knows everything. He empowers people who he feels do a good job.
“His ability to sniff out when guys are heading down a wrong path or when their confidence needs a boost or when they need a kick in the ass – I think he's incredible at that. That's not something you can teach; it's a way that you know people and you sense people and you figure out what they need. And he's as good as anybody at that, that I've been around.”
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For the rest of Charles Boehm's profile on Ben Olsen, head over to FourFourTwo.
