Ben Olsen Deserves Another Chance, But Houston Dynamo Job Not Ideal

It’s hard to remember a new coaching hire in MLS that will be more poorly received by a club’s own fans than Ben Olsen reportedly becoming the new coach of the Houston Dynamo. Almost as hard as remembering when such a reaction was so predictable.

It’s not that Olsen doesn’t deserve a second MLS head coaching job, which The Athletic first reported Friday he is set to receive in Houston.

Olsen was largely responsible for keeping D.C. United relevant for a decade in which there was below-average investment in the roster, and while the team played in a below-average facility until Audi Field finally opened in 2018.

His overall 134-87-153 MLS record (W-D-L) is genuinely impressive given the rosters he managed, as is his ability to reach the playoffs in six of 10 seasons in the nation’s capital. United had missed out on the playoffs in all three years prior to his hiring. They have now missed them in each of the two seasons since his firing.

But Olsen — fairly or not — also has the reputation of a manager who can do more with less but not more with more, whose tactics aren’t particularly progressive and who generally loses on the big stage. His biggest successes came in years when little was expected of D.C., and his biggest disappointments (think 2013, 2017 and 2019) in years when the club was expected to build off achievements of a season before. He went 0-1-4 in the playoffs in his last five years on the job.

And if there was ever a description of the kind of situation where Olsen could be unfairly judged in his second bite of the MLS apple (pun intended), it’s in Houston.

As the only MLS club in the nation’s fourth-largest city and one of its largest Latino communities, the Dynamo have the profile of a sleeping giant. And when when Ted Segal took over as majority owner midway through the 2021 season, he promised spending and performance of an awakened one.

At best, Olsen’s hire signals to most fans that such promises are without a detailed vision. Olsen’s previous career suggests he may be able to restore the Dynamo to a regular playoff contender, but little more. And it’s unclear if that would move the needle in a city enormously passionate about the game, but also particularly for clubs on the other side of the border in LigaMX.

At worst, some from the outside could interpret this as a hire born in a small network of familiarity by general manager Pat Onstad, at a time when he hasn’t yet earned the luxury for the fanbase to trust his decisions.

The former Canada national team goalkeeper was Olsen’s first goalkeeping coach from 2011 to 2013. Olsen’s last goalkeeping coach, Zach Thornton, is now on the staff of the Dynamo. Although not on the Dynamo payroll, Houston native and resident Bobby Boswell is also a key figure in both Dynamo and United club history, and played with Olsen the player from 2004 to 2007 and for Olsen the coach from 2014 to 2017. In

Regardless of the real reasons Olsen is being hired, it’s understandable for Dynamo supporters who have seen one playoff appearance since 2014 to be suspicious given thee circumstances. It’s one thing to get a band together again, but another to do so when that band. But what exactly has that band achieved before?

Furthermore, Olsen was permitted to reach most of his achievements at D.C. in part because of his emotional connection to the club. As a player, he won two MLS Cups at D.C. and remains the team’s second all-time appearance leader, a history that helped him weather a miserable 2013 in particular. He has no such clout in Texas, narrowing his margin for error even further.

And lastly, Olsen is the first full-time Dynamo manager who isn’t a fluent Spanish speaker since Owen Coyle followed U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Dominic Kinnear. Being bilingual certainly isn’t a requirement to have success as an MLS manager. But in a heavily bilingual market, it’s just another way Olsen doesn’t fit the hypothetical job description for the ideal Dynamo manager job description.

Olsen may prove Dynamo fans wrong and not only improve the club in the short term, but build long-lasting success superior to what he achieved in D.C. But the optics of all this probably mean fans are going to give him a much shorter rope than they might have given a different hire.

That’s far from ideal at a club with only whose starting point is one playoff appearance since 2014, and whose majority owner and general manager are only in their second seasons in the role. Sleeping giant or not.

From Olsen’s perspective, maybe this is one of the few jobs he had serious potential to land. Or maybe the familiarity those he is working with is more important at this juncture than the ability to survive over the long term. But if the goal is proving he is more than the manager he was at D.C. United, the situation in Houston isn’t the best launching platform.