Ben Olsen
Ben Olsen
Benjamin Robert "Ben" Olsenis an American former professional soccer player and the current head coach of D.C. United. Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Olsen grew up playing for FC Delco, an elite club program near Philadelphia. He later attended the University of Virginia, when he was named 1997 Soccer America Player of the Year...
ProfessionSoccer Player
Date of Birth3 May 1977
CityHarrisburg, PA
team
You look at their lineup and it's a whole different team. It's a team you know you have to respect.
bet national people
I bet a lot of people didn't think I would be back on the national team.
explosive fit knows local might player type
He's an explosive type of player who might fit in with this team. He's a local boy, so he knows how to get to practice.
biggest deal goals guys kept league remind
I kept having to remind the guys that I had scored goals in this league before, ... They all thought it was the biggest deal in the world for me.
bubble fill gets guy healthy injury knows needs obviously people realistic several spots trouble trying
I'm trying to be realistic about this thing and I'm obviously a bubble player. Where I am on that bubble is up to Bruce. If people don't get healthy and he needs a guy who can play in several positions, he knows I can fill in those spots if he gets into injury trouble with the other guys.
battle fought good happens intensity played soccer time year
It's that time of the year when the intensity is raised. It happens every year, and I think we responded very well. We fought the battle and we also played some pretty good soccer in the meantime.
against atmosphere bit builds character excited games good redeem remembered saw taste type win
It's going to be loud, it's going to be festive, it's going to be fun. When you look back at your career, these type of games are going to be remembered -- the trip, the fans, everyone against you. If you can win in a good atmosphere like that, it builds a lot of character for a team. I'm excited to see how we respond. We saw it in the Pumas game, so we got a taste of it, and we're champing at the bit to redeem ourselves.
biggest deal early good success
It's still early, and being in first place right now isn't the biggest deal in the world. But it is the two first-place teams. We know they've had some early success and they're a good team, as good as they come right now -- and I think they know we're as good as it comes right now.
belong cup prove
Everybody's here to prove that they belong on the World Cup team.
beat beautiful maybe passion rivalry side stuff team
It's just D.C.-MetroStars stuff -- that's how they all are and that's how it's going to be. That's the beautiful side of a rivalry -- it's heated, there's passion and maybe you want to beat them more than another team because it's such a heated rivalry.
game ideal played soccer
It's not ideal ... but we'll see. It's still a soccer game out there; I've played in a couple. It should come back pretty quickly.
decisions facing game hard lessons manage overtime sudden wrong
The way we manage the game has to be better. Those were some hard lessons -- hard ones to swallow. When you do something wrong at this level, all of a sudden you're in overtime and facing PKs down a man. Some of the decisions we made were not good; it's that simple.
focus guilty maybe move nowhere playoffs tough
Sometimes it's tough when you are already in the playoffs and there is nowhere to move up or down to maybe focus as much. I think we were guilty of that tonight.
against best chance entire focus gets guy hang league minutes plays sudden
He plays very well against us every time, and he's a handful. He's one of the best forwards this league has ever seen, and he's going to do what he does. We need to not give him chances, and be aware, because he's a guy who can hang out for 30 minutes or 80 minutes, and then all of a sudden he gets that one chance and you're down 1-0. We need to focus on him the entire game.