Caught in Possession

When I visited RFK on Wednesday to chat with some DC United players in advance of Saturday night's home match against the K.C. Wizards, I was fortunate to get a little time with Ben Olsen. Olsen is usually -- and understandably -- reluctant to talk to media too much these days, since with his ankle troubles he's spent virtually no time on the field this season and would prefer to direct attention to the guys who have.

But Benny is obviously one of the most engaging personalities on the team and his insights on the game remain as sharp as ever. We talked briefly about United's recent struggles and he offered the following observations.

"The obvious part of it is, we got some big guns out. We need those back. I think this team believes in the reserves and players that haven’t gotten much time, but with that comes a loss of cohesiveness...

But saying that, I think we need to start gutting out some wins. If it isn’t working soccer-wise, we can still kind of get the other stuff right, the marking and the fighting and the things like that. I’ve seen a lot of teams go through injury stretches and gut out wins, gut out results until the guys that have gotten us those eight wins in a row get back."

After a gritty but effective display like this, I think it's safe to say, "mission accomplished," for now.