Onalfo in his own words

By: Herschel | August 6th, 2009

A few weeks back I wrote an entry on what I did not like about Curt Onalfo and his style of coaching. I was tough but I also tried to justify every one of my opinions on things I had seen on the field ever since he had taken over the team, especially in years 2 and 3. Well, the Coach did not share what I had written and went ahead and wrote me a very polite but strong e-mail about his take on what had said. I kept the e-mail to myself but did comment about it in a later entry. Now that the coach has been dismissed I figured that I would publish this e-mail so people would get a better idea of who Coach Curt Onalfo really is.

From the e-mail you can really feel the passion the man has for the team and how much he cares for the players he coaches; too bad circumstances as a whole (Coach/Technical Director/Players) did not produce a winning combination in KC since Mr. Onalfo as a person was very respectable and well liked and one can only hope for good things to happen to someone like that.

Don’t get me wrong, I have been advocating change for a long time and I do believe his firing was justified, but I just don’t think that he and his assistant were the only ones that should have gone through the door. He was responsible for what happened on the field: the handling of the players, the tactics, the decisions, etc, but he is only partially to blame on who is in the team and the players that were brought in. For this I also blame the Technical Director now coach Peter Vermes, and baring a great run for KC I believe he should be out the door at the end of the year, since he and Onalfo are responsible for the crop of players that are in KC today.

That being said, here is the e-mail from the Coach.

Herschel,

I just wanted to take a moment to say hello, express my dissatisfaction with your harsh comments and wish you well!

We are all entitled to our opinions and I while i respect yours I have to say your assessment of me, some of my players and the job that I have done with the wizards is extremely harsh and over the top…Keep in mind, I inherited the 2nd worst team in major league soccer and have made the playoffs two years in a row…one game from MLS cup in 2007 and two games away in 2008…not bad for a team that hadn’t made the playoffs the two previous years before I took over…I could only imagine your criticisms if we were a team that didn’t succeed two years in a row!!! : )

Moreover, I have put my heart and sole into the Kansas City Wizards and I take temendous pride in my work…I strongly believe in this group of players and know that this year we will exceed our accomplishments of 07 and 08 in a league that is extremely demanding and one that has tremendous paridy…

Like I stated earlier, we are all entitled to our opinions, and I dont expect you or anyone for that matter to aggree with everything i do BUT I would respectly ask that the next time you decide to sit in front of your computer and publicly display your dislike for me, my players and my team you take in consideration some of the facts above and you look at things with a little bit more objectivity…

Either way, I wish you nothing but the best and am glad you are so passionate about the Wizards!!

Take care,

Curt Onalfo
Head Coach – KC Wizards

Good Luck Curt and Kris. You both take care.