This spring, with the novel coronavirus pandemic altering — and ending — lives, Olsen said he has gained a greater appreciation for those closest to him, for those fighting the virus on the front lines and for a career in sports.

“I am very lucky,” he said during a conference call this week with about a dozen reporters. “I have a job. My family is healthy. There is food in the cupboards."

With fields around the city closed, he and his family play games in their small backyard in the District’s Shaw neighborhood. By moving trash cans, the alley behind their rowhouse transforms into an obstacle course.

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“I am able to focus on being a husband and a father right now in a time when I am not usually a good husband and father,” he said. During the season, “I am looking through my children rather than at them.”

They have gone on hikes and had regular sit-down dinners.

“So much time and energy and emotion is put into the season that sometimes the family doesn’t get the love and attention they need,” he said. “It’s been eye-opening.”

He spends more time home-schooling than working on tactical formations.

“I’m trying to relearn fractions [rather] than watching the Miami game over and over and over.”

When he needs time alone, he withdraws to his private space at a nearby art studio to paint.

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It’s a radical change for someone who has been affiliated with United more than half his life. Olsen, who turns 43 next month, was a midfielder for 12 seasons, an assistant coach for eight months and the interim coach for three-plus months before accepting the top job before the 2011 season.

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He is the longest-tenured coach in D.C. pro sports — by a wide margin — and the second longest in MLS (behind Kansas City’s Peter Vermes).

These days, though, “I would be lying to you if I said I wake up at 7 in the morning and put three hours of film on of our third preseason training to watch [striker Ola Kamara’s] movement in the box for an hour."

The specter of the crisis is not lost on the kids, who range in age from 5 to 11.

Olsen and his wife, Megan, are “constantly reminding the children there are a lot of people out there doing great things in a very tough time. … I am constantly thinking about others not in the situation I am in.”

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Olsen’s thoughts are also with his younger sister, Erin, a mother of five in greater Philadelphia who this past winter was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Since the coronavirus outbreak, he has not been allowed to visit her because she is high risk.

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Though MLS is on hiatus — the training moratorium expires Friday but will be extended — Olsen monitors the players and looks ahead to someday restarting the season.

He is part of a weekly video conference and speaks regularly with captain Steven Birnbaum and others. The training staff provides workout programs for the players.

“Our priority has [been] — and will be until we get back — the safety of our players and making sure they are in the right environment to stay healthy and [stay] fit,” Olsen said. “We live in a business of control, and we try to control everything: diet, training loads, you name it. To not be able to do that is a little bit frustrating.”

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Amid a global crisis, Olsen said, “there is no playbook” for dealing with players.

He said people have been telling him how much they miss sports.

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“It’s a strange thing because the priority of sports in this moment is low, but at the same time, it is a big part of the fabric of our country. We look to sports during these types of times,” Olsen said, citing the return of competition after the 2001 terrorist attacks. “In some ways, [sports] helped heal.”

Whenever activities resume, MLS will conduct several weeks of training camp.

Until then, Olsen said, “We believe we can keep [the players] at a certain level for a couple weeks, couple months, whatever it is, so when we do return, we’re not back at zero.”

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The shutdown impacted not only the training and match schedule; it also disrupted United’s intensive search for new players before the current transfer and trade window closes (May 5) and the next one opens (July 7).

“Our priority right now,” Olsen said, “is the group we have.”

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The interruption will impact MLS’s financial health, just as it will hit other pro leagues. For Olsen, who witnessed firsthand MLS’s struggles in the early 2000s and rapid growth the past 10 years, the future is not in question.