He's only 37, has no head coaching experience, and was named as Kansas City's new head coach barely more than a month ago. Yet Curt Onalfo spent the last three years as Bruce Arena's assistant with the U.S. national team and interviewed for the Toronto FC job before being picked by the new Wizards' management group. He was in Florida last weekend assessing talent at the MLS Players Combine.

Interview by Ridge Mahoney

SOCCER AMERICA: Aren't you behind the rest of the league in getting ready for the SuperDraft and the 2007 season, seeing as you were hired in late November?

CURT ONALFO: I was focused since July on getting a job in MLS, so I at least took the steps to make sure I was prepared for the draft, assuming I would get a job. I have seen plenty of college games myself and I had other people, kind of like a scouting network, in place, and our technical director Peter Vermes did exactly the same thing.

We feel very, very prepared. In fact, I feel more prepared than I did when I was in the league before. From that standpoint, we feel good.

SA: So you believe that the scouting players during the season is far more important than the combine, as convenient as it is.

ONALFO: I think it's crucial. I don't think you can rely on just three days of soccer, especially where a lot of guys haven't played and some of them aren't in great form. It's not their fault, they just haven't played games. It would be very nanve to base all your assessments on what you see at the combine.

We put a lot of stock in the research and the network of people that we have to help us be prepared going in.

SA: Having watched a few days of the combine action, what's your assessment?

ONALFO: There's certainly some players that are going to help in the league. The under-20 players aren't here, but I think any time you look at these things it's hard to make an assessment that the talent isn't that great, that kind of stuff. I've seen players who I believe will develop into good players in the future.

SA: Heading into the draft, knowing that Josh Wolff has left the league to play in Germany and you've already acquired goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, how does the roster shape up?

ONALFO: We have a veteran group of players, a lot of players with good experience. Certainly, Davy Arnaud and Eddie Johnson are key components, and so is Scott Sealy. We have young players like Yura [Movsisyan] who hopefully will be able to contribute if they develop the way we believe they can.

We have experienced players in the midfield in Sasha Victorine and Kerry Zavagnin to name a few, and we have an experienced back line with [Jose] Burciaga, Jimmy [Conrad] and Nick Garcia. They are all key guys.

SA: Despite a talented roster, this team has missed the playoffs two straight seasons. Any guesses as to why?

ONALFO: Last season, you had the disruption of the World Cup and three players [Wolff, Johnson, Conrad] missing a lot of the time. I think it's a good roster and for some reason they underperformed. I don't even want to get into why.

I have a feeling a lot of it had to do with the uncertainty that was around the team. We're not really concerned with that. We're concerned about is now and the future. We feel Kansas City has a good core of players and we don't want to rip it apart. We want to add some missing pieces. We've already done that and we're going to continue to do that.

SA: How can you get Eddie Johnson back on the beam?

ONALFO: First of all, at the end of the day, the most important thing is Eddie wants to get it right. We have a working relationship. We've worked together the last three years with the men's national team. There's a mutual respect.

I don't anticipate that will be an easy thing. He's been plagued with injuries and has had distractions here and there. It's an important year for him. I've had initial conversations with him and we feel confident that he's going to respond.

With the national team, there's very few guys who need motivation. Having a guy on a daily basis is much different. But Eddie is a good person and a good soccer player. He has a lot of potential and it's my job and that of the coaching staff to help him achieve that. But at the end of the day it's going to be up to him.