This Sunday our Houston Dynamo are 90 minutes away and on the verge of winning their 2nd consecutive Eastern Conference postseason title. It's a good achievement but the MLS Cup is the ultimate goal. Should they win the aggregate, I think they will not touch the conference championship because they did that last year. I've seen NHL hockey players being superstitious by not touching the conference trophy because they want to win and hoist the Stanley Cup.
This is actually quite interesting. All of this is written with full homage to the soccer gods and recognition that the Dynamo are probably at best 50/50 proposition to win the Eastern Conference right now. So this may all be academic...... In 2006 and 2007 the team did not celebrate their Western Conference Championships. They took the silverware from Max Bretos (I think), put it down, and headed back to work. I was in SKC last year and the team celebrated lustily the Eastern Conference Title. I remember at the time watching them and thinking: "That team is very satisfied with this accomplishment -- look how overjoyed they are. That is not a team that is hungry for more. I hope I'm wrong." I vote for little celebration. Very restrained. Show your respect to DCU and start focusing on the Cup. IF we prevail in the cup tie with DCU.
Lift it up for the pictures cause the league wants some kind of picture, and then put it down and start thinking about the MLS Cup. I don't want to be known as the back-to-back MLS Cup and Eastern Conference Champions, I want to be known as the THREE TIME MLS Cup Champions...
I'll probably be in the minority here, so I'll just go ahead and start by saying that I'm not superstitious. I like both hockey and soccer, but I don't care for the superstitions in either of them. Just my personal preference. That being said, I have no problem with the team celebrating if they win the Eastern Conference. For me, that's something to be happy about. Winning this series will get you a spot in the finals as well as a qualification for next year's CCL. Definitely something to be proud of. Notice I said happy, though, and not content. If any player on that team (or in the league for that matter) is content with anything but winning it all they don't have the right attitude. I think last year's celebrations might have been a by-product of all the adversity the team worked through just to win that game. If I remember correctly, that win even got a smile out of the Dom. I still laugh about him celebrating with Je-Vaughn Watson of all people, who looked like he just won the lottery. It will be interesting to see how the whole thing goes IF we win this time around. A conference championship is nice, but it's not what you'll be remembered for years down the road.
The team should not celebrate then they score a goal. That says, "I scored this goal. I'm satisfied." I want a team that is hungry for more goals.
The Dynamo should ignore the Eastern Conference trophy and definantely not touch it. If Garber tries to hand the trophy to Davis, he should jog away quickly. The Dynamo should try to avoid looking directly at the trophy as well. They should only see it through the corners of their eyes, or better yet, through hand mirrors. Should the Dynamo win the MLS Cup, if it pleases the sawker gods, then the two trophies can be joined. If the Dynamo should fall, then they need to bury the trophy at midnight in Livestrong Park or HDC.
We could just take a page out of the Texas A&M playbook at call last year's eastern conference title a title. Put it on the board!
I'm not superstitious either. I do the pre-game burrito and other "superstitions" because its fun but I really don't think it matters what the hell I do. But the question about celebrating the Conference Championship is not about superstition. It is about focus of the players. It is about immediately setting the tone for the next two weeks. It is about not eating the meal of satisfaction so you stay hungry.
I was on campus last week and noticed that on the side of the stadium and was like WTF? It was a three way tie for the South, how that it is a championship, I am not sure.
I was on the pitch and after the team took the cup over to the supporters section to display it, Danny Cruz and Calen asked me to take a photo of them holding the cup. Eddie stepped in and told them NO!!
Exactly, that's what they're supposed to do. You don't see the postman celebrating after he delivers your letters, do you?
No clue how one has to do with the other, but thanks for playing. FTR, I root for all Texas college teams, as I went to a school with no football team and was on the edge of my seat rooting for A&M this weekend.
Clearly the Dynamo have to wait 30+ years, join a new conference, and wait for someone to come up with a flawed mathematical formula that determines the champion based on a balanced schedule before they can do that.
I'm not a superstitious guy. Well let me rephrase that, I played all sports growing up save hockey and lax but in baseball, if your teammate is throwing a no hitter, NO ONE walks up to him in the dugout and congratulates him on his performance thus far. It is like "Hey Jimmy, how's that no hitter going?!?"...then the very next batter the next inning takes him yard. Simply put, it is a tradition seen in sports where men don't celebrate or "lift up" anything until the task is done done. Recently, we see champagne being popped when some team advances to the pennant series which i don't know when that shit started but it is silly. In a caveman sport that is pro hockey those captains handle the conference trophy but don't raise it up. They accept it, shake hands and go back to the locker room to prepare for the bigger cup to be battled for. I am of this camp for association football as well, I guess so is Eddie. Captains could take the Eastern Conf. trophy and shake hands respectfully and refocus on the Cup Final ahead.
Mario Lemieux was 2-for-2 in the Stanley Cup Finals. That is clearly not the Stanley Cup. As far as the Dynamo are concerned: if the soccer gods have bestowed upon us a team with the talent, work ethic, and pure dumb luck required to win the MLS Cup, it makes no difference whether or not they celebrate a purely and utterly hypothetical Eastern Conference title.
Interesting topic. If a DCU guy can weigh in... If I had any say in the matter I'd suggest a muted celebration for my club or yours as I think the conferences are an artificial construct to begin with. While making it to the Cup final is an accomplishment to be proud of, trophies should only be given to champions. I'd allow the captain to hold it up for the fans (DCU's in the stadium or Houston's watching at home) and then give it to someone to carry it off the field.
nice find-that is the old Prince of Wales trophy-the equivalent of our Eastern Conference piece of glass. Damn that is old school, Patrick Division stuff.