I heard someone say a bird was on the field, but a sprinkler head makes more sense. My problem with Arnaud was exclusively his turnovers. When Korb made that poor pass, watching him try to recover it was like watching ice melt. So with my team down two goals in the early stages, I did what any long time hard core fan knows to do to ensure goals: I left to go to the bathroom and get food. It was 2-1 when I got back. Funny thing about that pk. I was in line listening to the crowd and I thought, that's not a goal but it sounds like a pk, or maybe a card. Then I heard the second sound and I knew it was a missed pk. Goes to show how much soccer I've watched and how many times I've watched a game at RFK. So I took my 5 yo son, who wanted to cheer so I taught what you folks on the loud side sang. Well most of it. That was his fifth game. Also took two other guys and their young boys. One guy had been to a handful of games and the rest none. In four minutes, I thought you've got to be kidding me. But they were happy in the end and all had a good time. The boys wanted to go again. Thankfully I also got them to donate some toys so they got bogo vouchers. They were quite dissatisfied with the parking, the concessions, and the stadium. But we talked about Buzzard point a lot.
I genuinely have no idea what was going on. That was just my own speculation. I don't recall who, but I remember players lightly kicking at the area. Although I hate birds, that would make that scene much more morbid if it was a bird. I have been at multiple games where a bird died on the field* though. After the last home game, I saw several dead birds near the ticket office closest to Lot 8. I thought that was strange. Of course I saw cans of Raid at the entrances of a few sections inside of the stadium. I don't know what's going on in and around that place. I park in Lot 7 if I drive so I can get out quicker, but I can't justify that cost and normally take Metro. Even with the "24" minute headways for single tracking, the lines to get out of the Lots looked bad as the train went over them. *one of the birds I saw dying on the field toward the end of a Virginia Tech women's soccer game years ago may not have actually died before it was removed.
They'll be really dissatisfied with the parking at buzzard point. Lot 7 took like two minutes to get out of. They had a guy flagging traffic at the exit. Lot 7 is the hidden gem at RFK. Thx, Jay!
Watching the replay, Birnbaum was at least partially responsible for both goals, and directly responsible for the Sapong effort that hit the bar in the second half that could have ended the comeback. On the first one, in real time from my vantage point in the stadium it looked like he got fouled, but on the replay it seems he basically just got out-muscled and then fell down. On the second one he slid and missed everything, ball and Sapong...and then Dykstra was deceived by the ball. Birnbaum then had a go at Dykstra. On the crossbar hit, he simply got burned by Sapong and motioned for Dykstra to come out (which is, I have realized, not one of his strengths). Is it just me or has Birnbaum not been close to the same player since his early season injury? I said it in the stadium, and I'll say it again: I think its time for Opare to be back on the field.
He wasn't the same player before his injury this year. I figure he's the typical really good young college player. Has a breakout rookie season, ends up injured and/or has a dreadful 2nd season, an iffy but better 3rd season, then either is really steady/good for a while - or retires and earns more money from his degree.
For fun, to answer that question, I have some candidates for 'worse first place team than us'. I'm not using the years where there were three 4-team 'conferences.' http://www.mlssoccer.com/standings/2002 2002 NE Revs were a 1 seed with a losing record and a goal differential of zero, because all 5 teams in the West were better than all 5 teams in the east. They went on to lose the Cup Final even though it was at home. This team would occasionally mistakenly be cited as proof of how random the playoffs are, but the Eastern results actually went according to Hoyle, because every other Eastern team was even worse. http://www.mlssoccer.com/standings/2004 This was the Greg Andrulis Crew team. They had missed the playoffs in 2003, they would be dumped out in the first round in 2004, and they would miss the playoffs again in 2005. They were tough to beat, but they weren't very tough to draw, as they finished with 18 games unbeaten, 10 of which were ties. http://www.mlssoccer.com/standings/2009 In 2009, the whole league was pretty mediocre. Nobody got to 50 points (maybe the last time in league history that'll happen, as the league went from 30 to 34 games after that), and only 9 points separated the Shield winner (Columbus) from the top two teams to miss the playoffs (DCU and the Rapids). The Crew backed into the Shield, losing 3 of their last 5, and then both legs of their playoff against cross-conference Real Salt Lake. And a special honorable mention to the 2012 San Jose Earthquakes, whose record was actually impressive, but who, when you watched the games, bullied, flopped, and stoppage-time-goaled their way to an eye popping number of those wins. I don't think I've ever seen a team win as many games where the eyeball test said they'd gotten outplayed. Of that list, NE is the only team to even get out of the first round of the playoffs, but I think they are probably still the worst 1-seed ever. Their 1.35 ppg would rank as fifth place in the obviously weaker Eastern conference this season.
Yes this year's team was putrid at times, but they finished 3rd in the overall standings last year and will likely finish in that range this year (with essentially the same roster). So, I would not call them one of the worst 1st place teams MLS history. I think what the last two year's show is that the league is very balanced and competitive (some would say mediocre). Furthermore with Saborio up top, a legitimate finisher (the last one DC United had was Emilio), DC United is going to be a much more dangerous team and do some real damage. Just in time for the new stadium...
On the PK. In real time, I thought it was soft. On TV at full speed I thought it was soft. In slo-mo, I thought it was legit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=27&v=8rWiAcQmNQ4 Then Simon Borg said it was legit, so obviously it's bogus.
Sorry I didn't get around to posting, but damn that was fun... An amazing day -- squirt gun fights and frosty beverages, warm summer sun and a win after going down 2-0. To the defense, thanks for showing up after minute 4. To the people who sang happy birthday to Benjamin in the tunnel on the way back to lot 8, that was awesome. And to the soccer gods, who showed up -- albeit a bit atrasado -- to make my 6 year old's first full game a win, thank you all. Can't get the kids to stop singing Vamos United. As it should be!!!
Been thinking the same thing … I've seen nothing from Birnbaum that suggests that he deserves to be out there more than Opare. But you know … Olsen blah blah blah loyalty blah blah … That team was unstoppable … Especially at home there was an inevitability about every game. Sure it wasn't sophisticated but it was effective. I think they scored 5 on us when we visited them that year. I think there's a bit of revisionism going on with that team because it was Yallop so surely they must have sucked. But in real time they came pretty close to dominating the league, so not a good candidate for this list.
I'd be fine with either starting personally, but the case for Opare over Birnbaum isn't particularly strong. He had his good and bad games/moments this year just as Birnbaum has. At least Birnbaum has a longer history with Boswell/Hamid/Kitchen and the fullbacks. In my mind, that gives him the edge rather than any Olsen blah blah loyalty.
Birnbaum had a terrible first 4 minutes but was stellar after that. Birnbaum, as mentioned previously, is suffering from the sophomore slump no doubt. However, the past month or so he has gotten his game back, this past Sunday notwithstanding. sorry folks, but a healthy Birnbaum is an easy selection over Opare. As mentioned above, Opare has had his share of screw ups too..
Surely you mean an in-form Birnbaum. Come to think of it, Opare may have been a better selection against such a physical oponent, i.e. Sapong. Sure, Birnbaum was better the rest of the game, but the fact is that DC United had Philthy on their heels for the rest of the game so that matchup became irrelevant since there were hardly any more engagements in our end.
When discussing Birnbaum, remember he missed virtually all of spring training while with the Nats. He played one game for them -- outside in a 3 man back line -- and got very good reviews. He then took a knock in practice and missed the second game and was recovering when he returned to DCU. Then against LA he turn his ankle and missed almost 2 months. In other words, his season has been chopped up, so maybe not so much sophomore slump as inconsistency due to injuries and being in Nats camp.
One thing I noticed that amused me: when they were running the Happy Birthday messages on the scoreboard, immediately after Benjamin's, there was one that said "Happy Birthday Jim Curtain". Did we really run a HB message for the opposition head coach?