Merry Crewsmas week everyone! If you could pick a Columbus Crew starting 11 of all time - what formation and who would you pick? Here's what mine would probably be based more on my personal history with supporting the team than purely stats based. -----------------McBride------------------ ----------Higuain----Schelotto--------- ------Gaven----Trapp----Evans------- Padula---Marshall---Hejduk---Afful- -----------------Hesmer------------------- Can't wait to see everyone. I'm in town all week for business but will be joining the festivities Thursday night! Any events on Thursday afternoon/evening?
Washington McBride Gaven Mais GBS West Hejduk Marshall Lapper Clark Friedel This is part favorite, part best. Have fun in Columbus.
That would be a fun team to watch for sure with Higs and GBS playing off each other. I'd be inclined to throw some more speed on there with Rogers in place of Evans and drop Afful for more of a traditional CB (and move Hejduk to RB). We've been blessed with great GKs so that's a hard decision. Hard not to pick Friedel or Steffen but I wouldn't be disappointed w/Hesmer.
McBride—Cunningham Mais—Guille—Higuain—West Padula—Marshall-Clark—Hejduk Friedel or Steffen (Off the top of my head without thinking too much; in other words, like a lot of my posts![emoji12])
Some favorites, some best...yeah, it would probably be a 3-4-3. FW: Stern John, Brian McBride, Dante Washington, Jeff Cunningham MF: Frederico Higuain, Brian Maisonneuve, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Wil Trapp, Justin Meram, Eddie Gaven, Brad Evans, Robert Warzycha...yes, I know, I know...but as a player, he was good...plus, he gets a nod based on that goal-line clearance in 2002, if only for an extra body for the practice field. DF: Frankie Hejduk, Gino Padula, Chad Marshall, Mike Lapper, Ricardo Iribarren, Mike Clark GK: Brad Friedel, Will Hesmer, Jon Busch...but really, there's about 3-4 people I'd put in at that third spot.
Clark's got to be in there, just because he defined what it was to be a Crew player early on. Ask his teammates.
I chose #3 as my jersey number as a kid because of him. He was a hell of a player, tough as nails, and a heck of a nice guy.
Come on guys: Hejduk at CB? Lapper at CB? Guille & Pipa in a 2 man CM? Mais wide? I will give it a shot, best XI not Fav (hence Dooley's inclusion): ------------------Friedel------------ Hejduk--Marshall--Dooley--Lapper ------------------Mais--------------- Warzycha---Guille----Gaven ---------McBride----John------- 2nd XI: ------------------Steffen-------------- Afful----Clark------Fraser-----Padula --------------Carroll----Trapp-------- Cunningham----Pipa----Meram -----------------------Zardes------------- Hon mention: GK: Hesmer D: Irribarren D/M: Oughton, Elcock M: West, A. Williams, Finlay, Rogers F: Washington, Moreno
Lapper was a center back. I stand by my picks. It's a reasonable 4-4-2 and only Cunningham at right wing is out of position and that's a stretch as he played plenty of wing minutes. I am not frivolous enough to think I deserve the right to name a 2nd 11 and another 10 man subs bench. How conceited does one have to be!
---------McBride--------- -----------John---------- --------Schelotto--------- Warzycha-----------Mais ---------Carroll---------- Padula---Marshall--Clark---Hedjuk -----------Friedel---------
Mostly LB IIRC. Not CB. After Bliss got hurt for certain. Though certainly not unreasonable. But for 98: Dooley/Iribarren in the middle. Yes?
Dooley threw a hissy fit on his way out. He's not worthy. (Unless he was the player mentioned by Fitz in need of a bungee strap.)
Getting the name right was only half the battle. Saying it in sync with 15,000 other fans was the challenge.
I don't have the exact quote, but I loved one of Sirk's early notebooks where he asked Westy how fast he was. He replied something like "I don't know, i just run and however fast I need to go, I can."
If I'm not mistaken, Brian West still is suspended from his next US Open Cup game...you know, just in case.
So yesterday we got Markus a new pair of winter gloves. Yellow. Tim said "who would have guessed that mama would buy new yellow gloves for the kids?" When Markus saw the gloves, he immediately wanted to practice as a goalkeeper. He is very enamored with that position. Well I started kicking some balls around with him as he positioned himself in the goal. I kicked a few balls past Markus into goal (listen I go easy). I could see Markus was getting a bit annoyed that his score was not going up. He always seems to keep track of goals scored. I told him he could still run towards my goal and score. "No, mama, keepers do not play like that." "Okay. Kid. What I am about to show you is a video of a guy named William Hesmer. He once was the goalkeeper for our Columbus Crew. Now he is nowhere on my pecking order of great Crew goalkeepers. He was very average. (Tim repeated and emphasized, "very average.") But he scored this goal. " I proceeded to show him this video on my phone. . Markus started scoring goals while wearing his gloves.