BURN vs OLYMPIA OF HONDURAS (R)

Saints pregame story

Saints postgame story

Times-Picayune

 

Nice win, was there actually hardware to go with this "cup"? Was it a sellout? Vallow sounds worthy to be a backup goalie, even though we probably won't need him with Countess returning. I guess it's nice to know we can take PKs

 

on Vallow and Bernier

I was at the game. My first time seeing the Burn up close and in person. Met some Inferno guys there, too.

Anyway,
Vallow was did well well at shot-stopping, but his foot skills were weak. I say "well" because he saved everything, but they were all right at him.

Don't mean to knock on the Bernier fan, but both he and Pielsner played at left mid and were horrible. Really, really bad. I mean like "can't trap the ball" bad. Lost possession every time they didn't drop it back or make a square pass.

Lack of support from the center mids (Behneke and Stone) might have hurt, but that sure didn't seem to bother O'Brien, who generated most of the Burn's offense in the game.

Any update on the Bussey Injury?

 

The Inferno was there (long)

Well, 3 members of the Inferno were there: gotyourback, jonno (the new inferno president), and I made it down there for the game. A couple of Jonno’s friends went with us to Nawlins, but got too comfortable down in the French quarter to make it out to the game.

It rained the entire drive down and the entire drive back, but fortunately it did not rain on Saturday night. What could have been a very messy affair for the players was nothing more than a wet one because the turf at the Tulane soccer complex is one of the new generation blades of grass artificial turf. The width of the field looked to be regulation as the blue soccer touch lines were about 15 to 20 yards further out from the white football sidelines.

We had heard that the complex had capacity for 3,000 from the sales rep from the Saints office. Apparently 5,100 people showed up for the game. They had temporary bleachers installed around the entire perimeter field except for a couple of VIP tents. The bleachers were completely full. I believe that the 5,100 figure was pretty accurate.

We saw Andy Swift as we walked into the stadium, and he looked a little worried about the setup from a security standpoint. For the fans to get to the bleachers, they had to walk around a track that was adjacent to the field. The player benches and officials were on the edge of the track; pretty much, any fan in the place had easy access to anybody and everybody. Andy tells us almost as if he was looking for our reassurance: “As long as everything is cool, it will be alright”. His affirmation became the truth, as the Honduran fans were great! They were vociferous, but all in the name of team spirit and fun.

Gotyourback brought two double-sided signs with the graphics he posted on the road trip thread. Very colorful, and very visible. We positioned ourselves on the track were the players were about to enter the field armed with the signs to greet the players. Once they saw us, they were pretty excited themselves. Bobby Rhine and T-Bone yelled at us “Die hards”. Ryan Suarez came over and exchanged some high fives. Once they stepped on the pitch, we moved down to one of the corners and stood next to the some DC fans and the lady tigers a youth soccer team from the area that helped us cheer for the Burn.

Midway through the 2nd half, we decided to instigate the crowd a bit. We took our signs and walked all the way around the track taunting the fans with our Dallas Burn spirit. We got a lot of boos, whistles, jeers, and a few claps; but not a single foreign object was thrown our way. We get more stuff thrown at us at the Cotton Bowl. The effect of our little journey was that of a super slo-mo wave.

Some quick hits about the game:

• 
  Backline was pretty much the regulars, T-Bone and Suarez central, Broome left, Bussey right. Piesner as left mid, O’Brien right mid, Stone and Behnke played centrally as holding mids; not sure who was supposed to be the attacking mid. Rhine and Wolyniec as forwards.
  
  Bussey pulled an abdominal muscle early in the game.
  
  Olimpia took more shots early on in the game, but none of them were on target. They scored a goal off a cross into the box, but the forward for Olimpia was off by a mile.
  
  Stone showed much composure under pressure even in his own box.
  
  Piesner and Bernier at left mid looked a little out of their league. Piesner had some interesting moves, but he usually held the ball too long and would lose possession, and his positional sense was poor. Bernier had trouble finding his teammates and did not look particularly fast. I cannot see either one of these guys beating Martinez or Broome for a spot.
  
  O’Brien was his usual self. He made several dangerous runs and crosses. If Piesner were 6 inches taller, he would have scored at least one goal off an O’Brien cross if not two.
  
  Rhine looked like the Rhine of July, not the Rhine of September. He made some nice moves, turned a couple of defenders, laid off a couple of nice balls.
  
  Wolyniec was always a step behind the play. He never did figure out how to play with Rhine or O’Brien.
  
  Perez was an interesting story. Apparently, he used to play for Olimpia but was recently released by the club. He is living in Miami now, and is trying to catch on with a team. He showed nice foot skills, combined well with O’Brien. He took the free kick just outside the box that Kreis would normally take, and hit side netting. My biggest question about a player like Perez is do the Burn need another really short attacking mid type of player? Jeffries has to figure out what to do with Pareja and Vaca next year, now that O’Brien is on the team. Perez would add to that congestion.
  
  The most impressive player of the game was one the full backs for Olimpia. He had size, speed, and skill. He was the main reason why the Burn did not score in regulation. I wish I wold have written down his name because that guy was bringing it.
  
  Suarez was intense as ever in this game. When he took his pk he took longer than anybody else (usually means they are about to miss), but then he buried it.
  
  Vallow pretty much stood in the middle for every pk. The one he saved was high and hard down the middle. He got a fist on it.
  

Towards the end of the game we ran into stopper4. It is always good to meet Burn fans that are not from Dallas. He confessed that he has never seen a Burn game at the Cotton Bowl. I think that fan needs to put that on his to do list for 2003.

After the game, the fans got to go on the field and mingle with players from both teams. The Pan American Cup was presented to the Burn. As the team posed for the media (TV and photographers) with the cup, we got stand with the team holding the Burn signs. The Cup was very shinny silver cup very similar to the Brimstone Cup.

Several people asked to pose with us for some photos, mostly kids (future Burn fans we hope) and a few Olimpia fans too. Those Scottish hats with the red hair do the trick every time! A couple of Kreis fans were hoping to see him play because they used to watch him when he played there.

We then took it to the French Quarter where we hooked up with our wayward friends for dinner and more than a few drinks. We crossed paths with several of the Burn players throughout the night as they were given a free pass to enjoy the “end of the season”.

La locura rojinegra

Ps. Never stay at the Travelodge at New Orleans. What a shitehole!!!

 

I believe this was jonno 'making himself known' at the Burn vs. Olimpia game.

 

No, NO! My bad!.. This was some guy who got thrown in the pool at the TraveLodge!

Sorry jonno! (*snicker*)

 

Congrats to Burn. Always good to see an MLS team show strong against clubs from other countries.

 

I was about to feel like I had really arrived as a soccer fan by turning my nose up at a meaningless friendly involving reserve players, but then again ..... New Orleans. Can we please play all our future exhibitions there?

Was that Olimpia back that was bringing it Jorge Caballeros? Big 6+' black central defender, plays for Honduran nats? If so, the Revs were trying to sign him a couple seasons ago but couldn't get the deal done.

 

I tell ya though...the Tulane Soccer Stadium is one ************ ground. Blah.

You know where all their athletic cash goes, fo sho. Well, that and baseball. Can't blame them for baseball though.

 

Here's Olimpia's starting lineup, courteousy of MLSNET.com.......

OLIMPIA STARTERS - Hugo Caballero, Edwin Avila, Merlin Membreno, Miton Palacios, Wilmer Velasquez, Fabio Ulloa, Danilo Tosello, Hendry Thomas, Oscar Bonilla, Eduardo Bennett, Diego Righetti

 

http://books.indiaabroad.com/sports/2001/jul/27copa.jpg

And that is who you were thinking of, Samuel Caballero, who I believe continues to ply his trade in the Serie A.