The game against the Fire is 2 days away. We can tie them on points with a win on our second to last home game of the season. Zardes is our new goal scoring leader at 11 after his brace against the Tide Pods. Santos is at 9. We're at -11 goal differential but playing well with only one loss (on the postage stamp at NYCFC) in the last 8 matches. That streak started with a Diaz cross to the head of Romario Williams, both of the bench, to salvage a 2-2 draw against the Fire in their place. Including that game, the Fire is 3W, 3L, 2T in the same stretch of matches. Countering our goal scoring duo of Zardes (11) and Santos (9), they have Nikolic (11) and Sapong (10). Gaitan (10) and Frankowski (7) are the main providers of assists. Our leaders Higuain (IR) and Santos (5) would be tied for third on the Fire. Our defenses are just as leaky with 42 GA for the Fire and 43 GA for us but we did have a stretch of Bendik and Kempin in goal so we should be slightly better than them overall. They have scored 11 more goals than us though. Feel free to discuss here until the official thread gets created and this one can be merged in.
Well we knew this season was pretty much lost before it even started. One highlight was Crew won against Cincy, the new kids on the Ohio block., in CIncy But Cincy is absolutely horrible. So.. A win against the Fire in Crew Stadium is another must in my book. Chicago is terrible. Everything about that organization is terrible. Has been and always will be. Seems like I should say a Our Father or Hail Mary or something right about now for continuation... I know some of these newer fans have no ill-will towards the Fire, but my god, do I hate the Fire. Finishing at the end of the season ahead of Cincy and the Fire is doable. Just get a win. At Crew Stadium. And unfortunately wins at home have been hard to come by this season.
Lots of cool names pictured in the alumni preview photos for Saturday night. Very glad to see Mais and Maestro Carrera listed! Other notable names include Pato Aguilera!, Presthus, Buddle, Warzycha, and a lot of the usual and expected fan favorites.
No Mensah due to yellow card accumulation. Is Keita back? Is Josh ok? More backline fun this weekend. Secondary, is Diaz ok? There's more depth to work with in the midfield so I think we'll be fine without Diaz but the match won't be as much fun to watch.
The post-Warzycha generation doesn't know the hate that us old folks do. To them, the Crew's rivals are Toronto, Cincy, and DC. I've also seen Atlanta and New England (wtf?!) listed as teams that people consider rivals. These damn kids, man...
NE is a viable choice. They beat us in the ECF in 2002. Eliminated the SS winning 2004 team. And stomped us in 3G's first PO series. Still, for me: 1. Choppin Broccoli 2. DC 3. PISS on the Fire! -------huge gap----- 4. Cincy 5. TFC --------- 6. Other East: NE, NYRB, NYC, ATL 7. Other West: Por, Sea, Col, RSL ------- No real beefs with anyone else, though I find Nashville fans annoying already.
That's a bit of a convenient spin to put on how bad we've been this year. We were coming off a conference semifinals appearance. I didn't think our season would be lost. And it certainly wasn't lost when we started 4-1-1. Anyway, I agree with the rest of what you wrote. Chicago is my #1 rival. I hate them.
In the midst of the afterglow of our win over new "rival" FCC I couldn't help but be nostalgic for a time when we as Crew fans viewed rivalries through on-field performance as opposed to hashtags and banter. The rivalries we had with DC and Chicago carried weight because of the actual importance of the results of those matches. It didn't hurt that they had some of the most unlikable personalities in MLS history. Arena, Bradley, Nowak, Etcheverry, Williams, Moreno, CJ Brown, Razov, Wynalda, etc. DEMA MOTHER********IN KOVALENKO PLAYED FOR THEM BOTH. Of course he did!!! I hated looking up at those teams in the standings. I hated losing to them in the playoffs and in Open Cups. I loved nothing more than beating these teams when they were at their peak. I loved how it would frustrate the hell out of their fans and their teams, "How did we let COWLUMBUS beat us." I drank and savored the frustrated disrespect from Bob Bradley down line a fine Port. I long for these sorts of rivalries again. There is something satisfying about finally beating FCC. But it's punching down. The charter member of MLS beat one of the worst expansion teams in history. Let's take the three points and move on. I'm ready to start punching up again. FCC isn't gonna be good for several years. I long for a point in time when it's not viewed as the most important game on on our schedule. I want rivalries to be dictated by playoff and Open Cup matches, or by fighting near the top of the table or conference. I still hate Chicago all these years later. I hate the losses. I hate the drives back from Soldier Field and Naperville. I can still hear the voice of the father of an ex-girlfriend boasting that "CJ Brown is the best man-marker in MLS." What a load of horseshit. ******** CJ Brown. Punching up from 11th to 10th isn't the most satisfying thing in the world. But it's gonna be infinitely more satisfying to win knowing it's Chicago that we'll take the three points from. Onward. Upward. Piss on the Fire.
Call it whatever you like. I have held this opinion since pre-season. If you require proof, then I am sure you can find the posts. I would search for the posts, but this week has felt akin to a year.
There's not a single soul here who predicted we would be hovering around 11th in the East and between 20th and 23rd in the league for the majority of the season. Furthermore, if someone had made that prediction in preseason (or when we started the season 4-1-1) many here would have jumped down that person's throat, called them negative, and questioned their sanity and their fanhood. These are the facts. Another fact; Nate Jaqua is an asshole.
Last 5 matches: Good guys: DDDLW Shitago: WWLWL A playoff 6 pointer. both teams are still in it, and need wins.
The Fire and DC United will always be top of my list. Toronto and (at some point of time) Austin are newer additions.
New England was my #3 most disliked team behind Chicago and DC for a long while, thanks to them knocking us out of the playoffs a few too many times. San Jose was my least favorite team in the west for similar playoff reasons, but at this point, there's only so much hate to go around, so I don't have time to hate on any western teams anymore. (Until Austin shows up.) (And regarding SJ, I think they became the favorite team in the west for a lot of us when Lenhart was playing there.)
Maybe. Or maybe they'll replace him from the squad in 2 days when they find out he's hurt. You never know exactly how close attention some of the international coaches are paying sometimes. That said, I do indeed hope it's a sign that he's okay.
I almost mentioned San Jose in my rant above earlier. God I hated them so much. Richard Mulrooney. What a turd.
Disagree. And disagree more. Those are the facts if you would have said the posts. Which reminds me of a point I meant to make a week ago, but the time passed by with my energy rather depleted. Your caricature on here tends to invite that sort of response. Try a streak of being genuine. How about those facts?
So, if you're looking for the texting while driving thread, it's not this one. This one is for the upcoming match against the hated Fire. It also is for any discussion about MLS teams you hate the most. Lineup for Saturday with Mensah out and Keita's injury status unknown. Room Afful - J. Williams - Crognale - Maloney (it's not so difficult to type his name as it was a few weeks back) Trapp - Artur Diaz - Santos - Mohktar Zardes This probably will be as close as having the same 11 in back to back games for Porter in some time. I don't know their injury or suspension status but the one really dangerous player for them is Mihailovic. He can setup people and has a shot that needs to be respected. He scored to give them the lead up in Chicago. McCarty is probably playing (the guy who, in my book, inherited the most annoying ankle-biting munchkin label from Richie Williams) which means the midfield battles will be intense when we get possession. My poll vote will be "lose by 2" like always but I see this as a 2-1 win as Mohktar and Santos get the goals and Zardes becomes a pain in the ass for their backline.