I played one season for one of his teams back in my youth....it was enough to make me decide I didnt want to play for him in high school. Do teams like the blast, and dynamo still exist?
So Steffen had a pretty good game in a losing effort at Gladbach today. Neither goal was his fault (the second came after he'd already made a great save) and he had some other solid saves in the match. Gladbach seemingly still had a "hangover" from their poor play on Thursday vs Wolfsberg (Austria) in the EL, but got a pair from substitute Thuram in the second half. Will be interesting to see how Kicker scores him tomorrow.
So, Kicker named Steffen to the 11 of the week again (with one game to be played that could change that) with a grade of 1.5 (on a 1 to 6 scale). Second time he got that recognition in 5 games.
BREAKING: #Atlutd Parkhurst retiring at end of #mls season https://t.co/ZPsadzhcUq— Doug Roberson (@DougRobersonAJC) September 23, 2019 Much love ⚽️❤️ pic.twitter.com/rtVB9y7Peo— Michael Parkhurst (@MFparkhurst) September 23, 2019
I heard a few years ago that he will be living in the area permanently once he retires. Will be interested to see if that holds true. Always liked the guy.
And that position did not change after the Monday game.... Though Steffen was *not* the player of the game as that honor went to Thuram who had the two goals.
Where's Frankie? Fishing with vets, Crew alumni, and current players: https://www.columbuscrewsc.com/post/2019/09/25/give-forward-casting-crew-sc
A note on Steffen from Kicker (and I'll put the link here for those who can read German): He is tied for the second highest grade over the first five games of the season at 2.3 (on a 1-6 scale). First, as is no surprise, is Lewandowski (Leipzig's Sabitzer is tied with Steffen).
Danny Szetela is pissed off. REALLY pissed off. So then he got drunk and went on the Twitters to vent his spleen. MLS screwed him over. DC screwed him over. USSF screwed him over. He was a star and they treated him like shit and then made him an outcast. Only the Cosmos came along and recognized his wonderfulness. Great, great stuff Never change, Danny ( Hit the whole thread for more semi literate mewlings. He still just doesnt get it. It's all everyone else's fault) 1181027005804011520 is not a valid tweet id
I think Ol’ Danny Boy is losing his mind. He tweets at Ives Galarcep, “I’ll be waiting for your call”. Then in the next few tweets, calls on Stephen A Smith, our good buddy Taylor Twellman, and Stu Holden to have conversations about “the truth”. Dude has lost his marbles.
STORY TIME! Yesterday, Federico Higuain sat down for an interview with @ESPN and proved why he will go down as one of the greatest athletes in the history of Columbus. Here’s one of the many reasons we love him so much… #SaveTheCrew #CrewSC #Crew96— Morgan Hughes (@Morgan_Hughes) January 21, 2018
oooof...I thought I made peace with this but seeing that twitter thread posted in this 'Ex-Crew Legend' thread hit me for sure. I was one of the people Morgan invited to go to that. Pipa was incredibly gracious. He shook everyone's hand, made small talk, took pictures and tried to get some memorabilia for everyone. I got a jersey of his and at the following year's Kickoff Party, had him sign it and tell him how much I appreciated it. He repeated those words of appreciation right back at me. I'll never forget folding up that tifo, damp from the wet grass and him requesting us to stuff it into the trunk of his Mercedes. I still wonder what he did with it.
Oh sweet Jesus. Steve Serr. I was assigned to do the championship game in a MOSSL tournament. 12's IIRC. Serr was the coach of one of the teams. I did t know who he was and didnt much care. Before the start, someone told me to be careful because the two teams - and coaches- had "history" So the game starts and goes straight downhill. The parents hate each other, the coaches hate each other and the players are trying to kill each other. It was a crappy game, and every strange thing imaginable happened. I called back two goals in the first 15 minutes. Everyone wanted me dead. Then there was a pileup on one goal line, 6 or 7 players on the ground. I had absolutely no way to tell if the ball crossed the line before it was cleared. Half the crowd is screaming goal. But I had a terrific 13 year old linesman who was in perfect position. He made eye contact with me like a freaking pro and shook his head no. Good enough for me. Serr goes nuts. Hes jumping up and down shrieking. Which, hey, who cares. But one old guy in a lawn chair on the parents side is every bit as livid, and when I'm not biting he starts railing on the kid , calling him several obscene names. Which, if you know me at all, is a bridge too far. Say what you want to me but I'm not going to let you abuse my AR. So I stopped the game - only time I ever did this - and announced that the game was suspended until this old asshole was in the parking lot. He took a out ten minutes leaving Serr by this time is having a stroke and I'm standing my ground. Somehow got through the game at which point someone tells me that the guy I tossed was Serr's father. He went to MOSSL and demanded my ass. Swore he'd pull his teams, swore he'd take it to USYSA and USSF lah blah blah. Went on for a month. To their eternal credit, MOSSL stood up for me. It helped that there were several credible people who saw the game and who said I had done nothing wrong. One guy, a longtime coach in Dublin, told the board that he thought I was "supremely professional". Serr is a bully and a jerk.
That always helps, doesn't it? I remember during my whistle-blowing days, I dealt with a couple coaches in the Lancaster everyone plays league that all the refs and assignors hated. I sent one of them off, and when I turned the red card in, the head assignor just got this ear-to-ear grin. But I did a tournament in Dublin once where someone gave me the old "attaboy" after a tough match. It helps your confidence immensely, especially when coaches are upset at you/complaining to whoever. It was day one of a saturday/sunday deal. U-14 boys. We'll say red vs blue; I don't really remember. In the first half, red was committing a ton of fouls, so I was calling a ton of fouls. A couple yellow cards (one for language after the fact, which technically could have been red), and there could have been one or two more. Red was complaining like I was the problem, but I was just calling what I saw. I'm convinced to this day that both coaches had opposite pep talks at halftime. The red coach must have told his team "be careful, because this guy's calling stuff." And the blue coach must have told his team "start getting physical, or we're going to lose all the battles." Because the 2nd half was the exact polar opposite of the first half. All the calls that were going against red in the first half went against blue in the second -- because the players totally changed what they were doing. I wound up throwing the only straight red I ever threw to a blue player (who I had booked for language earlier anyway) for a tackle from behind in the penalty area on a breakaway. Needless to say, the blue coach wasn't very happy with me afterward. I heard him complaining to the assignor in the referee tent afterward. I was second-guessing myself, because I'd never had a game change so completely and so suddenly that way, and I started to wonder if I'd let the first half complaints from the red team get to me. The next morning, since I lived in Lancaster and the tourney was in Dublin, I was there plenty early because I didn't want to be pressed for time over that long of a drive. I was chatting to someone who was also there early, just killing time. No idea who he was. He mentioned that he was a referee as well, just not at this tournament. So I told the story from yesterday, mentioning I'd thrown my first ever red card, and described it. He goes, "Oh, that was you!! I was watching that game. That was a great call. You did a hell of a job in that match." It also turned out that he and the referee assignor knew each other, and he had been singing my praises after the unhappy coach had left. Yay.