Those people would be dumb! A person banging the drum to fire the coach a week before the season starts because we tied a lower division side with our reserves would be much much dumber!
What a bizarre post. Is your point that afterwards the supporters of these teams all sat around a fire and agreed that everything was ok. Perhaps joint statements were made that since reserve players were played there was nothing to learn from the game. Maybe they all also had to deal with RAINNNNNN. Did the Supporters Trust put out a statement saying, "Don't be deceived!!! Even though we gave over 2 hours of our life and money to watch this game we were under no illusion that this mattered at all. We had no desire in our viewings to see positive performances from the players of the team which we support?" I get if people want to point out this is a preseason game. That it's reserves, etc. Fact of the matter is if you spent 2 hours watching a game that you predetermined had no actual worth, or that nothing could be learned from for the upcoming season, then I question your mental health. On the other hand in the more likely scenario that some watched this game hoping for a better performance and to take something from it and are now just in spin/apologist mode, then that's more like it. That's the Columbus Crew fandom I've come to know and love over the past 20 years. But at least own up to it.
You are being "all or nothing here". Of course you can learn things from a preseason game. But to pretend that one preseason game will determine the season?? That's overextrapolation--just like you cannot extrapolate a season from a regular season result--or string of results. Had you done this for the Crew in late May-early June 2008, there would have been no thought that this team was of championship caliber. But, as it turned out, it was. The game had value. Just not massive value.
I do love the tactic of predicting unsaid arguments of other people as support for your current position. My concern is really that we are taking same group of players and expecting anything majorly different. Personally, I am not making any real judgements until the summer when I believe we will actually recruit new players. Pretty much every coach likes to get “their” players and that hasn’t happened yet so some of the pressure for Porter shouldn’t come until that happens.
What a bizarre post, to have read all that into it! You said this: ".It's completely unfair to expect a more convincing performance from a coach and a team of professionals against a team a full division lower than them." Own it.
I totally own it. Everton SHOULD expect to beat Millwall. West Ham SHOULD expect to beat Wimbledon. Rudi Garcia's Roma shouldn't have crashed out to a Serie B side in the Coppa Italia in 2015. That's why they are called upsets. thank u, next....
You could play devils advocate or just play dumb. Or you could read previous posts where the difference was acknowledged as were expectations. Only you can choose to be your best you.
Sure? But I'm also focused on the results. So, I guess the bigger question is why are you engaging me? The results and the soccer seem to matter little, or at least less than roadside dining establishments in Northeast Ohio. I don't deserve or question my blessings. I'm just thankful that the Lord works in mysterious ways.
To be fair to Timon the chickpeas thread is probably the only thread in the past 12 months where I have seen him remain on topic and actually engage the previous posts in an intellectually honest manner. It's his best work.
I'm guessing you never won a game of Memory as a child, and that maybe history won't your best subject in school.