It sounded like early era MLS when there was a mic on a section to disguise the fact that there were less than 5000 people in a stadium. Everything old is new again.
Attendance aside, @Draghignazzo 's favorite player Clark scores, and Santos finally gets his goal. Good day.
My anti-love for Rico is well documented. As I told @porchlight, RC looked shaky and confused early (he was not alone in that respect) and I watched the first 15' + through the gaps in my fingers covering my face certain we were surely going to be playing from behind very soon. @porchlight opined we looked like the away team early, and I whole heartedly agreed. Milton scored nearly against the run-of-play to our delight and surprise. Yet even after, the team were still clearly struggling to figure out how to play without Trapp and with Clark. Then, Scum found themselves at the top of the box with nary a Crew player in position, time, and space and exposed our inexperienced GK as inexperienced, flat footed and demonstrably not Zak Steffan nor besties with any posts. And we'd not yet seen the games guaranteed Mensah Mistake ™ for I which I had a feeling we'd not escape paying the bill today. The optimism and confidence we'd handily crush DC I'd carried all week was unraveling. Then Ricardo Clark did three things in a flash that I long thought him incapable of doing: He leaped stupidly high; took decent service off his head and skillfully crushed it out of Ousted's reach to the far side with aplomb; and made me accept him as one of ours*. I was gobsmacked. It was gorgeous and it changed the whole game. Almost immediately I saw Clark settle in, with full confidence in his role and abilities and started playing his role very well. The whole team followed suit. And after Martinez embarrassed DeLeon, Zardes dummied like the god damned stud he is and Pedro was exactly where he was supposed to be to slam home the bunny. We never looked back. I thought it was a bit of a strange tale of two halves,. We looked miles better in the second half, yet all the goals were in the first. The crossbar denied @porchlight of his 5-1 prediction and preserved the 3-1 score I'd told a co-worker Fri. *When RC scored I declared that if that goal didn't hold up as game winner and Clark was directly responsible for letting DC back in the game via goal, foul or sending off, I reserved the right to return to my prior position. But alas he fulfilled all requirements and my hatred is dissolved. Welcome aboard, Ricardo. P. S. This crow is delicious
Boy, I'm glad that my brother and I missed the first 15. We got home just b3fore Valenzuela scored the first so we missed the bad Crew beginning.
I may not be as old as you, I admit. However, I have been around for quite awhile (the mental accounting always gets a bit fuzzy and eye-opening.. wait how old am I again?). It is really comforting to be able leave a little early because your kids are just done with the cold and not worry that half of the voice of the section is leaving. It was loud. It was all game long. I hoped that the fans who stayed home due to whatever (probably Preschool) at least were able to hear the section. We have all been to a near-empty Crew Stadium. The voice of the supporters is still loud. I thank them all. The players are treating us to some fun soccer, and I thank them as well.
As I watch the game back again this morning from the much warmer view of my couch, I have to credit Berhalter for pulling Abubakar out. He was bad yesterday. Abubakar has generally impressed me with his play, but his brain shut off yesterday without Steffen. GGG is not known for his willingness to make early substitutions, and pulling him out for Williams at the half gave DC virtually not Hope moving forward. What’s the over under that Baby Benny never gets to coach at his new stadium?
Some random thoughts as we are re-watching the game this morning: 1) Those goals were so very nice. 2) The DC announcers did not shy away from commenting on the Save The Crew chant (good on them). Coincidentally that chant is the one both of my kids know and love. 3) I missed the DC goal at the stadium because kids. On my home viewing, it was unnecessary to watch it. Ugh. 4) Tim has demanded we purchase the Community Kit. He and I have a bit different tastes, but he loves it. To put it into perspective, he loves the “minion” kit. 5) I am not sure how long those nicer seats have been in place on the east side of the stadium, but it remains disorienting to me on home viewing. 6) @Draghignazzo. I think we were all eating crow this morning. Geeg showed me a text he had sent after Clark had a couple bad plays in the first 30 minutes that said something like “Clark is godawful.” 7) These players are really bringing a delightful experience. Had this been 2005 and Crew were being stolen, no supporters and no good plays could have brought any bit of delight. 8) That was cold. I was still cold lying in bed hours later. 9) @SLSHOT01. Agreed on the substitution observation. Boy was it good to see Akron’s own, Josh Williams, out on the pitch. 10) My son has become very good at changing chants. The dale-o one becomes “Talie, Talie, my sister’s name is Talie.” Instead of F U Precourt he says “1 2 3 4.”
Not just Abubakar, but our whole backline too far too long to adjust to no Trapp/Steffen. Not sure they fully did either. We played plenty of goal kicks long which is not typical. It should make us all appreciate how good ZS is with the ball at his feet and how calming Trapp is for our back line. I don't think Abubakar was that bad. He didn't have a strong game, but I think Ggg's biggest reason for pulling him was that yellow. He was on borrowed time and I'm thinking his next foul probably would have been a second yellow. DC was going to go at him. Gggg was very proactive on that one. Clark improved for sure. Glad Santos & Valenzuala got goals. Especially Santos. He's earned it. I feel bad Zardes didn't get a goal because he certainly did enough to earn one. His off the ball movement was helpful. He really helped create space for others. Martinez is cementing his place in the starting 11. He's getting better and his energy is a very different style than Meram.
I can assure you, the micing was exactly the same as it has been for games, although with a smaller crowd, you can turn those mics up a little more without adding too much general noise. The section was pretty loud all game.
@Draghignazzo I didnt see a single feather on that Schmidt's Bahama Mama. Nice re-cap and Thanks again!
Martinez is creating a problem for GB. He isn’t a complete player yet and has some defensive things he needs to work on but he plays with so much intensity. He looks like he could pick up a red card at any minute. I am not sure he is good enough in the final third to be a Kong term starter but he is playing well right now.
Thrilling night! Team effort is outstanding. We are a fast, aggressive team working within a delightful system. Just gotta love the new kids' spark! Santos also played with much more intensity. We had so many thrilling charges last night. Very fun stuff. We took some casual fans with us last night - I believe they may be dropping the "casual" soon. I also found myself feeling a heightened sense of kinship with those who joined us in the stadium last night. Despite the weather, a cruel/spoiled owner, and calls for boycotting - you came for the love of this team, our team. Our team. You were rewarded. Mr. Precourt is not saddened by the loss of revenue from declining ticket sales. He is delighted. He beams with hope as he watches these most visible displays. He no doubt interprets a weakening of resolve and fading enthusiasm by locals for this team - The missed opportunity to make a statement and call him names on television. He hopes for empty stadiums. To my brothers and sisters who stood in solidarity last night, against all of this - Thanks!
Good showing yesterday but don't get too excited. DC is bad. Horribly, horribly bad. Incredibly atrocious. Small Wonder bad. They're still Scum and I enjoy three points but I'm glad we were scheduled DC during USMNT callups.
It didn’t notice how poorly Abubakar was playing when I was watching it in the stadium. It was when I sat down to watch tape later that his poor performance became much more apparent. He had no confidence playing the ball, particularly when needing to use Kemper, turned the ball over while pointlessly dribbling toward our goal along the goal line in our penalty area, beinging atrociously out of position on the DC goal, and a general lack of the hustle we are used to seeing from him. By contrast I thought Mensah played pretty well (except for the play that Kemper broke up), and that just feels wrong to say out loud. Artur was much more effective on defense than offense. He just kept blasting the ball aimlessly at the DC goal and had no sense of accuracy whatsoever! Pipa and Martinez played lights out the whole time. Some of those passes were top class, and how much they were on the same page for this stage of the season bodes well for the rest of the season if we can keep everyone happy and healthy! Santos got the goal, but once again I was less than impressed with his performance. Clark had an ok game, phenomenal goal, but he could have done better on the DC goal for sure! Afful generally did well on the overlap. Valenzuela as well! Zardes was marked out of the game for the most part, but that is why Santos and Valenzuela (and possibly even Clark) were so open on their goals. I’d like to see him be a bit more accurate from range, but DC came into this game thinking he was the only that could hurt them, and they paid for it! Well done Crew!
We in my section also gave 3G cred for this rare event, but believed it to be more fear that he was already on the yellow, than an indictment of his play, but I agree either was a valid reason to pull the trigger and surprisingly, he did it.
Weird. I LOVE the new bumblebee kit. It's time to rework the old Bumblebee Tuna song, no? But I detested the Minion kit even sans periwinkle pants; top 5 worst all time I've ever seen across all leauges and time. #1 still being Colorado Caribu with the fringe. My STH were in 106 from 2002 - 2013. They were converted in 2012. 2013 they gave us renewals at no increase so I sat in them for one season. They are very very nice. Then they jacked the price the following at which point I said, thanks but no thanks and moved into Nordecke for the next two seasons, since my long-time seat mates made the dumbass (my opinion) choice to move 3 sections south closer to enemy away territory. I said, F that! I then missed the glory of midfield viewing angle, and my long-time mates had moved into 123 on the W side and I rejoined them in 2017 after experimenting in 2016 with no ST and complete TV viewing, as I tend to be a Chatty Cathy and sometimes lament missing bits. I follow the game better on TV. My hatred of Clark was looooooooongstanding and deeply rooted and goes back to his first call-ups to Camp Cupcake. But he's our boy now! If 3G can unlock the skill in a turd like Tchani, then I now believe Clark can also be retreaded. That's just glorious. P.S. One of these home matches, when it's not brutally cold and I'm not dragging ass getting to the tailgate only 45 min before kickoff, I intend to find you and give a face-to-face "Hi". I you could pick me out of a line-up, but back in the day we'd met a few times, the last being in Cleveland for the USMNT WC send-off match in 2010. Whenever I picture you in my head reading your posts you're still always in that tiny Uncle Sam top hat and shiny metallic red, white, blue skirt.
Agree. I was so confident all week we'd waltz past them even lacking Trapp and Steffen. When we chased the game for pretty much the first 40 min, it was an eye opener as to how much we're still not quite there and just how important Trapp and Steffen are to this team. Can we play DC every week?
I literally LOL'd at this. He did flop a lot less, but got none of the calls. You can see his rep with the refs is already cemented. He could get a mis-timed Frankie-like flying two footer to both knees and still come away with the red for obstruction at this point.
I came away thinking the opposite. Were you watching the local broadcast or the away feed? It sounded to me like they had the mics facing away from the Nordecke. I could understand what was being said because I know what the chants are supposed to say, but it sounded muffled to me.
Sadly in the stadium the corner sounded quieter to me too than the first two matches. Looked less full too. Still was the best showing in the whole place but 2/3-3/4 at best. I know when I'm trying to get the casuals in midfield to join y'all by loudly joining in and trying to keep time, it sounds in my head like I've managed to capture a small contingent to keep it up for more than 20 seconds. Then I'll stop to see if it will continue without me and realize I've been the only one singing for like the past 2 min. I wonder if it was that kind of effect, but even more amped being surrounded by people actually singing, you experienced, @Ch(Elsey). Or does anyone know if cold effects how far sound travel and it was dampened by the weather? It sounded quieter than normal to me.
Actually cool air usually allows sounds to travel better (Known from teaching Marching Band). Too bad they can't just move the Nordecke to the halfway line on that side. That would drastically change the way it looks on TV at least.
At the chance that I will be called a lying Pollyanna or even worse I will not receive rep from the likes of puttputt or hang, I thought the section was loud and continuous. For frame of reference, I always use the disasterous MLS Cup ‘15 as my bar (that is a low, embarrassing one) for the section. I try to stuff away all frames of reference prior to ‘08. As I said without much shame (just a tiny dash), we were walking out around the 90th minute into the parking lot. I could hear every word so booming of each chant. It made me yearn to be back in the section. Yet I chose to be the responsible mama (and I was outvoted). I am proud of those folks (which should not be interpreted as anything negative against anyone else). @Jaybir said it well. Kinship. I needed it, and the chants gave way.