I’m putting together an MLS Regular- Season Review for a soccer magazine and I wanted to get the supporters’ opinions about the Burn in 2003. I would love it if some folks could answer the questions below. Thanks So Much! MVP: Surprise of the season (player or other): Disappointment of the season (player or other): Game of the season (a few details): Goal of the season (a few details): Young player to watch: 2003 will be remembered for . . . (game, moment, chant, incident etc):
MVP: Brad Davis Surprise of the season (player or other): You can't pin this on any one player, so I'll just say "defensive collapse". With Suarez-Bonseau-Morrow-Broome we had a solid defense that we thought we could rely on for 2003. All 4 of those players had lapses in form and their replacements didn't do any better. Disappointment of the season (player or other): Seeing Oscar Pareja not be able to make a difference anymore. Game of the season (a few details): 9/20/2003 - CHI 0, DAL 2. It guaranteed us the Brimstone Cup and was a quality win over the best team in the league. It was also a game where Nhleko and Eddie Johnson both scored, and it seemd like the beginning of a great strike partnership. It was also the first win under the new coach. This win gave us a little cause for optimisim in a season that was already lost. Goal of the season (a few details): Ronnie O'Brien, first game of the season against LA. Wonder-strike from long range, first goal of the season, probably the high point of the season too. Young player to watch: Brad Davis 2003 will be remembered for . . . (game, moment, chant, incident etc): I hate to say it, but what obviously separates this season from every other season is Southlake. (And I don't mean that in a good way.) It slashed our attendence in half and brought us the joys or artificial turf and football lines. Not good memories.
Let's see, you want a review of our soccer season? How about this .... they moved us away from our pristine best-in-the-country soccer pitch, traded one of our favorite hard-nosed players, ran off our popular fan-friendly GM, alienated our passionate flag-waving Latino fans, and put us in a non-beer drinking, higher-ticket-price-paying, out of the way high school stadium with a multi-colored, permanent football-lined, not-good-for-soccer turf field. Oh yeah, the team also won all of six games. Oh, but that wasn't enough to get the coach canned earlier than when the season was just about over and the team had no hoping of making the playoffs. Is that enough of a review for you?
This season is the season of rage. Nothing was right from the beginning, and every time we thought "ok, this is as bad as it can get. This is the bottom, there's no where to go from here but up..." and then it WOULD get worse and all you were left to chew on was rage for all the horrible things that kept happening. If you doubt this part, go back and look it up right here how many times people said "it cannot get worse." here's a list -the players hate the field -Earnie Stewart went to DC instead of Dallas -Pareja was hurt to start the season -None of the discovery players were good enough to sign, or were willing to sign for what Burn was offering -The discovery of Toni Nhelko was ruined by the fact that he was not in playing shape on arrival and he arrived in the middle of the season. Then he sprained his knee. -Ronnie O'Brien had his leg broken on a reckless tackle by the same player that broke the leg of ANOTHER Burn player four years ago -Jason Kreis ripped a tendon that ended his season -A reliable player developed into an unreliable player. -Brad Davis was injured but played as long as he could game after game. -Cerritos and Rhine did not score goals on the rate they did in years past.
Just got out of Betty Ford Clinic, so here goes: Game of the season: First home game against DC. Dema had just broken Ronnies leg. Kovalenko and Hudson refused to apologize. Burn had not won a game yet. I brought 20 signs to the stadium all written in Ukraine (thanks Metro!) telling Dema to 'F' his mother, eat my sh!t, etc... Burn proceed to win 3-2. We take signs, drums and hatred to the DC bus and proceed to drum Dema, Hudson and that SOB Stoitchkov out of Dragon Stadium, all the while thinking "maybe this place aint so bad afterall" Disappointment of the season: July 2. Second home game against DC, same fan enthusiasm, signs, drums etc... Burn are down a goal and Prideaux commits second yellow card foul in the box, Kries takes PK to even it up. Then DC players swarm the *#*#*#*#*# ref proceed to TALK HIM OUT OF EJECTING PRIDEAUX, convincing him that someone else committed the foul. What happened next ruined the entire season for me. The Dallas Burn players and coaching staff DID NOTHING. Please, if you're head coach and a travesty like that takes place on your home turf YOU GO "BOBBY KNIGHT" ON THE MUTHERFVCKER!" You start throwing benches and coolers sh!t on the field and refuse to participate in the game until you get ejected just to draw attention later to the ridiculous crime committed. THE BURN DID NOTHING. Friggin' Mike Jeffries sits with his stuipid chin in his hand like a Rodin sculpture with a bad mullet. Dema the "Ukranian Butcher" then scores 4 minutes later and to put the final nail in the coffin of 2003 Stoitchkov scores a howler of a free kick against snot-nosed Countess (who should have known better) and does a little dance for his Bulgarian friends on the sidelines. On July 2 I totally lost all pride in my Dallas Burn, they rolled over like a prison bitch in the shower. We fans brought the passion and the fight to Dragon Stadium that night and Dallas brought nothing. That night I joined the Jeffries Must Go bandwagon 2003 will be remembered for: The short-sighted failure that is known as Dragon Stadium. I hope John Wagner and HSG take the $500k they 'didn't lose' and shoves it up their asses. Dragon Stadium killed the Burn.
Re: Re: Regular-Season Review I was sitting RIGHT in front of those fvckers, you can imagine how I wanted to kill just about everyone around me at that point.