There are people who will say this was a good point on the road. Tied the Sounders, a man down, etc etc. They are ********in morons. The Sounders are awful this year. They are bottom of the entire league. Clint Dempsey has always been an asshole, but now he is an asshole that is just collecting a paycheck. It's a bad team and their results show that. This is a team the Crew should have stomped. Instead we have one of our DP's doing completely stupid shit, and putting us down a man. Make no mistake. This was two points dropped. Anyone who is happy with this point is happy with a mid-table Columbus Crew and has been beat down by this whole move saga. I can't blame you if that's the case. But, from a soccer perspective this was total bullshit. It shows a mid table mentality. It shows this team is nowhere near the top teams in the East. It shows, again, this team is gonna hover in that 4th - 8th place range. We suck. This season sucks. If you disagree, you probably suck as well. Happy Cinco De Maya, muchachos. I'm gonna make a margarita, season my steak, and go see if the ball that Milton skied over the goal from three yards out is in my back yard.
Use that Twitter account, post the picture with something like “Nationwide support for a COLUMBUS Crew is growing!!! #MLS2CLB”
I know it is faux pas around here; yet it is Saturday after a boring and ugly tie. You married a babe! I was unsure who the sign belonged to, so I am reluctant to tweet anything out that might seem like taking credit. Someone else can have at it though! So I arranged our ducks in a row so we could be down at the Wednesday and Saturday matches. That will be the first time in a very long time. @hangthadj - I will take that you suck award in stride.
I'm happy with a point, playing down a man for 75 minutes. I don't have a problem with the red card, Santos seemed to flex his foot into the other guy's face after initial contact with his chest. We shouldn't defend cleats to the opponent's face. Yes, we came closer to getting a goal than the Sounders did. They aren't very good and obviously miss Morris. Still glad we got a point and will move on.
I can't tell anymore if you actually believe this crap or if you're just winding people up. So I'll just say that anyone who thinks getting a road point when down a man for 75 minutes sucks, doesn't understand the sport, and leave it at that.
You need to recalibrate your expectations. This was a bottom of the league team. If you want to excuse today’s performance because one of our DP’s had his worst performance in a ongoing legacy of horrible performances that’s your perogstive. But that doesn’t prove you “understand the sport.” It only proves you are an able and willing apologist, which is worse than ignorance of the sport.
I already recalibrated them. I calibrated that 3 points was a distinct possibility. When Santos got an unlucky/questionable/harsh red card that could have in all likelihood just been yellow, I recalibrated that it was going to be difficult to get 1 point. The ten guys left on the field for 75 minutes did an amazing job. Our DP isn't going to get red cards in every match, so view this as the aberration it is and move on. If Dempsey had taken that red card in the 16th minute and we had only gotten a 0-0 draw, you'd be calling that a disgraceful performance. So just give everyone else credit and acknowledge that our club showed some serious heart today.
My mindset at kickoff was: this was a road win. It can and should happen. Because, yes, Seattle is awful this year. Currently, at least, Dempsey is a shell of his former self. And the Sounders looked stale for pretty much the entire match. When Pedro Santos went and got the red, though, like KCbus, I recalibrated. We were on the road, we were most likely going to play down a man for 75 minutes. We still should have stolen three! But since Valenzuela and Gyasi both fluffed their chances, we walk away with a point. In this particular case, I'll take it. If we had finished the game with 11 on the field, no - I'd be angry. But hell yeah, given the circumstances, that was a good point.
Look, you've been around this league waaaaay too long to be peacocking about a "mid-table mentality." You're better than that. Right now, you sound like an old friend of mine who was not only new to soccer, but sports in general. It wasn't so much that he wanted the Crew to win every match as he expected them to do, so that whenever they didn't he could indulge himself and anyone else in hot takes about how everyone and everything about the team sucks. But let's take a quick look at this so-called mid-table mentality. 4th, 5th and probably even 6th in the East for the time being is essentially 4th, 5th, and 6th in the entire league. So, right there, before we've even addressed moneybags clubs (do we really even have to?), 4th in the league simply isn't mid-table mentality. So that's why I say you're better than that. But also for as much as you like to remind us from time to time that not all superheroes wear capes (i.e. you were never convinced by Precourt. Wowee!) It's almost as if when you complain about mid-table mediocrity (obviously tonight isn't the first), you forget about this deadbeat. People always say, "you can't have it both ways." But maybe you can, hang. You certainly seem to making a real go of it.
You mention 4th to 6th in the East is likely 4th to 6th best in the league. I don't entirely agree with that. KC will be better than the 5th or 6th best team in the East. Maybe Dallas when all is said and done. It's difficult to know what LAFC or Galaxy will look like at the end of the season. At the same time we can be fairly certain what TFC, Atlanta, NYCFC, and RBNY are. They'll be really good. It's because of my understanding of the league, and my understanding of the ownership of these teams that I consider Columbus a mid-table team. It's because we spend money on Mensah and Santos to placate the plebes that I know that even if Berhalter is the genius many claim him to be that we are screwed. It's because we give another year to Higuain and the fanbase rejoices out of sentimentality and the hope that the team will stay another year that I know we will not approach the top 3-4 in the East or be a realistic contender going forward. I admit, maybe i need to recalibrate my expectations. Maybe I shouldn't expect us to beat a league bottom Seattle. Granted they are shit this season, but at least they know who and what they are playing for. It may be irresponsible of me to expect this zombie team with a deadbeat owner to do anything more than hang on the periphery of the playoffs in the East. That is on me.
I don't know man, New England just shutout KC last weekend and despite their surprising start I'm still not sure the Revs are even a playoff team this year. Sure, it's still early though. Maybe Dallas have turned it around after their historic collapse last season. The wantaways Acosta, Urruti, and Barrios are all still there, and I think Urruti even signed a new deal recently. Again it's early, but I think they'd have to squeak into the playoffs if they were in the East. LAFC is about the only one out there (and I only say this purely because of Bob Bradley, it's that simple) that I could see being in the top 6 in the East. But even then, they're so new that if they were a baby their poop wouldn't even really be poop yet. Exactly. And my understanding of our ownership is that we shouldn't even be a mid-table team, much less pushing for trophies. Any suggestion to the contrary is 100% delusional. But I appreciate your considered response.
I’ve made better. Still pretty good but I’m not going to complain. Just happy to grill in this weather. On to Wed. It’ll be interesting to see who gets the start for PDS. Is grella good to go now?
Nevermind the result. All that matters is making the playoffs. As we saw last Fall - while simultaneously giving Donny Garbles chest pains - you can go on the road and win the last place play in game and then to come within one stinking home goal of making the final. Just make the playoffs. (Now of course most teams will re evaluate their lineup in mid summer and bring in a guy or two to help the final push and of course the Crew won't do that. The last thing the owners want is a replay of last year's playoffs. So what you see is very likely to be what you get.)
No I could see us “recalibrating” mid summer with current ownership offloading a ton of our better players in an effort to make a “playoff push” . I certainly see Precourt intentionally tanking the team (as he has already done to the fan base) if he thinks the league is going to force him out...
I mean, I honestly wouldn't be shocked by this, but not in a conspiracy theory way. Dude has extreme talent, a move to Europe is in the cards.
With all the news about Austin, while I'm still not confident the team will stay, I'm more encouraged than ever. I decided to watch this game, so some thoughts: On the whole 'is a point on the road to crap Seattle when down to 10 men good or bad' debate, I'd have to say it's good. Should we have won? Yes, there were three excellent opportunities in the first half. Ultimately, a point is a decent result. @hangthadj you seem to want it both ways with your arguments. 1) Team signs mediocre players (Santos, Mensah, etc) and is thus mediocre. But then you say we should win this game if we want to be an elite team. In MLS, there are few, if any, elite teams. If Man City goes down to 10 men vs Huddersfield, I still expect Man City to win. If Burnley or Everton go down to 10 men on the road vs Huddersfield, I don't expect them to when, though they are capable. We are not an elite team, though we are capable to contending. Steffen is a beast. Valenzuela looks really good. I figured he'd just be a pure attacking left back, but I saw him make some nice tackles as well. Zardes movement was excellent, and his holdup play was decent enough. The red card.... I can't complain too much, but I think it should've been a yellow. It was reckless, but there was no intent.
Consider also that the Crew have three matches in eight days with many starters held out of the eighteen for the Wednesday match. This draw was a good result.
If/when that happens, Crew will not make the playoffs (you guys know I am not a pessimist, but that is how I would see the cards falling). Zack Steffen is hands down the best player Crew have out on the pitch in terms of just about everything important: A) Talent B) Athletic ability C) Future potential D) Wow factor. Negate that homer moment(s) in Shitcago, and he has been the X-factor keeping Crew from being much lower on the table (this season and past). I love Zack Attack, and I do think he may be my favorite Crew keeper ever (I do not say that lightly). As I mentioned earlier in the thread, Tim had an old bandmate over yesterday afternoon to jam. He saw I was watching my Crew so he asked about them. I (and my sweetheart) began gushing about Steffen. He helps our subpar defense in so many ways.