Just got home from the match and i had a great time. everyone was singing and it was cool having a fence next to our sections. although people spread out too much and we could have compacted it back into 2 sections. No big deal. Convey acknowledged us and so did the NZ keeper. we keep doing the You Suck @sshole thing and after he caught on he would sit there and wait for a few minutes with us going "ohhh" and other times give us a hand wave. one time we were all going "shhh" and he turned around and laughed. it was great. Nelson waved when we chanted DC United. I wish Convey had played a little better but no big deal
I didn't thank that Convey played very well, but when he and Martino went onto the field the speed of play picked up as well as the intensity.
Before the game we were walking to our seats and we saw Bruce come out of the tunnel. My buddy starts yelling at Bruce to "Come home Bruce! DC needs you!" That got a litte smile out of the man.
Yeah, I was with you guys for the second half. I was at the game, sitting on the opposite side, kept looking over at you guys, it looked like a lot of fun, and just came over at halftime. I had a great time. I'll be sure to come to you guys when I go to Nats games and DC games. My favorite chant was the, "I'm blind, I'm deaf, I wanna be a ref" or "You wanna . . be . . Australian." I wanted to start one about Chris Armas because I thought he played his ass off today. Nothing unusual though with him. As for DC players, Nelsen and Stewart had solid games, and Convey played pretty well too. Fun day.
Nelsen - solid game, despite the less than glamorous praise from JP Dellacamera about him being merely "good" in MLS.. He needs to take off the Metrostar shaded glasses and see that Nellie has been one of the best defenders in MLS for the past two seasons... Convey - not really enough time to gauge a proper performance but he made his prototypical flashy runs and had a few nice plays.. Of note is that he was playing way out of position as a right midfielder and still did pretty well.. Stewart - I don't know what match greatscott was watching but it wasn't the same one I was.. Stewart was ordinary at best in this game and confirms for me that the middle of the field is definitely not the place for him to play.. He essentially played as the attacking midfielder yet displayed nothing but the ability to pass square and backwards all day long.. Sound familiar? I guess I'm one of the few people on BS who think that he is entirely overrated as a central midfielder. He sucked against Colorado as a central middie and sucked against Dallas on the road in that position as well... I truly do feel bad for Earnie because he is trying out there, it's just that there are no positive results from his work...
I thought Bruce Arena did a great job today.... oh wait, sorry! I was flashing back to the glory years. Sorry to take the conversation off-topic.
I agree with you. When I said solid, I basically meant - no mistakes. His ideal position is "inside right" midfield. In other words, a position in between winger and center midfielder. And he just cannot play this position on D.C.'s team. That is part of the reason why he is struggling so much IMO.
It was a nice time in Richmond, with the exception of the traffic. The attendence was only 9K and the roads were absoltuely choked. We were 45 minutes early and ended up getting into the stadium 2 minutes late. The Sams/La Norte/SE whoever else crew did make some nice noise. I loved the "you suck *********************" shout each time the NZ GK put the ball into play, but I didn't care for are the xenophobic (I know it was supposed to be humorous) "more sheep than people" stuff. BTW "you'll never make the World Cup" is not an approriate chant to a team that has made the WC (1982). Penny Lane was closed, I couldn't believe it, but the Main Street Beer Company was having $1 pints all day. Thank God we had a designated driver or I'd have had to shell out for a hotel or gutter down yonder. Hey Doug D. were you there? I forgot to call you before coming down.
Agreed. Stewart just looked kinda lost out there. From our angle it looked as if NZ pinched toward the middle a great deal (or was it just a coincidence that Lewis and Klein were always open wide), but even so, Stewart scarcely seem to make an appearance. perc
The "You wanna be Australian" chat was silly because it's so far from the truth. I wouldn't call the sheep references xenophobic, though. it was in good fun, and Kiwis have a pretty good sense of humor about that. Now, if we had sung "You screwed us out of ANZUS," that might have been a different story.
Pictures fromt he match are available thanks to a Kickers Fan. heres the link: http://www.usldiscussions.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=38;t=000874
I think about 5 people would have gotten that... Maybe we need to try Earnie at forward for DC, did he use to play that withdrawn forward role with the Nats a few years back? With the lack of production we have been geting from the forwards I am up for any solution.
I'm the one who's just left and up a couple of rows from the star beside Havoline, wearing a white shirt, I look like I'm praying even though I'm clapping. And I'm not the one beating the drum. To my right the person is wearing a blue shirt and yellow hat. Also, in the post match wrap on t.v., they show me.
didn't we sign him as a solution to our forward problems? but i seem to recall (someone correct me if i'm wrong) that he played centrally for NAC Breda (nec? whatever). did he play an AM role there or just CM? Nellie had a great game, although NZ was playing 4 in the back, he was frequently on the flanks stopping attacks. i wonder if that was planned. he did a good job of it tho. convey looked like a fish out of water on the right, but i thought more than held his own. he is really exuding a lot of confidence in his game right now. when he's on the field its almost a swagger...
I'm the one in the red shirt. I hate being late to games, therefore I shake my fist at the incredible snarl of traffic starting on the offramp to the stadium. I could be angry with myself for not leaving until 10:30, but I like my reasoning better. NZ's goalkeeper was an incredibly good sport.
Totally right. The guy was pretty funny methinks. Giving us the shhh sign while we were quite waiting for him to kick. By the way, i am the one in the bottom right hand corner. With the 5 on my shirt.
I got there at about 1210. Took the toll road on the last bit to the stadium. It dumped out into the line of traffic, and I parked on a side street instead of the lots. Spent maybe 4 minutes total looking for parking. Good to know for next time we have to play in an Open Cup DH there (although they probably won't have as many people there). Thx, Jay!
If you have a tape of the game, and you fast forward to after the game, you see a bunch of fans in the front row yelling. Then the camera comes over by us and I'm right there in the middle of the screen wearing the Donovan U.S. shirt. I am worried that because of the attendance, Richmond won't get any more internationals. It really did seem that there were more that the 9,000 announced at the stadium.
I seriously think that the 9100 was only the tickets they sold at the stadium. I am sure they sold several K through ticketmaster and Ukrops 9100 seems really low. But then again, anyone remember the DC vs. Kickers match where there were only 4k and almost the same amount of people were in the concrete seats. They stadium tends to feel like there are more people than their are. The stadium was fairly loud for only 9k.