http://www.dcunited.com/index.cfm?section=main&cont_id=211275 Good article from Ed Morgans, but I'd take exception with Roy Lassiter being grouped with Villegas and Zambrano, rather than with "club legends" Pope, Moreno, and Williams. Roy Lassiter: - was a starting forward for three of our six major honors - netted 18 goals for us in just 25 games in '98 - scored 18 more in '99 with 11 assists - scored both goals in that classic Champions Cup semifinal against Leon - scored twice in our 4-0 crushing of the Crew in the '99 Eastern Conference Final Game 3 - scored twice in our 3-0 victory over the Crew in the same situation in '98 - assisted Pope in the Interamerican Cup game winner against Vasco - assisted Moreno on the first goal of the '99 MLS Cup final Sure, his return last year wasn't great -- who expected it would be? -- so he may have been one of the "last-ditch has-beens and never-would-be-agains" but Super Roy Lassiter is also definitely a "club legend."
Yeah, that was a pretty low cut at Roy...definitely below the belt. Come on, Ed, you're a better journalist than that.
Definite club legend for Roy but I think Ed's point is that in his second incarnation, Rocket Roy was a has-been. Just like the retread of Raul Diaz Arce - once great but never again... Great article and I for one am happy that the Truckster has gotten us as far as Arizona. California is still a ways away but closer than in the last three years...
Exactly. After Lassiter left us the FIRST time he was becoming a "never would be again" and that description of him in this article was more than fitting. He was absolute trash on the field for us last season.
Roy Lassiter in his first incarnation was a fantastic player - we never saw so much of a glimpse of that last year. I wish Roy had not come back here last year so we could simply remember what he brought the first time. Roy tried hard, but it just wasn't there - and the talent around him probably wasn't as good, either. Please keep posting, even if it is to criticize me. Your avatars rock. I may have been a better journalist than that at some point. But I'm not a journalist anymore and never will be again. I'm quite pleased by that. Ed
Rev & Ed, I disagree. The point is (at least as I read the article), when those boys walked through the dugout for the last time, it was another sign that things had changed for United (even if we weren't then fully aware of it). If anything, even with the "tarnish" of Lassiter's return, his (obvious) final (league) game with us highlighted the fact that we couldn't "go home again" to the glory days. I, for one, was pleased that Roy scored against Aguila, since I KNEW it was the last game in the colors for a "club legend." And it's not like Richie Williams was at his "club legend" best in 2002. He'd already been traded to the scum and was back in 2002, but didn't fill us all with feelings for the Glory Days any more than Roy did. If you aren't ticked off by Ed's lineup of Eddie, Jaime, and Richie on the one hand and Super Roy, Zambrano, and Villegas on the other, fine. But to put it that way was, in my mind, to not really have a firm grasp on the ethos of the club (for all the reasons listed in my first post -- Lassiter's club accomplishments were HUGE). If Jaime Moreno plays a crap half-a-season for us in 2005 before heading out of MLS, will we line him up with the half-season mediocre player of the day, rather than as a "club legend" for DC United? I won't.
OK, that was a little over the top! Please forgive my post-Eric-Idle-show beer-filled sanctimoniousness. (wow, that's the longest word I've used in awhile!)
I agree Ed, I do admire the team as they never seemed to give-up this year unlike the last few years. As a fan, that is as much as I could ask of my team is to give thier all each game. Now haven said that, dammit they better get to the Home Depot center and kick some western butt in the finals. Yes, rational and irrational fan all in one. -The Far Side