Rhinos keeper is in DC's end of the field. Webber punches away a cross. It comes back in. Kuffour clears. Nickell plays a ball into the stands. The ref blows the final whistle! Woo hoo!! Rochester made it close. They now go home to play Va Beach on Wednesday in the US Open Cup. The audio is still on and the PA system is announcing that DC is being awarded the CARY CUP TROPHY. Let's hope there's room for it!
my audio went out just before Walkers 3rd goal, and just before carajvial's goal to make it 3-2. then it hiccuped and i heard HE JUST MISSED THE EQUALIZER. I was totally confused, the dude had just scored, and mr. ibleedcoffe is hollering about a missed equalizer. Have to say im glad i got to hear what i did of it, and how pitiful it is that FSC keeps hawking LA as MLS's winningest team, cause it's just not true. and WHY could jamil not do a little of this against kc?
I guess it's up to me, Superdave, Andy and the others down here to provide commentary on those who actually saw the game (not that that has ever stopped random speculation and conclusions to be drawn on BS). First of all, it was hot and humid. Upper 80s at kick off with a heat index much higher. Most of the players were gassed by the middle of the 2nd half which led to most of the Rochester goals. The game was a tale of two halves. The first half, DC dominated play. Very little happened in the DC end. Guppy was very active down the wings. Walker making good runs off the ball, and checking back into midfield to gather possession. Adu was rather passive. There were times when Guppy would have the ball on the wing, Nickell would go near post, Walker to the middle and the back post would be wide open. Adu would just stand at the top of the 18 and wait for the ball to come to him, when a far post run could have been very dangerous. But what can you expect from him in a exhibition? 2nd half, Rochester definately was the more dangerous team. It just looked like DC's midfield folded. Nana was completely invisible. Carroll was exhausted. And Rochester did a good job of taking it to our makeshift backline. Quill looked like a player that deserved to be out of MLS. He was getting torched down the wing by Rodriguez. Rochester's 2nd goal came when a long ball came out to Walker across the midfield stripe and was held pretty blatantly but no call, Rochester collected and attacked. Never should have happened but the ref blew the call. Rochester could have scored many, many more but they had a problem of shooting the ball right at the keeper. There were probably 3-4 corners where they won the ball, but headed it directly at Perkins/Webber. **A few notes about SAS Stadium... If they want a Div. 1 team they better do something about traffic. It was horrendous. A 2-lane road leads to the stadium with only one entrance for parking. Mass transit is non-existant down here... we Southerners like our cars and don't believe in anything resembling population density. It looked like a 10oz beer was $4. It might have been 12oz, but it was a really, really small cup. Surprisingly big crowd. There are seats for 7,000 and then they sell Standing Room Only tickets. Crowd was announced at 8,200. I got to the game 10-15 mins after kickoff and there was still a line 40 deep at the ticket window and plenty of people in the parking lot behind me. They played a lot of music and crap like that over the PA during the game. My wife (who has only been to DC games in RFK) turned and ask me, why are they doing that, it sounds amateur. Then she wondered why all the drummers weren't there. Highlight of the PA announcer... "Throw in to The DC United Team." I wanted to strangle someone. Lots of kids but a surprisingly large number of DC paraphanalia being worn. Hopefully the others can fill in what I missed, and I'll be happy to take questions regarding individual players.
Hallelujah! FINALLY we have something to shove in the face of the Metros with their damn La Manga cup! Woohoo!!!
I just back from the game. Attendance was a sellout -- traffic was backed up for miles (which caused us to miss the first two goals). People were turned away from the ticket counter. Fortunately, most in attendance were happy just to see Freddy Adu who was played up in the local media as being "on fire" this year. Oh, well, I'm glad so many turned out and appeared to have a good time. Good marketing, good support by the city, nice facility (the seats are very close to the pitch), hard to ask for more. It would've been nice to see some more first-teamers, though. Did Christian and Dema stay at home? The team on the pitch was not the DC United I'm use to seeing. Nana in midfield -- hmm, let's not have him battle for headers, shall we? I didn't see him win a single one. Jamil's third goal was perfect, though. An outswinging cross by Quill meet perfectly by Jamil to nod home what became the game winner. Fix, lurch, goal! So United gets to take home the Cary Cup (as a citizen that makes me proud). Hey, at least it's one more trophy the Metrostars will never win.
Just got back from the game, some random thoughts: 1.) Jamil Walker looked amazing. I don't know where his touch came from tonight, because it wasn't there against KC last Sat. For his second goal, he soft-touched it with his left foot, feinted right, spun around the defender, then blasted into the goal. All over the field. He had a great game. 2.) I met a fellow Frenchman and we talked about PSG for the coming year. Thought it was cool to meet a fellow countryman there shouting "Allez, TIR!" 3.) I know Rochester is a second division team here and they didn't give Freddy the best opponents. But I know now, after initial doubt because of the media hype, that Freddy Adu has great potential. I have been to many, many professional games in Europe. My Stepfather has always had season tickets to Caen, and I have seen several other teams. In otherwords, I had seen some very good players in person. And I have to say that I think Freddy Adu has a chance to be special. When he went out at halftime, the entire game changed. DC had trouble moving the ball past midfield because they had no distributer. I have to say, I wish this kid would go to PSG (did wonders for Ronaldinho) or PSV Eindhoven (Beasley) before another bigger club. That way he would play, grow, get used to a higher level of play, then be ready for the big time. I really think he has a chance, and I'm excited to see where he ends up. P.S. He is much more muscular than I expected. He doesn't look that built on tv, but is small and looked to be powerfully built. Reminded me of a somewhat slimmer Roberto Carlos.
Methinks you may have mistaken Nana Kuffour for Freddy Adu. Adu is short, but Kuffour is shorter and is very muscular. Adu, sadly, isn't, at least not yet.
No, I know Kuffour. He is the one with wild eyes and an unkept afro. But I thought Freddy (#9) was muscular. At least he looked it to me. When I've seen him on TV he looks small, but standing closer to him he looked like he had a bigger frame than I thought. You know, maybe muscular was the wrong word. Maybe stouter than I expected would have been right. But seriously, after watching him move, the kid's go it. Now if I could figure a way to get him to PSG. . .
That would be Greg Howes, the 2 time MISL MVP for the Milwaukee Wave, who is playing for the Rhinos on a loan agreement both this summer and next summer too.
You got that right brother. Parking and the ticket line were a joke. It took me over 25 minutes just to get in and park, then I stood in the ticket line for over half an hour. I missed the ENTIRE first half and had the (dis)honor of being literally the last person in the gate. They said over the PA that it was a record crowd though, so maybe someone from MLS will take notice. Also, with a little better finishing, Rochester could have equalized, or even won. One Rhino was in one on one with the keeper and hit his shot off the post. For the last 20 minutes the ball hardly left D.C.'s half, and the defense looked dead. But it was fun, and congratulations on winning the "First Annual Cary Cup" lol.
You don't say *rubs beard, I mean goate, I mean stuble, turns off computer* Thanks for the report locals. Rep coming your way.
But by the end it was a reserve-reserve side for DC, with at least two non-roster players on. As to Cary's preparation for the match, a huge thumbs down. At 7:10, I was at the corner of Maynard and Cary Blvd, about 3 city blocks from the lot entrance. It took nearly an hour to get to the lot, afterwhich I was led to a spot deep into the woods away from the stadium. I had let my wife out to stand in line at will call. I saw exactly 5 minutes of the first half. As to the viability of Cary as a market, I'd estimate that a solid 60 (maybe more) per cent of the "crowd" were kids under 14, largely youth league team members. That's not the basis for a solid, paying following. The game, or at least what I could see of it while peering through throngs of kids running up and down the aisles for hot dogs and ice cream, was pretty decent.
Why on earth would anyone going to a 7:30 game be coming at or after 7:00? Sounds like the problem isn't so much the venue, but the fans Granted, there sure seems to have been alot of walk-up business - but that's not what owners want (they like it on nice days though). I'd say league- and ownership-wise what really matters were the tickets pre-sold for the match, and it's just "nice" that so many people showed up late to buy tickets. One-off games like this are probably hard to get the police out to help with traffic, but if a real local team played there on a regular schedule, it would be easier to get traffic enforcment help and it shows them they need to plan for traffic if they do get a team. Valuable lesson. I'm amazed there is no A-League team there. I would have liked Jamil to have brought one third of the productivity last night to the KC game .....
I was trying to think why would Rochester "host" a home game against DC here? One possibility I thought of was... if Rochester is awarded an MLS franchise, the Div. 1 franchise would need to move somewhere... Cary has this nice stadium sitting there, so I figure this might have been a test drive for that type of thing. The Raleigh Rhinos anyone?
Article on Freddy and all his 10 yr old groupees from today's Raleigh paper... http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/2586413p-9021166c.html DO NOT read this article if you want a match review. It may be one of the worst written, cliche driven soccer article you've ever seen...
Maybe I am a glass half full kinda person, but I thought last night's game was a success. Yeah, the traffic sucked getting in (much better getting out). But I love the idea of some poor sap stuck in the middle of it and thinking "WTF is this?" That the soccer aficionados, and the merely interested as well, made their presence felt in this area last night to me is huge. How many second thoughts are lingering in the heads of the soccer dismissers when they hear: STANDING ROOM ONLY! Even if it was a crowd filled a lot of kids, I say that's still a good sign. This game was heavily promoted by Cary Parks and Rec. to their core constituency: Cary kids. Will they come out again? Yes. After all, they did it for the Courage. I argued once before on this board that the game will advance in this nation and region when the "Soccer haves" reach out to those who have the desire to propel the game but not the resources. My earlier post was specific to the Caribbean region but it applies here as well. One of the reasons we so love this sport is that it is not elitist and no matter where we are, we can feel so connected to teams and players, and therefore to each other. I know, I know, that is a bit sappy but it's true. That the Rhinos and United were open to considering coming here and playing is exactly what they should be doing to grow the game. How many new fans were welcomed into our community last night? Even if it is just one, then let the plastic horns blow and the prepubescent kids wail for tee-shirts from the "fun squad." Finally, I have read this board for years, and I occasionally post some dumb inane comment which rightfully most of y'all ignore. Not living in DC but loving United as much as anyone else, I take great vicarious pleasure in reading some of your excellent and hilarious commentary. So I am disappointed that some here are dismissive of the "Cary Cup." My tax dollars went into this event and that trophy, and I am damn glad that they did. Furthermore, a lot of people, paid and unpaid alike, worked to make this a success. Look, I know this ain't the Inter-American Trophy but good for DC, good for the Rhinos. We were damn glad y'all came to call. Don't be a stranger.
Who cares about Freddy, what I really want to know is how Gus Kartes looked. And I will definitely rep whoever can post a pic of Gus wearing a DC United jersey.
I, on the other hand, liked it. There are too many serious psuedo-analyses of our matches. Fluff pieces like this attract more kids and casual fans to the spectacle.
Where's Andy? I'm sure he got a pic. Gus looked a lot bigger than I thought he would be. But he really didn't do much, nor did DC's offense in the 2nd half. He was mainly playing target striker trying to track down the clearances out of the back. He checked back into midfield some to receive some passes. The midfield was non-existant in the 2nd half so there was little for him to do. Not an ideal stage to show your worth.