The best part of this for me was the crowd singing the national anthem https://youtube.com/shorts/f2Mt2rIl2Kk?si=KZdM-F2l0ycsqtaF
Rootes always seemed like the happiest guy in the world, always smiling, always friendly, and he was extremely well.thought of professionally. No one ever blamed him for using the Crew as a stepping stone; he did a fantastic job here and earned the Texans job where he also reportedly was terrific. What happened stunned everyone. So very sad.
Hit me hard as not only was he a new GM for the Crew, but also took his time to coach my U-17 club team at the time. A powerful reminder that mental health affects everyone and anyone.
I was 9 that first season at the Shoe. We saw Roots in his suit and tie clearly on a mission running somewhere outside of the stadium. He ran past us, stopped, turned around and took time to say “hello” to my dad and I, then ran off back to whatever fire he was originally headed to put out. I never forgot that. He seemed like such a nice dude.
And now we're at the anniversary of the first time a US national team came which was a 1999 U-17 FIFA World Cup Qualifier vs El Salvador. The way I remember it, kickoff was at 5pm with a Crew-Tampa Bay game at 7:30 which was played in a rainstorm...or maybe the rainstorm was the next weekend. The US U-17 team included players like GK - DJ Countess DF - Oguchi Onyewu MF - DaMarcus Beasley, Nelson Akwari, Kyle Beckerman FW - Landon Donovan, Bobby Convey The coach was former Crew assistant coach John Ellinger who also developed Crew legends and not-legends like Chad Marshall, Eddie Gaven and Danny Szetela.
HCS. You're totally right about the Dublin game(s), but since I wasn't following the sport then, it's easy enough for me to forget about any US game in Dublin. Didn't Mike Lapper play on the team then...or at least one future Crew player did?
Mike and Dante were on the roster for that Panama game, as I recall. I have the program somewhere.... Appears the game was in 1991. Dante had two goals. https://bemassivesoccer.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/a-history-of-soccer-in-columbus/
It was the 96 season. (or at least my memory tells me it was.) I was young so a lot of those memories blend together. I also remember meeting Lamar Hunt in those early years. He was really kind too.
Four years ago today, June 19, 2021, the last first team home match was played at HCS against the Chicago Fire. It was a 2-0 win for the good guys.
Still gives chills. Wise men say... pic.twitter.com/WW5QvKQvuJ— The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) June 20, 2021
Yesterday was the anniversary of the Crew Stadium finale. One thing they got right at the new stadium: Eliminating many of the concourse areas to stand and watch the game. LDC seems a lot fuller than this photo. The attendance at the final game at the fairgrounds was listed as just over 20k. I also remember a lot more people in the stands as the game neared the end. So where the hell were they at kickoff?