Catching Up; Looking Ahead (or is it listening?)

By: Jeff | March 29th, 2007

All y’all will have to bear with me as I get up to speed on my Columbus Crew news-gathering technique. Failing that, you’ll have to read multiple features on the Crewzers, mainly because I’m completely fascinated by the concept of cheerleaders in soccer…well, any sport, really….I can’t say I’ve ever understood cheerleading…

Part of the catching up means I’ll be lagging behind, ever so slightly, and reporting old news like the Crew’s 1-0 win over Indiana University. By that time, the Crew had compiled an 8-1-2 preseason record. If you think that’s impressive, how does 9-1-2 grab ya? That did indeed happen, courtesy of last night’s 1-0 win over Wake Forest University…turns out construction workers wallop Demon Deacons. (UPDATE: Here’s a better write-up of the win over Wake.)

At this point, one might shrug their shoulders and gripe, “Psshaw…that’s two wins, but they’re against college kids.” And that would hold – as it does, rather aggravatingly, if one were discussing the New England Revolution’s 5-0 tally through a cream-puff preseason – but a review of their total record (and way to go, people at the Crew’s official site, for building a Big Board), shows wins over teams at which Crew fans’ fellow MLS peers can’t really sniff: the Men in Yellow have beaten FC Dallas twice, Kansas City and Real Salt Lake once each, while drawing the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Chicago Fire. Their only loss so far came against DC United. So, dang, good start to the year, y’all. (And, no, I won’t mention the Revolution every day, but the comparison is both irresistable and relevant.)

Speaking of the Wizards (as I did somewhere up there), the Crew will play them again on Saturday evening. That detail appears in a weekly update on the Crew’s official site and there’s some mention about this being “broadcast live online”, though I’m not clear on where to find this broadcast or in what medium.

I will say this, though, I can’t stand listening to soccer; this is a game to be seen or you take your lumps and read about it later. So, yeah, there are certain things I won’t do to stay current. All for now.