Facing Jeff Cunningham and Toronto FC

By: Jim | May 25th, 2007

Each year, my wife and I buy two sets of season tickets. These past few seasons she doesn’t go to very many games, and really, who can blame her given the levels of ineptidute and frustration the Crew have attained recently? I mean, season ticket prices have actually gone down two seasons in a row. At least the business office isn’t run by fools…

Most games I go with my friend who shall henceforth be known as ‘Doctor Dave’, a man whose obsession for the Crew exceeds even mine. Attending games with Doctor Dave has two distinct advantages – since he doesn’t have to pay for a ticket, he drives and he buys me beer. This mutually advantageous situation pleases everyone involved.

However, sometimes my wife still likes to attend a game or two with me a season, and this Saturday is one of those times. The reason? Jeff Cunningham. See, my wife is old school. To her, Duncan Oughton is a new arrival, and she hasn’t totally gotten over losing Brian Bliss. For her, Jeff Cunningham is a monument to the good old days, when we had forwards who could score and a 1-1 draw wasn’t something to celebrate. Cunningham scored 62 goals for us and is tied for the club record in that category, and the conspiracy theorist in me believes Cunningham was traded away simply so he wouldn’t break McBride’s record…

As for the game at hand, Andy Herron is back from suspension and the CW is that he’ll get a start. From the Columbus Dispatch:

Finally, it seems coach Sigi Schmid has his team. Not a team, but his team, which in all likelihood will include the attacking trio of Andy Herron, Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Alejandro Moreno in the starting lineup Saturday when the Crew plays Toronto FC.

This leads me to think the lineup will look something like this:

assuming, that is, that Miglioranzi isn’t in the doghouse for his attempted own goal against New York last week. As Josh Whedon would put it, “Grr, Arrgh.”