Highs and Lows at Crew Stadium

By: scott | July 31st, 2007

Ok, I’m big enough to admit when I’m wrong…very, very wrong. It seems we didn’t end up beating Aston Villa the other night as I had predicted (read: boasted). In fact, we got it handed to us pretty bad for ten chaotic minutes. Then we levelled out, calmed down, and continued to lose but in a more entertaining and less pitiful fashion. All things considered I’m proud of the boys. They held their own against a mid-table premiership team for 80 minutes (finally I’m heeding those calls for 10 “practice” minutes at the beginning of each game; or maybe a 10 “do over” minutes like we had in the playground when I was a kid).

It was a game of ninths, well, one-ninths anyway. For the opening ten minutes the Villains outran, outfought, outstruggled, and outthought a Crew side that seemed in way over their head. Forward John Carew muscled Marshall and Gonzalez (who I saw at the zoo with his family the very next day) off the ball time and again. He out jumped them, made moves on clever through balls and held up play long enough for the lightning quick Gabriel Agbonlahor to move into the area and cause problems. The goals, which notably came out of the midfield–Ashley Young and Gareth Barry–were the product of total meltdowns on the part of the Crew. They weren’t stargazing, Villa isn’t a squad full of stars, but they were certainly caught watching a professional performance moving in an entirely different kind of reality than an MLS team is accustomed to. Check out their reactions here:
http://columbus.crew.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20070729&content_id=108541&vkey=news_coc&fext=.jsp&team=t102

But…miraculously, we recovered.

At a certain point you could see the Crew’s confidence swell, in particular in the backline as Gonzalez figured out the long-ball strategy and absolutely glued himself to Carew. It was always going to be problematic with Ezra (I love him but he’s no speedster) playing right-back, but they shored up the line and started working together to stop Villa’s counterattacks. After 20 minutes or so, the Crew looked downright comfortable and heading into the half they seemed almost a threat to score (particularly through Guille and the occasional Robbie Rogers foray into dangerous areas).
I suppose the best thing to take from this night is the quality playing experience gained by players like Rogers, Szetela, and in the second half Ward, Kamara, and our goal-scorer Garey. These kids held their own, giving Guille, Moreno and Herron time to move and attack. And in the second half, dare I say it, I think we were the better team. In a grudge match between Villa’s second team and ours, we’d be a good bet.

But enough about football, what kind of blog is this anyway? I want to talk about fans.

The Crew supporters groups were phenomenal. Singing, cheering, abusing like always. The Villa section was another bright spot–their rendition of God Save the Queen was audible from accross the stadium.

But, as this was an exhibition game, a certain kind of sports fan turned up that I had not expected. Sitting directly behind were the meatheadedest bunch assholes I have ever encountered at a sporting match. Here’s a few choice quotes I caught as the ball was in play:
- “I respect you dude. I respect you so much that I would never fight you.”
- “I have so much ambition that sometimes I can’t sleep at night.”
- “Jaegerbombs! Jaegerbombs! Dude, dude, I just said Jaegerbombs twice on TV!” (note, the game wasn’t televised)

Now, I’m open minded, but it seems to me that this is the very worst thing that can happen in MLS right now. These jackasses–all a-flutter over the upcoming Buckeye football season–degraded the quality of the match for anyone sitting nearby (the weary faces I saw suggest I was not alone in my evaluation). In the second half, apparently tired of talking about themselves, they began shouting insults at the players–to Kamara when he missed a total sitter, “you didn’t even try…I would have put that away!” Yeah, that’s productive. Only in the very worst circumstances do you see European teams turn on their players. Beyond that, we’ve got a team that’s winning, though I doubt my local heckler knows the Crew win-loss record. Of course, there’s no solution here. These kinds of sports fans are everywhere, more concerned with themselves than the team on the field, more concerned with being seen yelling than with the potential effects of what they’re saying. So, if you’re out there meatheads, save us some of this wonderment. Put it in your autobiography or something.

And to the supporters groups…keep it up, you guys are great.

Get your rest Crew Nation, we’ve got Chicago at the weekend. Until then…