First Impressions - DC United 4 : 2 New York Red Bulls

I know you're all coming here for some dispassionate critical analysis in the immediate aftermath of the New York - DC game. So let me say this:

FUCKIN' YEAH, WOO!!!!

Okay, enough of that. The fact is this game offered every opportunity to fold up and take a draw or worse. Brian Hall, a referee I can normally tolerate, was absolutely shocking in his officiating. I haven't seen the game on TV yet, so perhaps I'm still misled in watching from the stands, but for the most part it seemed ridiculously bad. I can even concede both Boswell cards, although the second seemed a bit soft. Even one you put that aside, it seemed that New York was consistently given the better of the doubt, and New York fouls were given an "advantage" in the sense that a United player may have been near the ball. Ridiculously awful, crap officiating from someone I expect better from.

With all of that, I expected that Red Bull would equalize after Boswell was ejected and the game would end as a dispirited draw. I did not count on Ben Olsen, who took the team on his back and brought them the victory. Even before he scored, it was clear he was abusing Seth Stammler on the wing. Seth was just ridiculously poorly positioned to take Ben on, and Ben brought the savvy to make them pay. Playing with 10 men, United played smart counterattacks and rarely was caught with too many men back. For all but New York's second goal, the defense pressured and harried New York into poor chances, and Perkins can be forgiven the first goal allowed.

God, this feels good. It has been a tough year for the psyche of United fans, from Toronto fans getting all the love in the world (which, by the way, they deserve, but still) and the strange feeling of looking up at New York... This feels very, very good. This is why I write First Impressions posts, because tomorrow when I do the debrief I may have calmed down and lost this buzz, and will write about Moose's solid substitution outing or Fred and Moreno's ability to track back. That seems so blah blah blah boring at the moment. Right now... ahhhhhh... this feels so, so good. The New York supporters who made the trip (and credit to them) brought a sign saying "STILL BRUCE'S HOUSE." You may consider this game his eviction notice, and by the way, you're not getting your security deposit back. Fuckin' yeah. Woo!