Wednesday Coffee May Cause Headaches

TAURUS DELENDA EST!

RBNY/DCU: The big news is tonight's rubber match against New York. A win or a draw sees United retain the Atlantic Cup again, a loss and it heads north, and once reaching the turnpike may start to corrode with exposure to the air. Of course, people are talking up the playoff implications, and trying to see the big picture. Not me. For whatever reason, I'm taking an entirely parochial view about this game. I want New York to be destroyed in our stadium, and if we have to play in a such a way that we're exhausted for the remainder of the season and miss the playoffs, well, it would almost be worth it. Normally I'm totally a big picture kind of guy, but today I woke up in a foul mood, so let it be noted.

JOSH GROS IS ALECKO ESKANDARIAN IN THE STEVE YOUNG STORY: Steve Goff reports that Josh Gros may be done for the year:

Gros said after Saturday's game that he has had between 15 and 20 concussions since high school. Most have been Grade I, or mild, but the fact that contact with the ball is triggering problems has alarmed the club.

I think we've all learned the hard way that concussions are a tricky business, and should not be messed with. If the alternative is shutting him down for the year or risking his career, then it is time for Josh to stretch out on the couch with an eye-pillow, scented candles, and the music of Jean Michel Jarre. Don't mess around with concussions. Team ramifications be damned on this one.

MORE ON REPRESENTATION: Over at Pitch Invasion, Max J has given us an addendum and response on what we wrote yesterday regarding MLS Represent campaign. I think part of our disagreement stems from the way we approached listening to this material. Max decided to evaluate this entire thing as a marketing tool with respect to getting good music. I simply went directly to the DC United site and said "Oh, Bad Brains did DCU. Perfect." Then I listened to DC song only, and thought that the song was decent. Part of this is probably genre expectations. The music for Bad Brains (that weird funky punk sound) was always more interesting than the lyrics (rare exceptions, usually in the more dub nuanced songs). But the delivery of lyrics and music felt right in line with what I expected. Not transcendent, but wonderful.

Then I listened to other bands, usually with a perspective of "Would I trade my team's song for theirs?" The answer was no. This was a purely parochial thing. Is Max wrong in his impressions overall? Probably not, but my expectations were met, probably due to how I approached the entire exercise. Now, if MLS puts a team in Montreal simply because they want The Arcade Fire to record a track, then the entire thing will have gotten much too silly.

LATER TODAY: We should write a RBNY preview, and we should also check in with the Official Unibond Premier League Team of the DCenters. They have an update. The army is marching.