STEVE CRONIN!

D.C. United 1 : 0 Columbus Crew

Six Word Novel Recap

A decent team, with terrible supporters.

Let me just start by saying that Steve Cronin impressed the hell out of me last night. He played confidently, and he did not hesitate to come off of his line or even out of the box. At one point last night, he ran almost to the corner flag to shield a Crew player off the ball until it ran out for a goal kick. He was completely alone in the corner, the goal mouth was empty and the wet conditions at RFK meant that if the ball had not rolled out, he would have been in a position needing to play the ball with his feet 1 v 1 against the attacking player. I wouldn't say that it was a nervous moment, because it worked out fine, but I mention it because it was the type of heads up, proactive goalkeeping that you don't see very often and with it, he made things a lot easier for himself. The score line shows him earning a 6 save shutout and he earned Man of the Match honors as a result of a text-message poll of fans there at RFK. I think it was well deserved, even more so than Emilio, your goal scorer, and Khumalo, the assist man.

I can't decide whether the Crew played like the best team in the league last night. On the one hand, they spent virtually the entire 2nd half in the United end. But on the other hand, they got shut out by a team struggling to even make the playoffs and only had 2 or 3 decent chances. One thing that I know for sure is that their supporters should definitely stay at home next time.

The most experience I've had with supporter's groups is with Barra Brava, Screaming Eagles and La Norte and so I've always thought of these groups as positive things. They support their team. It seems that these assholes from Ohio only came to RFK last night to unleash a barrage of senseless profanity. And don't get me wrong, I love me some profanity, but as my wife pointed out, the Crew supporters (does anyone know what their are known by? Massively Terrible?) were seated in a section directly above the VW Garage area, which was filled with little kids getting their faces painted and getting free VW t-shirts. So when Cronin took his first goal kick of the night, the Crew supporters responded very clearly with "FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!" My wife and I were still down there getting our VW t-shirts at that point and the looks of complete puzzlement on the 10 year old faces was saddening.

So I hope you guys enjoyed your visit to your nation's Capitol, but please, don't let Emilio's boot hit you in the ass on your way home. I hope your team loses the Supporter's Shield.

Oh yeah, hilarious story of the night: when GBS came over to the corner for an early corner kick, under the Crew supporter's section and right next to the VW Garage area where my wife and I were still standing, watching the first few minutes of play, the supporter's greated him with an ongoing chant of "Guillermo! Guillermo!" HAHAHA Because it sounded exactly like they were chanting, "Terrible! Terrible!"