In Defense of Danny

Many Crew fans have noticed that the Crew's newest addition to the back line, Danny O'Rourke, has had a rough start. In fact "rough" might actually be putting it gently. In two games, O'Rourke has manged to foul both Toronto's Jeff Cunningham and New York's Oscar Echeverry in the box, resulting in two penalty kicks.

On the bright side, his fouls have allowed us to see some spectacular play by Will Hesmer:



While Danny O'Rourke has given up two PKs in the last two games, I still think the jury's out. Not on his performance the last two games mind you: We know he was junk. Everyone does. His family does. No one can deny his performances were bad. That said, what remains to be seen is if he will learn, grow, and mature, or if he will continue to founder at this level of play.

Not to sound like your mom telling you not to make fun of the new kid at school, but I will ask you to think back to your first two weeks at a new position at work. Did you make mistakes? Did you need to learn? Absolutely. There is always an adjustment period that people go through when plying a new task.

The same is said here for O'Rourke. The difference is, we're all watching it.

Realize that criticizing O'Rourke is not the same as criticizing a player like Alex Rodriguez or Terrell Owens. Those guys get paid a lot of money to do what they do very well. They have worked years at being in their respective positions. They have a breadth of work behind them that shows they, in fact, CAN be utterly spectacular. If they don't perform, they've more than asked for the criticism, based on their salaries and proven skill.

This may sound harsh to say of him, but Danny O'Rourke has neither of those qualifiers.

O'Rourke isn't the high-priced center back we paid $200,000 to get from New England so he could fix our back line. He was traded from Houston to New York to Toronto to Columbus in his short career. He's a converted defensive midfielder who is being asked by his hometown club to fill a hole. Granted, he's done a poor job thus far, but let's wait and see if he doesn't mature into the role over the next four games, as it will certainly be a baptism by fire.

If you're angry that Sigi Schmid is playing him, or that Mark McCullers didn't buy a replacement at centerback for Marcos Gonzalez, then by all means, let the vitriol proceed. But make sure you're directing it at the right people.