Morning Afterthoughts: Game 2 - at NYRB

A stunning and disheartening defeat. The Crew concede two early goals to a fired up Energy Drinks squad, and never quite recover, losing 2-0. Some thoughts I had from watching the game last night:

- First and foremost, Max Breto tells us that the Red Bulls grounds crew watered down the fake grass. Yes, I said FAKE GRASS. You know, the kind that doesn't need water? How the hell is that allowable? I say when the Drinks come to town, we just set burning couches on their half of the field. I mean, that has as much to do with groundskeeping as watering plastic grass, right?

- Despite his brilliance in the Toronto game (and most of this game), the first goal was all Will Hesmer's fault. It was softer than that big ol' dumplin-filled belly his coach carries around on the sidelines. Will should not only have made the save, he should have wrapped the ball up, cradled it in his arms, and sang "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Michael Bolton to it. Instead, he read it, got to the ground, and then let it slip through his arms. Inexcusable.

- The second goal? Well, Chad Marshall, it's your turn to be the goat. I realize you think you got fouled. I realize it might have, in fact, BEEN a foul. But instead of laying on your ass whining about it, maybe next time, you could get back up, make sure the ball gets cleared, and THEN piss and moan about your foul. Pick your spots.

- The Crew were terrible for the first ten minutes, and then played well, behind some stellar goalkeeping form Will Hesmer. Including ANOTHER blocked PK. This should not be lost on the season. Will Hesmer has saved two PKs. The defense in front of him is just absolute shit right now. But Hesmer is going to make some noise at the keeper position before they year is out.

- Danny O'Rourke needs to realize that he can't just foul someone whenever they get around him. You can do that stuff when you're a defensive mid, not when you're the last line of defense in the box. Two PK's in two weeks? Danny, it's called the "penalty area" for a reason.

How much money did that team from Chile give us for Gonzo? Because it wasn't enough.

- Anyone else want to buy a Pancake Puff Pan? Yeah, me neither.

- What was the number of ill-fated crosses we had in that game? 37? How many times did we have the ball at our feet in the box? 943? And yet, we had all of FOUR shots on goal? Absolutely horrendous.

- Once again, Sigi made two baffling substitutions. Didn't we have this saem story last year?

1. Brad Evans for Adam Moffat. Really? At least Moffat was making things happen in the midfield. And Brad Evans is...well, he's Brad Evans. It's not like Sigi was running out a super sub. The Moffat substitution caused the bar to erupt in a chorus of "What the Fuck?"s.

2. The other amazingly insane substitution of the night: Ezra Hendrickson comes in for...umm...someone other than Danny O'Rourke (it was Stephani Miglioranzi). I mean, Ezra isn't necessarily an upgrade, but at least if Sigi would have taken O'Rourke off, it would have signaled that he understood what was going on. Miglioranzi wasn't completely lost out there, which is saying something about last night.

My subs last night (as if Sigi cares) would have been:

Hernandez for Schelotto
Ezra for O'Rourke
And if I had to use a third sub:
Garey for Rogers (who was just a little lost last night)

One final thing on the subs: What the hell was Ezra doing up in the attack? If any of the back line should have been up there, I would vote for Miglioranzi, as he's actually pretty decent in the air and with the ball at his feet. Instead, EZ managed to muff one of the few decent scoring chances we had there towards the end, and most of us at Ruby Tuesday's started throwing back Trailerparks 3 at-a-time.

- I really, really want Eddie Gaven to do well, but he is banned from taking free kicks after that terrible effort in this game. Typical of a Sigi sub. He takes off our best taker of free kicks (Schelotto), and we earn the only direct of the night. Not really a way to prevent that, but it is indicitive of the absolute piss-poor luck we had last night.

- When Wolyniec came in, I knew we were done. Any team that is willing to sub him in is acknowledging that that they don't take the opposing team seriously.

- Parke, after about his 27th dangerous challenge, finally gets sent off...about 20 minutes too late.

- Finally, did anyone else notice Sigi was wearing a parka last night (indicating he was cold) but couldn't be bothered to wear the supporter's scarf? C'mon Sig, don't make me think that was just something you pulled as a publicity stunt for one game.


So...was last night a bad loss? Did we just come out flat against a team that was fired up for their home opener? Can we still be optimistic about the season?

Yes to all three. Though if we see a similar result next week, get the couches ready to burn.

Match Summary here.