Morning Afterthoughts - Houston

I need some help. After a 4-1 start to the season, all of the soft-squishy parts of my body are becoming numb to my constant pinching in my vain attempt to wake myself up from what I thought had to be a dream. Apparently it's not. Last night was yet another historic night for the Nordecke, and the Crew are off to their best start in 10 years! Danny O'Rourke even got an interview on 610 WTVN's sports show this morning. And to top it all off, Toronto knocked off KC, leaving Columbus alone at the top of the table!

As always, here are my thoughts after re-watching the replay online:

Pre-kick:

Welcome to Crew Stadium! The always-cool Dwight Burgess and ever-annoying Bill McDermott have the call for us today on CSN, which is the only OTA signal in Columbus to have not gone digital yet. Hope they get on that soon.

First Half:

:55 - First goal kick of the game, and as Pat Onstad flights a long ball into the Columbus half of the field, one can clearly hear the Nordecke's "You suck, asshole" over the broadcast team.

I'll take a moment here to give kudos to the man known as Hard Hat Mike. He fought off bronchitis and stood in the pit, valiantly leading the cheers with the brand new and much-anticipated megaphone. You earned that face-paint last night, Mike.

1:50 - Carrachio puts a header to the goal, but William Hesmer steps up to make his first save of the game. Leaving the game last night, from what I could see, Hesmer was heads and shoulders above all the choice for MOTM. We'll see if I still feel that way after rewatching the game.

2:15 - Bizarre play. Mulrooney plays the ball back to Onstad, who had already committed to sliding to pick it up. Houston gives up and indirect free kick in the box. This gave me one fewer items on my "stuff I've never seen live at a soccer game" list. Now all I have left are "compound fracture", "keeper scoring from the opposite net", and "Abel Xavier playing decently."

6:01 - You can clearly hear "Columbus" in the background.

6:39 - I know it's completely juvenile, but I laugh every time Bill McDermott says "Sigi really like the balls he plays into the midfield". I just wish Dwight would follow that up with a long pause, and then "Yep, Sigi is a fan of that player's balls..."

8:30 - Pat Onstad is apparently an asshole, and he sucks. So I hear.

10:01 - Wow, almost a foul in the box for Franklin Hejduk. (Hey, if Will Hesmer insists on being called "William", I'm keeping that rule for all the players). The fould was LITERALLY an inch outside of the box.

11:15 - Gene Padula gets in on the fouling action. If you doubt for a second that the "Fair Play" Award is a joke, watch a 2008 Crew game. The team was blatantly offended by that award, and is now overcompensating by fouling the bejesus out of every team they face. Not that I mind, I'm just saying...

11:47 - Crap! Houston 1-0 off a Brad Davis free kick.

BUT WAIT! The ref does and Amy Winhouse and says "No, No, No." Dwayne DeRosario was off by a country mile, and the flag goes up.

Hang on, I have to go change my pants...

OK, I'm back.

13:25 - Although it sounds like "blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah Columbus!", it's actually, "Yo se le voy, le voy a Columbus" or something like that. It's a La Turbina chant that apparently means "I am the voice of Columbus". Anyway, you can hear that now too.

15:48 - OK, now I'm hearing the "Alejandro Moreno" chant to the tune of The White Stripe's "Seven Nation Army." Need to change my pants again, but now for totally different reasons.

16:43 - Franklin Hejduk works to clear the ball, only to get it batted down by referee Terry Vaughn's noggin. And down goes Vaughn! Our head zebra tried to shake it off, but he needed a second to recompose himself. Also, Jason Matthews, head trainer for the Crew, came out to give him a look. On the broadcast, you can see Jason and Terry having a laugh. Which reminds me, I'll have to tell you a story about Jason later on, as the man is a cool cat.

19:37 - Wade Barrett heads the ball down, and almost right to GBS's foot. Sadly Onstad makes a save. Apparently the Houston defense wants to make sure he's back to full strength.

21:30 - Little noticed, but true: Adam Moffat saves the ball that Guillermo plays into the box. In the ensuing scrum, the ball is knocked over the endline by a Houston player, setting up Guille's corner. Once again, Adam Moffat has a hand in a key play for the Crew.

21:52 - GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAL! Alejandro makes it three games in a row, and scores his 4th in 5 games!

Guillermo sends in a beautiful outswinging cross, which Chad Marshall heads on goal after coming off one of the best screens I've seen since March Madness. Moreno doesn't quit on the play, and the Crew are up 1-0!

In related news, Joseph Ngwenya is trying to learn Swiss.

27:21 - Boby Boswell chops down Moreno, and gets booked. Can I just say that song is stuck in my head yet again? Aaaaahlenhandro Mooorenoooo!

29:35 - This buildup from Robert Rogers was fantastic. Rogers steals the ball in the defensive third, beats two men, lays it off briefly to Schelotto, who taps right into more space for Rogers, who passes to Edward Gaven, who carries it across the field and hits Franklin Hejduk in space, who flights a beautiful ball that Moreno is mere inches from burying into the back of the net. Unfortunately, Patrick Onstad gets to the ball first.

(Hey, don't look at me. Blame William Hesmer for starting the full-name trend...)

30:50 - Speaking of, Hemser makes a tough 50-50 save, taking a shot in the ribs in the process. He really put his body on the line during this game.

33:55 - William Hesmer somehow makes a save after poor clearance from the Crew back line. He ends up stuffing Carrachio, then as Carrachio and Carrol get tangled up, jumps on the pile to keep the ball an inch off the goal line. That looked more like rugby than soccer.

34:57 - And on the ensuing attack, Gino Padula uncorks a right-footed beauty of a shot that would make Beckham jealous. The shot is JUST over the bar, but on the plus side, it did break one of the Crewzer's legs. Their hammy, untoned legs that is.

45+ - GBS ends the half with a beautiful cross off a set piece, but it is just barely poked away by Onstad. Can't imagine how nuts the place would have been had we scored there. Ah well.

2nd half

47:51 - Adam Moffat sees the yellow for a late challenge on Ricardo Clark. I'm OK with that, but the Crew are going to need to start watching out for accumulation.

49:55 - First corner of the night for Houston in the Nordecke, and oh was it a shower! Davis doesn't end up kicking this thing until the 52nd minute, and Guille has to come over to tell us to stop. Hahahahahaha! Tremendous showing by the Nordecke once again. If I were the opposing team, I would not want to take corners in that end.

54:56 - Great run by Rogers, and Guille finds him in the open space. Robbie takes it across the 18 yard box, and fires a shot, well-defended though by Onstad.

As long as the Crew keep winning , I'm OK with Robbie's shots not going in. That may sound odd, but I'd rather have a full summer of Robbie than a summer of Robbie splitting time with the U-23's in China. Once the final roster is set in stone, I hope he bags three a game. Until then, keep shooting it Robbie!


55:59 - Bill McDermott just said that he's heard a lot of rumors about Riquelme. So, it's official: McD reads Big Soccer.

56:40 - More streamers from the Nordecke, and the broadcast team have the utter gumption to say that Crew fans are essentially just ripping off Toronto FC fans.

Are you kidding me? Watch any game in South America, and you'll see the same thing. Toronto fans can put another quill in their already enlarged hat, though, because apprently Dwight Burgess and Bill McDermott think TFC fans came up with the idea. Unbelievable.

59:13 - Pat Onstad is on his game tonight. He punches away another dangerous cross off the foot Guille from a set piece. Onstad is the reason the Dynamo didn't lose this game 4-0.

60:10 - OK, someone needs to tell Gino Padula that he's a defender, and he's not supposed to be so good offensively. He hits a wicked left-footed shot off the crossbar from the set piece. Kudos to Sigi for pulling that guy out of the French 2nd division.

62:15 - Hesmer gets his body in the way off another cross, and lays out in the process to come away with it in a scrum. Really, this game was a battle of two great keepers. Seeing as how Onstad was the keeper for the league champs the last two years, I'll take having his counterpart on a night like this.

64:25 - Sideline gal Katie Witham talks with Sigi about an apparent tweaking of the knee that Gino Padula suffered earleir in the match. Sigi explains that Gino has to come off because he's hurt, which explains the EZ sub that had all of us in attendance scratching our heads. Still, he didn't look injured after that free kick...

65:30 - Guille whistles one just outside the near post, and it looks like it would have beat Onstad had it had just a little less bend to it. Guille is still pure class, and his haircut is legendary.

68:33 - This is where Hesmer starts to shine. He knocks down a screaming shot from DeRosario, and covers for the save. Truly some great goalkeeping in this game.

73:09 - Daniel O'Rourke clears after Hesmer comes off his line for a tough challenge. I know a lot of people were getting on to D earlier this year, but he has really stepped up his game after getting his PK situations out of the way.

74:09 - If Patrick Ianni had a lunch, Alejandro Moreno ate it by this point. Milkshake was drank as well. That's two really poor games from Ianni.

74:53 - Alejandro Moreno gets another header from a Guille cross, only to have it cleared off the line by one of the Houston field players! Oh, he's so close to having 7-8 goals instead of 4.

79:25 - Again, the Crew loses power on one of the lights above the stadium. That's about the only thing they've lost at home all season...

BA-DUM BUM PSSH! Thank you, I'll be here all week!

80:41 - William Hesmer takes a knock while going to clear a corner kick in the box, and he stays down. It looks from the replay that he got clipped in midair by one of the Houston players or Ezra. In person, it looked like Ezra got him with an elbow. Either way, he got back up and got to hear the Nordecke chanting "William Hesmer!"

81:13 Jason Matthews is on the field looking at Hesmer, which reminds me of the story I wanted to tell you:

As we were all cheering earlier in the game, Matthews was running down by our corner. He looks up in the stands, smiled, and then pulled up his warmup shirt to reveal his Hudson Street Hooligans shirt! HSH is grwoing massively, folks.

82:45 - Hesmer dusts himself off to make another spectacular save. I want to get a William Hesmer wig.

84:28 - At this point, I was standing in the Nordecke going "5 and a half minutes to go". Anyone else? Thought so...

88:35 - Wade Barret took a beautiful shot to the far upper 90, only to be bested by the play of the game, a TREMENDOUS save from William Hesmer. To put this play in perspective, Bill McDrmott felt the need to compare the save to a salmon leaping out of water, whatever the hell that means.

FIVE MINUTES OF STOPPAGE TIME?!?! I thought they did away with overtime...

90+ - Hesmer gets a yellow for taking too long, his 2nd of the year. I've never seen a keeper get one card for that, and he has two in the last two games.

- Frankie Hejduk gets a yellow for taking too long on the throw in. I hope no one ends up sitting a match because of time-wasting.

And the whistle finally blows, Crew win 1-0! Sigi Schmid gets his 100th of his career. The Crew are 3-0 at home! And, we're still top of the table!!!!

A few things to take away from this game:

- Hesmer was definitely Man of the Match. His heart and toughness saved this game for the Crew.

- Is Gino Padula going to be alright? Apparently, he feels he could have stayed on, but he is getting an MRI on Monday.

- The Crew have consistently faced better and better competition this season, and have risen to the task almost every week. I think the Dynamo were truly the best team we've played this season, despite their record.

- Can the Crew get back off their heels and start bringing the pressure and pace like they did in the first three games? Let's hope so, as they'll need another strong effort when they face KC this week.

What a game, what a night, and what a way to beat the defending champs!

Up next: Kansas City.