A Great Atmosphere, But the Crew Disappoint. LA Galaxy 1, Columbus Crew 0 9/24/11

It was great to see a sold out match at Columbus Crew Stadium. The Plaza in front of the stadium was packed. There was a huge line to get into the Crew store. The Nordecke was in full throat! And the weather was perfect.

The Nordecke Was Awesome Last Night!

I would like to think the crowd came to cheer on the Major League Soccer Eastern Conference leading Columbus Crew against the Western Conference leading LA Galaxy. But I do understand that the casual fans who came out wanted to see the Galaxy's Landon Donovan, David Beckham and Robbie Keane. As it turned out, David Beckham flew back to Los Angeles earlier this week as he was being rested, Robbie Keane had a minor injury that kept him out of the 18 for the match, and Landon Donovan didn't start.

But the fans were absolutely treated to a very exciting match that ended with the Galaxy scoring a second-half extra-time goal to give them a 1-0 victory. I hope the fans make it back to more Crew matches!

Crew Coach Robert Warzycha started the match in a 4-5-1 formation, which didn't make a lot of sense to me when the Galaxy's two best midfielders, Donovan and Beckham weren't in the match. Predictably the Crew couldn't produce quality chances in the first half, although they played very well defensively.

It was only when Coach Warzycha brought on Emilio Renteria in the second half, switching to a 4-4-2 formation that the Crew started getting great chances at goal. But ultimately they couldn't finish.

And when the Galaxy's Chad Barrett knocked in a deflected Landon Donovan shot in the 93rd minute (both were second half subs) the Crew were left with a home loss, and find themselves in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference.

Left defender Shaun Francis had a horrible match, giving the ball away on multiple occasions. The Crew also missed the injured Eddie Gaven as a stabilizing force in the midfield.

The Crew are in trouble and may not make the MLS Playoffs. They are currently playing worse than all of the other MLS Clubs based on their last five matches. They have four matches left, with only one of those at home. They will be lucky to get 4 points total out of those matches if they don't play better.

I'm an optimist when it comes to my favorite sports teams (the Columbus Crew, the Cincinnati Reds, Ohio State and Purdue football) but I'm not real confident we are going to see the Crew in the playoffs come the end of the MLS regular season.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The Royal Wedding-A Poem

The Kate and Wills Were Cute,

The Aston Martin Was Great!

God Bless the Queen,

The Beckham's Were Seen!

Pippa Was Hot!

Beatrice and Eugenie Were Not.

The Prince's Looked Regal,
Most of England Had the Hunch...

But the Shame of the Day Was,
No Invite for Cap'n Crunch?

Random Soccer Thoughts-MLS, CONCACAF Champions League, ESPN Broadcast

Major League Soccer (MLS) kicked off it's 16th season last night with the Los Angeles Galaxy beating the Seattle Sounders at Qwest Field 1-0. I'm thrilled that the season finally started!

The environment at Qwest, the Sounders home field, was fantastic. I'm sure the Galaxy are very happy getting 3 points out of the match. The MLS should be pleased with the opening match broadcast on ESPN, except for the fact that Real Salt Lake was playing the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League semi-finals at the very same time on Fox Soccer Channel.

MLS executives have said many times that success in the CONCACAF Champions League is very important for MLS clubs. Real Salt lake is the first MLS club to reach the semi-finals in the current format of the league. They ended up winning at home against the Costa Rican club Saprissa, taking a 2-0 lead into the second league which will be played at Saprissa's home field on April 5th. I just don't understand why they would have scheduled the MLS season opening match on the same night as an historic match for Real Salt Lake.

Speaking of scheduling snafus...March 26th is a FIFA International fixture date. Several National teams around the World will be playing friendlies, including the US Men's National Team. Another problem. The MLS continues to schedule regular season games on International fixture dates. On March 26th, the Columbus Crew play the New York Red Bull at home and the Red Bull will be missing 6 potential starters due to various International call-ups. Obviously this is good for the Crew, playing a weakened Red Bull team, but as a season ticket holder of the Crew, I would rather see them play the Red Bull at full strength.

Another thought:

-Taylor Twellman has joined Alexi Lalas and Max Bretos as an analyst on the ESPN MLS broadcasts for the 2011 season. Alexi Lalas is over the top in his opinions, but fairly entertaining. Taylor Twellman has improved since I saw him last year on ESPN broadcasts. But both were extremely critical of David Beckham last night regarding his training regimen and for not joining the the Los Angeles Galaxy until late in the preseason. I actually agreed with some of their points, but I think both made it a bigger deal than it actually is. I'm actually rooting for David Beckham to have a great year for the Galaxy!

ESPN Broadcast Analysts Max Bretos, Alexi Lalas and Taylor Twellman