Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Richmond Beat Crew. Cunningham Out of Chances.

Beautiful evening at Crew stadium for the 1,845 (plus my pen and paper) that witnessed The Richmond Kickers upset the Columbus Crew 2-1.

Game notes from said pen and paper:

- Richmond went up in the first half with a nice bending shot from Hiroyama.

- Meram is fast. Meram came to play. Meram had a nice assist to otherwise invisable Cole Grossman.

- Robbie Rogers looked bright, if rusty. Cool to see him out there with Meram. He has no one in the middle to get the ball to though. What the heck is Cunningham doing?

- Danny O'Rourke, in his first action of the year, get's a friggin' Red Card.

- Heinemann inserted for a spark. Plays like it's the MLS Championship. Energy. Blacked out boots. Gives the Nordecke thumbs up, Nordecke loves him. Helltown loves him.

- Nordecke loves Iro as well. The common O-H-I-O chant is O-H-IRO! Iro comes on late for corner chances.

- Helltown favorite Matthew Delicate scored of a beautiful header to put the Kickers up 2-1. My life is complete now. I saw Welshman Deli score a goal that belongs in the EPL.

- Game ends. Richmond moves on, deservedly.

Aright. Columbus is out for their busy month of games. I've got mixed feelings about it about the team loosing but Richmond played extremely well. As mentioned before, I have The Kickers ranked as the best team in USL Pro. They looked the part. I moved around the Stadium a lot (because I could) so I may have missed some but they looked solid. No breakdowns. No mistakes.

The Crew had a handful of reserves out there. No Gaven, Marshall or Miranda... and no Mendoza of course. Cunningham started up front, no doubt in yet another attempt to get him that MLS record tying goal. At least I think it would have been even though it was a US Open Cup match. He looked lethargic. Absolutely no creativity or positive touches. I noticed a couple of his teammates getting visibly frustrated with him especially after the 75th min with the Crew was really pressing even when down to 10 men. When the game ended he just sat there like he played his guts out when he didn't. What's the deal with this guy?

Contrastingly, Richmond stayed on the pitch to perform some cool down drills to avoid future injury while the perpetually banged up Crew just walked off. Hmmm.

And Warzycha pissed off. Shawn Mitchell's breakdown of the game as well points to that.

"They have to wear this crest," Crew coach Robert Warzycha said of his team afterward, pointing to the Crew logo on his shirt. "I don't think they know that. I am so disappointed. So disappointed." Amen, Coach.

In other US Open Cup news; Orlando City (the 2nd best team in the USL) barely lost to MLS powerhouse FC Dallas 3-2. Columbus faces Dallas this weekend on the road. Big game.

Richmond is going to move on to play KC. As of this writing (Galaxy v LA Blues still to play) hey are the only non-MLS team left in the Tournament.

5 comments:

smitty said...

they kickered your ass! crazy. looks like a nice night. maybe i'll think about coming out early oct. when united plays ze crew.

you see we picked up DeRosario? McCarty was struggling.

Larry W Johnson II said...

man, that would be great if you came out for the DC game. red carpet would be rolled out. my heart and soul are with the crew but my ass belongs to United. can't change that. on top of that jim got inducted into la barra brava somehow

big pick up with DeRosario. DC movin up. i have a feeling the crew will be battling DC for a playoff spot later this year with that dude in the line up.

question for ya. why have folks determined that the USL Pro is 3 div? does that make NASL 2nd? they weren't even invited to the cup this year

smitty said...

has jim been goin to all the games? i'll look for him on the 20th (next game i can make it to), the brava is a good time.

with all the split up in the USL last year, it was surprising the NASL even got it together in time for a season. since it was so late in the year, the USSF wasn't able to include them in the cup.

speaking of the USL, you see that the railhawks are 11-1-1, dominating! wood should be rolling to those matches.

smitty said...

i mean... speaking of the NASL...

Larry W Johnson II said...

i'll tell Jim to look out for you. he's turning into a Nats guy tho.

just pulled up some NASL stats..Etienne Barbara for the Railhawks... 14 goals AND 7 assists in 13 games?? holy crap. need a first hand report report from wakemed on this guy!

oh, and wow the atl silverbacks have the best logo i've ever seen.