Columbus Crew SC (2008, 2020, 2023 MLS Champions)

[BuckTwenty]

Now let's get some damn warm weather so I can actually enjoy the tailgate!

Hells yes.

Question: How furious were you when either Renteria, Cunningham, or Ekpo were tripped near midfield and still passed the ball forward to a wide open Eddie Gaven but the ref felt the need to stop the play? Advantage should have been played, but then again that looked like an amateur group of refs out there. They were struggling to make the right offsides calls. A sloppy game to say the least.

No question advantage should have been played there. Luckily, Rodgers was able to get the only one we needed for 3 points, but goodness... wasn't a good night for the refs collectively.


We DEFINETLY needed time for the guys to get their chemistry together early on. I don't think ANYONE, Warzycha included, expected this D to play as cohesively as they have, considering Marshall and Hesmer are the only two returning starters. MLS was prepared for us to be terrible this year, too. Only one national spotlight game the entire year.

I said it early on in this thread, but if this team can get the chemistry going and these guys learn how to play with each other, they could be good team for quite a while to come. We'll see what happens here in the next few weeks...

 

[TooTall]

Hells yes.


No question advantage should have been played there. Luckily, Rodgers was able to get the only one we needed for 3 points, but goodness... wasn't a good night for the refs collectively.


We DEFINETLY needed time for the guys to get their chemistry together early on. I don't think ANYONE, Warzycha included, expected this D to play as cohesively as they have, considering Marshall and Hesmer are the only two returning starters. MLS was prepared for us to be terrible this year, too. Only one national spotlight game the entire year.

I said it early on in this thread, but if this team can get the chemistry going and these guys learn how to play with each other, they could be good team for quite a while to come. We'll see what happens here in the next few weeks...

They need to make a move or two to improve on their midfield and their attack... Other than that, they are a pretty solid team.

 

[BuckTwenty]

Crew beat Vancouver 2-1 tonight in Crew Stadium. Fun game to have been a part of. Emilio had a pretty amazing strike to right side netting while running to the left post. Killed Vancouver on time of possession. Made them look like a USL-2 team for the first 70 minutes of this one. Hesmer had a couple stellar saves as well, one in particular from their goalscorer Salgado... diving stop right off Salgado's foot that would have been into an open net. We had a guy (not sure who, exactly) save one off the line as well that looked like a sure thing. We have one hell of a defense this season.

Thus far in the early season, Columbus looks to be one of the elite 8 or so teams in the league. I hope the boys can keep it going. They're an awful tough bunch to earn points against here in the early season.

 

[TooTall]

Crew beat Vancouver 2-1 tonight in Crew Stadium. Fun game to have been a part of. Emilio had a pretty amazing strike to right side netting while running to the left post. Killed Vancouver on time of possession. Made them look like a USL-2 team for the first 70 minutes of this one. Hesmer had a couple stellar saves as well, one in particular from their goalscorer Salgado... diving stop right off Salgado's foot that would have been into an open net. We had a guy (not sure who, exactly) save one off the line as well that looked like a sure thing. We have one hell of a defense this season.

Thus far in the early season, Columbus looks to be one of the elite 8 or so teams in the league. I hope the boys can keep it going. They're an awful tough bunch to earn points against here in the early season.

Go figure... The one game where it's beautiful weather and I can't make it. :(

AND they get 3 points! UGH.

 

[IronBuckI]

Went to my first Crew game last night. Good atmosphere. Had a lot of fun, but the game shouldn't have been so exciting the last 20 or so minutes. Hesmer did have some great saves, and the save by Gardner, that swept away a tap in at the open goal, was pretty damn awesome, but that defense the last 20 minutes was just disgusting. There were a lot of holes and open looks everywhere. They'll need to learn from this, and realize that, even against an expansion team, a 2-0 lead doesn't mean you can let up on your opponent.

 

[jlb1705]

Does anybody here use MLS Matchday Live? Any idea what the blackout restrictions are like? $20 seems like a reasonable price for live matches, but I'm afraid they might be blacked out here in Cincy.

I technically get ONN on TWC here, which leads me to believe that Matchday might not work for me. I'd like to have an alternative though because ONN is SD only and only on one out of three screens in my house.

 

[TooTall]

Does anybody here use MLS Matchday Live? Any idea what the blackout restrictions are like? $20 seems like a reasonable price for live matches, but I'm afraid they might be blacked out here in Cincy.

I technically get ONN on TWC here, which leads me to believe that Matchday might not work for me. I'd like to have an alternative though because ONN is SD only and only on one out of three screens in my house.

Not worth it if you have ONN, if Crew games are what you are trying to catch. It does disappoint me a bit how terrible the coverage of the MLS is. For me, the MLS just isn't exciting enough to pay money for, streaming video wise... Games, a whole 'nother story! I love being obnoxious in the Nordecke!

 

[jlb1705]

Not worth it if you have ONN, if Crew games are what you are trying to catch. It does disappoint me a bit how terrible the coverage of the MLS is. For me, the MLS just isn't exciting enough to pay money for, streaming video wise... Games, a whole 'nother story! I love being obnoxious in the Nordecke!

No doubt I'd rather be there. Unfortunately, the Crew compete directly with the Reds for my sporting event dollars. When I lived in Columbus I went to watch the Crew. Now that I'm in Cincinnati I go to Reds games instead, and the only time I've been back to Crew Stadium was on the same weekend I had OSU football tickets.

I've done some Googling today and I did read a post somewhere by one person in Cleveland who has ONN and doesn't have the Crew blacked out on Matchday, so I thought it would be worth a shot to ask around and see if anybody else here was using it in Ohio, but outside of Columbus.

 

[TooTall]

No doubt I'd rather be there. Unfortunately, the Crew compete directly with the Reds for my sporting event dollars. When I lived in Columbus I went to watch the Crew. Now that I'm in Cincinnati I go to Reds games instead, and the only time I've been back to Crew Stadium was on the same weekend I had OSU football tickets.

I've done some Googling today and I did read a post somewhere by one person in Cleveland who has ONN and doesn't have the Crew blacked out on Matchday, so I thought it would be worth a shot to ask around and see if anybody else here was using it in Ohio, but outside of Columbus.

I'm in Dayton and have watched all the away games, as well as Saturday's game. (First MLS home game I've missed this year)

 

[jlb1705]

This isn't about the Crew, but I didn't think it needed its own thread...

I'm watching Philadelphia at Portland on FSC. It's the first game as part of the newly re-branded "Soccer Night in America". Production values for FSC are finally getting where they need to be.

I wanted to comment on Portland in particular though. I've been hearing a lot about them lately but haven't had a chance to watch. They have a cool stadium and atomosphere and great support from vocal fans. The pitch seems absolutely dinky though. I feel like I'm watching the old Dayton Dynamo and Tony Bono. I know it meets the minimum size standard, but there's no space at all. This condition is even further exacerbated by the artificial turf and the fact that it's completely waterlogged. It looks like the only ways to score are going to be by penalty or by somebody getting broken down 1v1.

An article on the MLS site says the pitch is 110 x 70. That's on the low end, but honestly it looks even smaller than that.

 

[TooTall]

Will be in attendance tomorrow! Look for the yellow guys, I'll be one of them.

Should be tailgating before as well!

 

[jlb1705]

This is just the fourth match this year on Portland's pitch. How it has averaged four goals per match so far is beyond me. It looks like that place demands precision passing in close quarters. If the players had those kind of skills they'd be playing in a better league.

 

[TooTall]

I see what you're saying jlb, but it seems it's more the camera angle they're at. It seems the camera is much closer to the field, and much lower, giving it that small perspective.

 

[OHSportsFan]

This is some good production from Fox Soccer.

And that field does look a little tight. The box nearly runs to the sideline, but it's not as bad as I remember San Jose's old pitch being.

 

[TooTall]

GOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!! Rev up that chainsaw!