All Time Crew XI

With the return of Brian McBride to MLS, many Crew fans have been discussing how it effects his legacy. Ive made my position clear that I dont think it affects his legacy at all and he is still the best player we have ever had. One poster on BigSoccer went so far as to say Brian McBride would not be on the his All-Time Starting XI for Columbus. This got me thinking: What would my All-Time Columbus Crew Starting XI be? When compiling my Roster, I wanted to include guys that played very well in Columbus and were important parts of the team for long periods of time. I want to emphasize players who were integral parts of the club and strong contributors. Since I was 7 years old when MLS and The Crew started up, my recollection of some of the earlier players is a little fuzzy compared some more seasoned Crew fans. Here is my list.

Goalkeeper: John Busch

I was between Friedel and Busch on this, but Busch gets the nod for playing for Columbus longer than Friedel

Defenders:

Frankie Hejduk, Thomas Dooley, Chad Marshall

All of these guys were US internationals. Marshall might be a point of contention but I feel that he is the most solid defender we have had and would be a much bigger name if it wasnt for all the concussions

Midfielders:

Robert Warzycha. Brian Maisonneuve, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Kyle Martino

The first 3 are obvious. Martino might have fallen off, but he was MLS rookie of the year and did have a couple really strong seasons in Columbus

Forwards:

Brian McBride, Stern John, Jeff Cunningham

This was the easiest to pick. McBride and Cunningham are the all time leading scorers, and Stern John was a goal machine when playing for the Crew.

What do you think of this lineup? Who do you think should or shouldnt be on the list?

McBride to Chicago: How should we react?

At Thursday night's MLS All Star game, commissioner Don Garber said that a deal between Toronto FC and Chicago Fire had been agreed to sending former Crew Forward Brian McBride to Chicago to finish his MLS career. While people are happy that McBride is returning to the league, many folks have serious mixed feelings about McBride returning with Chicago. On Bigsoccer, various ideas have been discussed about crowd actions when McBride returns to The CCS. One poster suggested "McJudas" for a sign, and another opined that the Nordecke should turn its back in defiance to Brian McBride. 

I for one feel this is the completely wrong thing to do. During his time with Columbus, Brian McBride WAS the Columbus Crew. Brian McBride was and still is the only Crew player that gained wide recognition in Columbus not just from soccer fans, but all sports fans in general. In his 8 years with the club, McBride scored 62 goals which is the club record. Brian McBride was also the first ever draft pick in the MLS draft. In 2005 he was named to the MLS All Time Best XI. While McBride did leave Columbus, he left to fulfill a dream of playing in the English Premier League and left the club on good terms. Not once did McBride disparage the organization, cause trouble in the locker room, or voice displeasure of playing in a smaller market like Columbus. Brian McBride embodied the "Hardest Working Team", bringing his lunch pail to work every day and litterally leaving his blood on the field. Brian McBride is the greatest forward the US has ever produced, and the prime of his career was spent in Columbus. Whenever McBride returns, he should get a standing ovation for the service he gave the club in the formative years of the team. While he may now be playing for a rival club, that does not take away the great things he did for Columbus and all the sweat and hard work he gave to the club. 

If you as a Crew fan want to be upset at somebody, be upset at the front office, who came close to signing McBride last season to a new deal. HSG as usual was too cheap to close out the deal, so now we have to watch our greatest player of all time play on another team in MLS. When McBride returns to Columbus, it will be a sad day. But dont forget that we had the chance to resign him and decided to not pull the trigger and pay the extra money that he deserved. If the front office was serious about bringing Brian McBride back, they would have got the deal done. Instead, they did nothing and we now get to watch McBride play for Chicago. Hopefully when watching McBride, fans will remember the time he gave us and the fact that we were too cheap to bring him back.

New Single Table Feature

I have added a MLS standings feature to the site. The standings are presented in a single table, which is more useful because many things (Superliga, Champions League) are determined by the standings of the team in the overall standings, not just the Eastern or Western Standings. This shows a more accurate picture of how teams are fairing in their season instead of teams claiming to be "First Place" but actually have the 3rd best record (RSL). The table can be found at the top right of the page. If you still want to know how teams are doing in relation to the conference, in parentheses are E or W and the corresponding place in the conference standings. 

TFC gets Bounced from Champions League!

TFC tied Montreal Impact 1-1 at BMO field tonight, eliminating them from the CONCACAF Champions League. In two games at BMO, Toronto got 1 out of a possible 6 points, also losing at home to Vancouver. I guess this competition was not prestigious enough for Toronto, since they invented MLS and CONCACAF. They are saving energy for booing the MLS in the upcoming All Star game since MLS has the gall to "force" Toronto to host this event. Have fun cheering with West Ham fans. You guys deserve each other.

For all of the noise TFC talks, they dont back a whole lot up. Congratulations to Montreal for exposing this fraud of a Europoser club in the so called "Toughest place to play" in MLS!

Nordecke video Part 2

Here is the Nordecke doing another cheer during the West Ham game. This one is in Spanish, so if anyone knows what it roughly translates to in English it would be greatly appreciated. This cheer and "Yo se la voz...." are quickly catching on in the Nordecke for sure.

MASSIVE vs West Ham Pictures 7/20/08

These are my pictures collected from the Nordecke against West Ham United on Sunday. I have a fairly cheap Digital Camera so the pictures arent the highest resolution, but I did what I can. Overall there was pretty strong crowd of around 7000-9000 for a meaningless friendly where we started all of our reserves.