Dave’s Football Blog

Despite my continued attempts to play up this tournament on FanHouse, U.S. Open Cup fever hasn’t exactly swept the nation. You can tell this by comparing and contrasting the atmosphere at D.C. United’s weekend trashing of the the L.A. Galaxy with the scene at their 2-0 win last night over the Rochester Rhinos of USL-1. Abram Fox at DC Sports Box did that for us:

How strange was it to watch United and the Rhinos face off in a rural, albeit massive soccer complex in Boyds, MD rather than the spacious confines of RFK Stadium in the District? To be able to hear the thud of ball on foot and the shouts between players, rather than merely watch the game from afar and take such sounds for granted?

Two days prior D.C. played the Los Angeles Galaxy and David Beckham in front of 35,979 screaming fans and a nationwide audience on ABC in the sweltering midday heat. On Tuesday that dynamic setting was all but forgotten, as 2,752 mostly-quiet fans settled onto the bleachers and enjoyed the clear, humidity-less summer twilight.

Barra Brava still showed, as did the Screaming Eagles and La Norte, but their numbers measured less in the thousands with drums than in the dozens and a drum.

I understand why, of course. D.C. United has bigger fish to fry than the U.S. Open Cup. The million-dollar SuperLiga is a week and a half away, the CONCACAF Champions League is just around the corner, and this team really wants to win MLS Cup this year. Plus, rent for RFK Stadium can’t be cheap, and the Rochester Rhinos aren’t going to pull nearly as many Screaming Eagles as Posh’s husband. (That’s why the New York Red Bulls never schedule home games for the Open Cup. Renting out Giants Stadium for a crowd of 5,000 just doesn’t make financial sense. Better to throw out the reserves in Baltimore against Crystal Palace USA and get out quick.)

On the other hand, the Chicago Fire are traveling to D.C. next Tuesday in what will be the marquee match of the Open Cup quarterfinals. This game will also be played at Maryland SoccerPlex instead of RFK. I suspect that was a precautionary measure, just in case they drew Crystal Palace. Still, the Fire brought 18,000+ to RFK Stadium in May, and last month’s match in Toyota Park was a testy affair in which 9-man United undid 10-man Chicago in stoppage time. Doesn’t it seem like D.C. United v. Chicago Fire deserves a slightly bigger stage than this?

Well, I guess Curt Onalfo doesn’t really give a shit about the U.S. Open Cup until he realizes his side is down 2-0 in the second half to a mid-table USL-1 club.

That’s when he throws Claudio Lopez into the game and tells him to start pushing forward. One goal and one bad penalty — which led to Railhawks fans singing, “Who’s your father, who’s your father, who’s your father, referee?” — and suddenly, we’re in extra time. A breakaway goal by the Wizards and another late penalty sealed the deal.

Then the Wizards decided to start a fight in the final minute of stoppage time for no good reason, and they got a Railhawk player sent off for it. None of their players were shown the red card, despite some punches being thrown. Then one of their players capped it off by sending the final free kick of the game into the stands. It appeared he wanted to peg a fan in the head as people were leaving. Classy.

I may not care that much about MLS, but at least I have a team to hate now. Eat shit and die, Wizards. I hope you chimpfuckers rot in the MLS East cellar until the day MLS forces you to move to St. Louis.

*sigh* I’ve had better nights than this…

Anyway, it appears only three USL clubs at the most will make it out of the 3rd round this year. Crystal Palace Baltimore upset the New York Red Bulls, 2-0, much to the consternation of Ives Galarcep, and the Charleston Battery advanced on PKs over the Houston Dynamo. As I type this, the Seattle Sounders are up 1-0 on Chivas USA early in the second half. I’m watching it right now on USLLive.com. I might update this later.

UPDATE: Seattle won, 2-0, which means I’ll be cheering against the Sounders on Thursday and for the Sounders next Tuesday. By the way, I estimate the Railhawks saved about $15,000 by losing tonight, so there’s that.

And now, a moment of horn-tooting. Sort of.

My Carolina Railhawks managed to shake off a disastrous road trip in which they took 1 point in 4 games and their coach was accused of flipping the bird at Rochester fans, and they pulled out a 1-0 win against USL-2 club Real Maryland to advance to the third round of the U.S. Open Cup, America’s domestic cup competition.

It took a penalty in stoppage time to break the deadlock. That part annoys me. During the offseason, the Railhawks signed the leading scorer in USL-1 and the leading scorer in USL-2, and yet they’ve only scored 13 goals in 14 competitive matches. So why is it that these guys need a penalty in the 90th minute to beat a USL-2 team that has yet to score on the road this season and has an away goal differential of -12? I know there are a lot of fans who would take nothing but 1-0 victories all season, but man, this team really needs to organize its attack a little better…

Still, a win is a win, and we get to play the Kansas City Wizards here in North Carolina next Tuesday. The Wizards are currently the worst non-expansion team in MLS. I think we’ve got a shot… if we ever start putting them in the net like we should.

“All we are saying is give us a goal…”

I touched on this briefly at FanHouse over the weekend, but it’s worth bringing up here again.

Three of the four Group Stage winners at EURO 2008 — Portugal, Croatia and the Netherlands — went out in the quarterfinals last week. The one thing those three teams had in common? They all clinched their groups after two games, then rested their starters for the third to avoid getting anyone else hurt before the Knockout Stage began. Result? They looked tentative and rusty, and their opponents, who all had to must-win third games in the Group Stage, looked sharper and played better.

This same sort of thing seems to happen to the Indianapolis Colts every year, doesn’t it? Most of the time, they clinch the AFC South with a few games to spare, and what does Tony Dungy do? He rests his players to avoid getting any of them injured. Every time he does that, the Colts get bounced out of the playoffs early.

Remember what happened the year the Colts won Super Bowl XLI? Dungy couldn’t rest his players. The Colts had to scrape and claw for playoff position right up until the end of the season, and they didn’t get a bye week in the playoffs, so they had to play right on through. They didn’t lose their edge, and they pushed through until they won it all.

I get that coaches don’t want their players to get hurt, but you know what? Injuries happen in football, and you can’t be scared of them. What’s worse: the risk losing a player to injury in a meaningless game, or the risk of losing your edge because all your players had a game off and bombing out early? This seems even more crucial in a competition as compressed as EURO 2008, which only lasts for a month. Are you telling me that these guys are so out of shape that they can’t play a full six games in 22 days?

So the next time anyone argues for resting players before a knockout stage, point them to the Indianapolis Colts. They’re as good a sign post as anyone here.

So, who wants to hear me pretend to know what I’m talking about?

That’s me on 850 the Buzz, the local sports radio station, chatting it up about EURO 2008. The clip is from last Friday, so it’s not exactly timely. Still, it is nice to know I’m a go-to guy when it comes to something. Like fart humor, for example.