Saturday, July 29, 2006

What could have been...

Today, I was supposed to be up in Chicago to see the worlds most loved soccer club Columbus Crew take on one of their more despised rivals, the Chicago Fire. I was especially looking forward to it, due to the fact that Chicago finally got their new stadium and I have not been there yet to see it. Then work got in the way, and as you can tell I am obviously working hard right now. Now, don't worry I have been to Chicago to see the Crew play at more than a hanful of times. And in all those journeys, I have yet to see the Crew win a game up there. Whether it was an inexpicable Mike Lapper backpass leading to a goal, or Jeff Cunningham getting around the keeper only to put the shot wide something ridiculous always happened when I went to Chicago. The Crew's supposed house of horrors is RFK Stadium in DC, but I have even seen them win there in my travels. Of course that was before Grand Dragon Nowak coached DC. It still kills me though, I have seen this team win on the road at DC and NY and not in the closest city. Ugh.

At any rate perhaps its better that I am not going, given that luck in the past. Add to that Columbus being on a 10 match winless streak. Add to that that I would be coming home with what would likely be a decent hangover after a night on the town. Add to that considerations that I have an indoor game tomorrow evening that I'd rather not play hungover. But, it's still discourging not to see the game. Columbus played well enough vs English side Everton to get a draw. And that has the spirits of siome fans including myself rather high.

In fact, after the game passion on the message boards was getting as high as it's been all season as we all wondered aloud Why the hell doesn't coach play Rozental. For those who haven't been paying attention to Columbus this season (all 6 or 7 of you?) Rozental is a 29 year old Chilean midfielder. He is also our highest paid player. Many argue he is easily our most skilled player as well. He showed very well vs Everton which made us wonder what would the last 2 months have looked like with him on the field? But apparently he has not fit into the system that Coach Schmid wants. It's a baffling puzzle to all of us. Yet, there is hope that he may recieve a start tonight, or at least significant time (more than 10 minutes I hope) according to the Columbus Dispatch.

So this has me thrilled of course until I realize that since the date of this game was changed, it has now become an HDNet exclusive broadcast. I pay $50 for my damn dish every month so I can pay $69 once a year to watch all my Crew games, and the most intriguing one of the season, I will not see. I had gone from seeing it in person to not at all.

Now, I could spend the night hitting refresh on my computer. I've done that before. But, most likely I will try to forget about the game for a few hours. I'll need to turn off my phone to avoid calls from freinds at the game. Either by way of Netflix or going to see A Scanner Darkly to occupy my time. All in all it doesn't look like a terrible Saturday evening by any means. It just coulda been better...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't see the game, but from the reports I read, sounds like you might've lucked out not getting to go.

Oh yeah, you need to get down to Alabama and go to a football game with me.

scot said...

I got a text from Zach during the game saying he was virtually falling asleep in his seat. But hey, it's a point on the road!!!