24 March 2006

House Money

As a United fan, I suppose there are a few things that are expected of me. Casual bravado, historical arrogance, antipathy for the teams from Los Angeles and New York (er, New Jersey, nevermind, make that York, no, check that, Jersey). And the fastest way for me to lose whatever rep I have with United fans is to give our traditional punching bags from the north credit for anything, especially if it isn't entirely deserved. So when I say the following, I realize that some might look on it as a betrayal of my team. Okay, here goes: "I am a bit worried about the home opener." There, I said it.

It's not that the New York Red Bulls have impressed with their preseason acumen so far. Aside for a decent draft, their early friendlies have been, from what I can tell, sub-par. Yet part of me still remembers that the last time the Alexi and Mo show came to RFK, United was on the short end of that stick. Which means I can't write my traditional "Why are these fools even considered our rivals?" post. The last time we faced each other, with DC trying to secure the top seed in the East, it was the Northern team that finished on top.

See, right now the Metros remind me of a middle-aged man who has lived his entire life in a cubicle duly filling crappy orders from upper management (John C. Riley). He wears his suits in a dutiful rotation, brown on Monday, Navy on Tuesday, Gray on Wednesday... Suddenly, an old college acquaintenance shows up, a guy with spikey hair, a brown leather jacket, and a reputation for wildness (Joaquin Phoenix). He's accompanied by a silent type who occasionally for fun punches his fist through a wall and has an unspecified criminal past (Clive Owen). Suddenly, our middle-aged account rep is partying all hours, talking to girls for the first time, using powdery substances (Diego Maradonna) from plastic bags, and generally making a mess of things (Guy Ritchie). You know it will end badly (Layer Cake). Yet, before it does, at some point our man is going to go bat-shit psycho on someone (Philip Seymour Hoffman), perhaps his boss (David Warner), perhaps his entire office (the Mormon Tabernacle Choir), while his two bad friends cheer him on over a cell phone (Motorola). Yes, in the end it will fall apart, but you don't want to be around when he finally snaps, do you? Me neither. So that's why I'm a bit worried about the opener. RBNY has little to lose, and this might be the one game where they go psycho. I get nervous around psychos. It's a thing with me.

5 Comments:

At 24 March, 2006 09:53, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The great thing about soccer rather than movies is that people get red cards when they go psycho (see also: Gomez, Christian). RBNY has shown a particluar affinity for this.

I'm waiting to see RBNY burn themselves out in the first thirty, have our four (FOUR) man back line resist the push, and then have our unproven like a fox buddy Filomeno drop in a neat little goal. And if all else fails we can have Gomez spit on everyone.

 
At 24 March, 2006 10:52, Blogger I-66 said...

I don't understand... are they Red Bull New York, how they were introduced and like it says on the logo? Or are they the New York Red Bulls?

The former is preferrable, as we can just call them "Red Bull" or "Red Bulls" or "Bunch of Bull"... but the latter absolutely sucks.

 
At 24 March, 2006 11:41, Blogger Kinney said...

Thier official name is Red Bull New York. However they go by New York Red Bulls. This way they can have it in both the Euro and American format. So you will probably hear the annoucer say something like"

"Today we get to sit back and enjoy the great rivalry between Red Bull NY and DC United. DC ended last year with a whimper and the New York Red Bulls have completely retooled thier midfield so it will be very interesting to see where these two teams stand at the beginning of the season. The Red Bulls are coming out in a 3-5-2 formation while United seems to be going offensive with a 4-3-3."

That of course assumes we don't have Balboa announcing "this is just such a good rivalry, it like, like, a very big rivalry." But hopefully you get the idea.

 
At 24 March, 2006 16:32, Blogger D said...

Dan: Quite valid point. It's just that I'm also afraid they might be productively psycho... the same way Chicago did last time they were in town :(

Also, you bring up a good point. I never thought Nowak would use a four man back line. I was wrong. I should probably write a post about that.

Kinney/I-66: Yup, and yup.

 
At 25 March, 2006 02:41, Anonymous Anonymous said...

But the Metro Red Asses still have Tony Meola guarding their goal..just a thought.

Hey..could we trade Rimando for him?

 

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