Crew 2 - Real Salt Lake 0

Firstly, my apologies to all for not having updated before now. I have a (relatively long) story and rant to go through, so if you want to skip my personal anecdotes, go ahead and scroll right on down to the match analysis (I promise I won't be offended).

A little background before I get started on my rambling. I work at a restaurant in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and, unfortunately, I always work on Saturday nights. I try to get off work when the Crew play at home, but I'm not always able to do so. This weekend was one of those times when I wasn't able to get off work. I usually watch the Crew game when I get home (around one in the morning), but this time, the folks at MLSLIVE.TV let me down, and didn't archive the game until Sunday morning. Unfortunately, I had to work on Sunday as well, and wasn't able to watch the game until Sunday evening when I got home from work. Now, here's where I really got upset at the MLS web staff. Firstly, the whole first half was without commentary, for whatever reason; I'm not sure if that was a technical error on MLS' part, or if it was the fault of CSN (I hope it was MLS' fault, so I have more reasons to be upset at them). So when I made it to halftime, I put the screen on the smallest setting so that I could fast-forward through half-time, and the damned news ticker that MLS put under the screen read: Saturday - Columbus Crew 2, Real Salt Lake 0. After thrashing about in a fit of rage about having the scoreline revealed to me inadvertantly, I watched the second half of the game, but it wasn't as interesting or suspenseful as it would've been if I'd been able to watch my game without knowing the result. If I would've wanted to know the result of the game, I'd be on the MLS homepage, not watching the game itself. Maybe there are some people that like to know the score of a game before they watch it, but I'm not one of them, and I don't imagine that there are a whole lot of people who re-watch games to further analyze them. To put the scores of games on that page is sheer idiocy and poor website design. Anyway, I'll be writing the MLS website staff about it, and let them know about my displeasure. Sorry that you had to sit through my rant if you're still reading this, but I just wanted to get it off my chest.

The other reason that I didn't update until now, is that, in an unfortunate episode, some Coca-Cola classic found its way onto the keyboard of my laptop, leading me to partially disassemble the keyboard and clean it off, which took a while, and I'm just now getting around to posting here. So, finally, onto the match.

Clearly, The Crew deserved to win, and although some might say that it's not much of accomplishment to beat RSL, I think it shows how far the Crew have come along the course of this year that they are now able to put away teams that are clearly inferior (no disrespect intended, RSL fans) to the Crew. Still, it took a very long time for the Crew to get on the scoreboard, and perhaps longer than it should have taken. Real showed almost no offensive bite whatsoever, and it was fairly obvious that, should the Crew score, Real would have no answer. When the Crew did get their chance at goal from the penalty spot, I was VERY glad that Guille stepped up and took it - something that he did not do in the game against LA, and the ensuing penalty was saved by Joe Cannon. Penalties have been the bane of this team for well over two years, and it's nice to finally have someone who I am sure will put the ball in the back of the net.

There's really not much else to say about the RSL game except that the Crew were clearly the better team. Real is, quite frankly, terrible, and it was their lack of offense and inability to hold the ball that handed the Crew their first victory by two goals all season (the participants in Grouchy's polls on BigSoccer must have all wet their pants in excitement). I must say, it was nice to watch a Crew game where I really and truly expected the Crew to win, and they didn't disappoint. I can only hope that Saturday's game against Chivas will be as good.

Again, apologies for the lateness of this post. I plan to attend a Crew practice either tomorrow or Thursday, and I'll have that update on here in the next few days. Until then, Crew fans!