Where to draw the line?

Recently Collin Clark, Houston Dynamo Mid-fielder, call a ball boy a “F#@king f$%got” on national television because the ball boy dropped the ball at his feet, rather then putting it in his hands.

Really Mr. Clark? Classy. Forget the fact that the cameras were on to catch the slur for the moment: You need to scream at a teenage kid on the sidelines? Grow up.

On the latest episode of Extra Time Radio, Simon Borg claim that is was no big deal… Give him a small fine, a slap on the wrist… No suspension. This doesn’t surprise me a bit. Mr. Borg also didn’t think that Luis Suarez’s Racially abusive comments warranted much of a response. Borg claims that people say all kinds of mean and nasty things to each other on the field. He claims it is a commonly used tactic to get your opponent off their game. He asks the question where should we draw the line? How about we draw the line right between F#@king and f$%got? It’s not the f bomb that is the problem, it’s the homophobic slur.

I’m thrilled MLS has decided to give Clark a 3 game suspension. I’m proud to support a league that doesn’t put up with such ridiculousness.

Unacceptable, plain and simple.

Patience Grasshopper…

Here is the quick and obvious.

• Dudar was a good find.
• Someone told Russell not to blast the ball up field every time he touched it.
• Russell is a good listener.
• Daniel Woolard deserves his spot.
• De Ro is more dangerous up top.
• Salihi has not had a chance to prove himself just yet.
• God bless Danny Cruz and his uncontrollable speed, piss and vinegar.
• Ben Olsen’s hair is turning gray…

After four years of losing seasons it’s hard to keep the faith. Last week I wrote, then deleted before it hit the interwebs, that I was losing faith in Ben Olsen. I’m glad I managed to keep at least part of my mouth shut. Ben Olsen told us after the loss to SKC that it will take some time to see these players gel.  I won’t go from no faith to genius this week, but I got a taste of what this team could look like.

I doubt we will hear the “not enough bite” speech from Ben Olsen after Saturday’s 0-0 tie with Vancouver. DC played hard Saturday. They won more first and second balls then I’ve seen them win in a long time.  DC played the ball on the ground successfully, almost. The ball stayed on the ground through the midfield then, in the final third, they typically unleashed a wayward shot or hopeful cross to no one. If United can connect that type of play with the forwards, they can turn that one point into three.

Come on Benny, show us what you can do…

Say something nice…

As a kid I was told If you don’ t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all… so here goes.

Joe Willis is a good back up keeper.

Hamdi Salihi scored lots of goals in Austria.

Robbie Russel’s wife is a lawyer in D.C, maybe she can give him a job at her office.

Emilliano Dudar (6′ 4″)is much taller than Robbie Kean (5′ 9″).

DC only plays LA once this year.

Portland Timbers are fun to watch.

Nick Deleon has the potential to have hair like Carlos Valderrma. MLS need more of this.

   

And he did that classy thing where you score a beautiful, yet pointless goal, quickly grab the ball and bring it to mid field.

There were moments, brief and fleeting as they were, that this attack looked like something…

This is only the second game of the season. I believe it will get better…

D.C Unitdud…

The High-light of D.C. United’s season opener against Sporting K.C at R.F.K was the chicken pot pie I ate in the parking lot on the way in. Huge chunks of well seasoned chicken baked into a nice crusty pie shell. It even came with a salad!

The second most exciting thing I did was warm my frozen toes at half time by taking a trip to the pisser…I sat with my Dad on the opposite side from the Screaming Eagles and Barra Brava thinking, it looks warmer over there… so many moving bodies…

And then was the soccer game right… that… Well lets see, it is enjoyable to watch Andy Najar dribble into people before losing the ball. Apparently his team mates enjoy watching this also. Bill Hamid was full of confidence and made some great saves.

The rest was pretty ugly.

Boskvic was dreadful. He looked scared, out of place, and 3 seconds behind the rest of the team, who all seemed hesitant to pass him the ball. I think Najar gave up on him and and decided to try and play the middle and the outside.

Finally, Robbie Russell, last season we finally got rid of the outside back that huffed the ball 50 yards to no one (Marc Burch) every time he touched the ball. Please give the ball to some one who likes it and doesn’t want to give it away.

And of course, in true DCU style, they managed to blow it in the dying minutes of the game.

I hope Olsen is right in saying the team needs some time to gel. To their credit they did have a pretty cut up preseason with Pontius and Boskovic both coming back from injury and a couple guys being away with the Olympic team. But after four seasons of crap and over blown expectation of new players. I’m not optimistic. Here we go again…