The Baddest Damn Place to Play in The Whole Land (Plus: Tons of Updates)

The Baddest Damn Place To Play In The Whole Land
Columbus Crew Stadium used to be an easy place for road teams to secure points. But, not anymore and never again! Chivas came into our shithole stadium and were invited by 40 degree temps, 25 mph wind with rain, a blackout of the lights, and a whole 5 sections of Supporters dressed in the blackhole called "The Nordecke." Those supporters were throwing smoke bombs and streamers and making corner kicks a living nightmare for away teams players.

Paging Dunivant and Sasha for comments, ask them if they want an invite back to the corner? No one wants to take a corner kick on that side if they are not in a Crew jersey, no one. Just look at this year's record for corner kicks there as your proof, we have had in two games only one corner kick(Dunivant) and one free kick(Sasha). Teams soon will be praying for goal kicks instead of corners on that end. I can't blame them.

And, I hope they have a night of tossing and turning with us in their dreams before game time from now on. We will not lose a damn home game this year if we keep this up. It inspires the boys to play twice as hard.

Ekpo signed by Crew, on his way finally
So you may have thought our midfield looked impressive last Saturday. Well, let's add a Nigerian U-23 player in for good measure who was recommended by Enyimba's coach for the senior national team midfield. Ekpo was left off Enyimba's squad in their last game in anticipation to his move to Columbus.

Sigi and Bliss have all the paperwork in and hope to have Ekpo signed by the April 15th deadline. Ekpo will probably be gone for a portion of the summer with Nigeria just as Gaven and Rogers will be for the US.

Story here.

There's Only One Scheletto
Scheletto played on Saturday his best game ever for the Crew. His mind wasn't on Gimnasia, no rolling his eyes, his hands were not on his hips, no "me" going on. Scheletto was for once playing a full game entirely for that Yellow "Crew" jersey, not for that Yellow "Boca" jersey.

This is really the first time I got to see the real Barros Scheletto and if he continues to play the full year like that he will deserve a banner forever in the Nordecke with his face on it. And, he will still deserve that banner whether or not he goes back to Gimnasia after the end of this year or not. Come on Guille just give us a full year of 100% percent determination like last night.

It was shear brillance especially when he almost willed a few goals out of nothing while taking on three Chivas players going 100 mph's. I was impressed and he deserved the "Guillermo" chants last night.

Scheletto sums up last night simple and well:
"I had a lot of fun." So did we Guille watching you!

There is only one Robbie Rogers
An eye opening performance as Rogers will be the nightmare from now on of Chris Pozniak and Eric Ebbert. Rogers will be what those two players will be thinking of when they are working at Seven Eleven next year. As, Rogers had two goals but could have had four against those two weak ass defenders.

From now on, Rogers is just a dominating and terrorizing thought for any left back that plays the Crew. After re-watching the game he is my man of the match over Scheletto by a hair as he had more of an impact over the entire outcome of the game.

Additionally, his recent performances along with Moffat's are opening some eyes overseas. However, with them both playing in Europe already I don't see them leaving the Crew for a long time unless the deal is right and unless they are not sitting on some Euro bench.

Story here from Blackpool's Vital Football. However, Blackpool is probably a step down from the Massive Crew :-).

Padula Debut
I couldn't watch everything that he did when I was in the Nordecke. But, I re-watched the game today and I believe when this guy gets a couple of games under his belt watch out. His delivery of balls out of the back were amazing and he shut down everything except for a bad header in the first half that could be attributed to rust.

He also pushed up and supported Rogers well. I think he was a big help in distrubuting balls up to Rogers in the second half. He also is all smiles and was the first to be there to congradulate Rogers on goals, seems real happy to be here. By the Houston game I think you will be hearing alot of "Gino" chants (He is a real fan favorite wherever he goes). He will be a good pickup for the Crew. Kudos to Sigi and Bliss on that one.

Podcasts and Videos
Smithnwesson was missing from the pre-game action so we couldn't get a full discussion going on about how we were going to setup the podcast. But, myself, jericho, smithnwesson, and a patricksp guy who knows how to put it up are working on it. With jericho being in Dayton, smithnwesson being in Columbus, and myself being in PA it may be hard to get together on it. And, most of the podcast may be done on a group phone or maybe some other online three way. However, I'm hoping to get that up after the DC game on that weekend. And, it should be easier possibly for us to get together on it a few hours before home games from now on.

Also Jericho should have a video up at some point from the supporters perspective before and after the match. He didn't tape during the game cause I guess he was afraid that the security guys who were being a little touchy on Saturday would have taken it away. Although I told him not to worry about it from now on cause TFC fans filmed during the games on opening day. And, you can't get in trouble with a camera.

We should also have a nice video up for the away DC match where we have 30 or 40 going. And, I should have a good pre-game post up tomorrow or Wednesday on that game.

Brian Dunseth Interview, And Other Interviews:
Got an email at 12:30 from Dunny on Saturday about an interview yesterday at 4:30 at the stadium. However, I didn't get the email in time as I left from PA at noon for the game. Dunny gave me his cell phone number and to call him for an interview sometime at noon Cali time this week to do one. I was busy today but I'll attempt to do it tomorrow at noon Cali time so look out for that.

I'll get his thoughts on the new group and correct him on the groups names. :-)

I'm also hoping to get interview's with current players too. Flirting with the idea of getting a press pass but I have to get Dave Stephany to believe I'm not too hardcore. I did send questions to players on facebook but I haven't gotten any replies. :-(.