Morning Afterthoughts: We Are the Champions

Have you ever been a part of something so flawless? That thought resonates as I look back on what today became the Crew's 2008 Championship Season, a phrase that I am still not used to, and in fact, am skeptical of actually uttering out loud. For 13 long years, the Crew have run into every conceivable way of losing, coming up short, or missing it by the Max Smart standard of "that much." Crew fans have become masters of acceptance, especially in the art of finding hope in a situation that ended less than perfectly. Mostly, we have come by this trait naturally; after all, in the evolution of MLS, Crew fans sometimes felt as if we were stuck in the primordial goo while watching other species transform into contenders. Eventually, as we underdeveloped neanderthals continued playing in the muck, we stopped viewing the situation as it was, and rationalized an acceptance of a less than perfect situation.

In other words, yeah we suck, but we're not THAT bad...

But today Crew fans can finally say we root for the best, in every blessed sense of the world. Even by Hollywood's tired and cliched standards, the Crew's 2008 season would be tough to script. The team that missed the playoffs last year turned everything around. We won MLS Cup, the Supporter's Shield, and the Eastern Conference Championship; we had the Coach and Defender of the Year, as well as the MVP, who coincidentally won the MVP for the biggest game in Columbus Crew history; we have the loudest fans in MLS, who got to witness the Crew dispatch of DC, KC, Chicago, and New York in their playoff run; we saw longtime veterans like Frankie Hejduk and Duncan Oughton finally get the hardware their careers deserved, while the former fittingly scored the exclamation point on the season; The Crew scored the first and last goals in MLS this year, all the while saying "We're Not Done Yet". It's one thing to win it all, but it's another to do it in style. While some wondered if the Crew could have their cake and eat it too, most diehards Crew fans were caught saying, "You mean there's been a cake here all this time?" Yes, Columbus, there is a cake, and you can have it all.

To say the Crew dismantled New York is not really fair. Juan Carlos Osorio, Juan Pablo Angel, Dave Van Der Bergh, and any of the multiple-name Red Bull players gave their best effort, which looked as if it could have possibly been good enough to break most any other team in MLS. But the Crew weathered the storm that was the first 20 minutes of MLS Cup, and by the 30th minute, were putting the first tally on the board, thanks to the tireless legs of Alejandro Moreno. Note, I didn't say they were "fast" legs, just tireless. The Red Bulls came out in the 2nd half and tied it up, yet the pixels on the Home Depot Center message board had barely flickered the change in score before it had to be reset again, as Chad Marshall literally ran into a Schelotto corner missle, and redirected it over (or possibly through) a helpless Danny Cepero. Ironic that the Defender of the Year ended up scoring the final game- winner of the year for the Crew, what with all the kerfuffle over such stars like Schelotto, Moreno, and Rogers. And in case anyone was left in doubt about who was truly the class side, Guillermo Barros Schelotto gave everyone witness to the magic act he has been performing at Crew Stadium all season. His deft chip/flip/lob shot found Frankie Hejduk alone with the suddenly over-matched Cepero, and the MLS veteran gave no reason to doubt his ability to finish, nor that the Red Bulls would be going home with anything other than nice parting gifts.

The memory of Frankie's Tally will live in infamy for New York fans, but will be celebrated by the Nordecke and Crew fans around the country for decades. It was a fitting description of the year that was for the Columbus Crew - a small chance that turned into something magic. This is your Columbus Crew, Champions of Major League Soccer. In every sense of the word, this season was perfect.