O.K. sorry for the harshness but I sit here writing this post with a bitter taste in my mouth. Yes, the U.S. Men’s National Team won Tuesday, that is why I am writing this now, but this weekend was just awful in the Kevin sports world. Let me give you a little running commentary.
First the Crew get a great win at home against Real Salt Lake. I sit back thinking, “great we are back on track; look out rest of the league.” Then the Cleveland Indians, baseball, start playing the New York Yankees, again baseball, on Friday. They lose, dang. Indians play the Yankees again on Saturday. They lose again, dang. I think that one thing will get me out of my slump, USMNT playing Panama in the Gold Cup. They lose an awful piece of rubbish game, dang. Well Sunday rolls around and I think to myself, “Crew play today at home against Chicago Fire. This should be a win.” It is not. They decide to have their brain fart in the waning minutes of the match. Crew lose, dang. Then the Indians lose again, dang. And on a more personal note I lost playing tennis in two straight sets. No dang here, I am just not that good, but a win would have been nice.
So now I sit sipping my coffee thinking about what is going wrong with the Crew. I have extolled my ideas of what the Crew need to do to shore up the defense during this slump. Robert Warzycha seemed to listen to my suggestions and moved to a 4-4-2 formation. This did not help, dang. He lost Robbie Rogers to the Gold Cup. I thought that it would mix up the midfield and they would play a little harder, fail. Yes we did get the win against RSL but that was in mid week and we lost against Chicago. There is the bitter taste in my mouth, and it is not from the coffee. Something needs to change. Here is what I think: two words, Andy Iro. There I said it. I hope you are reading this Warzycha.
Iro is a solid defensive player and is good on set pieces. He was injured at the start of the season but has yet to get any playing time. After a couple of weeks of being healthy Iro became frustrated and voiced said frustration. Is it a problem for a player to go to the coach and say, “Why am I not getting any playing time?” Nope not in my book at least; the thing that Iro did wrong was he went to the social media. It exploded all over twitter and I feel that Iro is not playing now for petty back office politics. This happens to even the top teams, ask Manchester United, but all it does is make the fans scratch their heads. I feel that adding Iro to the back line will shore up the defense and these early goals, and hopefully the late ones too, will stop.
Speaking of airing problems to the media, Robert Warzycha is guilty of the same offence. He was displeased with Andres Mendoza taking the penalty kick in the second half against RSL. Jeff Cunningham is one goal away from being the top goal scorer for the Crew. Mendoza also chose not to celebrate with the rest of his team and show some love for the Noredecke. So what does Warzycha do? He talks about his displeasure to the media. How is that any different than what Iro did? Well Mendoza gave an apology to the fans and the coaching staff saying that he is just “…learning the culture of this league…” I do not care for the apology. What happened is done. When I say this I feel that I am saying this for the whole Crew Nation. Andres Mendoza I am calling you out. ou can make everything better for everyone by doing one thing. Scoring goals. That is it. Score goals. Stop missing sitters, stop missing open goals, stop making bad runs off the ball, and stop going to sleep on the field. You do that and all will be forgiven. Cunningham will score the record; it will happen.
So going forward here are my steps for success for the Crew:
1. Stop giving up early goals
2. Much like one, but stop giving up late goals
3. Stick with the 4-4-2 formation
4. Start Iro on the back line
5. Mendoza, score more goals; the defense will appreciate it
6. No more back office politics
These six simple ideas will help the Crew win more games and get back to their winning ways. That is the way I see it. Win or lose, enjoy the beautiful game and make today better than yesterday.
(image courtesy of Josh Couper/TheCrew.com)
