by Donna Feldman
Now that everyone, including myself, has weighed in on the remarkable performance of our Rapids last Saturday, some other critical issues need to be addressed. Like the quiet crowd. Clavijo noted this in his Q & A, and I noticed it during the game. It was a bit odd, and now I think I’ve figured out the possible reasons. So here’s the Top 5 reasons the crowd wasn’t loud:
#5: Too much tailgating. Start drinking beer and eating at 4:30, comatose by 8.
#4: People were too busy watching Beckham, waiting for him to do something brilliant, and forgot they were there to watch a soccer game.
#3: Too many of the 18000+ fans were only there to watch Beckham and weren’t paying attention to the game at all.
#2: Our ears were ringing from all the fireworks and cannon explosions after all those goals
#1: We’re just so used to shouting critical and despairing remarks, that we’ve lost the vocabulary for cheering great plays. We were collectively dumbfounded.
Looking ahead, I’m worried. Open up the little blue program (you saved it, right?), and look at the enormous team roster. Look at all the talent that didn’t start and/or play in this game: Gargan, Ballouchy, Petke, Herculez, Ugo, Pablo, Casey, Peterson, etc. The group that just won would seem to deserve to keep playing. But all these other skilled players need game time, too. Not being a coach, I don’t know all the fine points of keeping guys on their toes and positive and in shape, but it seems to me that playing in actual games is key, or they start losing their edge. So maybe that’s a question for Clavijo. I hope the answer isn’t that people are going to be traded.
The fans finally woke up in the 90th minute for the hockey-style brawl. Around my house, there was some wonderment about why Donovan got a pass after that blatant shove. It made for an exciting end, and was way more entertaining than cheerleaders ever were. I’m looking forward to a season with a continued lack of cheerleaders and maybe a few more brawls. And definitely more noise. Hopefully we’ll be using more positive and enthusiastic cheers, so get out a Thesaurus and make a list.
Posted by mark at April 3, 2008 08:47 AM