my top ten “worst” moments of SSFC innagural season

first… an honorable mention for the red cards and refereeing. didn’t make the top ten b/c quit frankly i was resigned to the level of the refs well early in the season, so nothing really surprised me from then on out.

10. qwest security. i actually had my own issue with security at one point, but i am not going to go into that detail… but almost every week i hear of different security people being inconsistently inconsistent in how they handle different fan situations at qwest. please don’t get me wrong… i am not talking about how to handle people who have drunk too much, I am talking about flags, singing, fans yelling for their team, KIDS STANDING ON THEIR CHAIRS SO THEY CAN SEE…. etc. do they really need to pick on this type of stuff?

there is no doubt that security is a thankless task, but if you are doing your job… well you aren’t going to get noticed (kind of like being a husband sometimes.) but if you aren’t doing your job, well, it is terribly obvious. and the qwest FO need to figure this badboy out b/c it is pretty sad for the talking points after each match having something to do with security each time.

9. Marshalls OG after we were up 3-1 at home vs DC that one brisk wednesday night.

i am not mad at mashall for this one… he was caught in two minds, tried to clear the ball, could have put it up, left, down, right but instead… he put it back… back of the net.  why was this draw so bad? was it giving up a 2 goal lead after 60 minutes? nah. was it giving up the 1 goal lead with 3 minutes to go on an own goal… well kinda…. but the worst part of giving up this lead, at least in hindsight, is that if we had held on, we would have won the league. yup, it actually surprises me to even say it, but add 2 points to our total and we are tied with Columbus on 49 and win the tiebreaker based upon head to head.

that title would have looked nice next to the USOC trophy. sigh.

8. qwest beer

beer? beer? you say… well if you are saying “beer?” to yourself you fall into one of three categories.

1. you don’t like beer. to that, i say, i am sorry.

2. you can’t afford to drink at qwest.  to that, i say, take out a second mortgage.

3. you actually like the beer at qwest. to that, i say, well actually i don’t say anything. i will just shed a single tear for you.

ok, red hook esb, and pyramid hef, err haywire aren’t complete crap, and they served their purpose 10 years ago to get people used to the idea of micro brews, but then they forgot to ever change, and 100′s of better beers blew by them in quality, taste and interestingness. other than maybe portland (sorry, but it is true) the seattle area has some of the most amazing microbrews locally in the country. we have

- two beers
- big time
- port townsend
- boundary bay
- fremont
- anacortes
- big al
- elliot bay
- schooner exact

and if you want to go for something a littlemore mass produced but still very local, then you can still go with

- georgetown
- maritime
- elysian
- pike
- hales

sigh, such a shame. you still could charge me $9 and i would be soooooooooooooo much happier.

yes yes, i know, there are contracts with major distributors etc etc. i am not going to go into WHY they don’t have quality beer, but only going to point out, that they don’t.

we aren’t seahawks fans, we deserve something appropriate for us.

7.  Thundersticks.

before the season started… there were a few things that my buddies and I dreaded. if the sounders FO allowed these things to happen, well we would hang our head. on that list was

- chearleaders
- piped in clapping, adams family prompts, etc
- thundersticks…

what is so bad about thundersticks you say? well, if you have to ask that question, you have never had them hit in your ear for 2 hours straight. the only thing that sticks withyou for a longer period of time is the bagpipes. and yes, i speak from experience…. my little sister was a highland dancer and we would go to all day highland games. i actually enjoy the sound of bagpipes, but when you go to bed that night, you still feel like you can hear that lone piper in the hills miles from your home playing that one last song… but it goes on and on and on… and then all of a sudden it is 2am and that bastard is still playing….

oh, but it is only in your ears….

the thundersticks have a way of accomplishing that same phenomenon.

i realize that the FO succamb? succumbed? (whatever) to corporate pressure here b/c money talks and they said ok to the thundersticks before the season started and before they realized how great an atmosphere plain ol’ humans can create. no thundersticks needed. so one time shame on them…..

but after they promised to not do it again…. and then they did it again?   well then it finds it’s way onto my top ten worst moments.

6. Fred and Freds obvious dislike for playing with one another.

As a bit of a joke, earlier in the season, I ran a “missing” ad. we were missing a pass from montero to ljungberg. it was a joke, but it was also real. we went a good 4 games i think before we saw one. and fredy wasn’t the only culprit here. FL10 clearly was not in the mood to put up with FM17′s “shoot first, lift your head and see the open guy in front of goal, later” attitude. FL10 would dramtically kill montero with his eyes and sulk every time a play ended with an ill advised step over or 30 yard shot.

Laurie had an exclusive report on a sigi enforced camping trip between the two where they tried to work things out, but it didn’t immediately work. finally, come midseason, they tended to agree to disagree, and got on with it a bit.

while never quite finding the love for each other that we may all have wanted, our two most important attacking threats started to at least work together, even if it wasn’t the kind of fred and ginger dance that we would all like.

next year will be interesting… did sigi send them to cabo together over the off season? only time will tell.

5. the loss to SJ

we had just beat colorado, and then houston, and then an important draw with chicago…. only to go on and secure an easy win against poor SJ… well that is what i thought, and that is likely what the players thought b/c they went on to to fully suck it up, in easily the worst performance of the year, losing 4-0.

you are only as good as your last match, and well, that week, we were the worst team in the league.

the only silver lining to the whole game was the fantastic fan support that went down and cheered nonstop for our team…. but the poopy mauve crap colored lining to that silver lining was the fact that the team didn’t recognize that support at the end of the game. ouch

4. not scoring at home for 3 months…

yes, that statement is a bit over done… we didn’t have a ton of games, and some of those were against some decent teams called chelsea and barcelona, but still, the fact really remained… for 3 MONTHS, there were no nets bulging.  despite the fan support that we had, a lot of the fans were new, and for them to endure that length of time without a goal… well that was trying.

3. losing le toux to philly

i know for many of you, this may rank as number one on your list, and i won’t give you much of an argument on that one.

le toux’s stats this year were not phenomenalal,but if that is all you look at, well then you missed the picture. le toux was mr seattle for the sounders. he was the FIRST mls sounder. he was the first person to sign an autograph…and then he would be the last person signing the autographs. if my memory serves me correct, he was the only player to recognize the travelling fans in SJ.

he was a player for the fans. his hustle didn’t always result in goals… but if a few other players had his hustle… well there would have been a lot more goals.

we will miss you seba, and all i can hope is that you will better your trade in philly, and then we can win you back in a few years. whadya say?

2. seven draws in nine

why so high a “worst” moment for seven draws? well i think it comes down to the pain i had to endure listening to all the non footy fans asking me why the F there are so many draws in soccer. there is a subtlety in appreciating a draw in soccer, and it can take years to realize that it can be good that there isn’t always a winner/loser. but what do you say to all the pain in the ass co-workers you have that are already looking for every reason to not like soccer, that the 7th draw in 9 games is just a subtlety of the game that they don’t understand. well, you can’t. instead you have to listen to the crap about how a touchdown  is so awesome… man, i could just punch them in the face.

and i save a special place in my fist for that rudy’s barbershop guy who, after learning that i was going to the game later that day, proceeded to tell me how much he hated soccer b/c of all the draws. i couldn’t say crap that whole hair cut b/c, well, you had the scissors.

truth is… even as a soccer fanatic, 7 draws in 9 games is downright painful to endure.

1. brian ching knocking us out of the playoffs.

other than the part where we got knocked out of the playoffs… well, the worst part about this was the brian ching thing. for years i have blah blah blahed on about how brian ching was the USMNT’s most overrated player. i have nothing against the guy but he just never makes an impact for me whenever i watch him play.

the thing is, i know that the stats prove me wrong, some 85 goals in 160 some games for the MLS is a great return for a striker, but i honestly can’t believe that he has really put up those numbers. every game i have watched ching play, well, he was pretty much anonymous.

no matter my correct/incorrect assessment of how good/not good ching is, it just killed me that it was him that knocked us out of the world cup. i even avoided slating him before our matches just so that he wouldn’t be the one to do it to us, but then he went and did it to us regardless.

what’d i miss… surely i missed a doozy…