Having spent last night complaining about the former Terps hard done by the Olsen regime, D.C. United was well represented at Ludwig tonight. Nick DeLeon, decked out in a red Louisville soccer shirt, was among the 3,002 others in the stands. DeLeon spent some of the first half sitting on the parking lot side of the stadium within a group of Cardinals supporters; just a little bit further over, Brandon McDonald, Chris Pontius and Kurt Morsink, now United's scouting director, watched the match in surprising anonymity.
All saw a resplendent, dynamic, Marianas Trench deep Maryland squad trounce Louisville. I think the post-game quotes from Coach Cirovski indicated a game that was closer than its scoreline. It didn't seem that close from the stands, as Maryland's passing and movement kept the Cardinals' on their heels throughout the match.
Coach Cirovski featured three freshmen in the starting eleven -- Mikey Ambrose at left back, Dakota Edwards as the center half opposite London Woodberry, and Schillo Tshuma up top -- while Christiano Francois and David Kabelik also saw time on the field as subs. Given the challenge posed by a good Louisville side, the freshmen were fantastic.
All three seniors -- Woodberry, John Stertzer, and Taylor Kemp -- started and both London Woodberry and John Stertzer likely got Morsink's attention this evening. I've not thought that London would do well inside, but tonight he snuffed out attacks and, after Widner Saint Cyr came on to buttress the midfield spine along with Helge Leikvang, Woodberry made a couple of useful marauding attacking runs over nearly the full length of the field. Stertzer was terrific; he got the ball off his feet quickly and distributed the ball well enough to create numerous attacks on Louisville's goal. Morsink might also have enjoyed Stertzer's frequent barking at teammates (often at Patrick Mullins) as he's not shy about letting his opinions be known.
And then there was Sunny Jane. Two assists, with the second coming late in the match from a well-placed pass across the width of the field by Mullins as Coach Cirovski yelled for Sunny to hold the ball up and eat up the clock. Instead, Sunny attacked his man, beat him off the dribble and played a ball in that evaded both shots and clearances until Stertzer tapped it in to kill the game. He's fun to watch.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Homegrown
Tomorrow night, the Maryland men's soccer team's 2012 campaign will officially begin against the school -- Louisville -- that closed the book on the 2011 season.
This season I will not head to Ludwig hoping to see budding D.C. United contributors; not because I believe that this year's team isn't replete with talent (it is), but because I would prefer not to see Terps cut their professional teeth in a team led by Ben Olsen.
While Marcelo Saragosa, Mike Chabala, and Emiliano Dudar put in questionable shifts for United this afternoon in Montreal, Maryland alums Ethan White and Stephen King weren't even included in the 18.
Young players are not excluded from Ben Olsen's side. Perry Kitchen (20) started again, along with Andy Najar (19), Bill Hamid (21), Chris Korb (24), and Long Tan (24). Nick DeLeon (22) was ill, but otherwise would likely have been involved, while Chris Pontius (25) and Joe Willis (24) were available off the bench.
The issue isn't a lack of opportunity for young players generally. Olsen has no problem going with youth. The issue is, instead, player development. Najar, Hamid, Pontius, and Korb have shown improvements in their game this season -- Najar is more aggressive defensively and has ideas in mind after exhilarating runs; Hamid's confidence is exceptional; Pontius has become a legitimate scoring threat; and Korb's exhibited some surprising offensive skills. But from the perspective of sitting outside the club, the margin for error for younger players not named Perry Kitchen is substantially smaller than for veterans, even where (particularly in the case of players like Jakovic, Dudar, Russell, Saragosa, and Morsink) the deference isn't warranted by on-field performance.
I've enjoyed D.C. United this year. Even fleeting glances of lineups featuring Boskovic-DeRosario-Pontius-DeLeon-Najar justify the costs (both temporal and monetary) of season tickets. Ethan White's total freeze-out has grated. So has watching Saragosa ascend to the current throne of guileless midfielder fueled by piss and vinegar. Even with all the problems at fullback, I harbored no desire for United's front office to find ways to return Rodney Wallace or Jeremy Hall to the region.
Jimmy Burns' fantastic "La Roja" highlights a quote from Johan Cruyff that unmasked the parochial origins of my frustration:
Superficially, this whinge makes no sense because it is aimed at someone who spent over a decade in the black and red. Olsen is hard-woven into the fabric of the club. But while he is indelibly part of the franchise, Ben Olsen, on his own, is not D.C. United. The qualities that Olsen embodied are inconsistent, as a governing philosophy, with United's image of itself. A cagey, veteran team with "bite" that gets stuck in every match might compete well in the league and, possibly, be in frame for an MLS Cup, but it is certainly not what D.C. United has been selling to supporters.
But more important than the marketing sleight of hand is what it means for the talent trapped on the roster. When supporters of the Houston Dynamo weighed in with "Free Geoff Cameron" signs, I half-hoped that offers would come in for Pontius, Najar, and Hamid before the close of the August transfer window. All three are a joy to watch, but all three would be better served somewhere else.
This season I will not head to Ludwig hoping to see budding D.C. United contributors; not because I believe that this year's team isn't replete with talent (it is), but because I would prefer not to see Terps cut their professional teeth in a team led by Ben Olsen.
While Marcelo Saragosa, Mike Chabala, and Emiliano Dudar put in questionable shifts for United this afternoon in Montreal, Maryland alums Ethan White and Stephen King weren't even included in the 18.
Young players are not excluded from Ben Olsen's side. Perry Kitchen (20) started again, along with Andy Najar (19), Bill Hamid (21), Chris Korb (24), and Long Tan (24). Nick DeLeon (22) was ill, but otherwise would likely have been involved, while Chris Pontius (25) and Joe Willis (24) were available off the bench.
The issue isn't a lack of opportunity for young players generally. Olsen has no problem going with youth. The issue is, instead, player development. Najar, Hamid, Pontius, and Korb have shown improvements in their game this season -- Najar is more aggressive defensively and has ideas in mind after exhilarating runs; Hamid's confidence is exceptional; Pontius has become a legitimate scoring threat; and Korb's exhibited some surprising offensive skills. But from the perspective of sitting outside the club, the margin for error for younger players not named Perry Kitchen is substantially smaller than for veterans, even where (particularly in the case of players like Jakovic, Dudar, Russell, Saragosa, and Morsink) the deference isn't warranted by on-field performance.
I've enjoyed D.C. United this year. Even fleeting glances of lineups featuring Boskovic-DeRosario-Pontius-DeLeon-Najar justify the costs (both temporal and monetary) of season tickets. Ethan White's total freeze-out has grated. So has watching Saragosa ascend to the current throne of guileless midfielder fueled by piss and vinegar. Even with all the problems at fullback, I harbored no desire for United's front office to find ways to return Rodney Wallace or Jeremy Hall to the region.
Jimmy Burns' fantastic "La Roja" highlights a quote from Johan Cruyff that unmasked the parochial origins of my frustration:
"Fans the world over like to see good players who share their mentality, and preferably come from their country, and if a coach has to choose between a foreign and a local with equal qualities, he should go for the local. That way the fans are less likely to whistle him if things go wrong. In Barca, people like seeing players from the cantera in the first team; it makes them feel that the coach somehow is more a part of Barcelona that way."For me, this is undoubtedly true. I would be willing to sit through five horrid performances by Conor Shanosky well before sitting through the ninety minutes of mediocre meaninglessness embodied by Marcelo Saragosa today. No matter how many times commentators try and paint a different picture, Perry Kitchen is having a very disappointing season in United's midfield -- yet, in the stands, we shrug off the unforced giveaways and poor passes.
Superficially, this whinge makes no sense because it is aimed at someone who spent over a decade in the black and red. Olsen is hard-woven into the fabric of the club. But while he is indelibly part of the franchise, Ben Olsen, on his own, is not D.C. United. The qualities that Olsen embodied are inconsistent, as a governing philosophy, with United's image of itself. A cagey, veteran team with "bite" that gets stuck in every match might compete well in the league and, possibly, be in frame for an MLS Cup, but it is certainly not what D.C. United has been selling to supporters.
But more important than the marketing sleight of hand is what it means for the talent trapped on the roster. When supporters of the Houston Dynamo weighed in with "Free Geoff Cameron" signs, I half-hoped that offers would come in for Pontius, Najar, and Hamid before the close of the August transfer window. All three are a joy to watch, but all three would be better served somewhere else.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Brutal
The first Maryland football game we attended was a non-conference match-up against Akron back in 2002. The gross imbalance in the size of the players on the two squads commanded all of our attention; the violence was asymmetrical, not an athletic contest so much as an exercise in brutality. That game dulled our enjoyment of college football for some time.
Last year, the DeMatha-Gonzaga football game matched two high school teams of similar size and skill. One team did not bludgeon a helpless opponent. But our belief that the disquieting violence of the Maryland-Akron match was due to one team being substantially weaker than the other disappeared. Standing on the sidelines close to the action, we could feel the concussive blows delivered by teenage wrecking balls.
American football loses its luster; when Devin Thomas walks away from $700,000 in salary from the Chicago Bears citing, in part, concerns about long-term health, the "we don't want anyone not fully committed" line from Lovie falls flat while the absence of any reference to Thomas's welfare concerns on the official web-site is a damning indictment of the NFL's ability to grapple with this new reality.
American football won't be the only sport under strict public scrutiny for very long.
Last night, a ball pops loose in the goal box in front of Bill Hamid. All 6'4" of Emiliano Dudar jumped back towards goal authoritatively to clear the ball back over the bar, willing to concede the corner kick to bring order to chaos. Innocuous enough play, except all 5'10" of Daniel Woolard went to clear the free ball the opposite direction and met Dudar's head instead.
We love Woolard. We love everything that Woolard stands for in terms of perseverance and commitment. Didn't get a single DI scholarship offer to play soccer. Played in Division II for Midwestern State University. Worked hard enough, played well enough to be a MLS supplemental draft pick in 2007. Four years ago, Daniel (and Stephen King) earned $17,700 as professional soccer players for the Chicago Fire -- on a team where Cuauhtemoc Blanco pocketed $2.5 million to play the same game for the same team.
Woolard's not exactly swimming in cash now with D.C. United -- he's one of the lowest paid players on the squad, with a lower salary than King's ($56,250). And to get to this point, Woolard had to overcome being cut loose by the Fire and going back to play in the PDL where he suffered a concussion with debilitating after-effects.
We know Woolard's story. It is a huge part of why we enjoy watching the man play soccer in a DCU shirt.
So that is in our heads when Bill Hamid is trying to organize the defense in advance of the corner kick. And then Hamid is frantically screaming at Woolard -- standing fifteen yards out near the noisy side -- to get into the box and Daniel's not responding. One of his teammates runs out to see what's going on; a moment later the players on the pitch are even more frantically signalling to the sideline that help is needed and a sub must be prepped.
The image that will stick with me is of Woolard's eyes as he was escorted into the locker room -- although somewhat vacant, they evinced both fear and anger.
Maybe there will be good news in the coming days and that would put our minds somewhat at ease. What we saw (from the stands) was horror.
There are worse things. One of the things we look forward to at MLS games is catching up with college players that we got to see at Ludwig. Last night, it meant seeing Justin Meram (Michigan) and Ethan Finlay (Creighton) again. We didn't get to see Maryland's ACC-rivals on the Crwe, Cole Grossman (Duke) or Kirk Urso (UNC). We won't be able to see Urso play ever again.
Rest in peace.
Last year, the DeMatha-Gonzaga football game matched two high school teams of similar size and skill. One team did not bludgeon a helpless opponent. But our belief that the disquieting violence of the Maryland-Akron match was due to one team being substantially weaker than the other disappeared. Standing on the sidelines close to the action, we could feel the concussive blows delivered by teenage wrecking balls.
American football loses its luster; when Devin Thomas walks away from $700,000 in salary from the Chicago Bears citing, in part, concerns about long-term health, the "we don't want anyone not fully committed" line from Lovie falls flat while the absence of any reference to Thomas's welfare concerns on the official web-site is a damning indictment of the NFL's ability to grapple with this new reality.
American football won't be the only sport under strict public scrutiny for very long.
Last night, a ball pops loose in the goal box in front of Bill Hamid. All 6'4" of Emiliano Dudar jumped back towards goal authoritatively to clear the ball back over the bar, willing to concede the corner kick to bring order to chaos. Innocuous enough play, except all 5'10" of Daniel Woolard went to clear the free ball the opposite direction and met Dudar's head instead.
We love Woolard. We love everything that Woolard stands for in terms of perseverance and commitment. Didn't get a single DI scholarship offer to play soccer. Played in Division II for Midwestern State University. Worked hard enough, played well enough to be a MLS supplemental draft pick in 2007. Four years ago, Daniel (and Stephen King) earned $17,700 as professional soccer players for the Chicago Fire -- on a team where Cuauhtemoc Blanco pocketed $2.5 million to play the same game for the same team.
Woolard's not exactly swimming in cash now with D.C. United -- he's one of the lowest paid players on the squad, with a lower salary than King's ($56,250). And to get to this point, Woolard had to overcome being cut loose by the Fire and going back to play in the PDL where he suffered a concussion with debilitating after-effects.
We know Woolard's story. It is a huge part of why we enjoy watching the man play soccer in a DCU shirt.
So that is in our heads when Bill Hamid is trying to organize the defense in advance of the corner kick. And then Hamid is frantically screaming at Woolard -- standing fifteen yards out near the noisy side -- to get into the box and Daniel's not responding. One of his teammates runs out to see what's going on; a moment later the players on the pitch are even more frantically signalling to the sideline that help is needed and a sub must be prepped.
The image that will stick with me is of Woolard's eyes as he was escorted into the locker room -- although somewhat vacant, they evinced both fear and anger.
Maybe there will be good news in the coming days and that would put our minds somewhat at ease. What we saw (from the stands) was horror.
There are worse things. One of the things we look forward to at MLS games is catching up with college players that we got to see at Ludwig. Last night, it meant seeing Justin Meram (Michigan) and Ethan Finlay (Creighton) again. We didn't get to see Maryland's ACC-rivals on the Crwe, Cole Grossman (Duke) or Kirk Urso (UNC). We won't be able to see Urso play ever again.
Rest in peace.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Any press is good press
Last week, the Washington Post published a thoughtful and measured story by Mark Giannotto on a local professional team that is quickly becoming irrelevant to the region's mainstream sports fans. The gist of the piece was a description of a dwindling fan base and a sampling of opinions as to why the Washington Mystics have lost much of the goodwill the franchise has built up over the last fifteen years.
Giannotto's recounting of the Mystics woes is depressing, but not as disheartening as this fun fact he relays about the WNBA:
Giannotto's article is remarkably thorough; the one measure, however, that he doesn't hit on is the resale market for Mystics tickets. After deciding not to remain as season ticket holders, for the last several years we have not bought tickets from the club, but have instead used brokers. The secondary market for Mystics tickets is always brutal; this year it is a bloodbath. For the vast majority of home games this season, full corporate suites (18 tickets) have been on offer for less than $150 -- often $100 ($5.56 a ticket) -- as suite owners try to entice anyone with even a remote interest in women's professional basketball to games. Yet even with the opportunity to use a suite at Verizon for less than the price of two 100-level seats, there is little evident interest in spending two hours at the stadium for the Mystics.
Giannotto's recounting of the Mystics woes is depressing, but not as disheartening as this fun fact he relays about the WNBA:
After leading the WNBA in attendance in six of their first seven years (1998-2004), including an all-time high average of 16,202 in 2002, the Mystics averaged a league-high 10,449 fans per game last season. They rank second in the WNBA through 10 home games this year with 9,207 fans per game, behind only WNBA champion Minnesota (9,272). San Antonio (12-5), the most successful team this season to employ one person as GM-coach, ranked third in attendance at 8,407 fans per game.For the Mystics to be second in league-wide attendance, things must be horrible for the other eleven teams.
Giannotto's article is remarkably thorough; the one measure, however, that he doesn't hit on is the resale market for Mystics tickets. After deciding not to remain as season ticket holders, for the last several years we have not bought tickets from the club, but have instead used brokers. The secondary market for Mystics tickets is always brutal; this year it is a bloodbath. For the vast majority of home games this season, full corporate suites (18 tickets) have been on offer for less than $150 -- often $100 ($5.56 a ticket) -- as suite owners try to entice anyone with even a remote interest in women's professional basketball to games. Yet even with the opportunity to use a suite at Verizon for less than the price of two 100-level seats, there is little evident interest in spending two hours at the stadium for the Mystics.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Meet the Team
D.C. United's annual "Meet the Team" day is my favorite event of the season. I love taking my eldest down on the field and giving her the chance to see up close what we see from a distance in our seats during matches.
It helps that the players are, to the man, incredibly nice around kids and fans -- and that the fans are overwhelmingly respectful of the players at the event. Today was no exception. We sat for about fifteen minutes in the locker room watching Kurt Morsink, Brandon McDonald, and Emiliano Dudar interact with everyone who wanted a moment of their time. Their appreciation for supporters is disarming, and, not coincidentally, makes it difficult to maintain critical thoughts about a player's (Morsink's) contribution to the squad.
Of course, the player that went to Fred-like levels to entertain my daughter and get a smile out of a four-year old clearly not enjoying the stifling heat on the ground was Danny Cruz. Probably the guy that I've grown to dislike the most on the team and he was incredible; it may have been miserable for the fans who showed up, but it was much, much worse for the players and yet none of them seemed put out by the obligation to entertain supporters.
The "Meet the Team" day is a credit to the club and, for me, will keep bringing us back to RFK year after year.
The club is probably disappointed that in spite of all the things it has done to enrich the season ticket holder's experience ("Meet the Team" day, Chalk Talks, PSG friendly, etc.) attendance has fallen by something like 10% (not including the last home game against Montreal, which drew 18,000+).
The product on the field alone should be enough to get people out to games. Through 18 matches this season, DC United sits atop the Eastern Conference with Sporting Kansas City with 33 points. The club is behind San Jose (37 points, 19 games) and Real Salt Lake (36 points, 20 games), but this only distracts from how ridiculously good Ben Olsen's squad has been over the first four months of this season:
What's more, D.C. United is experiencing this success in a league packed with talent. Because of a fluke in scheduling this weekend, I got to see the majority of three MLS league games -- Seattle Sounders-Colorado Rapids on Saturday night, Los Angeles Galaxy-Chicago Fire this afternoon, and New York Red Bulls-New England Revolution this evening. These are all pretty good teams. The addition of Montreal may have diluted last year's talent a bit, but this seems to have been more than made up by the addition of new blood into the league. And D.C. United is thriving in this environment.
There were a lot of lines today and it was a miserable day to be standing in a lot of lines outdoors. A common refrain in those lines was surprise at how there was a lot of doubt surrounding Bennie's appointment as gaffer and how, while questions remained, it was impossible to deny the results. I am very much in this camp as well. I cannot believe that they are as good as the table says they are, yet watching DeRosario, Boskovic, Najar, and DeLeon play the ball around the midfield with competent players (including an ascendant Chris Pontius) both in front and behind them, it is hard to conclude that any of this is an illusion.
It helps that the players are, to the man, incredibly nice around kids and fans -- and that the fans are overwhelmingly respectful of the players at the event. Today was no exception. We sat for about fifteen minutes in the locker room watching Kurt Morsink, Brandon McDonald, and Emiliano Dudar interact with everyone who wanted a moment of their time. Their appreciation for supporters is disarming, and, not coincidentally, makes it difficult to maintain critical thoughts about a player's (Morsink's) contribution to the squad.
Of course, the player that went to Fred-like levels to entertain my daughter and get a smile out of a four-year old clearly not enjoying the stifling heat on the ground was Danny Cruz. Probably the guy that I've grown to dislike the most on the team and he was incredible; it may have been miserable for the fans who showed up, but it was much, much worse for the players and yet none of them seemed put out by the obligation to entertain supporters.
The "Meet the Team" day is a credit to the club and, for me, will keep bringing us back to RFK year after year.
The club is probably disappointed that in spite of all the things it has done to enrich the season ticket holder's experience ("Meet the Team" day, Chalk Talks, PSG friendly, etc.) attendance has fallen by something like 10% (not including the last home game against Montreal, which drew 18,000+).
The product on the field alone should be enough to get people out to games. Through 18 matches this season, DC United sits atop the Eastern Conference with Sporting Kansas City with 33 points. The club is behind San Jose (37 points, 19 games) and Real Salt Lake (36 points, 20 games), but this only distracts from how ridiculously good Ben Olsen's squad has been over the first four months of this season:
- 10 wins out of 18 games works out to a 56% winning percentage. You would have to go back to 1999 to find a version of United that won with such frequency. Because, prior to the 2000 season, the MLS required every regular season game to be won or lost, if you adjust winning percentages to remove shootout wins (6 in 1999 and 7 in 1998), this D.C. United team is running at the best clip in the club's history.
- With 10 wins by the end of June, Olsen's team already has more wins than the club managed total in six of the prior sixteen seasons (37.5%). One more win and they'll have tied the season's total for wins in nine of the prior sixteen seasons (56.3%).
- Through 18 games, D.C. United is averaging 1.83 points per match, slightly better than the 1.81 points per match accumulated by the 1998 squad and tied with the per game totals of the 2007 squad -- the best in the club's history.
What's more, D.C. United is experiencing this success in a league packed with talent. Because of a fluke in scheduling this weekend, I got to see the majority of three MLS league games -- Seattle Sounders-Colorado Rapids on Saturday night, Los Angeles Galaxy-Chicago Fire this afternoon, and New York Red Bulls-New England Revolution this evening. These are all pretty good teams. The addition of Montreal may have diluted last year's talent a bit, but this seems to have been more than made up by the addition of new blood into the league. And D.C. United is thriving in this environment.
There were a lot of lines today and it was a miserable day to be standing in a lot of lines outdoors. A common refrain in those lines was surprise at how there was a lot of doubt surrounding Bennie's appointment as gaffer and how, while questions remained, it was impossible to deny the results. I am very much in this camp as well. I cannot believe that they are as good as the table says they are, yet watching DeRosario, Boskovic, Najar, and DeLeon play the ball around the midfield with competent players (including an ascendant Chris Pontius) both in front and behind them, it is hard to conclude that any of this is an illusion.
Friday, July 6, 2012
European Tour
Congratulations are in order for Real Maryland alum Joe Funicello, now back with the Icelandic second team of Thor Akureyri:
Thor traveled to Dalymount Park yesterday for the first leg of its first round Europa League tie against Bohemians. Joe started at left back, played until the final whistle, and will head back to Iceland with a clean sheet after a scoreless tie. The second leg will be played in Akureyri (a town in north Iceland of less than twenty thousand, even smaller than the Aland Islands) next Thursday on July 12th.
At the same time as Bohemians failed to press its advantage over its Icelandic opponent, elsewhere in Dublin, St. Patrick's Athletic pulled out a one goal lead in Richmond Park over IBV before heading to south Iceland for its second leg match in Vestmannaeyjar (population = 4,000).
It has been another miserable year for the League of Ireland, with Galway United folding before the start of the season and Monaghan United collapsing fourteen games into this year, announcing their withdrawal from the League on twitter.
The Bohs had just come off a four-nil thrashing of Shamrock at Dalymount before yesterday's disappointment. The club seems to continue to suffer through financial turmoil, but has at least weathered Pat Fenlon's departure with the appointment of Aaron Callaghan, who describes himself as an admirer of Tony Dungy.
Thor traveled to Dalymount Park yesterday for the first leg of its first round Europa League tie against Bohemians. Joe started at left back, played until the final whistle, and will head back to Iceland with a clean sheet after a scoreless tie. The second leg will be played in Akureyri (a town in north Iceland of less than twenty thousand, even smaller than the Aland Islands) next Thursday on July 12th.
At the same time as Bohemians failed to press its advantage over its Icelandic opponent, elsewhere in Dublin, St. Patrick's Athletic pulled out a one goal lead in Richmond Park over IBV before heading to south Iceland for its second leg match in Vestmannaeyjar (population = 4,000).
It has been another miserable year for the League of Ireland, with Galway United folding before the start of the season and Monaghan United collapsing fourteen games into this year, announcing their withdrawal from the League on twitter.
The Bohs had just come off a four-nil thrashing of Shamrock at Dalymount before yesterday's disappointment. The club seems to continue to suffer through financial turmoil, but has at least weathered Pat Fenlon's departure with the appointment of Aaron Callaghan, who describes himself as an admirer of Tony Dungy.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Birthdays
Our youngest turned one on Friday. To celebrate, we took a group of fifteen people to the Verizon Center to watch the Washington Mystics host the Connecticut Sun.
Official attendance was 6,975. The game was so truly awful that counting the others suffering through it in the stadium was a welcome relief. Two or three thousand more accurately reflects the people at the game. The attendance was more depressing than the game.
Fifteen years. The Mystics are celebrating fifteen years in the WNBA; the attendance banners have come down from the rafters at Verizon and the once proud franchise has alienated even its most sympathetic fans.
Rather than a celebration, the setting was funereal.
It is a strange setting to watch the denouement of an enterprise that everyone seems invested in failing. We did not see the end coming for the Washington Freedom -- either time -- but it seems more cruel to have the promise of women's professional sports snuffed out by the franchise itself rather than external factors that could not be tamed.
My daughter turned one Friday. In fifteen years, maybe it will be a different story.
Official attendance was 6,975. The game was so truly awful that counting the others suffering through it in the stadium was a welcome relief. Two or three thousand more accurately reflects the people at the game. The attendance was more depressing than the game.
Fifteen years. The Mystics are celebrating fifteen years in the WNBA; the attendance banners have come down from the rafters at Verizon and the once proud franchise has alienated even its most sympathetic fans.
Rather than a celebration, the setting was funereal.
It is a strange setting to watch the denouement of an enterprise that everyone seems invested in failing. We did not see the end coming for the Washington Freedom -- either time -- but it seems more cruel to have the promise of women's professional sports snuffed out by the franchise itself rather than external factors that could not be tamed.
My daughter turned one Friday. In fifteen years, maybe it will be a different story.
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