Wet Wild Weekend

Before Saturday’s FCC game expectations were high. Our team was coming off of two straight wins. A third win and we would hold the record for the most points through 5 games for any MLS expansion side. Nothing could stop us. No way were we going to allow a team to come into Fortress Nippert and steal points.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Stadium, however. It turns out someone in the Tri-State Area was being punished for some egregious sin and a biblical rain storm hit and would stick around all night. Not only was the rain relentless but as the game progressed the temperature decided to take a nose dive and the wind picked up. Still the fans came in. Thousands of brave Men, Women, Children, and the Bailey showed up. Ponchos replaced jerseys but there was still excitement in the air.

As I have mentioned before I was a world class SAY soccer player back in the late 80s and early 90s and in that time my team loved to play in the rain. In fact we thrived in it. So like any logical human I assumed that would translate over to the team I now support. Boy oh boy was I wrong.

Weather is never an excuse for a poor performance because as it turns out both teams play in the same location so the same weather affects both teams equally. I know this may come as a surprise to the sports novice, but when there is a game of any sort both teams have to deal with the same situation, so even though your team may have a bad play due to a strong wind or a wet field, it turns out the other team also deals with this. Yes it may sound like a really good excuse for a bad performance but to those of us with a sports IQ above 52 know, it’s a steaming pile of horse poop.

The one thing I will say is that it looked like FC Cincinnati had never played a game or even practiced in the rain. I think that posh bubble they practice in during inclement weather is spoiling our boys. We are a team built to defend and use our speed to counter attack. The rain took that option away. The speed we have on counters was gone. We currently don’t have a team that can possess the ball and break down a team.

I was happy to see Frankie Amaya make his debut. In fact that was one of the main factors for me to stick around for the full 90 minutes. Although he didn’t come in and save the day, he did look like he belonged. For an 18 year old kid that was encouraging. He was connecting on passes and trying to come up with ideas. I also think he and Kenny Saief played well together in limited minutes. That is a partnership that I think could becoming something great right up until the time Kenny’s loan runs out and Frankie impresses in the U-20 World Cup and we sell him to the highest bidder.

This upcoming weekend we play a team I hope we can emulate. Sporting KC doesn’t go out and make the big money signings. They get very good players for a good price and they play a system that works. It may take a year or so for this to happen but I hope we will. For now we will have to rely on our defense and counters.

This is what it means to be an expansion team. We will have days when our plan works to perfection and then we will have days when the heavens open up and a deluge of water and wind change everything. All I know is that I plan to be part of it no matter what… but maybe with water proof boots.