Lo bueno, lo malo y lo feo – Red Bull New York @ Columbus

Image of Claudio Reyna via MLSnet.com

LO BUENO

+ Though the game ended in a nil-nil draw, there were some positive signs for RBNY. Dutch boy (or should that be “man”) Ronald Waterreus made several huge saves in goal and I was impressed with his effort. Claudio Reyna was solid in his debut in the Reds’ midfield and I was impressed by Van Der Bergh.

+ Kudos to those that those few thousand fans in Columbus who came out to watch the season opener in spite of sub-freezing weather and some nasty flurries.

+ Also kudos to the Crew for the simple tribute to Lamar Hunt on their unis and mowed onto the turf.

+ Off-topic: Houston’s outstanding effort against Chivas during the CONCACAF Champions Cup semis. Though they eventually lost the series, they never gave up and played extremely well even in front of a packed crowd at Estadio Hidalgo.

LO MALO

- RBNY’s unis: like the dark blue color and monochromatic look but ode the superfluous piping on the sleeves.

- The defense was about as bad as I had anticipated. We were lucky a few times that the Crew didn’t score on us from several close chances including dead ball opportunities. The defense did improve somewhat during the last quarter of the game but that was due to a change in strategy where the midfielders stayed back more than usual.

- Off topic: Julie Foudy’s blunder during this afternoon’s DC-Rapids game when she said that Fred’s previous team was “the Melbins.” (Maybe this is being too nit-picky, but critiquing Dave O’Brien would’ve been too easy and I’m not in the mood to discuss Eric Wynalda’s seemingly latent homosexuality).

LO FEO

! I agree wholeheartedly agree with Martha over at The Offside’s RBNY’s blog: it is inexcusable for broadcasters to be stuck at the Garden while the team’s playing away. It looked like RBNY’s admin is running a second-rate equipo de potrero by having Shep and whoosits giving the play-by-play from midtown west. I can’t imagine the inane banter they will have if the video feed ever goes on the fritz. (On the other hand, maybe Shep can give more anecdotes of his time playing with Pele and Chinaglia way back when!)

! Mind you, the broadcasting team would’ve been freezing their asses off in Ohio if it weren’t for the fact that the team has lost a lot of money. (No, I’m not falling for de Grandpre’s spin on RBNY’s financial losses; it makes no financial sense to have zero sponsors and to have blown half-a-mil on expenditures during the ’06 home opener like having Shakira warble a single song. Perhaps it is all part of a plan to build a winning squad by the time Red Bull Park opens in summer of 2008, but it would seem that a proper rebuilding process takes longer than a year and change).