Director’s Cut
Last week I posted the thoughts of Columbus Crew fan Steve Abreu over on Massive Report. Steve was a better interview than I could have ever dreamed, answering my questions with full, complete thoughts and humor and an incomparable sense of history. As I said on MR, he doesn’t just know the Crew’s past, he’s a student of it and how it is affecting the future. I massaged our conversation down to a blog-friendly length so it would work with the MR format, borrowing the format (just answers, no questions) from Esquire’s monthly What I’ve Learned feature.
Here, in all of it’s unedited 2700-word glory, is my interview with ZipSix:
1) What is your first soccer memory? Was it a game you played in, saw on TV, saw in person? Best non-Crew soccer memory? (If you’re like me your best soccer memory is MLS Cup 08, but other than that…?)
In second grade I lived in Brecksville, Ohio, not too far from Richfield Coliseum, and my dad would take me to see the Cleveland Force. I think I was hooked from the very beginning. The orange ball. Darth Vader pounding on the glass before games. Cris Vaccaro and Ali Kazemaini. Kai Haaskivi. These were my heroes. I remember the Baltimore Blast and that the goalkeeper for the Kansas City Comets would wear a football helmet. It was a great time to be a kid. I had no idea that indoor soccer wasn’t really real outside of America. I played youth soccer like every other kid in the 80’s in Ohio, both indoor and out, and we had awesome team names like Fireballs and Blue Blasters, and we always made the playoffs in my memories, but I doubt we always did.
In 1994 I was back in Lowell, Massachusetts, where my grandmother lived because she had recently passed away and the World Cup was on. I went crazy over it. I made my extended family watch Ireland – Italy or something and when anyone scored I changed the channel to Univision so we could hear Andres Cantor yell GOOOOOOOOOL and if you can’t get excited about that then you have no business watching soccer, let alone breathing oxygen.
My favorite non-Crew soccer related moment was being at the Crew Stadium watch party for our 2002 World Cup opening game, USA – Portugal and scoring so early. I was wearing a lucky blue shirt and I had left my girlfriend back in bed to drive over to the stadium. We scored early. We took such a huge lead. “Drubbing Portugal” as Jack Edwards said and then we held on for dear life. 2002 was an amazing World Cup.
2) Let’s talk about Crew memories: What is your first? Your favorite? The one that you will tell your grandkids about?
My first Crew memory is the first game I attended in person in 1997 in Ohio Stadium. I went with high school friends, one of whom was a DC United fan, probably because he was a huge front runner and not worth being friends with. I don’t remember much about the game. We were given free programs, the grass was green, and the popcorn was salty. I had a good time but I guess I didn’t really get it in 1997.
From there I watched on TV because I went to school at University of Illinois from 98 to 2001, and when I was home for the summer I would go up to Columbus especially after Crew Stadium had opened. I met friends, someway or another, in Section 137. The infamous V-Army. I brought a drum and played. I acted like I was one of them, even though I was mostly by myself, and then somehow some day I was one of them. I was V-Army.
In 2000 we were horrible. Dead last in the “central conference”— long may it be dead. In 2001 and 2002, we were a good team. Not great, but not awful. And we got knocked out the playoffs in the first round a lot. We made the Open Cup run in 2002 that was basically, magical. In 2004, it was the year of The Penalty Kicks game and it took three years for this club to scrub of the stench of those two missed penalty kicks.
I will tell my kids I saw Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who above all else was a winner, play for my favorite club and lead them to our first championship, past all of our demons: the Conference Final, the Chicago Fire, etc.
3) What was your first reaction to Black Monday, when the Crew decided not to renew the options of that core group of players? And then after seeing the draft class and other additions, did your feelings change?
Black Monday was a botch job. From a PR perspective it was a total and utter botch job and I got the sense it happened because of ego. There’s a lot of really weird ego that has always emanated from the front office. I have always had the sense that Warzycha is a my-way-or-highway kind of coach and that he benched Schelotto in Salt Lake to prove a point, but ended up proving more of a point about what a horrible strategic coach he was. Maybe tactically that isn’t a bad move, but strategically it’s perhaps the most idiotic decision I’ve ever seen a coach make, including when Andrulis sat Buddle for The Penalty Kicks game and started old Dante Washington up top as a lone striker even though we needed goals. Come to find out Andrulis probably had to do that because Buddle was allegedly violating team policies. Anyway, Guillermo Barros Schelotto just lead your team to a Championship, and a second straight Shield, and he lives to play in big games, and he starts on the bench in Salt Lake. Why? Honestly, why did that happen?
What rational person would do that? Have we ever received an answer? I mean an answer that wasn’t a total lie about “team speed” or something. Anyway, there’s a lot of this kind of reasoning that went into Black Monday. They said “uh, we looked at the stats and we’re actually a better team with out Guillermo.” They actually said that to the Dispatch! He’s the only player we’ve ever had to win the league MVP, he is two years off a championship season, and he lead the team in goals and assists, but you know, we’ll be better without him. He lead the team in goals and assists. In 2011, he’s not fit to play? Really? But we’ll be fine because we’re scouring the second division for world champions like Tom Heinemann. Sure.
So, Black Monday is about Schelotto. It’s not about Hejduk, or Padulla, or Oughton, who legends as they were, had lost a step (some of them two) and needed to be thanked for their service.
Now, why we got rid of Carroll no one can tell you. I guess it was so we could protect Lenhart in the expansion draft to later trade away for Mendoza’s contract cash and the rights to pick Justin Meram. Awesome. I like Meram but our modern history drafting strikers in the first round isn’t spectacular (cough: Jason Garey.)
4) How did you feel about Warzycha as a player? As a coach? Do you think he was the right choice to follow Sigi and continue the upward trend of the Crew? Do you agree that if the Crew win the east he should be in the Coach of the Year conversation?
Warzycha as a Crew player? Doesn’t really stand out in my memory. Sometimes he hit a good dead ball, sometimes he made a crunching tackle when asked to, and he came in late in the Open Cup final in 2003 and cleared the ball of the line. Yay.
He was clearly not the right choice to coach the Crew in 2009. Are you kidding? The right choice to coach the Crew in 2009 was Sigi Schmid but we couldn’t hold on to our coach because the front office couldn’t show Sigi Schmid “forget about the West Coast” kind of money.
The history of the Columbus Crew, if you’ll permit me, is to hire from within, fail, give the failures a year longer than they deserve, and hire their assistants. Robert Warzycha is a company man from whom you can draw a line straight back to Greg Andrulis. The one time in history of our club we hired a proven outsider we won the championship three years later. Every other hire has been a failure. You know who I want to coach the team? Someone who doesn’t think it’s a good idea to bench Guillermo Barros Schelotto in a playoff game.
If we win the East, Warzycha should definitely be coach of the year, because anytime you unnecessarily tear down your own team, and then luck your way into first place in a substandard division you should be given a trophy with Greg Andrulis’s name on it.
Next to the “he didn’t get a chance to build his own team before now” argument, this really bothers me. If I tear down my awesome palatial house but then build another cheaper crappier house in six days, I should get an award because no one expected me to build a cheap, crappy house in six days? Really? The point to judge the success of Warzycha’s tenure in office from is November 2008. Sorry if that’s “unfair.”
5) How do you feel about the overall trend of the team? What, if anything, is your biggest concern going forward towards the end of 2011?
We are learning to win close games, which in MLS, is very important, because MLS is nothing but close games. Also, something really nice is happening with Anor, Ekpo, and to a lesser extent, Duka. They are exciting and they take players on, which is very un-Columbusian.
We’re a median team now. That’s us seventh out of nineteen. Right in the middle. Not showing off. Not falling behind. In the meaty part of the curve. And people on BigSoccer celebrate beating Vancouver in the 90th minute like its some achievement.
You know what we didn’t do in 2008 or 2009 or 2010? Lose to Chicago at home. Lose to ugly stinking cheating lousy Chicago. In 2011 we did. I love that we beat Colorado 4-1, and I know in MLS anything can happen after that whistle blows. That’s why it’s the best soccer league in the world. But I’d like to see some consistency from us.
My biggest concern ought to be all Crew fans’ concerns, which is that we’ll be dumped out of the playoffs in the first round.
6) If you could replace any current Crew player with any past player (save for Guille – that’s a given), who would you swap and why? What about current Crew member for current MLS player?
I would replace Dejan Rusmir with Mark Williams, because they’re basically the same player and Williams’ has a much more attractive WAG. Why are we paying Dejan Rusmir so much money? It frustrates me.
Current players? Easy. Lenhart is a better player than Heinemann. I’d make that swap everyday of the week. You know, Lenhart occasionally scores.
7) Who is your dream Crew coaching staff (Coach, 2 assistants, TD)?
I just have this sense that if Schelotto coached the Crew he’d find a way to win championships, because that’s all he knows how to do.
8 ) How do you see 2011 ending for the Crew? Who wins the SS? MLS Cup?
I see a playoff exit. Lose 0-1 in Philly. Draw at home. See you later 2011.
As for winners, Seattle is on a tear right now. Why not them? We’ll know more in late October. Colorado took a long time to warm up last year. There’s still time for everyone. Even us. We could win the Cup this year, but something else is going to have to happen. We need to play more like we did against Houston and a lot less like we did against Chicago.
9) Other than the team moving, what is it that you fear the most for the Crew?
I fear most for the Crew what is happening now in New England. Total desultory neglect.
10) What is it about the 2011 version of the total Crew package (players, staff, fans) that bugs you the most? What advice do you have for those fans that haven’t been around as long as you have?
I wish people would just be greater students of history. Record wise, the Crew are one of the best regular season teams in Major League Soccer history. I think only DC and LA have won more games. But it hasn’t translated to playoff success for us. We’ve only been to one MLS Cup final. The people who brought us there? They were shown the door or left for a better offer. Why is there this faith that we’ll get back? I have hope. I have hope we’ll go back to LA for the Cup this year. I want to go. But I don’t have faith that we will. I saw us miss two Penalty Kicks on October 31, 2004, the year we won the Supporters’ Shield. I saw us lose to Chicago and Seattle in Open Cup finals.
It just seems to me that no one really gets it. Perhaps the player who won more championships than any other club player in the history of Argentina played for our silly Midwestern MLS club. What are the odds of that? It just doesn’t happen. We were blessed by it. But instead of trying to hold on to that blessing, to mine it for knowledge and goodwill, we made it a $40,000 offer and ran it out of town.
Why? It seems to me that ego got in the way. Maybe Bliss’s, maybe Warzycha’s maybe McCullers? I don’t know. Maybe they all felt if they shipped Guillermo away he couldn’t take their jobs in one year’s time. I have no idea why it happened.
11) If you could say one thing to Warzycha, what would it be?
What specifically do you bring to the table that another coach wouldn’t?
Steve, understandably, didn’t answer the next few questions. He had already said quite a bit, and – honestly – they’re a little superflous.
12) Compare these last two years with the dark ages of the mid 2000s? Better/worse/same? What’s different about the current Crew problems then back then?
13) What is the biggest positive you see in this squad? The biggest surprise? The biggest let down? The most predictable thing about 2011?
14) What happened to Robbie? He’s a shadow of his former self, but why? (If you don’t agree, just talk about the heat Rogers is getting, etc
15) Do you think there is any hope for Warzycha? Has the Crew lost the plot?
I wouldn’t say we’ve lost the plot as a team. I think we are doing the best we can right now with the situation that we’re in, and that goes for the fans too. Black Monday wasa blunt force trauma and we’re coping. We are telling each other it’s going to be okay. A lot of people are basically saying, no—lets not talk about it anymore, it’s over. Let’sfocus on San Jose on Saturday. Well, no. Wait a minute. Our team fell apart. We’re building another one, sure, but why did the last one—that championship one- fall apart? WHY? Honestly why? At one point McCullers said, well if you want to keep Schelotto you’d have to get rid of two of X, Y, Z, Mendoza and Rogers. And everyone on the internet shouted: duh, get rid of Mendoza and Rogers. Like, this isn’t hard. But the front office, in its wisdom, chose to go its own way. We got younger, and we got exciting to the extent that when you really have no idea whatis going to happen or who is going to start it’s kind of exciting. Did you know we started some dude named Eric Gehrig last game? I had never heard of him either, and I follow the team! So yeah, that’s exciting. But it’s not “A Massive Season” exciting. It’s not steamrolling to the Shield and winning the big silver cup.
We’ll be fine because we’ve always been fine. But I just feel like we still could have been great. I mean, I love the Columbus Crew, and I love what it represents. It represents Ohio and the Midwest, and not being New York, and sure as hell not being Chicago. It represents always having a chance, but seemingly always falling short. Except for that one time.
As for Warzycha, I don’t know. I have hope, but not faith, like I said.
