Ives was watching the CCC last night*, and he's got some magnanimous things to say as far as his hopes for DC and Houston in their away legs.

*What was he doing watching that instead of the basketball tonight?
Wait, what was I doing?

That's good. Those are the sane, rational words of someone who cares not just about the team he covers, but about the growth and development of MLS as a whole. You kind of expect and understand it from a journalist. There's even a lot of MLS fans like that.

Luckily, I have no such noble compunctions. While I can tolerate - barely - DC nicking one to send their oh-so-insipid fans home not feeling totally forlorn, I simply cannot wait until Chivas takes DC back to Mexico and makes them look silly, as they inevitably will. Embarrass them. Hang a five on them. Go Goats.

Because you know what I always say - the diving, whining, too-cowardly-to-take-a-flight-to-NYC jerkstore-acting enemy of my enemy is kind of my friend. At least till this tie is over.

That said, it's all too clear from nights like tonight just how incredibly far behind DC our Metro stands, from an all-around point of view.

Without too much exaggeration, I figure that it's 8-10 years before Metro - or whatever name they're called at that point - gets anywhere close to where the filth down I-95 is right now. On the field, they're simply deeper, more skilled, and will benefit from being battle-tested (not that they're doing all that spectacularly) against the best teams on the continent. We're having a hard time getting by college teams and counting on a 17 year old and (maybe) an A-Leaguer to bring the goals. In the stands and in the city, there's simply no comparison. A big chunk of that 26k number came to support the Goats, as anyone with ears (I guess we'll leave out Christian Miles on the telecast last night, then) could tell. But still - 26k for an international match 3 weeks out from the opener. This is a sign, among other things, that DC's FO knows what it's doing, and that the club has some actual connection, not just with the hardcore, but with the people of the area in which it plays. In short, everything that our organization is not.

This second point fiercely sucks, since those who have been around a while may easily remember that (early titles or not) Metro and DC were more or less equal in crowd numbers through the first half of MLS's existence, and the Metro diehard core was always a little more...how do we say this nicely...."credible" than the weird assortment of fake Mods, knife-toting Salvadorans, and margarita-mix buying, tailgate-ticketing elements that constitutes your average DC crowd. That is, until the bulk of the Metro faithful was beat into a fine powder by shit results, shit management, and a shitty gameday experience, and drifted away on the winds.

8-10 years of consistent positive development, on and off the field; that's my conservative (and maybe even optimistic guess) of what it'll take to see scenes like last night's up in NJ. Harrison alone won't make it happen. Nor would winning a title alone. Coming off a week and half of good press to the left of them, good press to the right of them, and a sharp reminder of just how MLS's ultra-egalitarian rules make RB's money a non-factor, even when they care to spend it - can you see RB still being here in 2017?
Prop bets are often sucker bets, but if you know a bookie who'll offer good odds against that....

Labels: Concacaf Champions Cup, DC scum, pessimism