Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz…
“This team has heart!!!” read the screen on my phone.
“Yeah, so?” I thought to myself. “Heart doesn’t get you points.”
“Did I miss something…..” I texted in return.
{{Three Hours earlier}}
Deciding to partake in the “rituals” of St. Patrick’s Day for a change, I headed to Pasadena to hang out with my sister, rather than watch a rerun in Carson. Too many times I’ve attended with expectations (even the slightest). Too many times I’ve been forced to just “keep it bottled up” as I made my way home.
As fortune would have it, the first bar I walked into had my favorite basketball team, the Los Angeles Clippers, on TV. Kind of ironic as for many years, our Goats were referred to as the Clippers of MLS. Of course this examiners response to that quip was always:
“Chivas USA is actually good, and makes the playoffs”.
But coming back to the present from 2008, the TV next to the Clippers game happened to be set to Time Warner Sports. As it turned out, in my quest to get away from Soccer, and the rerun I was convinced would come, fate put me in front of a TV with the match about to come on.
{{side note, is it me or does Mike Magee from down the hall look like Bradley Cooper?}}
True to his word, El Chelís stuck with his three man backline despite Peruvian Walter Vilchez out injured for 4-6 weeks. And despite the universe working against it, it seemed to be holding. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it was getting the job done. The lone hiccup being a shot off the crossbar from the neighbors Jose Villarreal before the 40th minute. But this being an MLS match, it wouldn’t be complete without some controversy from the officiating side of things. Goats defender Joaquin Velasquez saw red after a collision with Colin Clark of the opposition, that had initially been given a yellow. This, on a play that even the Time Warner crew calling the match deemed unworthy of a card.
It was bad enough Goats midfielder, Oswaldo Minda, had already been subbed out of the match with an injury a few minutes before. Now the 3-man backline was down to two with Velasquez out.
“Too good to be true. Figures. Just make it to halftime and regroup”.
With no other choice, El Chelis burned his 2nd sub to bring on Orange County native, Carlos Borja, removing forward Julio Morales.
“10 vs. 12, this is going to end well. Might as well have another of these green beers”.
As the 2nd half got under way, all three Chivas USA subs were officially used as East Los Angeles’s own, Carlos Alvarez finally made his MLS career debut. As the 2nd half got underway, the Goats were on the proverbial ropes. Dan Kennedy was called upon to make two back to back saves in the matter of a few seconds. As the half wore on, it was clear the neighbors were winning on the field, in the crowd, and on the stat sheet. Not on the scoreboard though. At least not yet. But as the beer runs and restroom runs become more frequent, so too did the notion of getting away with a draw.
“Could it be? Would be nice all things considered”.
And just like that, Jack McBean put the homeside up, as this examiners heart sank and pounded a fist on the counter.
“At least they were able to keep the score at zero to this point”, stated the person next to me.
I had seen this rerun before. Maybe it was the green beer that raised my expectations, I don’t know. But there was no point in drawing things out anymore than they should. No matter how many times I watch the ending of Battlestar Galactica, or the Transformers Animated Movie, they always end with the crew arriving 150,000 years ago, and Optimus Prime dead respectively.
Tab paid. Tip left. Exit to the right. Walk away.
--------------------------------------
Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz…
…
…I stopped watching with 3 minutes to go”.
“They tied it on the 90th minute. Alvarez scored” came the text from the other end.
“Son of a…. Figures I’d miss that.”
And like that, it turns out I unintentionally broke my most sacred rules in regards to sports: Never leave until it’s over. If this past weekend in MLS taught us one lesson, it was that. Our Goats were the last ones I’d expect to be the one reinforcing that though.
Maybe I need to “pregame it” with a few Green Beers for the rest of the season.
In the meantime, the Goats hit the road next week as they face the Chicago Fire. 2pm kickoff next Sunday, on the unofficial Chivas USA station (12 matches scheduled to air on there throughout 2013), UniMas CH. 46.
Comments