The future looks bright........no not the New York Red Bulls' future, although hopefully the first win of the season will be the start of continued success. We won't have to wait very long to find out, because on Wednesday the team faces powerhouse FC Dallas, who are coming off their 4-0 thrashing of the Clintless-Revs. I think we all can agree that it has been a horrible start to our season, not to
mention the dark cloud that the petulant Guevara has cast over our Red
Bulls. Without another impact player added to the team we will most likely struggle against the top teams.
The future that I am really referring to is the bright future for the First Row Idiots as a continuing fan community based on the tremendous turnout of kids. Saturday could have officially been called Idiot Youth Day when Ofer drove up with a vanload of five kids, including his 3 children. I brought two 11-year-olds, my son, Dylan, and his neighbor/soccer teammate, Mark. Idiot John's brought along guest, Patrick, who's 10-year-old son, Aaron, become fast friends with Dylan and Mark. Idiot Jason made his first appearance of the season and brought his sleeping 4-year-old son, Joshua. Joshua wasn't asleep for long and in no time was kicking one of the soccer balls around the parking lot, joining Ronen's son, David, who's almost 3-year-old, and the other boys. Missing from the festivities were Greg, who missed his first game of the season, and Paul, who's currently tied with Jason in his race to win his second consecutive Joey Award this year.
Idiot Joey was in charge of food for this tailgate and thanks to his efforts, the usual hotdogs and hamburgers were grilled, supplemented by shrimp; I brought tortilla chips with guacamole. A few of the shrimp, and surprisingly even chips, ended up being grilled also.
The game in the first half was looking like a runaway win as Peguero scored twice and Stammler added a rocket of a shot into the goal from well outside the box. But, true to form the Red Bull defense allowed Chivas USA back into the game. Chivas scored two goals within six minutes in the early part of the second half. The scoring didn't stop there: Stammler answered with a header, then Razov scored, followed by Jean Philippe Peguero completing his hat trick and Palencia converting a very questionable penalty call. The Red Bull ended on the rights side of the golazo game.
Our media savvy children made an appearance on the in-stadium TV screen, but weren't on the TV replay.
Joey's persistent comments questioning which side of the salad bar that Chivas USA player Garcia prefers seems to have rattled him. On his second corner kick try in the second half Garcia sent the ball over the endline.
I am sure that the front office will soon be marking down Guevara jerseys and t-shirts for quick sales. Hopefully, the same won't happen to the actually player and the Red Bulls with get a player of equal or at least similar skill level. Without a doubt Guevara has become the highest paid "fan" that the Red Bulls have on the roster.