Some miscellaneous throw-ins…
CREW SC CHAIRS
Leading up to the New York City match, Crew SC released a hype video for the new bench chairs. The bench is no longer a bench. It now has these babies:
As I first watched the video, I half expected a sultry, high-class, British voiceover saying something like, “Crew SC Chairs use leather from cattle that were sat upon their entire lives, allowing their supple skin to be naturally, yet elegantly, contoured to the human buttocks. The resulting leather is hand-sewn by classically-trained descendants of Betsy Ross, who stitched using only luxury-grade, organically cloned locks of Frankie Hejduk’s flowing mane. Crew SC Chairs: Where Spots 12 Through 18 Are Every Rump’s Dream™.”
Soccer has many quirks, and the trend of luxurious bench seating is certainly one of them. NBA players sit on folding chairs. NFL, MLB, and NHL players sit on regular benches. But soccer…we class it up in this sport. There’s no denying that those chairs are sweet. I want one for my house.
Anyway, Hector Jimenez became the first player to enter the match in the Luxurious Bench Chairs Era, so I asked him what the new chairs were like based on his gameday experience.
“It’s nice to have the professional chairs, I would say,” he did say. “I mean, everyone in the EPL and other teams around MLS have them, so it’s nice to see the upgrade. It’s solid. They’re very comfortable.”
I jokingly asked if it was tough to pry himself out of his seat when the call came to go warm up.
“No,” he said, not buying my question, even in jest. “Not at all.”
It seems that professional athletes are there to compete and not to enjoy the comforts of sweet leather chairs. My “Where Spots 12 Through 18 Are Every Rump’s Dream™” slogan might need a re-work.
RUNNING PAST PIRLO
Andrea Pirlo is a legend with A.C. Milan and the Italian national team. He is also becoming a legend in Columbus. In his short time in MLS, Pirlo has produced a pair of comical defensive efforts on Crew SC goals.
On August 29, 2015, Federico Higuain, a man not exactly known for his aerial prowess, ran right around a distracted and disinterested Pirlo to head home a 10th minute goal in what would be a 2-1 Columbus victory. You can relive that hilarious moment here:
Then, on Saturday, a stationary Pirlo could only offer a half-hearted wave of his leg as Justin Meram raced past him at full speed before passing to Kei Kamara, who scored. If Lou Brown from the movie Major League were coaching NYCFC, we know exactly how the word “ole” would be utilized.
Thankfully, this extremely brief midfield encounter between Meram and Pirlo has been immortalized in GIF form so that it can be enjoyed over and over and over and over again.
The next potential episode of comedic Columbus/Pirlo goal-making magic will take place on August 13, when New York City returns to MAPFRE Stadium.
AVOIDING SECOND GAME BLUES
Around this time every year, my friend and fellow Crew SC historian / numbers nerd Matt Bernhardt—who you should totally follow on twitter @bernhardtsoccer—spends his time cautioning people about pie-in-the-sky attendance projections for the second home game of the year. It is traditionally one of the worst-attended games on the annual calendar. If you throw out the two inaugural seasons—1996 for the club and 1999 for MAPFRE Stadium—Crew SC had averaged just 11,729 fans per game for home match number two.
With that in mind, a tip of the cap to the fans and the sales staff for the crowd of 16,715 on Saturday. As Bernhardt noted on twitter, it was the highest game two attendance at MAPFRE Stadium this century. (The previous high this century was 14,549 for a 2-0 win over Dallas on April 1, 2011.) I’ll take Matt one further and point out that Saturday’s crowd was the highest non-inaugural second game attendance in club history. Only the 1996 (24,343) and 1999 (20,782) crowds topped it.
Perhaps a five-week gap, a high-profile opponent, and a sunny spring night all helped, but a customary dent in the yearly attendance figures has been repaired. It will be interesting to see how this game two crowd will impact the final attendance at year’s end.
URSO MATCH IN GREENSBORO
On April 9, Greensboro, NC, once again hosted the Kirk Urso Memorial Match with proceeds going to the Crew SC Foundation’s Kirk Urso Memorial Fund. Urso was a beloved and respected rookie member of the 2012 Columbus squad whose life was tragically cut short by an undetected congenital heart defect. His alma mater, the University of North Carolina, squared off against the Charlotte 49ers in a rematch of the 2011 NCAA College Cup Final, won by Urso’s Tar Heels on a goal by then-future/now-former Crew SC midfielder Ben Speas.
The April 9 clash did not follow suit. The 49ers defeated the Tar Heels 2-0 on a blustery spring night, but the game and the accompanying memorabilia auction raised several thousand dollars for the Kirk Urso Memorial Fund, which funds programs for the detection and treatment of congenital heart defects. Urso’s reach as a person was such that not only did Crew SC donate items to the charity auction, but so did many other MLS clubs, most of which have players that have collegiate or professional ties to Urso and wanted to assist with the event being held in his memory to raise money for good and important work done in his name.
“You can see after his passing how many people were touched by him,” UNC assistant coach Grant Porter told The Daily Tar Heel. “It has to be overwhelming for his family to know just how special he was.”
If you do not yet know why Kirk Urso was so special and why you keep seeing those circled “15” banners in the crowd, I will take this opportunity to plug my book Kirk Urso: Forever Massive. It’s not even a shameless plug since all of the proceeds go to the Kirk Urso Memorial Fund.
You can read more about the book and/or order it HERE.
WHAT’S WITH THIS NOTEBLOG BUSINESS?
As you may have noticed, there have not been any mammoth 5,000-word editions of Sirk’s Notebook this year. I’ve been getting questions about it, so here’s what’s up. Due to several factors outside of my Black & Gold life, the longstanding process wasn’t tenable going forward. At least not for 2016. I wanted to stay with the club and the club wanted me to stay, so we put our heads together and ultimately agreed on the Sirk’s Noteblog concept. It will be like the old Sirk’s Notebook, except not all at once and not necessarily always tied to specific home games. So…like…a blog. How original. I will babble at you several times per month. It could be game-related, it could be Mr. Numbers Nerd stuff, it could be history/alumni focused, it could be miscellaneous throw-ins like this post, or it could be whatever. I’m making it up as I go along, but I’m glad you’re all still here. Let’s go do what happens.
