Rookie Conor Chinn smiles on draft night. Last night, his two goals gave RBNY the 2-1 win over Philly. Also, Le Toux has dumb cleats. He’s “nationally ranked” (more…)

Photo Credit: Seth Binsted/The Breeze

In today’s MLS Expansion draft, we expected to see Amado Guevara, Frankie Hejduk or Eddie Robinson taken to help coach Peter/Piotr Nowak build the nucleus of what should be a pretty decent team in Philly next year. Instead, we saw a good, scrappy bunch of kids (including RBNY’s Nick Zimmerman) leaving their digs for “greener” pastures in Philadelphia.

There were no superstars taken, no former league MVPs. No players with U.S. national team caps, or players with multiple all-star appearances, or even players with ties to the Philadelphia area. When the final list of players chosen by the Philadelphia Union was announced, we were treated to a group of MLS players who could make up the type of tough and tenacious team that Nowak likes, and Philadelphia fans will want to root for. [SBI]

The fact that Zimmerman was left exposed (eff you Jeff Agoos!) makes me very, very angry. The new sporting director is on his way (believe me, it’s no damn secret who it is!) but we couldn’t find a way to hang on to a kid that had proven that he got it. We didn’t let Sassano or Sinisa go for similar reasons and dammit, I wanted Nick around. Now that $5 thing I bought off that kid in the Giants Stadium parking lot isn’t worth $h!t.

Ugh.

Man, what a great day. Soccer by Ives just wrote the sweetest 4 words I have ever read: RBNY “waived goalkeeper Jon Conway”. I am BEYOND ecstatic that this happened at all; that it took this long is scary, but with with “Duckman’s” departure last week, as long as we don’t spend cash on any major, overpriced acquisitions (read: Khano/Rojas), we are finally headed in the correct direction. The last two-three seasons have been very difficult for this RBNY/Metro fan as my (now-)wife and I made the season ticket splurge two years ago and got to witness not only last season’s amazing playoff run, but this year’s epic collapse as well.

Yes, the chips seem down, don’t they? Who cares? 9 months ago when we launched, most people told me I was just bitter and crazy and that no one would EVER agree with me. Well, RBNY let the bum go and I kinda proved that I was right all along. While I don’t welcome the bad karma of wishing another man out of a job, I have a feeling he’ll probably con his way into another gig soon enough (and if the NJ-area player ends up in Philly and plays a role in hurting us, I will FREAK). He wasn’t the team’s only problem, but he was a big one.

I heart you, RBNY. Agoos is next.

After his 10 game suspension for failing a performance enhancing drug test and his seeming inability to address that same important issue a la Mark McGwire, the not-so-lovable Jon Conway returned to RBNY to collect a 2-0 win last night.

Ugh.

For the uninitiated, on a direct kick in the 89th minute he set a wall incorrectly and that almost resulted in a near post goal (it was def. his fault). After misplaying a breakaway, the ball hit his knees (not his hands or body like the proper technique would have created) and almost soared into his own goal (thanks to Goldy for the flying save), he gets “credit” for having played well. I don’t understand how fans can overanalyze the release points of pitchers or quarterbacks, but people STILL don’t get that there is more to goalkeeping than stopping the occasional shot.

Jon Conway is a good shot stopper. That’s really it. He’s a terrible game manager, he’s lousy with distributions/counter attack (less distance and, more importantly, accuracy, than Cepero), he makes dumb decisions and just when people start to see that gathering a cross in the air prevents a shot from even happening (which is WAY safer than allowing a point blank header or volley) this guy lucks into a start and ends up with a shutout due to Danny’s injury last week?

What’s he got on JCO and Des, cuz Cepero was suited up and on the bench last night.

Don’t get me wrong, I love RBNY/Metro, I always have and probably always will. I just know that RBNY was thisfar from making the playoffs with Capt. “Won’t Talk About My Suspension” and a younger, albeit greener keeper lead us to the Cup Finals with big saves and by managing the game well.

Coincidence?

No.

We’re in. Yes, that’s right, our underperforming 10-11-9 RBNY are set for their date with destiny and two-time defending MLS Cup Champion, Houston Dynamo. Amazing.

Remember to send a Christmas card to Brad Evans:

After slinking home from Chicago, their playoff fate no longer their own, the Red Bulls backed into Major League Soccer’s postseason when the Columbus Crew defeated visiting D.C. United, 1-0, Sunday evening.

[NYT Goal]

Ironic that archrival United _ the team against which the Red Bulls/MetroStars have suffered the most pain, and for which they hold the most hatred _ were the team to decide their fate. So now, after taking a 5-2 beating _ I mean, your granddad going out in the yard and picking a switch off the tree kind of whipping _ they made their sixth straight postseason.

[NY Post]

So, in our most important game of the season, we played terrible. Great. That was an embarrassing effort that resulted in a 5-2 loss. It didn’t matter who was in goal tonight, although, Mike Richter might have been the best option for us.

Basically, we stink. I can’t figure out if I even want us to make the playoffs at this point because we really, really played terrible. This isn’t Conway’s fault or Parke’s fault or Cepero’s fault (he’s faultless in this entire mess and could have done NOTHING about this team’s performance before these last two games and I would argue he couldn’t have done anything about tonight either), or Agoos or anyone but Bruce effing Arena.

Yes, this douche:

Come finish the article “after the jump” (more…)

Red Bulls Reader got up their video of Danny Cepero’s pie face after the game, courtesy of Andrew Boyens. Here’s the clip:

Good goal, Cep-HERO!