Creeping.  Usually, the context on this word is a negative one, i.e. so and so was creeping on Facebook.  For the sake of this blog, the context of creeping is solely positive.  You’re probably saying,”whatever do you mean, Ashleigh?”  There are a few positive meanings.  The Crew are creeping and sports fans are creeping into the hallows of the soccer world.  Let me explain.

Tyler Pollack scored the game’s lone goal as the Crew Juniors Under-19 squad defeated FC Delco Hammerheads, 1-0, Saturday on national TV to win the McGuire Cup National Championship at the Overland Park Soccer Complex, in Overland Park, Kan., where the country’s top teams earned the opportunity to compete in the final step of the 2010 US Youth Soccer National Championship Series. This weekend’s championship finals were determined after three days of round robin play, earlier this week.

Thunderstorms rolled through Overland Park, but did not dampen the spirit and excitement once the games kicked off under the lights. The Under-19 Boys championship match was broadcast live in HD on Fox Soccer Channel for the 75th anniversary of the James P. McGuire Cup. The match will re-air Tuesday, July 17 at 5 p.m. ET and Wednesday, July 28 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox Soccer Channel. The match will also be streamed on-demand at www.foxsoccer.tv beginning Sunday.

It was an electric setting for the Under-19 Boys national championship game with over 3,500 fans in attendance to watch the 75th anniversary of the James P. McGuire Cup. Strong storms rolled through the area just prior to kickoff but cleared in time for the crowd to see Crew Juniors edge FC Delco Hammerheads 1-0. In a game that offered precious few scoring chances, the Crew’s Pollack buried a header in the 36th minute giving the Brian Bliss-coached team the only goal it would need.

FC Delco created two late chances that were cleared safely. The Crew Juniors win earned the club its first youth national championship - also a first for a Major League Soccer youth academy team. The Crew Juniors raced onto the field hoisting the McGuire Cup to celebrate their win and last game together as youth players.

Each national championship match features the awarding of the adidas Golden Ball and Golden Glove award for outstanding play and goalkeeper, respectively. The adidas Golden Glove has been awarded since 1998, and the Crew’s Justin Luthy of Dublin earned the distinction this year.

The Crew Juniors U19s advanced to the Final of the US Youth Soccer U19 National Championships with a 1-1 draw vs. FC Delco Hammerheads Friday afternoon in St. Louis. Saturday’s James P. McGuire Cup Championship Final will be a rematch between the same two teams, which were the top two finishers in the round-robin, four-team preliminary round. FC Delco finished with 7 points (2-0-1) and the Crew finished with 5 (1-0-2).

The Final will be televised live nationally on FOX Soccer Channel in high defininition - the first youth soccer game ever broadcast in HD - with pregame coverage starting at 8:30 p.m. ET leading up to a 9 p.m. kickoff. Brad Porter and Sasha Victorine will call all the action. The broadcast falls on the 75th anniversary of the McGuire Cup, the oldest and most storied cup in youth sport.

“You can’t have a better stage. It’s the 75th anniversary of the McGuire Cup, you’ve got a great venue, you’ve got a primetime game on Fox Soccer Channel, you’re going to play in the evening when the weather is cooler. So all the elements are there for a cracking game and I think you’re going to have two teams battling it out in an entertaining game,” said Crew technical director and U19 coach Brian Bliss.

Links to recaps of the Crew’s three preliminary round matches follow.

July 23 - Crew 1, FC Delco Hammerheads (Pa.) 1:

http://tournaments.usyouthsoccer.org/events/2010-US-Youth-Soccer-National-Championships/Game/1329/FCDelcoHammerheadsPA-ERI-C/CrewJuniorsOH-SRII-C/ 

July 22 - Crew 4, WSM Internationals (Ore.) 2:

http://tournaments.usyouthsoccer.org/events/2010-US-Youth-Soccer-National-Championships/Game/1327/WSMInternationalsORRIV-C/CrewJuniorsOH-SRII-C/

July 21 - Crew 0, Andromeda 91 Navy (Texas) 0:

http://tournaments.usyouthsoccer.org/events/2010-US-Youth-Soccer-National-Championships/Game/1326/CrewJuniors/Andromeda91Navy/

Nearly 10,000 fans flocked to Crew Stadium for live telecasts of all 64 games of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, culminating with last Sunday’s final in which Spain defeated the Netherlands, 1-0, in overtime. The month-long tournament kicked off on June 11 and became the most-watched ever in the United States.

This year marked the third straight World Cup that every game was shown live in the Stadium Club tent, but in high definition this time, on Panasonic HD televisions provided by Best Buy – one of which was given away Sunday as a raffle Grand Prize.

Sunday’s final, televised by ABC and Univisión, was the most watched soccer match in U.S. television history. A total of 24.3 million viewers (15.5 million on ABC and 8.8 million on Univisión) tuned in to watch Spain capture its first-ever World Cup. In fact, the match garnered more viewers than did the deciding games of both the 2009 World Series between the Yankees and Phillies (22.3 million) and the 2010 Stanly Cup Finals (8.28 million). The numbers are also comparable to the 28.2 million pulled by Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals between the L.A. Lakers and Boson Celtics.

Photo credit: Sam Fahmi

Major League Soccer announced today that Crew standouts Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Chad Marshall have been selected to the First XI squad for the 2010 AT&T MLS All-Star Game. This is the second career All-Star First XI selection for both Schelotto and Marshall. Congrats guys!

Check out more here…

The Crew held its fourth annual Corporate Cup - a 6-vs.-6 co-ed tournament - at Crew Stadium on Saturday, June 26, with teams from Costco, Paint 4 You, Grange Insurance, Diaz Builders, CME Federal Credit Union, EverestGear.com, Defense Supply Center Columbus, and K Petroleum participating.

When the dust settled, Paint 4 You had emerged victorious, snaring the 2010 Corporate Cup title with a 5-1 victory over the Defense Supply Center of Columbus (DSCC) in the championship game. The championship earned Paint 4 You a special recognition ceremony at halftime of the Crew’s match vs. D.C. United that night, a suite for a future Crew home game, a 2010 team autographed ball and the Columbus Crew Corporate Cup Champion’s trophy.

All participating teams received tournament T-Shirts, tickets to the Crew game and PA recognition at the Crew game.

Every World Cup there is at least one game where a team gets demolished; I was at that game. Portugal 7 – Korea DPR 0; Absolute entertainment. I had been to the England Algeria game previously which was quite the opposite. I had seats in the 300 deck for that game which was confusing because we had category 1 tickets. When I looked at the tickets for the Portugal game the seats were in the 400 section. I was livid. $160 for the best seats in the house, category 1, to sit in the 400s. We got to the stadium and there was only one entrance to the 400s through a back door, up stairs. I remember thinking “@$*!, they don’t even have an elevator to get up there.” On top of that every doorway on the way up we passed an usher would demand to see my tickets, as if I would swap seats to sit in the 400s. Then we walked into a passage that opened up into the Stadium, it turns out the 400 section in Cape Town happens to be the hospitality section. Cushioned seats, more leg room, amazing view and only one section from the VIPs. AMAZING! I turned to my right to look down my row and I even saw the great ‘Eusebio’ sitting the section over. What a pleasant surprise.

The next day we went to the top of Table Mountain. The moment there is a day with good weather you have to go because you can never tell when the clouds will sit on the mountain. Shark diving got canceled (Because of the swells, not because I wimped out – don’t worry it got rescheduled), so we took the opportunity to go atop table mountain. The line to get on the cable car was an hour and a half long, but we made good conversation with a Brazilian waiting in line with us. After spending a few minutes talking about Brazil’s chances and his hatred for Argentina, we talked about many other things such as 2014, business etc. He also told me he collects jerseys and happens to own 4 MLS jerseys. Kansas City, Chicago, NYRB and of course the Columbus Crew. Fantastic! The view of the City from Table Mountain is unreal – we were blighted though by slight cloud cover.

After Table Mountain we went into town looking for a ‘game meal’. This would consist of game animal meats. Based on the recommendation of a few local South Africans we met a Kalk Bay, we headed for a restaurant called ‘Mama Africa’. Usually during dinner your meal here is accompanied by fire shows and Zulu dancers. Being there for lunch we were only accompanied by a cute Columbian waitress. She arranged the ‘game meal’ for us which consisted of Crocodile kebab, Springbock steak, Ostrich kebab, Kudu steak and a Springbock and Venison sausage. Interesting, different and for the most part delicious. Crocodile, I have had the pleasure of eating before – I love it. It’s a white meat and its texture is like a combination of chicken and seafood. I know it sounds disgusting but its good trust me. The sausage was average and had a weird after taste to it. The springbock steak was tough but still had some distinct flavours. I probably wouldn’t order it again. My favorites though were the Ostrich and Kudu. Kudu is like a South African Antelope with huge antlers. They were both relatively tough but had such amazing flavors. They taste ‘gamey’ whatever that is supposed to mean.
We were so into the meal that we arrived at the fan park 30 minutes before the crucial Bafana game. It was packed. About 30,000 people full. Outside in front of Police on horses were other fans singing and pleading to get in. No such luck. We found a small café in Shortmarket with 2 small TVs showing each game faced into the courtyard for the many fans to watch. Goal, Red Card, Goal; the place was buzzing. It was doable. A 4-5 goal swing seemed possible and so my mate and I said we have to make it into that fan park for the second half. We have to try because who knows, if a miracle happens we want to be there for it. We ran to the front of the fan park and still no such luck. We sprinted around the park through people to get to the other entrance. On the way there were many standing on light poles to sneak a view of the game. “Only allowing 250 more people in” said one event organizer. So we waited in line. No chance. Completely full. What do we do? We sprinted all the way back around to the short market. I didn’t want to miss it. I don’t think I have ever run so much in my life. Every time we heard an ‘ooh’ or an ‘aah’ we diverted our path, ran across the open road, into a local hole in the wall mart, crowded with people watching. “He hit the post” one person said, we saw the replay and jetted back for the short market. We finally made it, but unfortunately Bafana Bafana didn’t. Yet the South Africans, some disappointed and angry, some proud. They did after all beat last World Cup’s finalists. Many continued to dance with pride into the night.

Cape Town from Table Mountain. You can see the Stadium Left hand corner next to the small mountain

Game Meal - From R to L: Croc, Springbock, Ostrich, Kudu and Sausage

Bafana fans watching the game in the shortmarket

After a further day of wait for the swells in the Atlantic to calm down we finally made the 2 hour drive north of Cape Town to Gansbaai. We were picked up at 4 in the morning by our driver and headed for the ‘Great White Shark’ Capital of the world. When I asked the driver if he had done this before he responded cooly “What? driving people out to go shark diving? Yeah all the time.” Of course I was referring to him shark diving and not driving people. Once I re-phrased the question he said “oh no I would never go shark diving, that’s just crazy.” That was exactly what I wanted to hear before the long drive. A quick nap later and we had arrived still questioning our sanity and contemplating pulling out. We were going to be in a cage, but still the water was freezing and these are some of the most deadly creatures in the world. What were we thinking???

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Joburg to Pretoria and the Homebaze

Tuesday night we spoke to to Dave and he told us he’d ask his boss to let him out at 10am Wednesday morning.  The idea being that we wanted to avoid any potential traffic issues in and around Loftus Versfeld and Pretoria.  We called yesterday morning and Dave gave us good news that he’d be ready at 10am.  By 10:20am we were heading north to Pretoria.  Along the way we passed the largest Feld(sp) Fire I’ve seen.  Do you remember that scene from Days of Thunder where Tom Cruise has to make the decision whether or not to put the pedal to the metal and drive through the smoke, win the race and get the girl?  All the while his crew chief is telling him “you can drive through it!”  Imagine that scenario only we’re not going 180mph in Chevy Malibu race car rather 80Kmh in a Hyundai Atos Tin Can.  With Dave in the back seat shouting “you can drive through it!” and Chris in the passengers seat, scarf wrapped around his face and snapping photos, I channeled my inner Cole Trickle, pulled my USA jersey over my nose and mouth, put the pedal down and in we went.  For a slip second I thought I’d dunked my head in a milk swimming pool.  I could see nothing but the faint pink glow of the tail lights in front of me. We came through the other side trailing smoke like Charlie Brown’s buddy PigPen( i think that was his name) and on we went as if it were a completely normal occurrence for us. TIA

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I have so many cool things to share, but I will save it for later because I cannot help but talk about the US match against Algeria. Nobody can ever tell me soccer is not important in the United States of America.

We headed toward the fan fest for the US game, draped in flags, scarves, jackets and jerseys only to be told that all four big screens were showing the England Slovenia game. They had reserved a small tent to the side with several TVs showing the US game. Not good enough! We headed back toward shortmarket which is a courtyard in the middle of Cape Town, in the bar and restaurant district. Outside a corner bar called ‘The Purple Turtle’ a US fan with his face painted was blowing his vuvuzela and yelling “U.S. Bar in here”. We stepped in and it was packed with US fans, also with their faces painted and draped in flags, scarves, jackets and jerseys. Beers and shots were being passed around, they were all dancing and drinking pre-game, confident the right result will come their way.

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