I think Luis Arroyave (the Chicago Tribune's excellent soccer columnist) had a piece before the Fire-Revs match talking about how the rivalry had died down a little because so many players had moved on. One of the them was Andy Herron, who probably lost a spot on the 2006 Costa Rican World Cup team because of his eight game suspension following a temper tantrum in the Fire's playoff ending loss to the Revs in 2005. The Tico forward has since moved to Columbus, but Andy hasn't forgotten-- after a physical foul by Jay Heaps denied Herron a goal-scoring opportunity, Herron decided to smack Heaps in the nose with his elbow. The refs didn't catch it, but Herron is guaranteed a multiple game suspension.
Other thoughts from the game:
(1) Speaking of Heaps, he's really developed into a solid defender, relatively late in life. It was only a couple of years ago that a small contingent of Revs fans were jeering his every move. I haven't been back to the Razor since then, but I doubt they're doing it now. Incidentally, doesn't former pretty boy Heaps now look a lot like Bruce Cambell of Evil Dead and Bubba Ho-Tep "fame"? After seeing the vicious look the former Duke baller shot Herron following the foul, I can believe that Heaps would cut off his own hand if it had been possessed by demons.
(2) Do Hejduk and Ngwenya form the fastest right tandem in MLS? Watching Ngewnya torch Avery "only slightly less rash than Anand" John was fun too.
(3) Folks often focus on Twellman's ability to win headers and knock down balls, but what really stood out for me in this match was his ability to poke the ball around the ground in tight spots. There are a bunch of reasons why Twellman scores goals-- but I think this aspect of his game is relatively unnoticed.
(4) How fitting was it that (a) Grabavoy scored Cbus's first goal of the year given his absolutely fantastic form so far and (b) that the first goal was off of a deflection, which also sums up Columbus's finishing woes so far.
(5) It's also the second game where the Crew started brightly, but was largely bottled up by tactical changes in the second half. Yes, they did tie it up, but they looked like world beaters in the first halves against RSL and the Revs and then... nothing. Maybe the lack of depth on the bench has something to do with it. That's not to say that the Revs looked great in the second half-- what happened to Dorman?
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