Poll: Union vs. New England- What was that?

• by Conor O'Grady
• September 8th, 2011
• Opinion, Polls/Contests
• 6 Comments

Alot of draws feel like something other than a draw- like the draws against huge opponents whom everyone was sure would streamroll your team, or the draws that just barely secure your team’s spot in a playoff or tournament.  Those feel like wins, the euphoria comparable to or better than an actual victory.

Other draws feel like losses.  Being held to a draw by a shitty team is, after all, less than what any fan expects of a reasonably good team (like ours).  A draw to a lesser team or a draw that leaves one’s team just shy of the next phase of competition can induce the same despair as an all-out loss.

So what happened last night?  Was the Union’s stunning reversal of a 3-goal defecit a triumph in the face of adversity, or did the Blue and Gold simply manage to save some face against a team that they should’ve demolished?  Did that stirring fight to the finish earn us a point we should cherish and wear with pride, or was it just a lot of late hussle for a sub-par result?

No one can deny that the endorphins were flowing in the 54th, when Danny Mwanga and Freddy Adu combined forces and in one beautiful instant turned a humiliating spanking into a game again (Torres’ opener was nice, but it couldn’t have inspired much optimism given the scoreline of 3-1 at the time).  The sight of Le2 stepping up to the PK spot in the 80th made things happen in my pants that are best left untyped, even before Seba sent Matt Reis leaping in the wrong direction.  And the sight of that beautiful Frenchman snapping it into the onion bag in stoppage time (with plenty more stoppage time to go) turned the improbable into the possible.

Possible, however, wasn’t enough to earn us 3 points.  In the end, after a tense final free kick, the Union faithful had to settle for a draw with a bottom-tier team.  In person, it was exciting.  On paper, it’s embarrasing.

So what to make of it?  What kind of draw was it?  It certainly doesn’t fall into the category of run-of-the-mill-boring draws that occur when teams are too evenly matched.  It couldn’t have been a draw-that-feels-like-a-loss because, well…that’s not how it feels when a couple thousand blue-clad fans experience simultaneous goal-gasms 4 times in a row.  At the same time, it’s certainly not a win-like draw either, because when the excitement has died down and the morning has come and we have to wake up sober and roll over and look at exactly what we did last night, we are forced to realize that we shouldn’t be proud of that particular notch in the bedpost.

The Union website trumps the result as a “PPL Park Miracle.”  Peter Nowak said that the Union played “like an expansion team.”  No one is quite sure how to feel.  The U’s doggedness is without equal, but the harsh light of truth isn’t flattering to the team’s actual skill level.  The key to our early season success, the defense, was pathetic.  The key to our first-season respectableness, the offense, did manage to score as many as the other team; they also managed to blow chance after great offensive chance.

The bottom line is that we now sit at 3rd in the Eastern Conference standings, which puts us on par with the 5th or 6th placed teams in the West.  The playoff picture doesn’t look half as rosy as it did months ago, and last night fell distinctly into the category of a “should win,” if not a “must win.”

We didn’t win.  And it’s hard to know how to describe the feelings brought on by that non-win, other than to say that it was thrilling and it was shitty, all at the same time.  Either way, now we have to reckon with the consequences.

Anyway, what’s your opinion?

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On a somewhat related note:

The Sons of Ben, The IllegitmateS, and Kildare’s are joining forces at the tailgate on Sept 10th (vs. Portland) to raise a whole big buttload o’ money to benefit Miles4MJ, a charity for sufferers of NF (Nuerofibromatosis), a little-known disease that, long story short, gives kids tumors.  Help the medical community figure this thing out by getting YOUR ass to the tailgate.  SIGN UP HERE.