Latest news with #Supporters'Shield
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
What is inexplicable about Guillermo Barros Schelotto explains everything
What is inexplicable about Guillermo Barros Schelotto explains everything. It is captured, but not contained, in the moment that clinched the Crew's first MLS Cup in 2008, against the New York Red Bulls, in a stadium once known as the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. The Crew are pushing forward. An attempted through ball into the box by forward Alejandro Moreno is intercepted. Moreno digs it out and leaves it for midfielder Eddie Gaven, who touches it back to Schelotto. The incomparable one is stationed eight yards above the top of the box. He has two defenders converging on him head-on and another on his right periphery. He has the ball on his foot, which is to say he is happy. Somehow – does he have eyes on the right side of his head? – Schelotto spots fullback Frankie Hejduk screaming in on the diagonal. Or he sensed him. Ninety hundred and ninety nine times out of a thousand, Hejduk would have stayed wide on the right sideline, looking for a ball that he could cross. This one time, Hejduk saw a chance and cut inside for a run at the goal. 'I don't know how he saw me,' Hejduk said. 'I just don't know. I don't know how to explain it. And that explains him. What happened next, well … Of all the players in the world, 99.97% of them would have tried a through ball on the ground, and it would have been blocked or intercepted. But this is Guillermo. I've watched that replay 1,000 times, and I still don't know how he did it.' Schelotto toe-flicked the ball over a swarming mass of bodies. It was poetry amid chaos. The pass traveled in a lazy arc and came down, directly, on the forehead of Hejduk, who, while flying, didn't have to break stride. Hejduk had only to nod the ball over the goalkeeper to give the Crew a 3-1 lead in the 82nd minute, and that was it. More: Massive: Schelotto, hard-working Crew trounce Red Bulls for MLS Cup title The Crew won their first MLS Cup. Schelotto, who assisted on all three goals in the final, was the tournament MVP. He would also be named the league's MVP for leading the Crew to the Supporters' Shield, which goes to the team with the best record. He had seven goals and 19 assists as an attacking midfielder in 2008, the middle of his two-plus-season stint in Columbus. He was SI Latino's Sportsman of the Year. Under a new coach in 2009, he was asked to play as more of a forward and had 12 goals and three assists in 24 games. On July 19, when the Crew host D.C. United at the new Crew stadium, Schelotto will be enshrined in the team's Circle of Honor. He will join his former coach, Sigi Schmid (RIP); his captain in Columbus, Hejduk; and the team's first star, Brian McBride. The Circle is a tight one. There are things fans can gripe about: Presently, the wall where Circle members are posted for posterity can't be viewed as construction on high-priced luxury clubs continues. There's also the fact that Schelotto, whose coaching career continues in the Argentine Primera Division with Club Atletico Velez Sarsfield, has a scheduling conflict and can't be in Columbus for the ceremony. That sucks. Schelotto is a legendary figure in the history of one of Argentina's most storied clubs, Boca Juniors. Schelotto won 15 trophies in his decade with the club. He's not at Diego Maradona's level on the adoration scale, but he's not far off. In fact, one of Schelloto's biggest fans was El Pibe de Oro (RIP), who watched a lot of his old team when his playing days were over. Schelotto arrived in Columbus through the summer transfer window of 2007. When his new teammates spoke of him, they spoke of both the professional and the personal. They marveled at his mastery of the game. Years ago, Gaven was among those who talked about how Schelotto simplified everything. 'I just go where he tells me,' Gaven said, 'and then there's the ball.' Hejduk said, 'When he was playing his magic tricks, that's when everything happened. He took a couple of months to get used to the style of the league. After that, when he was running on all cylinders, every player on the team was on all cylinders. He ran the show. He made everyone better. It was like we were unstoppable.' Schelotto loved Columbus. He liked the lifestyle. After years of opening the drapes and seeing Boca fans all over his front lawn in Buenos Aires, he relished his quiet family time in the Columbus suburbs. He also enjoyed having the whole team over for barbecues, something he did often. 'He has a great mom,' said Dr. Pete Edwards. 'He's a great man. A great person. It's what has made him a great coach.' Edwards served as the Crew's team doctor from the inception of the franchise in 1996 until he and his family bought a piece of the team to help save it in 2018. Edwards remembers wondering what he'd find when Schelotto showed up as a 34-year-old. Arthritic knees? 'He was ready to go,' Edwards said. 'He wasn't Carlos Valderrama in terms of fitness, but he didn't have to run 10 kilometers a game like (current Crew midfielder) Dylan Chambost. When you know where everyone on the field is, you know when to pick your spots. Lionel Messi is the same way.' Schelotto was most responsible for delivering the Crew its first MLS Cup. He did it at a time when the Nordecke was still being organized and yet was already 'Massive' – the ability to overcome when so much, including penny-pinching owners and a league that looks down its nose at flyover country, is against you – was entrenched in the lexicon of Crew fans. More: Columbus Crew all-time Best XI 2.0: After two amazing years, major update required | Arace Schelotto had that vision thing. He saw the past and was a harbinger of the future. Two more Argentine attacking mids, Federico Higuain and Lucas Zelarayan, made indelible marks in Crew history in a homage to the incomparable one. In terms of iconic franchise players who had the biggest impact, it may be that McBride, the fearless striker of the early years, and Cucho Hernandez, the transcendent attacker of the Wilfried Nancy era to date, are (arguably) the only ones in Schelotto's league. McBride was the face of the new team. He scored the ball with gusto. Cucho was the monster who proclaimed a new era. He was brilliant in terms of soccer IQ and technical ability. Between them was Schelotto, who saw everything. marace@ Get more on the Crew by listening to our podcast This story was updated to add a gallery. This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew's latest addition to Circle of Honor was an MLS magician
4 days ago
- Sport
Orellano, Celentano help Cincinnati edge Real Salt Lake 1-0 to take lead in Eastern Conference
SANDY, Utah -- Luca Orellano scored late in the second half and Roman Celentano turned away seven shots as FC Cincinnati snapped Real Salt Lake's five-match unbeaten run with a 1-0 victory on Saturday night, grabbing the lead in the Eastern Conference and Supporters' Shield races with the win. Orellano subbed in for Gerardo Valenzuela in the 63rd minute and used Tah Brian Anunga's first career assist to score in the 87th. It was his second goal after scoring 10 times as a rookie last season. Celentano notched his eighth clean sheet of the campaign for Cincinnati (15-6-3), which moved one point in front of Nashville SC and the Philadelphia Union in both races. Rafael Cabral finished with three saves for Real Salt Lake (8-11-4), which had four wins during its unbeaten run. Evander da Silva Ferreira had a club-record five-match goal scoring streak end in his first season with Cincinnati. He has already tied the team record with five two-goal efforts in a single season and his 15 goals are three away from Luciano Acosta's single-season club record. Cincinnati improves to 15-4-5 against Western Conference opponents under manager Pat Noonan. It was the third all-time matchup and the second played in Utah. The road team has won all three.
Fox Sports
4 days ago
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Orellano, Celentano help Cincinnati edge Real Salt Lake 1-0 to take lead in Eastern Conference
Associated Press SANDY, Utah (AP) — Luca Orellano scored late in the second half and Roman Celentano turned away seven shots as FC Cincinnati snapped Real Salt Lake's five-match unbeaten run with a 1-0 victory on Saturday night, grabbing the lead in the Eastern Conference and Supporters' Shield races with the win. Orellano subbed in for Gerardo Valenzuela in the 63rd minute and used Tah Brian Anunga's first career assist to score in the 87th. It was his second goal after scoring 10 times as a rookie last season. Celentano notched his eighth clean sheet of the campaign for Cincinnati (15-6-3), which moved one point in front of Nashville SC and the Philadelphia Union in both races. Rafael Cabral finished with three saves for Real Salt Lake (8-11-4), which had four wins during its unbeaten run. Evander da Silva Ferreira had a club-record five-match goal scoring streak end in his first season with Cincinnati. He has already tied the team record with five two-goal efforts in a single season and his 15 goals are three away from Luciano Acosta's single-season club record. Cincinnati improves to 15-4-5 against Western Conference opponents under manager Pat Noonan. It was the third all-time matchup and the second played in Utah. The road team has won all three. Cincinnati travels to play Inter Miami on Saturday. Real Salt Lake will host the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday. ___ AP soccer: recommended Item 1 of 1
Canada News.Net
5 days ago
- Sport
- Canada News.Net
MLS-best Union out for 'togetherness' vs. Dynamo
(Photo credit: Caean Couto-Imagn Images) Tai Baribo looks to heat up again on Saturday as the Philadelphia Union take a two-match winning streak into Houston to face the Dynamo. Baribo scored his 14th goal of the season in Philadelphia's 2-1 victory over CF Montreal on Wednesday. He had been kept without a tally in four matches after erupting for six in his previous four contests. Baribo is three goals shy of Nashville SC star Sam Surridge in the race for the Golden Boot Award and is two behind Lionel Messi of Inter Miami. Defender Olwethu Makhanya scored his first career MLS goal for the Union (14-5-4, 46 points), who remain one point ahead of FC Cincinnati in the bid for the Supporters' Shield. 'If you follow the pathway of this system, whether it's 2018 or 2023 or whether it's now, I think you can see just the overall contribution of togetherness. Everyone has a role to play,' Philadelphia head coach Bradley Carnell said. 'Everyone contributes and you see that with this group.' The Dynamo (7-11-5, 26 points) have been shut out on back-to-back occasions and fell three points behind ninth-place San Jose in the Western Conference. 'There's no excuse for how we performed today,' Houston coach Ben Olsen said after his team's 3-0 setback to the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday. 'And we have a team coming up in Philadelphia that's going to try and do the same thing Vancouver did today. So it's up to us to respond.' Jack McGlynn, who spent the previous four seasons with Philadelphia, was denied in his bid to put the Dynamo on the scoreboard in the 67th minute. Houston mustered just two shots on goal in the entire match. 'It'll be a fun game, and good to see everyone,' McGlynn said of his upcoming reunion, per the Houston Chronicle. 'But once we step on the field, they'll be just like any other opponent.' The Union have allowed the fewest goals in the league at 22.
Canada News.Net
6 days ago
- Sport
- Canada News.Net
Montreal, Chicago look to turn things around
(Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images) Two struggling sides aim to get on the winning track when CF Montreal hosts the Chicago Fire on Saturday. Montreal (3-14-6, 15 points) is coming off a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday, extending its MLS winless streak to three games (0-2-1) after a rare positive stretch in which it had won two of three. The Canadian side held their own against the Supporters' Shield leaders for much of the 90 minutes. They continued to push after conceding the go-ahead goal in the 50th minute and on several occasions came close to pulling level only to be denied by stellar saves from Philadelphia goalkeeper Andre Blake (as well as the post). 'When you go toe to toe with the best of the best in the league, it's something you're proud of, but at the same time we're not satisfied,' defender Joel Waterman said. 'I don't want the boys to feel satisfied whatsoever. One thing we can't fault is the effort (Wednesday) and against a really good team. We have another game on Saturday so we'll try and learn a lot like always and we'll move forward.' Montreal's inability to capitalize on its chances has been an issue for much of the season, with just 20 goals through 23 games. They rank 21st in MLS with 95 on-target scoring attempts, and the 346 free kicks they've been awarded are fourth most in the league. 'There is a bit of frustration, but we have to look forward, try to keep it in the past and work on the mistakes,' Montreal interim coach Marco Donadel said. They've tightened up defensively in their past two games but will face a Chicago side that has scored the third-most goals in MLS (42). While the Fire (8-9-5, 29 points) have had little trouble finding the back of the net, they've also struggled to keep it out of their own. They've conceded 40 goals, fourth most in the league and just three fewer than Montreal. Chicago has won just once in its past six games (1-4-1) after settling for a draw in its most recent outing against Atlanta United on Wednesday. The Fire grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second minute and went ahead 2-1 in the 79th minute, but a goal by Atlanta in second-half stoppage time left them with a single point after the final whistle. 'It's a point that feels like a loss, right?' Chicago coach Gregg Berhalter said. 'I think we played well enough to win a game. ... Third game in eight days, and the guys have been grinding, and you see the effort they put in today to come in here and dominate the game like that -- and (they) deserved to win.' Philip Zinckernagel tallied his 10th goal of the season and has scored or assisted in a club-record nine straight road games. He's one away from tying Josef Martinez for the MLS record.
