DCU v NYRB

The week began with yours truly, Chef Hammer, finding out he had won the DCU to NY Amtrak Contest whereby I got two (2) round trip train tickets and two (2) seats to the game in NY complments of DCU. Although I tried to round up as much of the Northern branch of the Blackfoot as I could, my parents ended up being the only ones to take me up on my invite and join KB and I.

Let me start by saying that the day began on the heels of a fantastic night of celebrating the marriage of our fellow Blackfooter, Hugh and his beautiful bride Jenn. KB and I woke up at 8am and met up with our fellow contest winners at Gate E of the DC train station (home of the timeless Whoa! Whoa! Buddy/Larry Craig wide-stance incident). The ride up was smooth and problem free and we were picked up outside the Newark station by my parents and taken home to pack up for the tailgate.

Mother Hammer had packed snacks, cookies, and sandwiches and Papa Hammer took care of drinks....and we enjoyed a wonderful, albeit brief, tailgate outside the famed Giants Stadium.

The first great moment of the day began when we were in our upper level seats and no one else was their yet. Soon came a low thundering drum beat that slowly grew as the coming Barra Brava unloaded into our section to my parents total shock and awe....they sat there saying to me, What is that noise? Where is that sound coming from? Who are these nutballs wearing these flags as capes and dragging giant drums with them (there was one drunk DCU fan who brought his Alex ovechkin flag which he gave to me halfway through the game)

Onto the game...it began with what I thought was a creative lineup form General Tommy, basic 3-man defense, Clyde and Benj holding midfield, Rodney Wallace and Fred at the midfield flanks, with rookie Chris Pontius in the #10 role behind Santino and Lucy...it worked great, which turned into the lead goal by Wallace in the 23rd...halftime came and we were stable, but I had to admit some to having some bad stomach pains in fear that we wouldn't be able to hold our lead, as usual...

The second half began as normal with a whistle by the ref and five minutes in Andrew Jacobson was subbed in for fan favorite Ben Olsen, due to the same old ankle injury acting up, then Fred was subbed out for Big Brandon Barklage in the 61' which moved Pontius out to the flank for Fred.

Things seemed to be going well after the subs, but my fears were soon realized when the NYRB tied it in the 68', to be more specific Juan Pablo tied it, and then Dane Richards added another due to what I consider shoddy defense (Burch was yelling at Jacobson, Namoff yelling at Burch, Crayton was yelling at everyone)....I knew we couldn't hold the damn lead I thought...but none of us knew or expected what would happen next....while singing something to the effect of "You've got no f'n trophies...not a f'n one" to the Red Bull faithful, all 8000 of em (if that), DC tied the game back up with a sweet Lucy goal in the 89' and then was followed up by some gutsy play which led to anther goal by Pontius on a loose ball in the box and some good hustle by Boyyyzzzz, who came in as a 81' sub for Rodney....the fans were going nuts...

What a great ending to the game, we sat in our seats for a while and watched as Benji, who was subbed in the 50th minute from an apparent sore ankle, limped across the field to talk to family and friends and was then serenaded by the DCU faithful that stuck around...when the family and I finally got to the tunnel to leave, my mother made us stop and wait for the Barra Brava to leave, so we could walk out as part of the parade of drumming and singing fans, what a day....

....P.S. our train home got delayed many hours and we didn't get to bed until 2am....well worth it.

Go DCU!