Blackfoot Bunny of the Week

Be all DCU can Be

Hello to all you United-philes! Well, the home opener is rapidly approaching so I thought it would be a fine time to intrduce myself. So far you have, I hesitate to use the word enjoyed but oh well, the fine articles and commentary put out by the Colonel and the Kernel. Now meet the Colon-Al. It will be my job to recap and comment on the goings ons, tailgates and good times of the Blackfoot faithful. If you are reading this; that means you. Think of me as an intelligent, less gay Prez Hilton. Watch what you say and do, or don't, and make my job easier. Check my columns for recaps of funny events, food critique and decisions in the Saunders v. Saunders throwdowns that go with tailgating like tea and toast. Fear not, my column will not at all be vicious but rather entertaining, and vicious. Put it this way, this is where you come when you are done with sentance fragments and improper punctuation. Just check it out and you will DC what I mean. The column shall be called: The Foot Print.

As for the home opener itself, it is the opinion of this Blackfooter that we looked good in our opening game against L-Gay and will carry on that form against Shit-cago. I expect Blanco to play with enthusiasm and a complete lack of respect for and awareness of his arms. He will most likely be red carded inthe second half for beating his wife. The potent United offense will open up the Chicago defense like a DC-section. Prediction: we will be celebrating an United Victory. The question is: will you celebrate in a way that will end you up in this very column? We shal DC . . . .

Colon-Al (give the name a chance, it will grow on you)

Hammer: The Interview

question 1.) todd tell me what your tv meant to you?

it meant a great escape from the wankers upstairs

question 2.) tell me what thoughts were going thru your head when you were writing that emotional plea for help?

damn my cock is huge

question 3.) tell me about your reaction to the head of securities smart ass remarks(at least thats they sense I got)?

damn i can't wait to scream at blanco, not so sure i could do that to mcbride though

question 4) describe what your going to cook tommorow and how good it will be?

i'm now thinking of going saunders-friendly with a chicken breast concoction, possibly sliced chicken breast on a grilled hero roll with a homemade salsa on top. maybe some melted cheese on it too. one word: scrum-diddly-umptious.

Season Opener

When: 3/28/09

What time: 7:30 PM Kickoff

Where: RFK Stadium

Who: DC United vs Chicago Flamers

What time does it really start: 3:30 PM Lot 8

Ok boys and girls, the DC Area's best tailgate is almost upon us. This Saturday United take on the Flamers in a eastern conference showdown. Chef Hammer is cooking up some brats and potato pancakes for our eating pleasure. If your going to eat from the hammers plate, please bring some cash to give to the chef. The grill should be going most of the tailgate and we should have plenty of charcoal if you wanted to cook up your own food. As always, everyone bring beer. It looks like its going to rain so the Blackfoot Tent will defiantly be in attendance. Here are the things we do need

1. plates and napkins
2. plastic utensils
3. snacks
4. lawn chairs
5. lawn table

Hopefully everyone can make it out to the first game, the forecast isn't so great, but who really gives a shit. Post game will be at the chef and head of security's house for some USA vs El Salvador.

What Galaxy will the Galaxy be playing in this year without Becks?

As most of us intelligent ones predicted, David Beckham has found a way to stay in Italy. He is slated to return towards the end of the MLS season, whereby he will most likely become the victim of a mysterious hammy injury that will keep him out of the remaining games of the Galaxy season, thus ensuring his safe return to Serie A, and thus an early end to Beckhams' 'Great American Soccer Experiment'.

As for the remaining members of Bruce Arena's squad: Landon Donovan returns, Abel Xavier is gone and I hear he has an agent and will be starring as Stripe in the new 'Gremlins Part 3' flic. They have picked up a new few guys here and there, they currently have Chris Klein, Dema Kovalenko, Tony Sanneh, and Eddie Lewis (all of which are on the tail end of their careers) and Edson Buddle (overrated), etc.

They were mediocre at best last year (ok, they sucked- 8-13-9, tied for worst in the league), and with the loss of Becks, another year of developing/aging for some (not for others, Landy-Cakes I'm looking at you pretty boy, I don't care how many games you played in Germany and how many times Juergen stroked your ego, you are still a whiny-baby to us), and the need to learn the MLS game for the youngsters spells another season of not being out of this world for the Galaxy....

...As to our opening game against them, I predict an easy victory for DC United 3-0 (Lucy with one and Gomito with 2) and a long season at the bottom again for the lowly Galaxy.

Season Preview: The Defense

RB – Namoff, Miller
CB – Jakovic, Peters
CB – Janicki, McTavish
LB – Burch, Wallace

In this article I'm going to go over the current roster spots occupied by the defenders. In 2008 this area of the team was a glaring problem. At one point it was Mctavish and Burch in the central defense. It was not fun to watch. With the departures of Peralta and Martinez, United brought in some new blood, Roger a player with vast experience in the Brazilian leagues and the Copa Libatordes(The Champions League of South America). Unfortunately he was here in DC, in one of the worst winters in recent memory and he decided this wasn't the place he wanted to be, so he left. Fuck him. End of story, he is dead to the Black Foot. They did sign a monster from Croatia, Dejan Jakovic. Dejan played college ball in the States and he holds Canadian citizenship. He played the last year for Red Star Belgrade, making a few appearances. He is projected to be the starter. The Black Foot have never seen him play, so its really hard to evaluate him at this juncture. In our mid-season report card, we should have a much better idea of the kind of footballer he is. Next lets look at our stability on the backline, Bryan Namoff. Bryan has been a solid contributor for as long as I can remember. He distributes out of the back well, he rarely lets his man beat him one on one, and he seems to stay out of card trouble. He is first choice RB every game, no questions asked. Now to the fodder. Oh boy, where do I start on McTavish. I absolutely think this player is not good enough for United. He is late on tackles, he is slow as an Ox, his distribution is inconsistent, and he cant mark on set pieces. He belongs in the USL(United Soccer Leagues), not in the MLS. Hopefully he proves me wrong this year. Now on to Mark Burch. Mark started his DC career with a bang. They put him out on the left and he shined. He was great at putting in these curving, driving crosses, that would create chances for Lucio and Moreno. He seemed to be decent enough at distribution and he was excellent as a set piece specialist. Then flash forward to the playoffs, were down 1-0 to NE, Burch gets a red card on a stupid play. And we lose. Ever since that point, he has been below avg as a defender. He looks slow, he can't tackle, and for some reason his crossing went to shit. There is an old saying, class is permanent, form is temporary. So hopefully mark can nail down that LB spot and return to his old form. The last guy I'm going to talk about is Mark Janicki. We picked mark up from a USL 2 team, Minnesota. He looked pretty good in the games I saw him play last year. He is avg to above avg at marking, he gets rid of the ball when he should, and he seems to be a very good tackler. I think in the end he will beat our Mctavish to pair with the Croatian Monster in the back. Miller, Peters, and Barkledge are complete unknowns at this point, and we will review them in our mid-season report card. Stay tuned for our next article on the midfield.

Kernal of Food and Cooking

Welcome fellow Black Foot supporters...over the course of the season, I will be updating the menu for the next game. Sometimes it will be food from our opponents region of the country, sometimes it will be food from major footballing areas of the world...sometimes the games will be on a weeknight and we'll bring subway, but rest assured, we will be well fed..and remember...

...We have no dues, we have no rules, and there is absolutely no free beer. Cheers.

"Fail to prepare, prepare to fail"
- Roy Keane

Official Mascot

Nice article on a recent preseason match

http://www.behindthebadge.com/2009/03/preseason-match-4-dcu-0-rsl-3.php

FC BLACK FOOT BLOG KICKOFF

Hey all,
The Colonel of Music and Beer here, kicking off our FC BLACKFOOT blog. Here we can talk about DC United, Beer, Music for tailgating, what everyone is bringing, etc. I will be posting a season preview of DC United here in a bit. Check back for updates.