Caught in Possession

Attention MLS fans (ESPECIALLY those in the Washington, DC area still clinging to any residual smugness towards the "Yellow Football Team"): Columbus Crew jokes are officially off the kosher list.

That's a good squad playing over there at the Ohio Fairgrounds and regardless of how "small," "boring," or "middle-America" the city may or may not be, its soccer club has finally assembled a talented, successful team that's also fun to watch. Covering the SuperDraft in B-more early this year, I found head coach Sigi Schmid's honesty refreshing: he was drafting players that could help the Crew win now, because if the team kept losing he wasn't going to be around to see the kids develop down the line. And sure enough, his rookies have chipped in a bit while several trades have paid big-time dividends.

As Ives discussed in his recent ESPN piece, Argentinean maestro Guillermo Barros Schelotto is obviously the one who makes the Crew tick, but I'd give local boy Brian Carroll (Springfield, Va.) plenty of credit as well.

"BC" had an off-color year with DC United last season and duly lost his starting spot to Clyde Simms, but he's returned to form and has resumed his iron-man act in C-bus. Carroll leads the team in minutes played and is one of only two players to have started every single league match. I'd rank him as a top contender for Comeback Player of the Year, were it not for the fact that United prodigal son Tino Quaranta has surely locked down that honor. Right?

And oh yeah, United has another international match this week, and let's face it, Tom Soehn and his threadbare squad are going to have to park the team bus in front of goal to have any chance of getting a positive result off of the Big Green Honduran T-Rex. Dark days on East Capitol Street...