It was a rough night for the visitors.
D.C. United 4 Celtic FC 0: As I mentioned earlier this week, I was really looking forward to having my Dad come to D.C. to see Glasgow Celtic take on D.C. United. Unfortunately for Dad, he wound up blowing a day off work to come all the way down here just to see the Scottish Champs humbled by a D.C. United squad that didn't bother to field most of its best players.
United essentially dominated from the opening moments of the match. This highlight reel tells the story:
In a way, I guess we shouldn't have been surprised. After all, it was only a year ago that United played a spirited friendly against EPL Champs Chelsea, a match where they jumped out to an early 1-0 lead before losing 2-1.
Needless to say, my father was not happy, something he drove home to his cousin Martin in Glasgow via e-mail yesterday morning:
It was very disappointing to watch a highly paid team of professionals put on such a poor display. I've read all the excuses on the web -- too hot, just arrived in Washington, torrential rain before the game, but this was a farce. They were outplayed, outrun and runout of the pitch by an AMERICAN TEAM that supposedly could not compete in a European league...This kind of exhibition doesn't help. We paid good money, $100 for two tickets, to watch a legendary team get its ASS KICKED. Never mind the fact that I drove 260 miles to get there (520 round trip). Now I won't even drive 25 miles on Friday to see another debacle.
[Celtic plays CD Chivas on Friday night at the Meadowlands -- EMc]
Half way through the second half the crowd began to Chant "WE WANT THE RANGERS". There was no mention of that on BBC news, or Celtic web page.
I have to hand it to Dad, as his language during the match was far more colorful than this note might suggest.
Here's how Martin responded:
We were Sh*ite and will get beat tonight also. When Mr O'neill was incharge the first thing he set out do do was build a strong physical team. Strachan wants to do the opposite and play the ball on the ground which ain't going to happen. He's still experimenting with his team and he still has the defensive problems he had this time last year.Under Martin O'Neill Celtic did not play friendlies.
The thing is we have to have a god run in europe this year, if we don't get good results we get a poor coefficient and we'll drop down the UEFA coefficient team ranking table. Our co-efficient (26.something from the UEFA cup final) will drop off next year and our five year average will drop from around 64 (18th in the table) to probably 40 odd if we do not have a good run and before you know it we will be slipping closer to the h*uns [for the uninitiated, the Huns are Glasgow Rangers -- EMc] in around 50th place and it will be pot 4 in the Champions League for the next decade!!
I think we were missing Zurawski, Boruc, Balde and Nakamura and we still have a few signings to make before the season starts. Don't know who travelled but hopefully a stronger team tonight.
Hopefully indeed. All I know now is that I'll be that much more chary to lay out cash to see Celtic the next time they come to America. European sides like Celtic need to understand that MLS has a severe inferiority complex, so when they have a chance to go against a storied team like Celtic, they generally come out playing like a house on fire with a lot to prove. And if Celtic isn't prepared to handle that, they may as well stay home.
UPDATE: Welcome to readers of Follow, Follow, a Glasgow Rangers supporters forum. Like everyone else, you're always welcome at Off Wing.
I’m sorry it was such a frustrating day for your dad, but from the highlights it looks like a very strong showing by United, with a couple of exhilarating plays by Adu (the one on which he didn’t score was arguably more impressive).
I saw the Cosmos play a lot of friendlies against European and South American sides back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, and you never knew if the visitors would actually come to play. Those clubs had an excuse unavailable to Celtic, though, in that in addition to the travel and the heat they had to cope with the artificial turf at Giants Stadium.