we're going to the cup!

Image via Wikipediamiracle of miracles, we're going to the cup. the new york red bulls have made it to the mls cup final. the new york red bulls have made it to the mls cup final.

i'm still a bit in shock this morning. i was on pins and needles during last night's game, especially when we apparently decided in the 63rd minute to get into a defensive shell. that seemed a tad early to me. but somehow we weathered nearly 20 minutes of attack from real salt lake to emerge with a 1-0 win and claim the western conference championship.

• kudos to our backline. they seemed a bit confused in the first half, but they regrouped admirably and ran their asses off to stymie the real attack.
  
• cepero continued to look good and make ridiculous saves.
  
• cepero continued to scare the bejesus out of me and make ridiculous decisions.
  
• the goal post has become our 12th player and best friend. three times? seriously?
  
• angel didn't have much of an attacking presence in this game, but give this awesome player the credit for not pouting too much and working the other side of the ball all night. whether it was backtracking into the midfield or defending in the box, angel showed why he is our captain and quite possibly the best player in the league.
  
• ubi went out with a hamstring injury, and osorio put rojas in. was the time on the bench enough for him to play better? sort of. he got himself involved in a few plays moving forward, but i felt that he got lost through most of the rest of the game.
  
• then osorio's other high-priced boy who's been in detention - pietravallo - was subbed on in the waning minutes to help protect the lead. and he immediatley fouls somone outside our box. seriously? did your time on the bench not teach you that you need to play smarter?
  
• sassano played another spot-on game. you can't ask for more from a 23-year-old who was suddenly thrust into the limelight and told to stand in front of our backline and stop anyone not wearing the same jersey as him.
  

we are moving on to play in the mls cup final. and let's be honest about last night: we played well, but luck was on our side. and it's about time. for 12 years, our luck has sucked donkeys. it's about time some things started breaking our way (not counting of course, a year which included: the retirement of our central midfielder, the sale of our young striker to europe, the drug suspension of our starting keeper and central defender, the 400+ injuries we've worked our way through, the 300+ hernia operations, and the resulting constantly-changing line-up).

nonetheless, we need to steel ourselves up for this next game. we're going to have to play the columbus crew who, by all accounts, are going to wax the field with us. however, let's rememer a few things going into this game:

• we got our first win of the year in our home-opener against them.
  
• they're pretty cocky right now. that plays to our advantage.
  
• and we have recent history on our side. just this past year, a team from new york who was so-so throughout the regular season snuck into the playoffs as a wild card, played all its games on the road, and miracuously made it to the final game, only to face an opponent who could not lose and was the poster child for perfection. and what happened? the new york giants beat the patriots.
  

let's go take down these gay-bees in their little yellow uniforms.