The Hate

I-66 got me thinking a little while back by commenting:

"So let me get this straight... your least favorite team isn't Red Bull
New York?"

As I have made reference to before, I am a fairly new DC United fan. I am completely committed to supporting the Black and Red, but I struggle with the requisite hate of Red Bull New York. I get the geographic thing and it's always a worthwhile pursuit to make fun of things from New Jersey. The problem I have is getting behind the competitive rivalry thing. Taking all 2006 matches into account we beat them 4 times and tied them 3 times which included a two legged aggregate win in the playoffs.

Most of the time I hate teams in the MLS because of the individual players on the team. I can't even get that going for me because there aren't any NY players that I hate. There are several candidates but none of them quite measure up. If Markus Schopp were any good he could be the one. Maybe Jozy Altidore could grow into it. I don't have the history with Quaranta but now that he is in NY he will definitely be a front runner. One hard foul from Mathis and I could be totally converted. But for right now I don't dislike any of them enough for it to translate into hate of RBNY.

New England on the other hand tied us twice and beat us twice in 2006, including their victory in the Eastern Conference Final. I hate them for that and we haven't even approached their roster. Dempsey and his rapper antics alone were enough but the Revolution boasts other easy to hate players like Twinkie Twellman, Franchino (mostly from last year), Heaps, Joseph, and Reis (from his Esky battery in 2005 that I only know about secondhand).

RSL won the first Ben Cup. The Fire beat us enough and have CJ Brown on their team. The Rapids beat us once, tied us once and they have the long haired Beckerman and Hernandez. Not to mention the keeper Coundoul and stinky Mastroeni. The Edgell Supporters often talk about smell-o-vision when watching sporting events. We tend to rate players by their level or type of smell. Mastroeni reeks of pastrami and the guys that worked for the moving company in Germany. The Colorado locker room is probably the most fragrant in the league. I digress...

The points is, there are many teams that I have reason to dislike or at least I have given myself reason to dislike. RBNY just hasn't given me a reason yet.

All of this being said, heaven knows that I have enough hate in my heart to be spread around pretty thick. I'm sure I can reserve a special spot for RBNY. I'm just going to need some time to work on it. I just hope the hate doesn't come because they are more competitive.