Technical Difficulties

So I haven't been posting a lot lately and there is a reason for it; my Computer has totally crapped out on me. The poor old gal is five, very rough, years old and has been broken for a few days now. So while I wait for it to get back from Dell all fixed and new I've been relegated to an old mac which I do not like very much. The result is me not being able to mess around on my photo editor and come up with new imagery right as the season gets started. So please do bear with me I should be up and cranking out new stuff in a week or so and I will try to come up with some other content (most likely videos or photos) and post them from here as well.

-Ultra

Tifo Idea: Dalek

Just a few more quick two stick Tifo ideas for this season. I've been watching a bit of Doctor Who lately and I figured a Dalek is vicious enough to go along with the COBRA and Imperial logos I've seen at games. I've left them black and white this time since that'll pry be easier for stencils or projectors when making them.





-Ultra

Preseason Blues

March 19th marks the start of the 2011 MLS season for the Columbus Crew and for neurotic fans, like myself, this is both an exciting and stressful time. It's a time when we start to find out what this team is really like, and if what we've seen up to this point in preseason really matters.

Now normally I'd say preseason results are largely meaningless in any sport, and even more so in MLS. The games are played by weird grab bag rules with unlimited subs, 30 to 60 minute periods and all sorts of guest and trail players. Usually this makes the preseason nothing more than glorified try outs. This year though feels a bit different. Perhaps its because of the massive roster overhaul,or perhaps it's because it was early start back in the CCL, but this year preseason feels like it matters. The new look Crew of 2011 has no real identity, and it would seem these preseason games would be the time to establish one.

The trouble has been a plague of injuries sweeping through the locker room. Having key guys like Marshall, Hesmer, Gaven, O'Rourke, Francis and Gruenebaum out means that the new guys are left on their own to figure out who this team really is. This of course isn't exactly groundbreaking news, but it's exactly the kind of stressful situation that makes preseason so draining. Crew fans are notoriously bi-polar (spending just a few weeks on the bigsoccer.com message boards can show that to anyone)and having your team get beaten repeatedly with a corps of new players is no help for our fragile psyches.

Couple these beatings with a miserable away leg in the CCL and a lack of any signings that are known commodities and a dreadful outlook tends to sneak in.

The only saving grace maybe in the knowledge that this has happened before. In 2008 the team had a average to sub-par preseason, and had just come off three straight disappointing seasons. Yet that Crew was able to rally and become one of the best teams in MLS history.

Do I think this year will be a repeat of that magic? Of course not.
But I can hope that some sort of middle ground is found and this team can prove that I had no need to worry or have these preseason blues.

-Ultra

Tifo Ideas: Nordecke on Tour

So the Crew open the season on the road against the old foe DC United. Since it's a paltry eight(ish) hour drive down to our nations capital there should be a fair number of Crew fans there in away support. With that and the other road trips that will be made this year, either organized or not, here are a couple of two stick banner ideas for those who hit the road to support the Massive. For a good set of instructions on how to make these into two stick banners check out this link and send a big thanks to "Thoma Gol" for info.




click to enlarge

-Ultra

February wallpaper round up.

It's now March first, The Crew have played their first game of the new year and the regular season is just a few short weeks away. So to start off this new month here's a recap of the wallpapers that got cranked out of the propaganda machine since the last time we had a round up like this. February was the players month with most of the images celebrating the recently departed one last time before we dive into the new season. Much like a clip show there's nothing really new about this post, more just putting the last few all in one place to keep from having to jump around too much.












Click to enlarge

-Ultra