TWITTER banned our account today for some reason. Looking into it…

***UPDATE***

We’re back. No explanation, but we’re back on Twitter nonetheless.

ASTROHEADER is now also on Twitter, and before you judge us… we have a good reason. Many of our thoughts don’t go beyond one sentence but are captivating enough to bring you the immense joy you expect from Astroheader. Before, they were lost forever. Now, they are tweets.

Also, live commentary during games will be fun for us all!

ASTROHEADER on Twitter

Bravo US men for the come-from-behind 2-2 tie, but The win was practically handed to Brian Ching twice on a silver platter in the final two minutes. A win is always good, but this one would have been poetic, because those final two minutes only existed because El Salvador chose to feign at least six clock-killing injuries while ahead. IT COULD HAVE BEEN EPIC.

I continue to be unimpressed with Mr. Ching.

Wednesday night had the potential to be the greatest soccer match I have witnessed in my life. A home town match. USA vs Mexico. Life-threatening weather. Insanely good seats. Even Trecker remarked that the match “offers fans one of the purest and rarest soccer experiences: Real, unbridled menace”.  I live in a city where the drug of sports rivalry is laced through our water supply. I never drink water, so a rivalry on my terms sounds incredible. I even let myself half-expect something legendary, which may be the reason I was so easily underwhelmed by the event.

Cutting to the chase, Mexico looked absolutely terrible. Don’t get me wrong, I want them to lose. Always. But I also want to see a good game… and this time, they did everything wrong. The passes were off, the strategy was faulty, the aggression was misdirected, the spark was missing, the clutch moments were marred by nerves. Meanwhile, all the US had to do was recognize the mistakes and stay in synch. We had our shortcomings to be sure, but I never felt we lost control. I never felt the danger.

(Actually, I did feel the danger, twice. Within feet of me, fan fights erupted with enough fury to require handcuffs, and enough blood for me to feel actual concern for the well being of a stranger. I don’t know the details, but it doesn’t seem a far fetch that the frustration of an overhyped matchup could lead to fists and other potentially harmful objects taking flight.)

What all this means in my estimation is that the US is at risk for complacency and real trouble in 2010. The team needs real competition at the world level BEFORE the World Cup if we want to earn some respect. Mexico’s performance in this “rivalry” tells me that our last shred of challenge is gone from CONCACAF. If we really are that much better than Mexico now, we need to forget the rivalry and focus on pushing ourselves abroad in matches that will truly test our skills and improve our world game.

WHAT THE? is my weekly Premiership review column where I write about the crap I found interesting in the latest round of Prem games. This is about me, not you, so I don’t want to hear you bloody whine about it.

• Liverpool has continued to put pressure on Manchester United with a 3-2 win at Portsmouth. Torres scored another last minute goal (92nd min.) to get 3 points for Liverpool.

• Chelsea continued to slip with a 0-0 draw with Hull at home. Chelsea has now slipped to forth on the Prem table.

• A 2-0 win at Blackburn put Aston Villa in third place on the table. Villa is 2 points ahead of Chelsea and 3 behind Liverpool.

• Arsenal has fallen further behind the Top 4 with a 0-0 draw at Tottenham. Arsenal are now 5 points behind Chelsea and the forth place spot.

• Manchester United needed a second half Giggs goal to put them back at the top of the table with a 1-0 win against West Ham.

My proposed refresh of the Columbus Crew’s logo has become unexpectedly controversial. I’ve had feedback of all kinds, ranging from enthusiastic support, constructive criticism, and (the most entertaining) inconsequential condescending ignorance. Shall we?

“Awesome! We need a new logo.”

Thanks. Join the Facebook group!

“NO!!! THIS IS RETARDED! WHAT A STUPID IDEA!!! NEVER CHANGE THE LOGO!!!”

Thanks! Are you employed?

“I have spent too long defending our logo to let it go now. Keep the old one!”

What if for some reason you couldn’t change your shirt for 12 years, and I offered you a fresh new shirt for free? I suppose you’ve defended being filthy for so long you’d rather stay that way. Good luck with those first impressions. I understand unconditional support, but save it for the team, not the logo.

“The imperfections in our logo make it special, à la the Tower of Pisa”

I laughed a lot at this. First off, the Tower is an architectural failure, an anomaly, and was never intended to lean. That’s the only reason people go see it. If you want people to come see Crew games just to look at our shitty logo then I will indeed have a tough time arguing with you.

Secondly, imperfections are something you get used to, not something you desire. If The Crew had started with a crisp logo, and I therefore never started this initiative, I doubt anyone would be begging for some imperfections to love.

“There’s nothing wrong with it! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!”

There are quite a few things wrong with it actually. It is sloppy and lazy design work, and I shouldn’t have to say that is unacceptable for “America’s Hardest Working Team”. A bit of what I’m referring to: you notice the jagged angles and messy detail in the dude’s shirts? That happens when a designer uses tracing software to turn bitmap graphics into vectors. The computer to guesses how to draw your image, instead of doing it yourself. Essentially, a lazy designer let the computer do the work for him or her. The result? A logo with detail so irrelevant it doesn’t reproduce when embroidered (scarves, hats, jerseys) or when printed at sizes less than 2 inches (tickets, program guides, advertising).

I get into more detail about why the current logo sucks in the Photos section of the Facebook group.

“A logo can’t becoming iconic or legendary if you keep changing it.”

I almost fell for this one. It seems logical. However, an “iconic” team logo is nothing more than a symbol of what the team has accomplished. A team with a long history and great triumphs will have an iconic logo no matter how many times it changes. Some examples of legendary teams whose logos have changed multiple times:

Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Rangers, Aston Villa, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Ajax, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Lyon, Marseille, Bayern Munich

And for those of you kidding yourselves, The Crew has ONLY been around for 12 years. For some perspective, Arsenal, who have changed their badge many times, were founded in EIGHTEEN EIGHTY-SIX and enjoy worldwide support.

“Rebranding costs a fortune”

This is probably true. However, when done at the right time, the choice to make this investment is easy… and businesses do it all the time. A new championship is putting a lot of curious eyes on The Crew. We need to impress.

“I am not opposed to a new logo but this one isn’t my cup of tea”

Awesome. All I want is a crisp, professional-quality logo for my team. If it’s not mine, that’s OK. Please post up your ideas on the Facebook group.

After all that, I have made some changes based on the reasoned, constructive feedback I received from people. The updated version is below.

(Thanks to the Facebook group, the .02% of BigSoccer contributors that had something intelligent to say, a couple of people on Astroheader, and my friends)

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WOODWORK.

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WHAT THE? is my weekly Premiership review with only the interesting events that should not have happened in the first place.

• This was a boring week with the Big Four winning by big spreads, Man U won 4-0, Chelsea won 5-0. All the news came from the promoted teams.

• Hull City has continued their great run in the Prem with a 1-0 win against West Ham. After 8 weeks in the top flight, Hull City is in 3rd place on the table above Arsenal and Manchester United.

• Stoke took a big step in an attempt to get out of the regulation zone by beating…Tottenham (are you serious?) 2-1. Tottenham has hit rock bottom…again…somehow…by losing to the 2nd worse team in the league. This leaves Tottenham at the bottom with 2 points. How have they not fired the coach yet??