Photo: Marjorie Elzey
On Monday night at approximately 9:02 pm, Philadelphia Union captain Alejandro Bedoya sent the following tweet:
😡 😡 😡
— Alejandro Bedoya (@AleBedoya17) October 1, 2019
The tweet contains three identical emojis— a repeated image of what appears to be a cartoonish face with a reddish hue. It is unclear if the emotional subtext of the tweet conveys frustration, anger, or constipation.
The cryptic nature of the tweet sparked a monsoon-like wave of worried responses from Philadelphia Union twitter. One account replied with a GIF of a man in an office-like setting, bearing a passable resemblance to John du Pont, shouting the word “no.”
Three minutes after Bedoya’s initial tweet, notable soccer journalist Charles Boehm tweeted the below. While sources could not confirm the GIF was in solidarity with the midfielder’s message, they did confirm the graphic image was the physical manifestation of Bedoya’s chosen emoji: a man dealing with the frustration that accompanies constipation.
— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) October 1, 2019
While Bedoya offered no explanation, there are some leading theories as to the meaning of his tweet.
The 32-year-old may have been disheartened by the fact that the NFL’s Monday Night Football match featured two winless clubs from the AFC North. There was no word on if Bedoya had players from either the Pittsburgh Steelers or Cincinnati Bengals on his fantasy squad.
It’s also possible the angry emojis were a delayed response to last night’s result where the Union’s 2-0 defeat to Columbus Crew SC cost Philadelphia a chance at the top overall seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Bedoya may not have been immediately aware of the result, choosing to continue watching Friends after the weather delay in central Ohio.
It also can’t be ruled out that the veteran was expressing frustration with the travel accommodations of flying from Philadelphia to San Jose to Columbus to Philadelphia.
The most likely situation, though, is that Bedoya, a noted fan of the University of Miami’s football team, was perplexed by news which broke earlier in the day. He was likely righteously furious that Travis Benjamin, the Hurricanes’ seventh all-time leader in career receiving yards, was again denied entry in to the college’s athletic hall of fame.
Just please, God, don’t let the tweet be related to the right quad injury Bedoya suffered in the 44th minute of last night’s match.
Remember when Curtin made our 30+ year old midfielder play 3 games in 8 days after being off for weeks?
Remember when in general Curtin does not rotate his players and whether it be injuries or a dip in form at the end of the season, Curtin consistently makes the same mistakes and we suffer for it?
Remember when Bedoya was out for weeks and instead of rolling the dice on a promising youngster who looked good recently named Fontana, Curtin started Creavalle against NYCFC and our first playoff opponent? And then we lost those games because Creavalle provides nothing?
I am so optimistic about this situation!
IMHO, Monteiro is the best replacement for Bedoya. The midfield should be Harris at holding mid, Montiero at box-to-box, Fabian at 10, Brendan and Fafa at outside mid.
This seems to be the best way forward to me.
I’d maybe replace Fafa with Santos or Wooten. Fafa had a really poor game in Columbus and can’t finish chances. i’d rather have more of a scoring threat in there.
+1
It is REALLY not good if he is hurt. Should have had more actual rotation
I appreciate this. Levity.
.
Good work.
Yeah, as crappy as the news is likely to be in reality, I also appreciate the article. Thanks!
Jim may have had the perfect season… regardless of actually winning anything… if he had just ACTUALLY, REALLY rotated his players like he said he would.
It’s pretty obvious what Bedoya is thinking. He is upset that the NRA is funding Trump’s defense so now he will be more indebted to them and we will see even more gun violence and not less.
The Bedoya Code…..