Surprised I haven't seen any discussion about today's article from Goff. Some very complimentary statements from Esky about the fans in Toronto vis-a-vis the fans here. I hate to say it, but from what I've seen on TV of their matches, he's probably right. 75% of their stadium stands, sings, chants and waves flags like the four or five most energetic supporters sections do here. That cannot but make things louder and more intimidating. How much of that is that it's their maiden season, I dunno. I wasn't here in 1996, so I dunno if all of RFK was like the supporters sections are now.
Toronto is culturally more "European" than American, at least that's what all the Travel Guides say. Canada is Western Europe's good son, we're the rebelious younger brother, and Australia is the out of control, way too unruly to even belong to the same family, youngest sister.
i mean, DC doesnt slack when it comes to atmosphere. ive been to games in alot of cities and DC fans tend to understand soccer a lot more than the average fan.
Horses. Guide books are trying to sell Toronto. Its a city. Nice compared to Detroit, not much compared to Paris. Colder than Washington. My guess is that there are at least twice as many people in the NYC metro area with "Euro" roots than in Toronto, so it may just be that they're doing something in their FO to create interest. Novel idea... (DCU excepted here). Good for them to pack their first few games. Shame on most US cities for making such a poor effort to reach out and build a fan base. Way I see it, MLS is a much better product now than when the league started, so maybe that's an advantage. Still, come August let's see how its going there. However, and more importantly, what I want to know is what the hell happened to us? Did I miss something, or don't we still have the best FO, the best fans and supporters groups, the strongest history and one of the most talented squads in the league? Where is the confidence?? Everybody, snap out of it. To Goff, we love ya but unless you're planning to be traded to the Globe and Mail, go easy on the fawning. I wanted to take a bath after that article. To the supporters, hey we now finally have some competition. Good. Bring it on. We need to get RFK rocking again. Outnumbering the Metros supporters isn't a challenge anymore. And finally, sadly, to Esky, its been nice knowin' ya. You are now, officially a hoser.
Repped. I couldn't agree more. Goff's story makes it sound like TFC is the only team w/ fan support. Please. Let's see how sustained the support is when the novelty of a brand new team in a brand new stadium wears off. Remember, Crew stadium used to be full for matches in the beginning too
I honestly don't see why anyone is offended by what seems to be a very honest assesment of what is going on in Toronto. Sure, it hurts a little bit that some people are already proclaiming Toronto the best atmosphere in MLS. Can you blame them? What they have done so far is unprecedented in MLS circles and that includes right here in DC. What this does is raise the bar for United and the rest of MLS. Places like KC, Dallas, Columbus, Colorado and New York won't be able to keep up. DC is best suited to keep themselves in the same argument with Toronto. This is a good thing for everyone involved. It may sting a little that we've had our mantle of "best fans/atmosphere" taken to task, but again, it's up to us to have a say in all of this.
Once New York has it's own stadium things will be very different there. And I suppose once DC United has it's own stadium (you know the one they have been promising us since 1997) things will be very different around here!
It's not about being offended. It's about not keeping in mind that two home matches do not sustained support make. I loved seeing the atmosphere in the last two home matches, and I was impressed by how many of the people in the stands were excited, but I'll reserve judgement for now. They've made a very good start, but let's see what happens over time. I rather suspect that support won't look as colorful during midweek matches in a freezing rain when the team has been doing badly. If the supporters are out in force then, I'll tip my hat to them.
Gotta give props to the TFC fans today. Great atmosphere. Hard to believe this organized fan support after just a few matches into their first season. Looks like their team is stepping it up to reward the great fans. Good job, TFC. Vamos United.
Wanna bet that they still have poor attendance? What will they blame then? Probably not enough "name players".
Fine. Their crowd can be more 'European'. Ours can be more Central and South American. It is not Spain that is behind the cry, 'Vamos United'.
Having visited both Toronto and Montreal, I gotta say that Montreal is way more "European". Toronto is very NYC-like in many respects.
Not to take away from the large number of Toronto supporters, but the first couple of years in DC, we had a higher percentage of fans that would get involved and make noise. The quiet side earned our reputation from what has happened since then. But at first, we used to stand up for every offensive push, so much so that our quads would burn. It started being a big issue for a few fans who would yell at everyone to sit down. Nothing quiets fans down faster than making them sit.
Hey DC. The reason the fans for TFC are making such a splash up here is because its so unprecidented for Toronto. The Leafs, the Raptors, the Jays... the fans are mostly corporate "golf clap" types. Singing at a Toronto sporting event? You've got to be kidding? The t.v. coverage never does it justice, seems like a pair of cameras on one side of the pitch based on game tapes I've watched. It will never be an EPL game with 30 cameras, slow-mo replays, and serious $$$ put into the production of a game. The point is, its a drastic departure for Toronto's personality. For now we're taking it stride. I hope it keeps up, and doesn't fade with either mounting losses or losing its "new car smell". The supporter's groups are common in support for TFC, but divided in its organization. Time will tell. Love the league. D.C. was the team I supported prior to Toronto, I got caught by the Freddie hype, and stuck around to watch some decent football. Man your travelling Brava supporters is it? He had a phkn drum bigger than my first car. Good on ya. Lets hope the football is as good as the atmosphere.
I'm going to take a crazy guess here, and say that La Norte brought the massive bombo up to the match today.
I could hear that thing on the MLSlive feed. There was some serious constant drumming going on with this BOOOM BOOOM every now and then. I thought to myself, "Heh, they took the Bombo up there. I wonder how that made it through customs?"
Yes, the bombo was there. Hope you can identify it in this pic. Few more http://farm1.static.flickr.com/231/505103435_5d95867e34_b.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com/203/505076019_c21ad1e63d_b.jpg Credit to Krazy Kanadian.
I dont think the ref was biased. He was crap with both teams. Having said that, I dont think the entire south end chanting "f**k you ref!" helped us out though..... Only thing I dont like about BMO field is that theres no back walls or overhangs to the stands, so we cant hear anything from the visiting fans, and they cant hear us at the south end. I miss taking part in two way chanting between supporters groups. "Diiive like an Eagle" We know for sure that the visiting goalies are not comfortable at the south end. Nose pickens for chicago ended up down at the half way line. Can you guys bring a few more along next time?
Raptors fans are nuts... best energy in the ACC. The Blue Jays fans have nothing to cheer for, but when they do they will be loud too.
You must have missed this past Wednesday when it was pissing rain and 42 degrees F at kickoff (a lot colder by the end of the match) and there were still 19,000 there.
HAH! I love the way this pic caught those two guys in the lower right hand corner having this "OMGWTF?!? BIG ASS DRUM!" response.
And you missed the part where I was talking about it still being early in the season and the novelty not having worn off yet.
Toronto's a pretty cool, reminded me of Zagreb like no other place in North America. Maybe it's trams, graffiti and people on streets, except they're red/white instead of blue. Stadium's not bad, as long as they can add to it. But location is superb, drink in center than walk to match... niiice. FO... we're walking up, some security lady sees us with banner and flagpoles and says you must be DC guys, all your items are allowed in 104, you can get there through gate 1. We walk up, security guy at the gate walks us over to um... "fan information center" (at that point I'm um.. wow.. can I take a picture), they take 20 second to clear us and we're off with anything we brought. That's easiest I ever had it, including DC Fans in stadium, blow anything in MLS out of the water. Not just cos they bought out a season, but cos I didn't see annoying little tykes running up and down the stairs in their orange-green little league jerseys. I saw a few kids, their dads took them (the way it's supposed to be ). There were whole sections near us they would stand up and chant. probably cos we were there so they tried to drown us out hehe. Sure they had to come up with things on a fly but they'd stand up and do it. That was so weird, I'm used to 3 kids making faces at us and screetching "sucks" after every DC chant till their mom tells them to cut it out. They had their big flag circling stadium at start, elsewhere some shithead would probably cry about his view being blocked. Supporters, well they'll get there either when one group dominates or when they coordinate more. It won't take long, and when they do (probably soon) we'll be playin catchup if we stay at this level. We hit their bar before the match and I didn't meet one person that wasn't 1st or 2nd generation immigrant. That's my review. I had nothing better to do cos flight is canceled and we're stuck in Buffalo till tomorrow. hmm where are strip joints near airport..