USA vs England, how was it?

[TheMutts]

I was waiting for someone to start a thread like this but then i got impatient.

So what was that atmosphere like? what chants did we sing? how were the English fans? tell us everything

[ericb7694]

I was waiting for someone to start a thread like this but then i got impatient.

So what was that atmosphere like? what chants did we sing? how were the English fans? tell us everything

Great atmosphere, no trouble or anything, everyone got along great.

We had the usual "U-S-A" chant going, since everybody knows that one, and got a "Malcolm Glazer" one.

English fans were teriffic, great to drink with and talk soccer/football with. IMO, the whole "hooligan" reputation is either dated or way overblown or both.

[wjarrettc]

I had a blast all day in Chicago. What a great day. Boy do England travel well. I have to take my hat off to them on that.

However, I will say that I was sorely disappointed with the Sam's Army section. Of all the games I've been to and sat with Sam's Army (about 10 now) this was the quietest and most docile group I remember.

I don't know if the group was intimidated, down after the early goal, holding something in reserve for next weekend, or what, but the intensity in the section didn't come close to the Mexico friendly in Dallas or even the Guatemala qualifier in Birmingham.

At least, that's the way I saw it on Saturday...

[blech]

I had a blast all day in Chicago. What a great day. Boy do England travel well. I have to take my hat off to them on that.

However, I will say that I was sorely disappointed with the Sam's Army section. Of all the games I've been to and sat with Sam's Army (about 10 now) this was the quietest and most docile group I remember.

I don't know if the group was intimidated, down after the early goal, holding something in reserve for next weekend, or what, but the intensity in the section didn't come close to the Mexico friendly in Dallas or even the Guatemala qualifier in Birmingham.

At least, that's the way I saw it on Saturday...

very clever! this is the kind of stuff Sam's Army can use to get itself going in Saturday's pre-game talk.

[Fires Of Fulham]

I was waiting for someone to start a thread like this but then i got impatient.

So what was that atmosphere like? what chants did we sing? how were the English fans? tell us everything

Having seen a lot of matches in Chicago, I was actually dissappointed with both sets of fans. The match itself was a relatively good atmosphere, but leaving it was a bunch of zombies.

This, of course, wasn't really the fault of the United States fans since the losing fans are always going to be a little quiet walking out with their tales between their legs.

But the English fans were equally lacklustre. A little more than a month before, Poland and Mexico played a MID-WEEK friendly at Soldier Field. And, still on the way out, it was a giant party for both sides after a 1-1 draw. There was dancing and chanting and just everything one expects in a dream atmosphere. The English fans just seemed to want to get to the trains.

As far as the United States chants went, we were awful. But, I've never really seen chanting at any game in any sport. We're just not a chanting nation and probably never will be. But, I was behind the corner on the side where all the goals were scored and the fans all around me were knowledgeable, yelling about calls, etc.

The problem might be because Soldier Field is set up 95% neutral. The USSF really needs to think about institituting supporter sections when matches are going to be 50/50 attendance like that. The United States fans seemed a little intimidated by the English fans, I must say. Sure the reputation isn't deserved of English fans being violent anymore but supporter sections would alleviate that either way.

[Joe Gannon]

Yes, the chanting on both sides was pretty lame. The energy in the Sam's Army section was willing but not able. There was no organization - - everyone starting their own cheers led to overlapping and no unity. I was also disappointed at the brits - - I 'd expect better from them.
Last note, I think that first early goal was a killer - --and the 2nd one with one minute left in the hald - - damn!!!!

[superlimey]

Yes, the chanting on both sides was pretty lame. The energy in the Sam's Army section was willing but not able. There was no organization - - everyone starting their own cheers led to overlapping and no unity. I was also disappointed at the brits - - I 'd expect better from them.
Last note, I think that first early goal was a killer - --and the 2nd one with one minute left in the hald - - damn!!!!

You're kidding right!
Firstly it was England, not the Brits. That aside what exactly did you expect? England were playing in a friendly 4000 odd miles from home and yet they still completely dominated the stadium in terms of flags, noise, chants, etc.
All I heard from SA was "U-S-A".
On the other side, we had, "Are you Scotland in disguise?", "You're supposed to be at home", etc, etc.
It was a treat to see the England fans bring a real footy atmosphere to the US. Hats off to the England fans for showing us how it's done.

[patfan1]

Also, to be fair to Sam's Army ... many people had to choose which game to go to, the England friendly or the quali in Salt Lake.

My decision was easy ... and since they only serve crap beer in SLC, a little scotch shall be drunk before and after our win Saturday. :D

[IamtheShark]

This was my first cap after years of watching on TV, and the wife and I had a lot of fun. We knew going in it wouldn't be as intense as a qualifier, which was about right. England fans were very cool and fun to talk to—those I spoke with seemed ready to get beat going in and disappointed their A-team had not made the trip. They seemed to behave themselves all in all. Was really impressed with all the supporters' flags they put up around the stadium, which sort of made us look bad.

Things that stood out from the match itself:
-Gibbs was a beast winning everything that came his way.
-A. Smith was dirtier than I thought.
-Wolff's speed and savvy were class and you could really see it on the field. In that regard he was the best forward out there. Unfortunately his final pass/shot was terrible.
-Cherundolo took it to Cole.
-We might have missed Pablo more than any of the other injured players.

I echo Joe's statements on Sam's Army--too disorganized and almost too clever for their own good (you had the 'we have dentists' chant and 'Seaman's backup' chant, which half the folks in the section had no idea as to the relevance and thus could not join in). Within the SA section were some people that clearly weren't into it, especially after that first goal. Fair weather fans I suppose. Then you had the drunken/impatient guys who messed up coordination between chants or started their own halfway through an existing one. A couple of Fire regulars (I assume by their garb) picked up the slack at various points. It would be relatively easy to improve the SA section for events such as this:
-Designate a chant/song leader and give them a bullhorn to get things started and keep them organized. I’ve seen this work at college football games.
-Print out and laminate all the basic songs. Pass them out beforehand, pick them up after. Surely this wouldn't be too costly. Maybe even coordinate with someone like Soccer Travel.
-Get Nike to design us a red 2nd choice shirt if red is going to be the SA color (and why were we in blue at home, BTW?).

All in all we had a good time and are looking forward to Columbus in September.

-SJB

[TheMutts]

I just thought the SA section woulda been rocking since Section 8 is top of mls

[Mikeymike15]

This thread provides a good segue to the tail end of the SA revival thread. Organization is a bi-atch.

I've been to the last three games (Mexico in MEX, Guat in BHM, and England in ORD). I sat in the SA section all three times and hardly recognized anyone game over game.

Unlike England where A) all the people follow their national team B) all are knowledgeable about football and C) you can get to most games in England via a 5 hour train ride.

Point being, in MEX we had hard core fans who organized the cheer, in BHM most of the SA section was high schoolers, and in ORD, it was disjointed with no clear organizing faction (I still didn't find the barn burners tail gate or met anyone from the Chicago area) not to say they weren't there which I'm sure they were.

You essentially need a rostering of Cheer-leaders (uggghhhh) that will be present and essentially designated by SA (perhaps two guys in the front of the section and one guy in the back) coordinating efforts. Further you need education of the chants.

Again organization is a bitch and leading SA or any supporters club is essentially a full time job to make it work right. If you got 10K people to pay me $10 a year, I'd do it in a heart beat!

;)

[NORML]

I just thought the SA section woulda been rocking since Section 8 is top of mls

Thats what I thought too, especially after attending last years Poland match. But from what I saw and heard I don't think a majority of Section8 was present at the game or sat in the Sams Army section.

[LeperKhan]

I agree that it wasn't a great effort from the SA section. Probably one of the weakest of the 10 or so games I've been to. But I also agree that part of the problem is with the proximity to the qualifier, which meant that probably some of your regular, more experienced folks who would take on the role of starting/leading chants and songs (and I don't know that they really need to be officially designated as such), weren't there. So it was a little disjointed and disorganized.

Oh well. Hopefully it will go better this Saturday when it really counts.

[metroflip73]

Simple really. New York City and North Jersey will lead the way.

;)

[patfan1]

Simple really. New York City and North Jersey will lead the way.

;)

It seems a little out of my way to have to go through the Swamp though. :D

[BBBulldog]

It's good to know that while I'm not a US citizen I own 2x more American flags than average American :)

I'm guessing stadium or USSoccer's ugly grey rag stoped English from putting flags along sidelines too or it would have been even more emberassing, both sides behind goal had dozens of St. George's crosses. :D

[FC Tallavana]

It's good to know that while I'm not a US citizen I own 2x more American flags than average American :)

I'm guessing stadium security stoped English from putting flags along sidelines too or it would have been even more emberassing, both sides behind goal had dozens of St. George's crosses. :D

They were told to take them down on the one sideline.

[metroflip73]

It seems a little out of my way to have to go through the Swamp though. :D

No one said it would be easy! :p

[Thomas Flannigan]

After almost every national team game we see a bunch of threads excoriating Sam’s Army, calling the people in the cheering section every name in the book. After the Mexico game transvestite seemed popular, after other games people focused on the age, obesity or nerdiness of the US fans who stood all through the game wearing red. This time the criticism seems to be we were too lazy to match the English, especially in hanging flags. Sam’s Army stopped operating about 3 years ago. It may come back, but in that period you are talking about the burning embers of a movement that tried to organize loud support for our national team. On Saturday, the US Supporters Section was OK but OK is not good enough. I think the following factors were involved:
First, the cheering section was much smaller than for the US Poland game 11 months earlier, even though the crowd was much larger. One of the problems was the USSF did not post details of Supporters’ Section tickets until weeks after the England game had been opened up for sale to the general public. People in Mongolia with a credit card could buy tickets while we were still begging and pleading to get the pdf file posted. We lost 60 per cent of our loud support right there. Before the game I saw many people who normally would be in the US Supporters’ Section who had bought tickets in other sections trying to get into Section 8. Draconian security naturally knocked them back. I know of no way to get the USSF to sell tickets to hard core supporters in their own section before the public sale but without this we will never have a top cheering section.
Second, we were down a goal 4 minutes into the game and down 2-0 at halftime. I can’t recall any soccer audience being very noisy in those circumstances.
Third, our fan competition in this match was English fans, who are the best in the world. In the World Cup, they had a brass section in addition to hundreds of flags and thousands of singing voices massed on the other side of the world.
Fourth, Section 8 has its own problems, with dissension, many loyalists who prefer club over country, and the death knell that may have been dealt to it by the sacking of Peter Wilt and the hiring of Mr. Guppy. Mr. Guppy was quoted in a local paper just before the game saying that the reason Chicago fans booed at the end of the Manchester United Game last summer is that they don’t understand the nuances of soccer, including 0-0 games. This insult goes against the many 0-0 games we have seen and the rage that many fans at the game felt at being cheated. But Guppy is the guy in charge in Chicago now, for however long our franchise survives.
Many have written about flags. I don’t see the US fans equaling the British fans in this area in my lifetime but keep in mind that we have tried harder than many give us credit for. Flags and banners are often not allowed in US stadiums while English soccer evolved in a freer society where flags are always permitted. Last summer I called Soldier Field asking about flags and was told they are never permitted, look at the website. When I explained that the Poles would be bringing flags and an exception may be made they laughed at me. When I asked, politely, if I could call back and speak to someone who handled such inquiries she said: “Yeah, you can talk to the receptionist!” Other threads by other fans in other cities tell a similar story. DC fans have had trouble at RFK because of some kind of Hall of Fame display that can’t be covered on the second deck. Some here will remember the row at the Gold Cup in Pasadena where US fans could not bring flags in and there was a very nasty thread here where many US fans said security was right, flags are dangerous.
We have a terrible time getting 1 or 2 flags to each game and getting any help doing that. What good would more flags do if it is so hard to get people to handle the ones we do have? Somehow we get it done but it is far from easy. Similarly, Sam’s Army used to have a song book, posted on the website, which was brought to each game. I personally photocopied song lyrics and handed them out with other people. The result was zero. Nobody outside the Sam’s Army section would join in, EXCEPT for USA USA!
I think the biggest problem with getting good support for our national team is the pettiness and nastiness shown by many US fans. If that energy was directed towards constructive activity there would be no stopping us. We have lost so many good fans who got sick of the endless catfight and left. I have many anecdotes, but here is one:
After one game a few years ago, Andy Mead posted the link for his excellent photo archive 2 days after the games. The vultures were soon out, picking out the worst photos of Sam’s Army, with close-ups on one fan I knew at the time. He lives on the West Coast, is a bit overweight, and is a bit sensitive about that. His photo was posted with merciless insults. Guess what? He hasn’t been back since. I imagine he watches the games on TV but Keller can’t hear him from there. I sure wish the guy had been there Saturday, standing next to me. He had a voice like a Beluga Whale and he never quit, until mean-spirited “fans” dealt him a public humiliation, and he found other ways to spend his time and money.
You can’t blame Marc Spacone for this. Unless this changes, the remaining hard core fans really have their work cut out for them.
Just my opinions.

[BBBulldog]

They were told to take them down on the one sideline.

LOL :D