Anybody knows who the 4 lonely DC fans were?

[flava]

watching the highlights of the game and they keep replaying the same 4 fans for DC. I think it's 3 dudes and a girl ( or is it 2 guys and 2 girls?). Regardless, mad props to them for supporting DC and MLS!

[CHICO13]

Ed The Red and some of his folks were down there. Well done Vatos....

[LOCO4UNITED!!]

Upper 90's was there representing La Norte!

Well done guys!

[MikeLastort2]

United fans are the best.

[Darth Norteño]

Upper 90's was there representing La Norte!

Well done guys!

Werd...I wish I could've seen our banner, though. In any event, props to all of our faithful down there.

[TOTC]

I thought I saw Dougg there, too!

[LN - Dougg]

I thought I saw Dougg there, too!

only in spirit, lol.... That's pepe (Upper90's) I hope we didn't get to see our banner because there wasn't a place where to hang banners as oppose to it falling victim to the South American tradition... (stealing opponent's supp. club banners)

[K]

I saw the red SE banner that Ed brought!

K

[bigredfutbol]

My son asked me who those guys were, too. When he realized they'd travelled all the way to Chile (he's pretty good at geography, so he knows what that means), he was very impressed.

As was I.

[liverbird]

Particularly proud of Ed the Red -- we share two football teams.

[Th4119]

Proud of all of them.

Thanks for representing all of us well.

[fatbastard]

The 4 of them had the whole crowd chanting DALE-OH and VAMOS UNITED :) OK, it probably wasn't United but it sounded pretty close :)

[EdTheRed]

The La Norte banner was right next to the Eagles banner...you should have been able to see it, too. We weren´t allowed to tape them to the fence in front of us, but oh well. In addition to Upper90s (who brought his mom and some other relatives), Perctarit and his girlfriend Ruth made the trip, and deserve special props, since they flew down just for the game. There were also some other DC fans there, including Jamil Walker's brother (who had been travelling in Brazil, and caught a bus down for the match), and a lot of family members of Francisco, who I believe is the DC equipment manager. The four people standing and looking like we just threw up in our mouths were me, Upper90s, Perc, and Ruth.

As for the match, uh, well, here's my initial dos centisimos; I'll write up a more extensive description of the experience once I get back to Argentina(and I'm posting here instead of that monstrous post-match thread, since I've got an actual first-hand account).

Primera, el estadio: The stadium was beautiful. It's in a nice suburb up in the hills overlooking town, seats about 15,000 (everybody has a different number when you ask - I've heard everything from 12,000 to 20,000, but I think 15K is about right), and despite only having a small roof over the center stands on the camera side, it got loud in there. Really, really loud. I don't know if FoxSports had their usual muted sound for the game, but trust me, it was loud. After the match, I asked KP and Kasper if they took notes on the stadium, 'cuz it's not only beautiful, it's also a change from what is fast becoming the MLS cookie-cutter four-sider (available either with roof (the "AEG Special Edition") or without (the "Lamar Hunt Economizer").

Segundo, la hinchada: I went to see River-Velez at River's stadium last sunday, so I've got at least one S. American point of comparison (I reserve the right to change my opinion after Sunday's Boca-Racing classico at la Bombanera), and I'll say that los Cruzados, while damned impressive, are nowhere near the level of River's hinchada...partly due to the fact that there just aren't nearly as many of them, though they do fill their section. However, the fans in the rest of the stadium put the River fans who occupy the non-crazy parts of River's stadium to absolute shame. The whole stadium was rocking, particularly towards the end of the second half. When an entire stadium sings "Oooooh, uno mas! Uno mas, uno mas, Cato uno mas!" at the top of their lungs, it's pretty freaking impressive. Oh, and flares are cool...there, I said it. Overall, they were fairly polite to us, and the one guy who tried to seriously taunt us after the game was quickly sent on his merry way by two of our friendly police officers. Yeah, that's right, we were so gangsta, they had to have riot police and a fence to contain us! ;)

Uh, thirdo, the game: there ain't no game, and there never was...okay, I'll give you a bit more, but I'll stick to things you maybe couldn't see on tv. The last 25-30 minutes reminded me eerily of the game in Chicago earlier this season when we played without Boswell, went up 3-0, and then Chicago turned it on, Nicky started flailing at everything, the D fell completely apart, and we barely managed to hold on for a 3-2 win...that night, I had the feeling that if Chicago had had five more minutes, they would have tied us, and with ten more minutes they would have won. Well, last night, Catolica had enough time...and if they'd needed a fourth goal, I have no doubt they would have gotten it...by the end, our guys were just completely gassed. Where have you gone, Ryan Nelsen, United turns its lonely eyes to you, woo-woo-woo.

Other tidbits: Santino is the f'ing man. All you naysayers can just sit in your towers and take shots, but he was possibly the best player on the field, and the wheels didn't really come off of United until he was subbed out...if only he had finished his breakaway...but then again, Gomez flubbed his, Dema flubbed his, Jaime didn't get to that cross with 20 seconds left...oh, and finally, two minutes of stoppage time was completely, utterly ridiculous. All I can think of is that it was punishment for United wasting time all half...if Catolica had still needed a goal, I would have been shocked to see less than four or five minutes added...but that's life on the road.

Overall, I'd have to say that over two legs, Catolica proved themselves to be the better side...but only barely, by the slimmest of margins. Ah well. C'est la vie.

Finally, many thanks to the United staff, who not only hooked us up with free tix, but also gave us a ride back into town on the team bus...and yeah, you could have heard a pin drop on that bus.

That's all for now. I'm gonna go check out Santiago. Hopefully things will turn out better this afternoon than they did last night!

[ursula]

Anyone who doesn't rep Ed should be red carded.

[MikeLastort2]

The La Norte banner was right next to the Eagles banner...you should have been able to see it, too. We weren´t allowed to tape them to the fence in front of us, but oh well. In addition to Upper90s (who brought his mom and some other relatives), Perctarit and his girlfriend Ruth made the trip, and deserve special props, since they flew down just for the game. There were also some other DC fans there, including Jamil Walker's brother (who had been travelling in Brazil, and caught a bus down for the match), and a lot of family members of Francisco, who I believe is the DC equipment manager. The four people standing and looking like we just threw up in our mouths were me, Upper90s, Perc, and Ruth.

As for the match, uh, well, here's my initial dos centisimos; I'll write up a more extensive description of the experience once I get back to Argentina(and I'm posting here instead of that monstrous post-match thread, since I've got an actual first-hand account).

Primera, el estadio: The stadium was beautiful. It's in a nice suburb up in the hills overlooking town, seats about 15,000 (everybody has a different number when you ask - I've heard everything from 12,000 to 20,000, but I think 15K is about right), and despite only having a small roof over the center stands on the camera side, it got loud in there. Really, really loud. I don't know if FoxSports had their usual muted sound for the game, but trust me, it was loud. After the match, I asked KP and Kasper if they took notes on the stadium, 'cuz it's not only beautiful, it's also a change from what is fast becoming the MLS cookie-cutter four-sider (available either with roof (the "AEG Special Edition") or without (the "Lamar Hunt Economizer").

Segundo, la hinchada: I went to see River-Velez at River's stadium last sunday, so I've got at least one S. American point of comparison (I reserve the right to change my opinion after Sunday's Boca-Racing classico at la Bombanera), and I'll say that los Cruzados, while damned impressive, are nowhere near the level of River's hinchada...partly due to the fact that there just aren't nearly as many of them, though they do fill their section. However, the fans in the rest of the stadium put the River fans who occupy the non-crazy parts of River's stadium to absolute shame. The whole stadium was rocking, particularly towards the end of the second half. When an entire stadium sings "Oooooh, uno mas! Uno mas, uno mas, Cato uno mas!" at the top of their lungs, it's pretty freaking impressive. Oh, and flares are cool...there, I said it. Overall, they were fairly polite to us, and the one guy who tried to seriously taunt us after the game was quickly sent on his merry way by two of our friendly police officers. Yeah, that's right, we were so gangsta, they had to have riot police and a fence to contain us! ;)

Uh, thirdo, the game: there ain't no game, and there never was...okay, I'll give you a bit more, but I'll stick to things you maybe couldn't see on tv. The last 25-30 minutes reminded me eerily of the game in Chicago earlier this season when we played without Boswell, went up 3-0, and then Chicago turned it on, Nicky started flailing at everything, the D fell completely apart, and we barely managed to hold on for a 3-2 win...that night, I had the feeling that if Chicago had had five more minutes, they would have tied us, and with ten more minutes they would have won. Well, last night, Catolica had enough time...and if they'd needed a fourth goal, I have no doubt they would have gotten it...by the end, our guys were just completely gassed. Where have you gone, Ryan Nelsen, United turns its lonely eyes to you, woo-woo-woo.

Other tidbits: Santino is the f'ing man. All you naysayers can just sit in your towers and take shots, but he was possibly the best player on the field, and the wheels didn't really come off of United until he was subbed out...if only he had finished his breakaway...but then again, Gomez flubbed his, Dema flubbed his, Jaime didn't get to that cross with 20 seconds left...oh, and finally, two minutes of stoppage time was completely, utterly ridiculous. All I can think of is that it was punishment for United wasting time all half...if Catolica had still needed a goal, I would have been shocked to see less than four or five minutes added...but that's life on the road.

Overall, I'd have to say that over two legs, Catolica proved themselves to be the better side...but only barely, by the slimmest of margins. Ah well. C'est la vie.

Finally, many thanks to the United staff, who not only hooked us up with free tix, but also gave us a ride back into town on the team bus...and yeah, you could have heard a pin drop on that bus.

That's all for now. I'm gonna go check out Santiago. Hopefully things will turn out better this afternoon than they did last night!

"You have given out too much Reputation in the last 24 hours, try again later."

[BBBulldog]

hehe comparing Los Cruzados and Los Borachos is like comparing celica and saleen s7. River barra can challenge most groups in the world.

Hope whole DC learned a lot, not just about playing soccer, but stadium, atmosphere, playing under pressure.

Thanks for cool first hand report Ed! Write some more, it's much more fun to read than doom and gloom crap :D

[CHICO13]

hehe comparing Los Cruzados and Los Borachos is like comparing celica and saleen s7. River barra can challenge most groups in the world.

Hope whole DC learned a lot, not just about playing soccer, but stadium, atmosphere, playing under pressure.

Thanks for cool first hand report Ed! Write some more, it's much more fun to read than doom and gloom crap :D
Wait til Ed gets a load of La Bombonera :cool:

Great right up Ed, look forward to seeing you at a game soon.

[Sharkbait]

Anyone who doesn't rep Ed should be red carded.

Happily done.

[revelation]

Anyone who doesn't rep Ed should be red carded.

I do not pass out reputation points for people who gratiutously seek them by traveling to Chile to watch DC United matches and then write about them. Reputation whores...that's what they are!!!


:D

[dsheon]

Don't forget to rep Perctarit (Charlie) who writes sparingly on these boards. His girlfriend Ruth doesn't post but deserves props too; they went down for the game and made a four day trip of it.