Lets goooooooo USA! Any first hand reports from Gelsenkrichen

[RavenTerp]

The time is now! We shall be victorious and show the world what US Soccer is all about!!!
I have 2 friends who just emailed me from Gelsenkirchen and said the atmosphere is awesome! Sam's Army is out in full strength and they are ready to make some noise for the USA!
Anyone else have any reports from friends at the game?

[Adriana10]

My boss just called me from the stadium - he's FREAKING out!

He says it's just filled with American fans, like no other World Cup game he's seen before. Tons of painted faces, red white and blue flags everywhere - and they're being loud!!!!

I am getting text messages from him every 5 minutes too, just tring to rub it in even more....

[rooney9]

good luck guys hope you get the win .from an england fan.......

[falvo]

How about Gerorge W calling in and telling Bruce Arena to give em hell! Good for him! Maybe he isn't such a bad president after all? HAHAHA!
Anyway, I think its time to light the candles and put the statue of the Madonna on top of the TV. I hope the USA wins the group! Yes let's hope they either win or tie against Italy! As a faithful traditional Italian-American, I become an American and a USMNT fan come WC time!
Let's hope LAndy, Lewis, Ching, McBride, Reyna and Keller have a killer game! Good luck guys! We are all praying for ya!

[Highbury]

You have to remember that the Czechs are also red,white and blue :)

[Frat Alien]

Yes but that is by far the loudest U.S. support I've ever heard for a foreign World Cup game..and that was just for our anthem! Should be a hell of a game!

[purpleronnie]

To be honest I couldn't hear the US crowd at all, I did hear the czechs. I guess losing 3-0 dosen't help.

[nyrmetros]

I barely heard Sam's Army (or assorted American fans)... and I was carefully listenging for them. the Czechs just domintaed everywhere.

[CJCourtney]

US Fans were about one third of the crowd (17,000 Yanks) and were generally outshouted...but there were some moments. We need one simple song or chant and to have fans in the same color. The simplest is to do what every other nation seems to do, have your fans wear the same color the team is wearing that day.


More up soon at: www.soccertimes.com

[210597]

I was proud. I went to the match expecting a Czech invasion the likes of what the Poles put on against Ecuador, with 30,000 of them and a corner's worth of our fans. Instead, the entire South Stand was well filled with Americans here and there (though I found it disappointing to see Czech flags in the away fans' cage in sect. V/W), and there were loud and proud Americans all around the stadium. I'd say a good 8-10,000 Americans against maybe twice as many Czechs. They were louder than we were, obviously, once the game started and they almost immediately grabbed the lead.

But frankly, as a showing, I was proud to see a couple thousand Americans turn out and prove to the rest of the world that we enjoy our drinking and getting dressed up and singing and screaming and soccer just the way everyone else does. I was proud to sing our national anthem with a few thousand others in a place a few thousand miles from home. I was proud to see the Stars and Stripes displayed all around Gelsenkirchen. I was proud that our fans gave it their all against overwhelming opposition, which was more than you could say for the team.

[DCDeacon]

Numbers or not, I don't know if I've heard a better rendition of the national anhem than today. However many fans we had, they were singing with all their hearts and it was definitely...as it turned out...the highlight of the day and one of my favorite national team experiences of all time.

Met some fellow fans but don't know if any are BS posters or not. We tried, we just didn't have enough to cheer about today.

Looking forward to Saturday and a better result to go along with another good crowd effort.

[nyrmetros]

Did the BAF or BBAF or the 50 States or the Culpepper flags see any action?

[clevelandstoker]

Heard Sam's Army through the TV. They were the best thing about the day. National anthem was great. Keep it up. You're going to have to raise your game against Italy.

[nashvillemb]

Why can't we come up with a song that everyone will know? Who cares if we wear a song out (like the Korean fans did last WC with their "Korea" song/chant).

I still get chills thinking of the game after 9/11, when the crowd could be heard over the tv singing "America The Beautiful".

Heck, why not go with that...it's something everyone knows. Sing it loud, sing it proud, sing it several times in a row, sing it often.

The British dude on ESPN's daily coverage was giving us a hard time for not having songs that everyone actually participated in.

[Palermo10]

Our fans were pretty much bullsh*t the whole night. I was to the right of NJB, and they were trying to get it rockin, so my friends and I would try to help them.

But the fact that I could hear myself singing the anthem at not much more than "loud" is pretty sad. And much of my section sat down and was quiet. Even Czech fans were in it.

I was of no use by halftime, as I had absolutely no voice left. I am just getting ready now and will have it prepared for Saturday. Too many pre game songs with the rocking Sams Army party at the Hibernia did me in.

If you are wondering, I was the asshat throwing toilet paper around at the Hibernia ;-)

[Palermo10]

I still get chills thinking of the game after 9/11, when the crowd could be heard over the tv singing "America The Beautiful".


I had planned on trying to get my section started with that in the 2nd half. But I lost my voice, and then we went down 3-0, and it just didnt seem right.

Maybe at KO of the Italy game, when we arent losing!

[wolfp10]

I was the only US fan wearing red within 15-20 feet of my USSF ticket, down by the glass barricade. Several families with kids were around me. One kid behind me had a Holland shirt.

If we were sitting together, we would have been rocking. But leave it to FIFA and USSF to screw the fans.

[rickinva]

The meet up at the bar in Gelsenkirchen was awesome. We pulled in about 10:30 am, and spent the entire afternoon there. Met many US fans from all over, and they truly did a great job lifting the atmosphere and getting the more casual fans excited and pumped for the game. I was told by a guy I met on the train to Berlin today that you could hear and feel the USA supporters as you came up the escalator from the Gelsenkirchen train station, and all you had to do was follow our collective voices to find the bar. I thought Columbus, Oh for the Mexcio qualifier was the awesome, but this topped it by far. And K-town should be even better!

One side note, the bar was on the bottom floor of a larger building, that looked to have about 8 additional stories of apartments. There was a little old lady watching from her 4th floor window most of the time the USA fans were rocking right under her place, and she just kept shaking her head, smiling the whole time, watching what we all were doing to support our team and our country.

I also got to meet lots of fans that bought my Brucesliga shirts and scarves, and that was especially cool for me. One German fellow came up to my wife and I as we were drinking on the outside patio, and said "Brucesliga? No, No, No, Bundesliga. Zis iz likely to be very confusing to zee Germans." And then he laughed and walked off.