This is frustrating to read. I wasnt able to make it out to this game, but this exact same crap happened in Chicago for the semi of the Gold Cup and Final. The semi wasnt so bad, but after the US game was the Mexico game, and literally as soon as the final whistle blew, there were hundreds of mexicans filling in our section, and the aisles surrounding it, and the security did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. My dad and I went to get food and it took ten minutes to get down the aisle. That is more of a security threat than people standing by their seats. Absolute bull sh**. Rev, I think the black security guard you mentioned could be the exact d*** that came in and kicked Rishi out halfway through the match, and like gosh1976 said, beer was being thrown at us and those lazy security guards did absolutely nothing. That is inexcusable. I had a great time at Soldier Field, dont get me wrong, but that kinda crap is just frustrating and plain ridiculous.
yes it would be nice if at least all the people in the supporters section would wear red though it's surely not as bad usually as it was at the Brazil game again due to the easy accessibility to the tickets. I don't have that many caps the last couple in Sam's Army but even for the few games I went when I didn't sit with Sam's Army I wore red. But of course I had my brother reminding me 50 times to wear red and had been browsing BS and the Sam's Army site for some time. Wouldn't that be great if we could get them to sell print General Admission and Wear Red on the tickets or print General Admission on the tickets and send out a copy of guidelines for the section. It probably won't happen but it could and should I mean don't the supporters section generally come from either US soccer or the local FO people from whatever MLS city they are in?? I've only sat in Sam's Army section twice and I'm hooked and I want it to be like Tampa was and like Chicago was for the gold cup final minus the security pricks and of course like Germany was! Oh and I stood behind sam's army section for a few minutes in brimingham too for the Guatemala qualifier I want it like that as well.
so you´ve never been to southern Brazil. dude, we brazilian fans SUCK MAJOR TIME at national level. Its pathetic. BRA-ZIL, BRA-ZIL... just that. Fans at club soccer matches are MUCH, MUCH better in Brazil. good complex songs and chants. True battle cries, etc. I feel ashamed when hearing the brazilian fans at national level, and then hearing the Argentine ones.
Exactly. This was my FIRST ONE and I knew! Then again, I do spend a obscene amount of time here... XD
maybe not over the course of the entire stadium... i didn't hear any really good songs in unison from the brazillians, but the handful i was around were like i described... i was around a gamely group where it was non-supporter's section but we were all still standing all game about all the issues with security... like i said, i was right by you guys... i'm amazed i didn't see any of the hassles they were causing you guys, it's not like the sammers were doing anything special to get any recognition... no bad songs, didn't throw anything, honestly not that big of a presence... my brain must have been switched half off or something
As I posted in the SA thread: What section were you in that you had to move from and into another because non existent cheering and sitting? If people were sitting in any of the designated SA sections then they weren't seeing the game because everyone around them were standing, I personally walked around the concourse and saw them all standing myself. When watching the ESPN2 broadcast you can clearly see our standing sections and the sitting sections next to us. Shortly before the second goal, there is a field level shot of us moving the ball down the right side. You can clearly see us standing and the sections to the right of SA's sections sitting. Then, right before we score, you can clearly the see the people in those other sections stand up. I'm far from the SA defender, though much of my criticism is at the top, but all this negativity is way off base. It is simply unreasonable to expect to have a supporters atmosphere at every match, especially a friendly with only a few weeks notice, that matches WCQs or what some are used to at club matches. In fact the standard some of you have at continuous singing often doesn't even exist for the major soccer countries around the world. Club is where it's at. Posts on other boards, from people that were elsewhere in the stadium, have commented they heard us a number of times. Watching it back on ESPN2 showed that people indeed were standing and were heard some times. We went through many of our songs and chants, I know because I started a number of them. It helped that I was right behind a good drummer. (Some of you might recognize him at Fire matches.) Did we hold "Oh, U-S-A" for like 10 minutes straight? No. Was this US-Mexico? Nope. Again I feel the negative attitude is unrealistic expectations and the general whine that is frequent with BigSoccer. If I didn't know any better...
well, it'll be no surprise to anyone that the "best" us fan section i've been a part of was us v italy at wc2006, for obvious reasons. i gotta say, we were several thousand strong. we all knew the songs (or learned them quickly enough), we all had the flags etc, and we all were pretty vocal one way or the other the whole time we were there. and as far as i could tell, pretty much every last one of us stood at our alloted seats the whole time. i get the feeling if the atmosphere in the us fan sections was always so enthusiastic across the whole of the sections, the need for general admission would go away. unfortunately, in order to get anything close to that usa v italy atmosphere, we need general admission so the (at best) few hundred hard core fans can get together to create that critical mass. who negotiates the "general admission" policy for these games anyway? clearly, if the ticket says "section xxx, general admission" then most of these problems go away. security would still probably demand everyone be at a seat for safety reasons, but no one would get kicked out of the section(s).
That game was a blast and also one of best ever, especially pre-game at the pub and the march up through Kaiserslautern. As far as getting the atmosphere at other games, we need a funded Sam's Army to buy the whole end section as a block, then only resell to vetted Sam's Army members/associates. Maybe I'll work out how to do that once I hit the lottery, as the initial outlay should be something in the range of 20-50,000 per game, but someone with more initiative and capital could do this.
I have waited to respond to this thread for 2 reasons: (a) I wanted to see people's general mood re: the US Supporter's Section and the response to the American Outlaws and (b) I was waiting for my concussion to fade after my failed attempt to ride an astrovan in the parking lot. 1) The Supporter's Section was not that bad. My initial reaction upon entering was shock at how much red, white and blue there was. All three sections were filled with US Supporters with only specks of yellow showing up here and there. That is pretty much the opposite of what I had expected after the way ticketing was handled. 2) Security was not nearly has oppressive as they were in the Gold Cup. If you looked at the ticketing options, tickets for first row seats were sold separately and priced differently. I'm guessing that the first row seats in the Supporter's Sections were not sold that way, but Security probably never got the memo. I think something people need to realize when dealing with Security is that these people are poorly trained and only have their jobs in the first place because at some point they have demonstrated a proficiency for the ability to phyiscally intimidate. Their day-of-game meetings probably involve some supervisor shouting out event specific details while failing to keep the attention of the 300 or so morons they are supervising. 3) As soon as this game was announced, I put a call in to USSF to ensure that there would be a Supporter's Section, and to ask if it could be GA. Having it be GA was not something they considered before and said that it was something they would consider going forward - although making it GA is probably a lot more involved than most people would imagine. 4) The Section was fairly loud. Was it the best ever? No. Was USA-England at Solider Field the best ever? No. It comes and gos. I tried to start songs, some worked, some didn't. Big fan of the American Outlaws. If your impetus for starting your organization was the lack of planning for the US-Ghana game, well, you guys obviously shat the bed on that. That pre-game rally and march will be one of the best remembered moments of Germany. Anyway, good work on providing an alternative.
I wasn't there, but on television it looked pretty impressive and I like others in the thread mentioned was surprised by the number of red, white, and blue colors in the crowd. I think everyone needs to give the supporters a pass on this one. The ticketmaster screw up seemed to cause much of the problems. The open sale makes it difficult to get everyone together. Hence, the importance of having an organized section. In terms of intensity, the game was a friendly. Some folks will and do sing and chant for 90 minutes regardless of the match. Others rise to the occassion on the importance of the event (whether it's playing Mexico, a qualifier, or a World Cup match). Plus, something that I think that flies under the radar is that people are from different parts of the country. Those in NY have a different style (lots of different songs, not much repetition) compared to people from other parts of the country for example DC (6-8 songs with lots of repetition). Then there are people who like to sing for all 90, those that prefer to pogo, and those that just clap. My point is there is no one way to support the US in the stands that will make everyone happy.
I get chills every time I think about all of the supporter marches through German cities....cars stopped just watching us, locals giving high-fives and chanting with us. Drew Carey, come on down?
well, it'll either take (many) someone's money, or (many) someone's time. organizing it so the "fan sections" are general admission, and sold only to "real fans" probably isn't rocket science, but neither is it likely childsplay. someone will have to work it out with the relevant parties for each game, and likely contracts would be demanded by somebody eventually. so, either some dedicated people will figure out the grunt and brain work on a voluntary basis, or people will have to be paid to do it or it won't be done. it's not like this has never been done before, just not by/for the likes of us soccer fans.