Wearing USA gear is great, definintely preferred. Wearing club gear might not be ideal, but if you automatically exclude someone or belittle their passion for the USMNT because they're wearing club colors, then you're the one doing the dividing. Wear what you want. Let others wear what they want without assigning motive. As long as they support the team in voice, let's start with that. What folks wear is, IMHO, the least of the hurdles blocking coordination of the groups. Just sayin'.
As long as you're there supporting the U.S.A. who cares what you wear? (ermmm,as long as it's not the shirt of the other team ) MLS is a form of US Soccer,so an MLS jersey isn't that big of a wrong doing....right? I wore a U.S.A. jersey to the Red Bulls vs. Barca friendly in 2006. Was that wrong of me? edit: also,I'd much rather see an MLS jersey at a National team game than Arsenal or Liverpool top....
you guys keep saying "as long as you are supporting the US, who cares?" my question is... if you come wearing just a club jersey... how are you "showing" support for the US? The answer is, you're not....you're showing support for whatever badge you wear on your chest... it's just a pity it's not a US badge.
Umm ... by having bought a ticket? by jumping, yelling, screaming, singing, and otherwise going crazy for the team? Wearing a club jersey is less ideal than wearing USA gear, no doubt. But if I was given a choice between ... 1. A person buying a ticket and wearing a club jersey OR 2. The same person not buying a ticket but wearing the USA jersey at home ... I'll go with #1. Also, if I was given a choice between ... 1. A person with a club jersey going crazy for the USMNT, or 2. The same person with a USA jersey sitting on his hands the whole match ... I'll go with #1 again. There are lots of ways to support the USMNT, including wearing a USA jersey instead of a club jersey. Unum is great, but e pluribus is also part of the national identity and, I think, shouldn't necessarily be discouraged. But I don't believe all the issues that stop SG unification and growth will disappear if we all wear the same/similar stuff. I think, unify/coordinate first and make in-game stuff "better" ... at least in the sense folks in this thread think it can be better ... and then what we wear will fall into place.
you're right....it won't fix the disunity between supporters group... but it's a step in the right direction.
we generally wear group gear over club gear to DCU games, you sometimes have to look hard to see any official team merchandise. So if Barra wore DC jerseys it was probably to piss you off (I can't tell cos our pics are not out yet due to broken lense and I don't remember noticing it at game).
I think so, too, I just wonder if it's fair to say that "wearing club gear instead of USA gear" = "not supporting the USMNT," especially if it's an MLS club or a foreign club jersey that's red, white, and/or blue. I'd probably be very slow to make that connection. For example, I'm a huge fan of TIM HOWARD, so I might wear an Everton GK shirt ... maybe not to a match, but (say) at the night-before party or something. However, FWIW, I think that what you wear is not totally irrelevant. I would be very quick to say, "wearing FMF gear instead of USA gear" = "not supporting the USMNT." I would also say wearing any foreign NT jersey to a USMNT game is a little wierd ... not as bad as wearing an FMF jersey, but still, I think it = "not supporting the USMNT" even if it's red, white, and/or blue. I also wonder if there aren't bigger "unite the clans" issues than wearing club gear to a NT match???? (Sorry for the Mel Gibson movie reference!)
i never said wearing club gear doesn't equal being a vocal USMNT supporter. I said it's just a bad way of "showing" it. Literally.
This is one of my reasons why I think its not ok to wear club gear. So its acceptable for a Fire fan to wear his jersey because well its RED but a Dynamo fan can't because he's orange or a Crew fan because his team is yellow. That is not fair to the teams who don't have red, white or blue in their jersey/logo. For me not wearing club gear is about respecting all the other MLS team fans who are at the stadium. I think that it is one of the biggest. If we are wearing club gear, it will undoubtely turn into a pissing contest about which team and clan is better. There are DC fans who don't want to stand with Metro fans and vice versa if they are wearing club gear. I'm sure there are Fire fans who don't want to stand with Dallas fans or Crew fans if they are wearing club gear. If we want to work together. Instead of highlighting our differences, we should be highlighting our similiarities, which in this case is our love for the US.
I'm with this guy. cause...the US is still a free country...last time I checked. I don't think that the color of your shirt makes you sing louder or co-ordinated. It just doesnt. I think to a lot of SG regulars national team games are sorta like how hardcore drinkers view St. Patrick day crowds. When the civvies decide to come out and invade their local watering, take their barstool/booth and do other stuff "wrong". But I think that's just ego.
in one ear, out the other..... no one is debating weather or not it's a free country.... i think we are simply saying.... it would be in every SG's best interest, if we didn't divide ourselves during USA games (because we are there to support the US, not our clubs) by wearing and overwhelming amount of club gear.
I wouldn't say the amount of club gear at the Cuba match in DC was "overwhelming." In fact, if I understand one of the main points raised in this thread, it's that there's not an "overwhelming" amount of ANY color. I think that it's better to wear USA gear than club gear to USA matches, but I don't assign motive to folks that wear club gear. (That tolerance STOPS at Mexico NT gear, though.) If someone is wearing gear from a rival club, it's as much up to you (not YOU you, but someone) to NOT get upset about it as it is up to them to NOT want to poke a stick in your (not YOUR your) eye. For sure, though, you can't tell what the person intends by just looking at him. If you have a question about it, ask before you get upset. For all you know, it's his first USMNT match and he ordered a USMNT jersey but it got stuck on back-order and he wanted to wear something soccer-y. If you (not YOU you) get upset or offended over a club jersey, and you haven't asked him about it, that's on you. That means you are putting club over country at a NT match. As far as unity of SGs ... it seems a lot of groups want to unify - at least for a few chants per game - but no groups want to defer to a lead group. I don't necessarily blame the groups ... they're all good and have pride in what they do. But "unity" does not equal "everyone do it our way and we can all be unified." That's why I wonder if a lead-share arrangement could ever be made?????
You're painting with a bit of a broad brush here. Are there certain groups that don't want to defer to each other? Yes. Are there groups that get along very well and follow each others' leads? Definitely. Look at the US-Argentina game. Pretty much everyone was on the same page then...RFK itself plus the awful seating arrangement they had made it very difficult at the last game. Still, everyone on the right side of the stands was pretty well coordinated and did a good job joining together. It was just way too hard to coordinate with what was going on with the other side of the stands with the physical limitations.
Yeah, maybe. I think one of the unique circumstances at the ARG game was that visiting groups were willing to defer to a strong host group. Seating at RFK didn't help matters, but the host groups were also strong. The visiting groups, though, didn't defer to SE and BB. At least I *know* that SE was asking for volunteers to help them for weeks, but got very few, and none from the groups that hosted ARG. So I think that whether we want a future full of ARGs or DCs is up to the visiting groups. If visiting group don't want to defer, that's fine. But nobody can expect an in-game as "good" as the ARG game. If the strong visiting groups want to "diminish" the experience in that way, that's up to them. If they expect everyone to do things the way they do them ... well, that's just not going to happen. The sooner strong visiting groups and groups that "don't want to defer" understand that, the sooner I think we can move towards a real culture and more ARG-like games. I think if strong visiting groups defer to strong host groups - at least for a few chants per game - we could go a long way towards building a future of ARGs.
I would also add ... whatever it is that's making one group not want to defer to another group ... the non-deferring group is putting the whatever-it-is BEFORE support for the USMNT. The non-deferring group just has to decide what's important to it.
THAT, my good SoB, can be solved. File it under "lessons learned" for the next DC match! Having to be hosts to a very large "melting pot" of SGs is a good problem to have. The ARG game gives us a target and a go-by. Each venue is different and has its own unique challenges. Which is why it's good to rely on the host groups. ARGs won't come instantly, but they will come with help from the visiting SGs.
Amen, brother. Special events like funerals, job interviews, and etc require a certain dresscode. You don't go to a Halloween party as yourself. And you don't go to a USMNT game as a Seattle Sounders fan.
I'm not sure anyone has disagreed with this. Where I think the disagreement lies is in, at this point, whether or not it's important enough to get your panties in a wad, especially when there are much bigger issues hindering unification. I don't think all the unification problems will be solved should everyone wear USMNT gear. You can't control people, and you can't stop them from being jerks if they want to be. If you demand complete non-club-gear-wearing before you'll participate in unification ... well, unification will never happen. If you're okay with that, okay. End of unification effort. As for you club jersey wearers: Taly's right. You really need to look into spending the $70 or so for a USMNT jersey, or at least $25 on a t-shirt, or at the very least not wearing your club jersey. Paint your chest or something. If you're fan enough of soccer in the USA to buy an MLS jersey, expand your support for soccer in the USA by buying a USMNT jersey or t-shirt.
or make your own.... i make my own on Cafepress.....there is no mark up when you sell it to yourself and you can get creative....no excuses.....
Wow. Would I wear a Rutgers shirt to a Giants game? No. Would I wear a Red Bulls jersey to a USMNT game? No. It's just a matter of good taste, appropriate attire, etc. If I see you at a Nats game wearing a club jersey, I'm just going to -- in my mind -- identify you as a newbie, a jerk, or someone with absolutely no idea of where you are and how to dress. This isn't about unity. It's about what you get out of your closet on game day. No, you don't have to buy a Nats jersey. But if you're not going to a Rutgers game, you'll look pretty silly wearing a Rutgers T-shirt. Rutgers isn't playing today, chump! (Yes, I'm using Rutgers as an example so I don't inadvertently offend any MLS club fan.) You don't have to prove you're a soccer fan by wearing a soccer jersey! And please, don't pretend that's the only shirt you own.