starting our round the world trip in september i was delighted to see that we'll be catching the end of the season in america, and seeing as we'll be landing in d.c. i thought i may as well pledge allegance to your team. so that being said, got any hope this year? star players? terrace songs? how much is a pie and beer? helpful stuff on the above would be useful. plus if anyone has a spare £3million dollars or any sizeable amount they want to donate to my team @ www.brentfordfc.co.uk they are more then welcome to.... or just any chit chat about d.c. will do ta kindly si
hey si, welcome to DC United. First off, every single person on here has no life outside of United. secondly, you will catch onto american lingo quickly and hopefully we can catch yours. How many matches will you be able to see? hopefully good ones. in RFK stadium we have 4 supporters clubs, La Norte, The Screaming Eagles, La Barra Brava and The Choir. La Norte, the group I am in, is known for the piles of confetti and streamers, not to mention the huge drum known as the bombo. We sing loud and show our support for Utd. with many flags and banners. www.lanorte.com Come on by our section(120) or say hey to our group in the parking lot 8 before a match. Everyone will be happy to show you a great time both in the stands and out. A Quick picture of our group: I know i post this one alot, but i love it!!! Welcome to the boards again Si, hope to see you around Scott
Beer is $5.25 for 12 fluid ounces of putrid piss water, but it'll probably be higher by the time you arrive. Better off smuggling in the hard stuff and chasing it with a $4.00 bottle of water. RFK does do decent Freedom Fries (chips to you), haven't dared to check the price this season. Sorry mate, no pies (Zach and Tony ate them all).
Actually, he's selling the place short. There is very, very good and affordable beer available at RFK stadium. The only problem is that it is at a single stall. Hence, you need to know where the full pint of our local Mircrobrewery (Foggy Bottom Ale) and one of the nation's best ESBs (Red Hook, from Boston) is at. So far this season, the good beer is at the top of section 312 or so...check back in here towards the time you come and we'll give you the exact location. A full pint (16 oz, if you're counting) is $6...which is a damn bargain compared to the $5.25 for 12 oz of piss. As far as food goes, there is a club/restaurant that serves catered food, which is very good and reasonable. They have a good pulled pork bbq sandwich and crisps for $6 or so, which is better than any of the food on the concourses. Also, the supporters clubs generally meet in the parking lots before the match to "tailgate." It's a great American tradition from Gridiron Football that involves large grills and burning beef...better than pies if you ask me. See the FAQ for more info. Good luck raising that cash. Tim
Ahem ... there are 2 'good' beer stands not one - one behind section 314 or so on the upper concourse and one behind 204 on the lower. And Red Hook is from Seattle not Boston (that's Sam Adams). You can get your soccer facts wrong all you like ... but don't mess around with the beer
If I can indulge in a stereotype and assume you drink warm beer, I suggest you hit the Foggy Bottom stand pre-game, buy as many as you can carry, repeat if necessary, and enjoy. The lines at either one are long pre-game, ridiculous at half, and get long again before last call. Then again, you wouldn't have missed much by ducking out to buy a beer at any time during the first home game.
Oh My God! I said Boston?!? Forgive me please. I must have been thinking of Harpoon. Back to the beer, Red Hook, from Seattle, is a fine beer. We're lucky to have two good beers to choose from at RFK and two stands (thanks for the hint on 204, I didn't know about it). Cheers, Tim
thanks for the replies. it amazes me that firstly you have warm beer in the states and yes that is one stereotype i am happy to indentify with, so i shall make that a first port of call. second of all supporters clubs?? very organised. in blighty we have a screaming mass of unorganised londoners that stand in the terraces (some grounds in england still have them, and they are a lot more atmospheric then seated stands) which hurl out abuse in a good natured manner at anyone, normally the away fans and the ref and sing the usual songs that i daresay you can hear in any football ground the world over. i hope to see a few matches but whether they are good or not depends on the quality of the football, no worse then that i have witnessed at brentford i hope dont worry bout dodgy food it is customary at all grounds in the uk to regard what you eat with the highest degree of suspicion and many accusing glances have been thrown at the catering staff having recieved a cold burger. however the prospect of having an 8oz steak in a bun sounds appealing.
Well, I wouldn't call our hamburgers "steak", but it may be that I lost something in the translation. Well, some of the supporters clubs are more organized than others. It's a wide spectrum. The good of it all is that we sing and dance and have a damn good time, despite the club's poor performance the past three years. If you come to visit and stand with the fans in the Barra Brava or Screaming Eagles you will feel something pretty unique in football that I know: bouncing stands. When things get going, its quite an experience to feel the stands under you bounce up and down a good 2 feet. As for the quality of football, keep an eye on our upcoming friendly with the vacationing Tottenham side. We've had good success against Premiership clubs (tied Leeds in 1997, beat Newcastle in 2001, beat a bunch of retired Tottenham stars in 2002)...but I think the Tottenham match will be one of our best tests as they may have a little to prove. Tim
We have warm beer in the sense that you buy a bunch cold before the game so you don't have to wait on line at half, and it gets warm before you finish them. Don't want to mislead if you are expecting room temp on tap.
You might want to check a thread that should be floating around yours called "Visiting From Dallas" to get a better sense of seating. There's also a link to the stadium seating chart. The "noisy" side of our stadium features the 230s and 330s. I'm guessing you'd want to sit in sections 229-233 or (for a beter sense of the teams' shape), 331-334. On the whole, you'll probably be surprised by how many Arsenal, 'pool, Chelsea, Leeds and Man CITY shirts and scarve s you see. Star Players? We have U.S. nationals Earnie Stewart, Ben Olsen and Bobby Convey, but you might be most familiar with former Barcelona player and Bulgarian national Hristo Stoitchkov and former Bolivian national team captain Marco Etcheverry. Stoitch, Etch and Earnie all played in World Cup '94, and Earnie was a USA star in Korea '02. Sadly, we're hiding away future international striker senation "K.J." on one of our First Division affiliates in Richmond. BTW, since I was ordered to learn the history of Chelsea's Stamford Bridge before I went to London, we'll expect you to at least know who Robert F. Kennedy was. If you somehow have to watch games in Denver or Dallas instead, I won't tell you who Mr. Invesco is, but (since you'd never find this in the Dallas Burn media guide), I can tell you that Dragon Stadium is named for a 60s American metaphor for smoking marijuana.
i'm afraid TEConnor you wont find much opposition against tottenham because they are a load of 'old pony' (an endearing term for sh#te) this season but it all depends on the day, throw in any old cliches you want at this point. yes bouncing stands is something that i shall look forward to with maybe a little bit trepidation but as long as we can all have a singsong, a few beers, and give the ref a good old slating i'm sure we'll get along fine. i shall attempt to sing a few old english footy anthems against the opposition team/supporters but judging by the d.c. rules, you cant take in big flags, cant be rude (even in a good natured manner), and so on but i'm sure a party atmosphere will exist all the same. good god grasscutter, stoichkov? is he still alive?? does he walk or amble around the field? seriously though i was impressed with the style and tenacity of the american team and hopefully atthe end of the season this will be apparent even more so. any jobs going over there for an english commentator on football sports channels. i've heard some americans commentate on the game and phrases from every other national sports in the states seems to be chucked in. i.e. 'offensive play' 'overtime' etc etc. what is needed i feel is some down to eart english grass roots commentary like 'he just hoofed the ball downfield' and 'boring long ball brentford' 'what a ripsnorter of a shot' and so on.
Well, I have found that we enjoy a kind of diplomatic immunity from the "can't be rude" part of the rules. So your bawdy songs will fit right in with such classics as: "If I had the wings of an eagle..." "Who's yer father?" "Sh!t on Metro" (we don't do this one actually, but I'm working on it) etc.
"Well, I have found that we enjoy a kind of diplomatic immunity from the "can't be rude" part of the rules. So your bawdy songs will fit right in with such classics as: "If I had the wings of an eagle..." "Who's yer father?" "Sh!t on Metro" (we don't do this one actually, but I'm working on it) etc." got to say i dont know any of those so i shall have a fun time learning and vice versa i shall teach you the likes of "where's ya caravan?" "you're sh#t and you know you are" - although you must know this one "hey jude" sung at every football ground and adapted to every team "build a bonfire" and so on
actually we try to be unique by using alot of our own songs or adaptations rarely used. such as 'Hudsons Army" and "vamos.. vamos united. esta noche tenemos que ganar" we have alot of songs in spanish but also alot of songs in english since our support base is almost evenly split
Not to burst your bubble, but Hudson's Army is most definitely not original, and I suspect Vamos United isn't either. Nothing wrong with adaptation though.
and theres the classic song of course (which may need some explanation - see underneath) you're a northern b#stard get your giro beat your wife you're a northern b#stard. this delightful little ditty has come about s there is an 'understanding' in a light hearted fashion you understand, that anything north of the upper part of the m25 that surrounds london is 'the north' and anything below this line is 'the south'. the welsh are excluded becasue quite frankly no-one gives a damn about them. the northerners are thus referred to as northern monkeys. a derogatory term to capture false stereotypes of northerners being lazy, ape like, out of work, poor, do nothing but drink beer and commit crimes. and the southerners are 'suffern poofs' the northerners because they do nothing apart from steal and beat each other up of course would be stronger if not mentally challenged and thus us money earning, law abiding, southerners are therefore seen as weaker and therefore weak. i'm sure this song can be modified to suit certain stereotypes that exist in america, rednecks would fit in quite nicely here perhaps