During the course of revising the forum charter fatbastard pointed out that the “DC United Legends and Lore,” and the “DC United Personal Legends and Lore” links no longer worked. I thought those were both post-crash threads, but apparently I was wrong. Both those threads were lost some time ago. I’d like to reestablish both of them though, and I thought it would be a nice thing to do in these last few days before the season begins. There will be a lot of newbies to this board and this team this year. Hopefully these threads will give them an idea about the many stories, and all the legends and lore surrounding DC United. Both of these threads will be linked to the forum charter so folks can find the easily. This time these threads will be archived off-site on a periodic basis. Too many good stories were lost with the old threads. I hope everyone who posted there last time will revisit some of their memories again to help reestablish these threads. DC United Personal Legends and Lore In this thread please post your DC United personal legends and lore. What are your favorite stories about being a supporter of the team? What are your best DC United supporter memories? Do you have any amusing or interesting anecdotes about yourself as a fan or other fans that you wish to share? If you do, then please post them below.
This goes back to the first season. Tampa Bay came into RFK on a Friday night in July with the best record in the East. Carlos Valderrama was electrifying the league with his passing, Roy Lassiter was on his way to setting the single season goal scoring record with 27 goals. DC United, after sputtering through the first couple of months of the season had started to put some wins together and were playing very well at home. I was one of two Black people in the Barra Brava section that year (and a lot of people didn't talk to me for whatever reason) but I was there with my DC flag game in and game out, singing dancing and cheering. I brought a friend of mine to the game who was a casual soccer fan. It was a humid night and it rained off and on as DC and Tampa struggled to find any room in a VERY tight defensive battle. As the time began to wind down, we started singing in earnest "VAMOS, VAMOS UNIIIIIITED! ESTA NOCHEEEE TENEMOS QUE GANARRRRRR". We had been shouting at Carlos Valderama and her sexual activities ; ) all night and he was substituted with aobut 20 mins to go. I'm yelling at Lassiter about how Eddie Pope had him on lockdown and that he couldn't score against DC United. In about the 79th minute, Marco latches onto a loose ball and drills it home. We go CRAZY but realize that we have to hold one of the league's most explosive teams for another 11 mins. The rain starts again but the defensive remains firm and survives a wild scramble that had 3 shots in the last 10 seconds. DC wins 1-0. Marco comes over to the Barra Brava to give up props and guys just start jumping the railing and running onto the field. I was about 5 people from getting over and giving Eddie Pope some props. But security is clamping down and I don't make it. We dance into the night and DC United never looks back after that game, on its way to the 1996 MLS Cup Championship. That night was the first night I ever shouted, "DC till I die!"
Re: DC United Legends and Lore last summer, i drove up to dc for a match and when i got there i realized that it was the next day. i had been using a calendar where Monday was the first day of the week rather than sunday. i was mad
I knew nothing of soccer until two of my good fellow AU alums invited me to a DC game in '96. I can't remember who DC played but I know we lost (but I still had a good time and told my friends to ask me if they went again). We went to several more games during the season including the playoffs and I went with the one friend to the final that year (I've been to every final). The following year I got a 1/2 plan and then in '98 I got a full plan. I met my sweetie Lanky134 in 1998 in parking lot 4 at the SE tailgate. We had just joined the SEs late fall of '97 (I joined to meet some new people as my AU alum crowd was getting married and having children). Neither of us drove so we got to know each other at the tailgates, viewing parties at Summers and the metro rides back (we were both Red line riders). DCU is VERY special to me! K
getting spit on my a metro fan and then watching all my fellow norteno's rush to the back of 120. I WILL go to the swamplands one day..
Four instances. One: Watching a game from the mezzanine (my company had bought seats there...). Nearby were a couple of middle aged guys, ties and all, who looked to be newbies and probably had seats there for the same reason I did. They were really quiet during the game, but when it was over I heard them softly singing 'ole, ole, ole.' My thought: gotcha! Two: The run up to the 97 title (97 was the year, wasn't it, where the final was at RFK?...God, I hate getting old). Playoff game, United won a close one and the fans stormed the field. Security just wisely gave it up. Looked to be around a thousand fans out there, all jumping up and down together. My youngest son and I watched from the concourse above the 300 sections, and he kicks himself to this day that he didn't join the joyous mass on the field. Three: the '97 final. RFK full...totally full...of screaming fans, filled up to the nosebleed seats. Rain coming down (don't rain and DC championships go together...two of three), and the same son and I wearing ponchos in the 400 seats. DC scores and beer comes showering down from above and behind. Who cares? DC is winning and we've got ponchos on. Bring on the beer. Four: Drums, tightly packed singing crowds in the Stadium/Armory Metro station after a win. Sweet. Brings a grin to my face just thinking about it. God I love this team!
My top personal moment would have to be Tony Meola's buffet. I watched him during warm ups and it looked like he was struggling a little bit, like he hadn't gotten his 6th meal of the day in already or something before the game. Needless to say, something was up. Fortunately I had brought some donuts to the game for my own appetite, but in the pure generosity that my mother raised me with I decided I would give Tony the donuts anyway. Most of the donuts made it easily from section 120 into his 6 yard box, but since the play was going on right around him Fat Tony could only eat one at the time. He was very careful though when he pushed them to the side, not wanting to kick any of them too far from his fat reach. Most were placed next to the near post because he figured that's where he'd be getting the ball again.
The next memory I would like to share would be that of what occured just after Convey's magical golden goal header on "Let's increase beer and ticket sales by pandering to El Salvadorans on the day when LA plays here", or Hispanic Heritage Night a few years ago. Immediately after the ball had gone into the net and I saw Ruiz running off the field like the scared little $hit he is, I became incensed with an odd combination of anger and joy. Not wanting to let the little fish get by so easily, I ran to the the visitors tunnel (the site of many Mathis incidents) and grabbed the closest thing I could find to throw at him. I don't know why I chose to throw anything, I guess it was because he was running too quickly for just a verbal assault. Also, at this point I was hating with a great hating almost equal to the constant hating of the scum. Anyway, I got him pretty good with the program, yelling many things I can't remember right now. Next Albright came through and I mean, after all the frustration he had given all of us over the years, he was an obvious target. I got him pretty well on that big ugly mop of his and told him he sucked at life, although not so cheerfully as I posted here. He thought that it was a joke or something and just laughed, and more verbal abuse ensued. Finally, big 'ol Sigi came waddling up, about 15 minutes after the rest of the team, even though he probably left before them. Now, I want to tell you something, if you ever used the phrase "shooting fish in a barrel" for saying something was a piece of cake, I want you to start saying "hitting Sigi with a program", because it was probably the easiest thing I've ever done. The target was so large I think I tried to miss out of despair for the guy, to try and give him some hope, but the program was sucked into his gravitational field and is probably still stuck somewhere in his belly. Of course donuts would have been more appropriate for him too, but alas I had finished them off by the time the overtime session was over in the game. By this time, DC police had seen about enough of all this (as we all know humor is lost on them) and I was "calmy escorted" (carried by my belt loop) to the door at RFK. The joke was really on him though, because I surely didn't mind being "kicked out" after the game was over, and the speed at which I was able to leave was much faster with the big man carrying me through the angry Salvadoran crowd which had stayed to presumably urinate in the aisles and eat the nacho chips they had thrown at us all game.
Whoa there... As both a professional historian AND Barra Brava drunken instigator... I recall that at least SOME of those fine breakfast products WERE "donuted" (if you will) to a certain young red head by myself and brother (Begbie), pre-game... --There ARE certain advantages to being La Norte after all...
How about last years second road trip to Metro scum.FAT Lady csc said we were the worst dirty bunch of foul mouth fans ever.Hey K remember she told you to watch your dirty mouth .HAHAHAHA
It was October 1996 and we decided to go to Foxboro for the MLS Cup. After a slow start to the season, DC United was facing the already-hated-by-then LA Galaxy. On Saturday we drove up, and halfway through New Jersey hit the nor’easter. It rained all the way to Rhode Island. Half the lanes of I-95 were flooded through New York, and they closed the highway an hour after we drove through. But finally we arrived at a hotel near Foxboro, almost 11 hours after we’d left Virginia. On Sunday it rained hard and the wind blew strong. We found our cold, hard, bleacher seats at Foxboro Stadium and finally the match began. I was cold, wet, and miserable. My hands were so frozen I could barely hold a cup of hot chocolate. Our team was losing and I wondered why we’d made the trip. Plus we had two kids in front of us who were Galaxy fans, who kept shouting, “DC sucks!” Alas, that was before the 73rd minute, before the glory began. Tony Sanneh and Shawn Medved scored, and suddenly the match was tied. And before I could even believe my team had taken the game to overtime, Eddie Pope headed the ball into the net for the golden goal, and DC United won the first MLS Championship. The rain and cold didn’t matter anymore. Eventually the only people left in the stands were celebrating DC United fans, and we yelled and cheered as our team ran around the field with the trophy. My friend left his soaking wet socks in the Foxboro parking lot, as a sacrifice of thanks to the soccer gods. They were definitely watching over DC United that day, Sunday, October 20, 1996.
Chicago, 2001? ESPN match. We were giving round after round of Who Ate All the Pies? in a 0-0 match. Josh Wolff scores at our end, and instead of going to the Barn Burners to celebrate, he comes over to the United fans who have made the trip, puts his finger to his mouth to silence us. Taking a step back, the previous road trip was to Columbus, where I flung a rubber rat, "Junior," who proudly landed on all fours, on the pristine and virgin pitch. Flying from that success, I decided to bring a different stuffed animal to Soldier Field. The only option at the toy store: Tinky Winky. So in an instant Tinky Winky was headed straight for Josh Wolff, who caught it and rubbed the Tinkster on his crotch (ESPN caught the moment) then he threw it back - and I still have Tinky. Later that season, PCCFromDC had the opportunity to speak with Josh, who remembered the incident and recently watched the video tape. He was baffled by what had happened. The Tinkster lives on my friends, and that's the story behind The Tinky Winky Incident. And Kansas City may live to see the little purple dude just one more time......
The Tinky Toss is a classic of course, but that road trip was hardly a fine memory! We lost that game 3-2, Bennie got the first of 3 years worth of ankle injuries, we had to get escorted out of the stadium through the tunnels for our "protection" (although I really think it was to avoid the embarrasment of having like 50 DC supporters crush a remarkably young and thin group of "Ultras"), we ended up sleeping on an EL platform for an hour before we figured out the trains had stopped running about the time we were enjoying last call, and finally we ended up sleeping on a horribly uncomfortable airport floor in order to catch an 8 AM flight. May Tinky live forever, but that trip could have gone a lot better in my opinion!
Witnessed manna falling from heaven this past summer, or at least what passes for it in sections 134/135. This was at the first DCU game after the last Women's World Cup game at RFK, and one of the mobile beer stands from the WWC had been left on the concourse near the Barra/SE sections. Unmanned. At halftime. Still had beer in it. Let us just say that this fact did not escape the Barra's notice. Now I know what it must be like to see sharks when there's blood in the water.
Classic The CSC dude was wondering, "What the Hell? About a dozen of us running around with three or four beers in hand.
a couple of years ago me, chico13, begbie and a couple of barra brothers who aren't on BS went to a club match between a honduran and salvadoran team. we ran into ivan mckinley in the parking lot and partied pretty hard with him. they only had the west side of the stadium open but we went up to the upper level and walked over to the east side and down to 135. a csc guy came to throw us out and chico kept trying to buy the guy's csc hat, at one point offering $100, at that point i had to hustle him out of there...
I showed up early for the Open Practice last year having never been to a DC United game. I walked around RFK for a while until the other tailgaters arrived. My other favorite memory was Mathis getting marching orders at RFK. Then Barra Brava and S.E. coming over to join La Norte and fight the Metro's fans. Good times.
DC 2:1 Columbus August 14, 1999 This was my first match in the seething mass of the Barra/SEs. A friend and I had a pair of 1/2 season tickets in 234, just above the SEs and had grown tired of being told to sit down by those behind us, so we had resolved to move our seats down into the nest for the next season. On this day we had decided to go to the game against the Crew which wasn't part of our 1/2 Season package. We bought tickets closer to the goal in section 137, which is a pretty cool view of the pitch as I remember. That day was seriously blazing hot. Not a cloud in the sky. We were putting the beers away in a furious attempt to stay cool. At any rate, Maessner scored a wierd goal where he volleyed/redirected a shot that Benny had taken and everyone was happy. During the 1st half, some big ugly storm clouds started to roll over RFK and the wind started whipping up. The heavens opened and many people headed for the concourses. My friend and I took advantage of the space that the storm had created and moved over into the Barra's lower reaches. We got into the rhythm of the bouncing stands and faked our way through some of the spanish songs. More folks who didn't mind the cool rain moved down into the section and the whole of 134/135 was really rocking. On the field, play was really sloppy due to the weather. Guys were sliding all over the place because they had on shoes meant for a hard dry surface. Balls were getting stuck in puddles. A couple of players were injured due to the conditions as well. By halftime the storm had passed and the sun came back out. It was surreal. Anyway, I remember that we won the match on a PK from Moreno that nearly didn't go in because the grass was so soggy in front of the goal. We survived some late scares (a goal called back for Columbus) and we also hit a post. It was a wild finish and the crowd was fantastic. I think Maessner came over afterwards and threw his shirt into the crowd. After this experience, the deal was sealed. I've been in 134/135 in each season since then.
Re: DC United Legends and Lore Man, that was awesome! Next time I won't wear a yellow shirt. Ty Keough grabbing my friend's a** at an after party at the Red River Grill.
My personal favorite was last year against LA. I believe it was the same game as the STFD STFU comment from Ray. Sigi is draping his a$$ on the back of the bench. Some of the LA players standup (no idea what was even going on since I was laughing so hard) and the whole bench topples over backwards. I think he made it off rather than falling, but still was great fun to catch out of the corner of my eye. I can't remember anything else from the game, but that one will bring a smile on my face for sometime -dave
In 2000, Ds39heon won a contest at RFK by keeping a hacky-sack in the air one second longer than his competitors, and got some free tickets (and travel) to see the Miami Fusion in Ft. Lauderdale. So Ds39heon, PCCfromDC, and I made our way to Florida in August to see United play the Fusion. The night was amazingly sultry and United was just beginning to fall into the malaise that has afflicted it ever since, falling 2-0 as Nick Rimando patrolled the goal for the Fusion and Roy Lassiter scored a grudge goal against his former team. The crowd could not have exceeded 1,000 people and were so subdued that the three of us outcheered them all by ourselves. One of them was so amazed at our appearance, and impressed by our fervor, that he bought us each a beer. After the game ended, we cheered the teams as they exited the stadium to their lockerrooms (much as high school footballs teams do) to the utter astonishment of the players and coaches, then ran around on the deserted field under the lights. If I remember correctly DS39heon even managed to put one in the net. The Fusion are no more, of course, but even if they were, such days are long gone for MLS. In a way, I'm sad to see them go. perc
We were in the middle of a spell where we had about 2 weeks of blistering heat and humidity, and the storm was completely unexpected. Everybody headed for the shelter of the overhang or the concourse except the Nest/Barra, and we were so relieved by the cool rain that we were acting incredibly silly. We had also just started what would be a 12-game winning streak, so we were playing really well. As a footnote, my parents wound up watching that game (it was on ESPN2) and, true to form, got worried that I would catch a cold in the rain. I still have this game on tape, actually.