Good morning, Barra Brava My name is Roger Deborde, and I am a member of the Hudson Street Hooligans, SG for the Columbus Crew. I just wanted to come on here and let you know of a little story I have from out in the Rose City. While myself and a few Portland-based Hooligans were in JELD-WEN last weekend, we heard something that really pissed us off. We sat on the far sideline, about 3 sections away from the Timbers Army, and God are they loud. At half time, we (about 25 or so Columbus supporters) went to get our drinks and food and maybe a few souvenirs from our trip. While down there, we met up with a few Timbers Army guys. While they commended us for making the trip cross country to support our team, we commended them for being loud and having a tough place to play. That's where it got heavy. They started talking about how they were the new La Barra Brava in MLS. Saying that La Barra Brava is a shell of it's former self, and that Timbers Army is now carrying the supporter's culture torch for the rest of the league. As many, if not all, of the SG's in the league know, La Barra Brava has been the gold standard for supporter's culture since '96, and we took offense with TA making these remarks. JELD-WEN is jam packed, so of course it is going to be loud, regardless of how loud TA is. RFK is (sorry to say) pretty much empty, but it always sounds full thanks to Barra Brava. Long story short, TA gloated about how they're better than you, and we got pissed (and kicked out of JELD-WEN for "fighting") because Barra Brava are the original badasses of the League, and no one can top it (though HSH and the rest of the Nordecke comes close ) Viva Barra Brava! Columbus til I die.
Thanks for standing up for us but we've pretty much conceded that Seattle invented supporter's groups, T.I.F.O., chants, marching bands, and Jesus. Okay, just kidding about the marching bands. You owe it all to them. Next time you are in Seattle, buy those guys a latte for us!
Next time I go to Bolivia and see some Bolivarista fighting with some Oriente douchebag trying to defend the Ultra Sur's honor Ima have a stroke.
I'd have to agree with Portland about us being a shell of our former selves. I'm surprised that a Columbus fan wouldn't know this after their little promenade around the upper RFK mezzanine last year. La Barra would have never permitted that. It made me feel very angry, ashamed and lugubious, in that order. The reality is that many of our newer members seem to lack the futbol culture of the "old" Barra. This is jmo, btw. It could be a new generation gap has formed! I have several times proposed that we quit handing out free food and beer in the hopes that those attending would then have to provide for themselves and others. I think this ante would give them more of a stake and maybe a little more backbone in their support. La Barra is an organic beast that may just be sleeping right now -- we'll see. Meantime, we'll keep on keepin on until Baltimore United is a reality. GM
Not sure how genuine the OP was. I doubt it happened because there is a long standing respect from the TA towards La Barra Brava, and more recently district ultras for that matter. But if, IF that was ever said by some random dousche you'll find hundreds of TA who would fully disagree. Anyway let's hope this thread dies a quick death because it's garbage.
I agree with GrillMaster. There are so many people in the barra that don't sing and don't contribute I think it's a real problem. I'm sure there have always been those people but in comparison to TA it appears they have not just more members but many more members singing the entire game. Now, barra is 15 or 16 yrs old so it's difficult if not unreasonable to compare any new mls SG group to the original mls SG's but frankly I'm not sure it matters. RFK is no longer, if it ever was (pretty sure it was), a threatening or really impressive mls environment. Players, coaches, league officials talk about what teams have impressive environments and RFK just doesn't come up any more. Our players may say how impressive it is but that's just them kissing ass. Even if the barra are still the gold standard I'd prefer we act like we're not and stive to be better at everything we do.
TA is 10 years old, both were same size 7-8 years ago. People speaking of some golden age forget or don't know that back then Chicago was ruled mls, while tifo was an unknown concept in DC
I'm not a member of La Barra Brava but I agree with everything Grillmaster said. To me it seems a lot of people use La Barra Brava as a status symbol, and just want to look cool in the stadium. Hopefully that wil change at some point. PS...I refuse to acknowledge that there could be a Baltimore United.
The first four years of the Barra was full out balls to the wall support. No flags or tifo but packed sections an overhead banner(that Marco brought back from Bolivia for us) that covered the entire section and nonstop singing by everyone. It was badass......
I couldnt agree more with what everyone from dc has been saying, Ive been going to dc united games since I was 2 (since Im slightly older then mls) and growing up I was always TERRIFIED of the barra, untill my first game in the barra (bechams 1st game and jones's last) and the barra even since then has lost its feel of passion, support groups are a place for people to go crazy for love of team....NOT get shitfaced and make us stupid, and sadly the barra has taken a dramatic turn toward the second one, Ill always provide my undieing support for dc (or where ever they eventualy will move to) united. But as a life long fan I would say that those of us who have even been around the team since 96 would rather see a dc united game with 15 people in the barra who love the team then 100000 people who dont give a ******** and make us look like the group on the downslide like we are...I love united and always will but I think its going to be along time before the barra is back up top where it belongs. VAMOS UNITED!!!!!
Got back from Portland last nght. Great atmosphere. However, I was really disappointed with the Portland fans booing their team off the field at halftime.....
yeah that was wierd. I agree with grillmaster also on the food and kegs that people dont know where the barra came from with everyone a close family bringing stuff to share all the time, the family table has grown smaller through the years, a sad sight indeed.
Watching it on TV it looked/sounded like they were booing the ref for blowing the halftime whistle just as a Timber's player was entering the penalty area. Reading the Timber's forum, some of the TA were jeering some of the fans who were leaving early, that is the only negative fan reaction I have gathered from the game. Well, that and the fact that they are getting tired of Kenny Cooper's act.
I have always loved DC United and will always love La Barra brava... With that bieng stated up front I would like to add my persepctive: I have only been able to attend regularly since 09.. and I rarely miss a home game and have become a BB member.. I have met many good ppl and love the group for what it is but.. I have noticed something strange this year.. perhaps it is that I have been sober most matches..and while the soccer has been alot better.. some of the ppl who are either members of the Barra or who attach themselves to the Barra do not seem to be all that much interested in the soccer aspect (support wise).. it has now the feel of a Frat gathering... (Not good).. Perhaps I am just not looking at things correctly... but I do see a non hardcore element.. a casual attitude.. I mean it doesnt feel like even the Barra of last year.. Despite the fact that we were '62 Mets awful last year... I loved that Hard core supporters did come out... where is that sense or feelinjg this year in the Barra?? I will still come and I love the experience.. just making a comment...
The Booing @ halftime was towards the ref as he blew the whistle just as a timbers cross was going into the box exactly at the 3 minute mark. You normally give an attacking play that is underway a few seconds to play out instead of stopping play abruptly. The booing at the end was Timbers Army towards fans, mostly in the expensive seats leaving before the final whistle.
Oooh, is it time for our annual "the Barra used to be better/you people aren't standing or singing or contributing or drunk enough or too drunk" thread? I keep meaning to bookmark each year's thread to link to them, then I realize I can't be bothered. ::grabs popcorn:: Hint: no matter when you came to the Barra, everyone thinks their first year or two was the best and it's gone downhill from there. That means one person's "the Barra is a pale shadow of itself" is another person's "good ol' days".
This past version of this discussion is a good one. I'm just bummed that the picture from 9/2004 referenced in this post isn't up anymore. In case you've never seen it, it's of an at-best-half-empty Barra (135-only version) shortly before we won our last MLS Cup.
As somebody who was there and was booing, the booing was directed towards the refs as they were leaving the field. As soon as they were off and the Timbers began to leave the field, everyone was cheering. OP is obviously trolling. He may or may not be one of the Columbus fans that got removed from the TA section a few weeks back.
I believe there is a lot of truth to this; both logically and empirically, given the evidence from EdTheRed. I see no real benefit from thinking the days past were much better. I do think support could be better. More people can be singing. More songs could be sung. More people could be contributing to the tailgate. Maybe we can't or are not interested in replicating the accomplishments of other supporter's group be it in numbers, voice, tifo, etc, but let's not pretend their aren't aspects that can't be improved upon.