February 28, 2001 Columbus Crew Stadium United States of America 2 Mexico 0 Allegedly, some people were cold. You couldn't prove it by me. I got so sweaty and overheated I had to remove my hat and unzip my coat about ten minutes in. Of course, I might have been a little wound up myself.
Roma vs. Parma Italian Cup three summers back. I didnt even go their for the match, but my tourguide had 4 tickets from his father for his birthday but the poor guy was forced to work or he lost his job. So me and a friend were walking around in roma and dcu kits and the guy was like hey you guys want to go to the match, i can go if I tell my boss im showing some kids around during free "tourist time". So we were like hell yes and we got another kid together and we went to the match. It was in rome and there were the most flags and voices i have ever seen and heard in my life. it was deafening and beautiful. Amazing.
US-Mexico 2001-The Cold War: Me Too. I remember how all the American fans stood the entire game, even those in the upper decks.
Re: Re: When they stop the traffic in Europe. Yep, with a Portuguese buddy from college and we were sitting with a bunch of depressed Portugal fans. It was priceless!
Yeah that was pretty high on my list as well. Germany 1-5 England in Munich is also up there. Club-wise, probably the time we beat Sheff Wed 1-0 at Hillsborough in the Worthington Cup. P.S. It was Colin Hendry, not Lee
Four games stand out for me. Gillingham 2 - 2 Man City (Wembley 2nd Division Play off final - 1999) - This game was agony and ecstasy. I have never celebrated a goal as much when Man City equalised at the death. Went bananas and I remember falling down a row of seats and not caring. If you've ever seen a MPEG of the goal you can see the crowd celebrating as a huge pulsuating mass. The atmosphere at extra time was something special too. Blackburn 1 - 4 Man City (Ewood Park, 2000) - We needed to win this game to get promoted to the premiership. City took simply thousands upon thousands of fans to Blackburn that day. I think there were 7000 fans in the away end, and probably another 7000 in the other three Blackburn stands - oh yes, and about 1000 fans on a hill overlooking the ground and around 2000 in the pubs around the stadium. The singing was something special and I remember singing "Lets go *#*#*#*#*#ing mental", to see it catch on. You gotta love spontaneous chanting, beats the choreography efforts of other countries. Blackburn 2 - 3 Man City (This season at Ewood Park, 2003) - We won this game and went top of the league. We were singing all game, the noise got louder after Tarnats rocket shot and we took the p*ss big time at happy clappy Blackburns single chant. Man City 3 - 1 Man United (Last season at Maine Road, 2002) - Need I say more? Waited... So... Long... for that result.
USA vs Honduras WCQ 2001 I'm surprised that no one has mentioned USA vs. Honduras at RFK for WCQ. The upper bowl was blue, the lower bowl was red (also with some blue ). I was one of the few US fans stuck in the upper bowl. During the game several US fans pleaded to sit in our section because they were afraid of the Honduras fans. Although it was a tense setting, I remember that when the US scored its 2nd goal and had a chance to come back, some of the Honduras fans were actually trying to get us to cheer louder and support our team...good sportsmanship. That was Sept 3. A few days later was Sept 11....bad week.
For sheer emotion, I'm not sure anything can match the US v. Jamaica match in October 2001. The most patriotic I ever felt during a soccer game, and I'm sure most of the crowd felt the same. Other great ones: Milan-Inter from March 2002. Crap game but the atmosphere was ridiculous. San Jose-DC...first MLS game. See above. MLS Cup 2003...first time I've seen any of my sports teams win a championship live.
USA vs Honduras world cup qualifer at RFK and USA vs Jamica world cup qualifer at RFK When the U.S. played against Jamica...i thought i was in Kingston...sad hardly any USA fans.
1994 WC Chicago, Soldier Field: Greece vs Bulgaria. 11 years old, first experience at any sort of international match. Im half Greek and I went with my dad who doesnt like soccer but wanted to see Greece. Ill never forget how they introduced Bulgaria first and they only had two small groups of supporters but when they introduced Greece, the whole stadium went nuts. One huge Greek flag was unfurled a few sections over from us, it was great. The game quickly got out of hand. Within the first 10 minutes a Greek defender fell down in the box and his hand went right on the ball. Game was over right there. The best part of the game was when some fat idiot in front of us was making fun of Greece and this old Greek lady stood up, came up to his row and yelled at him in Greek. He turned bright red trying to hold in his laugh and said he got a stomach ache he was laughing so hard after she left. But that did shut him up! The game wasnt all that great but just since it was such an experience, I am a little impartial to it.
- I haven't been to that many professional games, but of the ones I have been, the best was Sweden v Poland in Stockholm June 2003, World Cup Qualifyer.
Western Conference Championship Well, I'm a newbie, I've loved soccer for a long time but just recently, due to the world cup of 2002 gotten into the whole idea of a pro league here in the US. I've only been to three games so far, because Spartan is such an arduous drive, but my favorite so far was the SJ Earthquakes v. KC Wizards Western Conference Championship from November. Missed the LA game the week before, but this game was great. It was my first time sitting with the supporters group. Sang and chanted the whole game through, and had the perfect view of Donovan putting the stake through their heart in OT. I've never been part of one single event that caused more excitement in a group of people like that. I was at MLS Cup 2003 as well but the game seemed to be almost over as soon as it began, so the atmosphere was never anything like the game the week before. It's the first time I've seen any of my teams win a championship at all. I wasn't a fan yet in 2001. Try rooting for the Vikings and the Kings, it's a hard knock life for us.
Wow. best match atmosphere ... 1994 WC. Two games in Orlando. Mexico vs. a bunch of bright pink Irish. And The sunburn square-off between Holland and Belgium. The in-game and post-game atmospheres were outstanding. More Guiness flowed in the Church Street bars on those gamedays than had in the last 5 years! 1996 MLS Cup. DC v. LA in Foxboro. The Nor'easter and the Pope. Bad weather always seems to bring the best out of the fans that stick it out. 2000 Euro Championships. Rotterdam. Holland v. Yugoslavia. The Dutch again! Well, they do know how to party. The 6-1 schooling almost made you sympathize for the small bolt of blue in a great sea of orange. Rather Oranje. I think I even saw Queen Beatrix singing along to "Always look on the bright side"! 2000 Euro Championships Final. Rotterdam. Italy v. France. Italian heartbreak. French Triumph. You could close your eyes and feel the ups and downs of the game.
mine may seem weak compared to others but its growing. 4-3 Riverhounds vs Rhinos. Down by 3 in the 77th minutes. end the game 4-3. The shock of the Rhino fans faces. the joy of the few Riverhound fans actually watchign the game. We didnt stop singing we were outta breath, thristy, tired, sore, it didnt matter. ** NOTE:I wasnt at the game I chose this one game to miss so i could catch 2 DC games. what a mistake. I came back to the hotel after going to a DC game and had so many missed calls. I called all my friends and spent the rest of the night jumping up and down chanting the DALEOOO song i had just learned from Barra Brava. Great night USA vs Paraguay in columbus- My first nats game and (not accidently?) said to be one of the best crowds noise wise. I was so pumped. The Confetti, noise, jumping, drums, streamers, all the red it was just awesome. probably 85 minutes of singing. I was so tired and sunburt but kept going. My sister threw a streamer on the field after a goal and had Kasey Keller throw it back at us. Just a wonderful game and i will make every qualifyer possible.
England vs. Scotland Euro 1996 at O'Donohue's in NYC. Ireland was playing later that day in NYC so the crowd at 8 am was 1/3 English 1/3 Scotish and 1/3 Irish And yes the Scots were wasted already. And yes the Irish supported Scotland. So it was: "Ess See Oh! Tee El Ah End Dee!" over and over again. But 1/3 of the bar went home happy. Ipswich vs. Southhampton 1982 - a night game when Ipswich beat table topping Southhampton - featuring England captain Kevin Keegan. Beat them 5-2 and Alan Brazil scored all 5. And the One That Got Away - Ipswich vs. Bolton in 2000 Division one playoffs. Ipswich were 20 seconds going out, Magic completes a hat trick, we win, 5-3 onto glory. People were running along the roof of the executive boxes. Dad and brother say it was the best ever. I was stuck in Bangladesh following via. BBC.Co.uk. MLS - DCU vs. Tampa Bay in the first season. Raul Diaz Arce smacking 2 goals in five minutes. A crisp fall night, big crowd, the top best teams in the league, and the stands bouncing up and down. Lovely! That USA vs. Jamaica crackled as well!
USA vs Mexico 03 in Houston (Reliant Stadium). Very good atmosphere. Horns annoying but loud. World Cup 1990 Argentina vs Yugoslavia (0-0) PEN: 3-2 --Maradona misses penalty kick in regulation; goes on to win game anyway World Cup 1990 West_Germany 1 - 0 Czechoslovakia -- Germans had a lot of flags and a lot of beer Exhibition game 1997 United States vs. Jamaica 1 -1 tie -- The Jamaican fans were nuts -- We literally thought we were going to have to fight our way out of that crowd
good ol days Esteghlal Vs Perspolis in IPL's (Iran's league) last week a couple of years ago. 128,000 male fans half supporting the blues(SS) half supporting the reds(PP) swearing and yelling at each other using horns bigt and small their fists and off course their mouths! IRAN Vs Australia's first leg in tehran had about the same amount of fans but it was one sided and the 1000 aussies didn't put up much of a fight, they even celebrated as Iran scored!