Where You Play We Follow : The Whitecaps Fan Experience In Seattle

As we all know, and as most of us expected, Saturday’s Cascadia Cup clash between Vancouver and Seattle at Qwest Field went off without too many problems.

Paul Barber praised the travelling Caps support for their behaviour and efforts and Seattle police told Prost Amerika that they were happy with how things played out off the pitch and would have no objections to greater numbers in future if that was what the clubs agreed.

We bemoaned the draconian pre and post match logistics that had been put in place for the travelling throngs. It was a never win situation for the fans. If no trouble happens, then it’s because these rules were laid down. If there is trouble, then it’s a case of “I told you so” and the rules would just be tightened, if we got any away tickets at all.

Whereas the Portland Timbers gave the Timbers Army their ticket alloction and they followed the rules set down by the book, the way the Vancouver allocation was distributed meant a large number of Whitecaps fans flouted these rules and without any problems whatsoever.

Those that travelled down on the Southsiders and Uniglobe buses were at the stadium for the two hours before the game as demanded.

Those making their own travel arrangements, myself included, arrived when they saw fit and many mingled pre-match in the pubs and restaurants around Qwest Field with no reported incidents. There was friendly banter all round, and this was to be the theme of the evening.

I was personally travelling up from the Oregon coast and didn’t get to Seattle till 6.30 and then into Qwest just after 7. No one cared as I wore my scarf proudly walking up to the gate. No one cared when scanning my ticket or as I walked around the non away support area to get some pics.

You know, how football should be.

If you treat people like animals, you get altercations. If you let people behave with civility, you get a friendly atmosphere, outside of those 90 minutes on the pitch of course, when it’s just pure hatred!

Inside the stadium, security were respectful and clearly understood what was taking place and how to handle issues. There were a few minor issues to tackle and from what I saw, they handled these in a manner which could teach the security at Empire a thing or two.

They didn’t poke us. We didn’t prod them.

Some Seattle fans tried to, as we did to them. Verbal banter really is part and parcel of football. I’d have liked us to be even a bit closer to some of them to get the verbals going properly. Ah how I miss the old days of the sergregation fence at the fitba in Scotland.

It was hilarious getting pelters from the inbred looking ginger kid and his clan when Seattle took the lead, only to give it back to them full pelt seconds later. I thought his little red head was going to explode!

There was also some good oral jousting on the way out of the stadium, with the Seattle stragglers being held back to let us out.

Security were trying to get us out as quickly as possible, but if you’re going to prevent people from taking a piss whilst they’re waiting, something that really has to change next time, then of course there’s going to be a mass exodus to the toilets when we get the opportunity!

Most of us knew we were getting held back and the Southsiders, pretty much to a man and woman, respected that. Others either didn’t know or didn’t care and just wanted out.

It didn’t help when those on the bleachers were allowed to leave and those in Sections 100-102 weren’t.

A number of women pleaded their case to go to the toilet unsuccessfully. Others pushed and a woman at the front was reduced to tears after some pushing and shoving and some apparent punches were thrown. This was the only real shambles at the end of it all though.

My only other real gripe is that it doesn’t help anyone’s cause to have some home fans above the travelling support.

After Hassli’s wonder equaliser, Whitecaps fans were showered with beer and flying bottles from those Seattle fans above them. It doesn’t bother me (I’m from Scotland, I’ve had worse), but it isn’t really acceptable. Plus you just know that if it had been the reverse there would have been an outrage and the threat to reduce or stop away fans ticket allocations.

We were pleased to see that our pre-match fears as to what kind of Caps crowd and atmosphere would be at Qwest were completely unfounded. We’re big enough to put up our hands and say that we mis-read what was going to happen.

Turning the section into one of general admission helped of course and forced everyone into standing. It was great to see. From what I’ve seen of the television coverage, the section looked and sounded great.

Let’s hope we can build on this both at Empire and on the road.

The Southsiders flags certainly made a difference and the player two sticks were simply magnificent and full credit to everyone involved for those.

There’s been some discussion about the amount of people at the game wearing Canucks jerseys. We simply have to face facts that the Canuckleheads are the number one sports team in the city and will be for the foreseeable future.

People can wear what they want to games. I’ve worn other club tops to Caps games in the past and will do again. I think it’s kinda stupid to wear another sport jersey to a football match but there you go. I wouldn’t dream of wearing a Caps shirt to a Lions or Canucks game, but that’s me.

Not a huge issue for me. What I did find very disappointing though was the amount of Canucks songs being sung. FFS, get a grip and support the team on the field that you’ve paid a lot of money to watch.

When the Sounders fans started chanting about Boston. I thought it was sad as it was a completely different sport altogether. That was when I naively thought we were chanting “we want the Cup” meaning the Cascadia Cup!

We clearly still have a lot of work to do to win over some of the support. Chanting for your local hockey team at a football match, especially an away one, is particularly sad as far as I’m concerned.

It is what it is and it is what we make of it and on Saturday, we made a great appearance at Qwest Field.

The passion and rivalry was great to see. It’s just a pity that we don’t have many games close by that would allow us to take this kind of travelling support every other week.

I can’t wait for next year’s trip already. let’s hope we can go down in even greater numbers. And of course, there’s still Portland to come!

Mon the Caps.

** See AFTN’s Flickr page for our photos from the match **

Awaydays

We’ve mentioned this a couple of times before in the blog, but one of my big bugbears about watching football in North America is the lack of opportunities to follow your team away from home. As someone used to watching their team week in, week out, home and away, it’s difficult to be reduced to only be able to go to home games.

For me, part of the whole football fan experience is cheering on your team in opposition territory. There’s nothing like it. The expanse of North America and the costs of travelling prevent the every game home and away culture from taking hold, although those fans that are making some trips in a season have to be admired. Vancouver to Puerto Rico for a Sunday day out isn’t really an option though!

After the disaster of trying to take in my first Vancouver Whitecaps away game down in Portland in May (see blog entry on May 30th), I finally popped my away game Caps cherry on Thursday night in Portland.

A 625 mile round trip, 17 hours of travelling, a two and a half hour delay to get through the border on the way down and a 1-0 defeat for the Caps, was the story of the trip. It was worth it though. You have to take any opportunities you can to take in an away game.

The trip down was made a bit more special by being the official transporter of the Cascadia Cup. It’s not every day that fans are entrusted with such tasks – just ask the US border guards!

The Cascadia Cup is a trophy that is played for each season by Vancouver Whitecaps, Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders. It was started in 2004 by supporters of all three of the Clubs and is awarded to the team with the best record against the other two teams over the season. Vancouver won it in 2008 and this season’s Cup was all dependent on the result of Thursday’s game.

The game itself saw Portland secure the Cup with a 1-0 win, thanks to a first half goal from Ryan Pore after 30 minutes. The goal came from a quick Portland counter attack after Martin Nash was dispossessed in midfield and Pore did well to turn and run on to score, despite Wes Knight’s best effort at keeping the ball out on the line.

It was a pretty evenly matched game with Portland hitting the woodwork and Jay Nolly producing a string of fine saves and Vancouver looking to have scored an equaliser from Marlon James that Timbers goalie Steve Cronin produced a fantastic last ditch save to keep out.

A draw would have seen Vancouver win the Cup, and get a much needed league point, but it wasn’t to be and at the end of the game we handed over the Cascadia Cup and you could see what it meant to the Timbers Army.

It was quite a surreal experience walking around the pitch and handing the Cup over to the Timbers Army representatives, but with the mutual repsect shown by both sets of fan groups it is one I will remember for a long time.

It was a great experience down at PGE park. It’s a bit of a weird ground to watch the game from, as it’s primary use and design is as a baseball stadium, but if all the necessary redevlopment is approved then come MLS time in 2011, it’s going to have seating in a U-shape I believe, as opposed to the current J-shape of the stands. Hard to explain, best to look at a picture of it all! (CLICKY).

The beer garden that takes up the area beneath sections 118 to 123 is fantastic, with the old fashioned looking bar underneath the stands a nice addition but one we were told might be disappearing with the renovations, which would be a real shame.

So what’s it like being an away supporter in the States? Well we found it a good experience. It reminded me a lot of East Fife’s trips down to Berwick. Before the game, sharing a friendly beer and good natured banter in the pub. During the game the hostilities commence, and boy is it a hostile atmosphere for opposing teams and fans (I enjoyed all the boos and abuse as we walked round to our section with the Cup mind you). After the game, more friendly banter and beers in the wonderful The Bitter End pub, although that might just have been because Portland won!

It’s the way football should be and it’s so good to see fans over in North America that get it. I wish there was more. The game needs real rivalries. Not ones that end in clashes and police, but ones that create a huge atmosphere.

I have to say that in my 30+ years of watching football, that’s the friendliest welcome I’ve ever had as an away supporter from a home support. Never had so many people shaking my hand in all my life!

All this friendliness might not be the same when Seattle are in town! I knew the Timbers fans hated Seattle, but with every single person I spoke to mentioning it, it’s a lot more deep rooted than I ever imagined. It’s REAL hatred on a Celtic-Rangers, Liverpool-Man United level.

Then of course that brings us to the Timbers Army. I’ve seen and heard them on TV but until you actually experience them at a game, you just don’t realise how large and loud their numbers are.

It might not be the most popular thing to say if you’re a Vancouver fan, but to me, the Timbers Army are the best fan group, at the present time, in all of North America. When you consider their numbers at USL level it’s impressive. They sing and bounce non stop throughout the game and are loud as hell, although I do have to say that the layout of the stadium means you can’t hear a lot of the actual words at the other corner of the ground but you know they’re there!

Seattle fans have gone the way of Toronto fans in Canada, almost claiming that they invented the whole fans supporters section in the US. Their support of their MLS team has been impressive, but where were they all in their USL days?

The Timbers Army and us Southsiders are here now and will only grow. What the TA can grow into is a phenomenal prospect though, although they may be limited in growth potential by stadium restrictions. Whereas Portland will be doubling their fan base in two years time, the Caps will be quadrupling theirs, with the prospect of more.

Can the general Vancouver public match the noise of the Portland, Seattle and Toronto ones though? I have to admit that the jury is out on that one a present. Until the big kick off in two years time we don’t know what type of fans these extra 15,000 will be. Singers or sitting on handers. The Vancouver public are very visibly vocally restrained at the various sporting events I have attended. One thing that is certain is that the Southsiders will grow in numbers and that’s all that matters for the group to flourish.

I’m told that in the NASL days, Vancouver used to take around 1,000 fans over the border and down to Seattle and Portland and vice versa. If we ever get into that position again it would be fantastic and the atmosphere would be electric. There was around a dozen of us this time around, but about three times that many back in May when it wasn’t midweek.

I have real fears though about how that would even be logistically possible today. The transport infrastructure and horrendous border crossing queues are going to be a nightmare. I would urge everyone to make sure they have a Nexus card to ease it a little. It would be fantastic if they could even put on “football special” trains like the old days in England. What an experience that would be.

A more rambling blog post today than usual I know but it’s thoughts I just had to put down in print. Despite not getting home till 5.30 the next morning, the trip was worth all the hassles and disappointments and I can’t wait for the next chance to follow the Caps on the road.

Awaydays. You cannae beat them!

*** Photo’s of AFTN’s trip can be found on Flickr HERE ***

I Went To Portland And What Did I See? Absolutely Nothing.

Today was meant to be a milestone day in my part as a Vancouver Whitecaps supporter – my first Caps away game.

I’ve touched on this on the blog before, but for me, an essential part of being a football fan is the ability to follow your team both home and away. Following a team in a continent as vast and varied as North America makes this an impossibility on a regular basis unless money and time are no objects.

There’s nothing like an away game. You sing that little bit louder, you shout that little bit louder and there’s just a great feeling of watching your boys in the opposition’s patch, hopefully, coming away with the three points and sticking the fingers up to the home support (metaphorically speaking of course!!).

The fans that have made the journey are like a special little club. I hate to use the term “real fans”, as there are many reasons why many true supports can’t watch their team away from home, but inwardly we all feel that way.

My days of travelling all over Scotland watching East Fife have been fantastic. Seeing all the grounds, the towns, the pubs and social clubs. There really is nowt like it.

We’ve been lucky that we have such a great and vocal travelling support that put many a bigger Club to shame. Remember how many we took up to Aberdeen in the Cup this season on a Wednesday night. More than most SPL teams outside the Old Firm and when the Dons fans started singing to the Dunfermline fans in the next round as to how we brought more fans than them, well, that was special!

Supporting Vancouver (or any number of MLS or USL teams) is not that easy in this regards.

There are two Canadian teams in the USL, ourselves and Montreal, and well, they couldn’t really be much further apart really! We lost our closest away game, Seattle, to the MLS for two years, so that leaves Portland as our nearest rivals and our best shot at an away game and they’re over 5 hours away plus horrendous border wait times that can be another three hours on top of that.

With Portland gaining MLS entry along with ourselves in 2011, we have a lot more years of continued rivalry to come with the Timbers and two possible away matches within semi easy reach.

There was a bus load and some cars heading down from Canada for the game today. We were here already, checking out the beautiful Oregon coast and beaches. Unfortunately my car completely died just before I had to head back from where we were to the motel and then leave. By the time Triple A came out to fix it, it was too late to catch the whole game as Portland is nearly 2 hours away from where we are staying. Aarrrggghhhh.

I decided the head through anyway and got there in time to see the end of the first half, in theory, but the city was at gridlock and there were no parking spaces ANYWHERE so I just had to head home again after trying to find parking for 50 minutes! A long way to go for fuck all!

I ended up listening to the game on the radio and with Portland getting five figure crowds and the Timbers Army being one of the noisiest supporters groups in North America, it sounded like a cracking atmosphere.

Vancouver played pretty poorly and they lost 2-0, so perhaps missing the game was a good thing after all. Still a right pain in the ass though.