Little England, Big Words: American Supporters Groups

by Tyduffy

There was a lovely little bit in BBC Sport 's Monday Football Gossip Column. The line reads "LA Galaxy have a collection of English style fans called the LA Riot Squad who sing terrace songs." It refers to the obviously "independent" position espoused by the apropos named English paper, which can be found here.

First of all, this shouldn't have been news in Britain. Had the papers taken the novel step and done "research" and "reporting" on the MLS to back up their extensive pontifications about MLS and Beckham's arrival, they might have realized that there are many so-called "ultras" groups scattered throughout the MLS. Most notably, these would include The Screaming Eagles and La Barra Brava for D.C. United, Raging Bull Nation for Red Bull NY, and Section 8 Chicago for the Chicago Fire. There is even a group called Sons of Ben already in place for the potential team to be placed in Philadelphia. Had any of these pundits who are worthy of being paid to impart their "knowledge" upon us taken the time to watch an MLS match they might have seen that there are passionate fans of the clubs, and that is fairly remarkable since the league has only been in existence for a little over a decade.

Second, these aren't "English-style" fan groups. Believe it or not, much of the American soccer community does not immediately look to England for influence or guidance. We have an Hispanic community of 45 million people, which already has a well established soccer tradition. There are also similarly rabid supporter examples scattered throughout Europe to draw upon, so why they are uniquely "English" in style is indiscernable. Perhaps it could be because they too are "a rather tragic-looking bunch of middle aged men."

However, there is a distinct difference between English supporters groups and American ones. There have been no reports of large-scale violence at MLS matches, aside from the isolated drunken skirmish. There have been no reports of gates being stampeded by ticket-less fans. There have been no fans trampled or killed. There are not thousands of Americans who need to check in at their local police station everytime there is an international match.

The American experience does lack the rampant intoxication atmosphere of matches in England, but at least American stadiums don't need to be patrolled like a police state with glorified lunch-moms making sure that grown men don't do something crazy like stand up. Perhaps, the English media should let their dulcit diction percolate in the brain for a bit before spewing sanctimonious shit upon the masses, but that would be expecting too much.