Whose Rival Are We Anyway?

Earlier tonight, while cleaning out my desk, I found a disc with the Sporting 300 Chicago away game from earlier this season. I hadn’t actually watched any of the game since the next morning in the hotel, so I thought a nice refresher to the reasoning of why I dislike the Fire and their fan base. Which got me thinking (rambling) of MLS rivalries/derbies, or lack of said true rivals in the league? Just takes one look at the list to see how ridiculous they are.

There are a few that make sense, such as the Superclasico between Chivas USA and LA Galaxy, the only true derby in the US. A few others aren’t local but in the same region to hate each other, like Real Salt Lake-Colorado, FC Dallas-Houston, and the Cascadia Cup between Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle. And then there are the utterly pointless cups like the Atlantic Cup between DC and New York, and my personal favorite, the Trillium Cup between Toronto and Columbus. That’s right folks, a rivalry based on the state/province flower of Ohio and Ontario…

There are also a few unnamed hatreds between fan bases, Philly and New York come to mind. But what about us? Who are we really supposed to hate out of everyone? This isn’t like baseball, where we can instantly hate St. Louis for the usual inferiority complex reasons, or the history of the Chiefs and their AFC West rivals. Sporting KC really has no one, unless you start looking at recent results.

Chicago looks to be the easiest to be our rival. Closest in driving and flying distance, their lack of true rival (don’t give me that Crew and Brimstone Cup crap with Dallas as rivalry), and our history against them. This year alone, we went up there and their fans treated us like crap and threatened us, then their team came to the grand opening of our brand new stadium, was rude to local fans nearby, ruined the night with some of the worst soccer I’ve ever seen, and of course, the guy in the cow suit. Simple as that, it is quite easy to hate the Fire, especially since they only know one word.

Columbus and Houston are another two options. Distance is about the same, quite a bit farther away than Chicago. Main reasoning for the dislike is how their fans have treated us. I’ve heard plenty of stories of how we were treated on away games in Columbus, and Houston, we were told to just stay away from their fans to avoid any issues. Not to mention the booing of Aurelien Collin throughout the SKC game in Houston earlier this season after he was fouled by the Dynamo players twice, fouls bad enough to have said two players sent off. That moment, when he scored the equalizing goal in stoppage time, stunning and silencing the crowd, was priceless, enough to warrant strong dislike of Orange Boys of MLS.

DC United, strike that, Handball United, the self appointed “greatest team” in MLS history. Seeing that fourth star above their crest bothers me every time. That hand ball, that second missing star above our logo, the stealing away of the potential double, that right there is enough to hate them.

My last candidate is probably the one I hate the most as of recent events however. We were the first team to beat them in their home, the supposed Mecca of the best supporters in the MLS, the inventors of chanting and singing, that was sadly followed by two years in a row of stoppage time farce goals away there. They came into our house on August 6^th 2011, and they returned the favor. They gave us our first league loss at home, by another stoppage meltdown, after Omar Bravo was sent off and our boys decided they were done with the game in the 88^th minute. That’s right, I hate the Seattle Sounders more than anything.

I know their big rivals are supposed to be Portland and Vancouver, that’s great, I love the Pacific Northwest derbies. But they don’t respect us, their supporters have been negative to us, things happened in our own club after the game, one even had some words with me out in our lot, nowhere near where their cars were parked. I almost hope, if we do make the playoffs, that we meet them again. I want us to win against them when it truly matters, what will they say then?

But to be quite honest, our location and lack of big name talent, attendance, and support til the last few years has hurt us in the rivalry department. But I’m glad we don’t have a manufactured rival like some of the other teams. I’m glad that the league is to the point where things that happen on the field can determine a true rivalry, results that to the eventuality of a true rival like the Raiders to the Chiefs. On that day, when there is someone who equally dislikes my team and myself for supporting the team, I’ll be right there across from them, saying things that I would regret outside of those 90 minutes.