Everyone saw those reports: “American
Outlaws Seattle Chapter to Standardize Columbus Game”. Everyone thought this
was the end, AO Seattle would come in for every game, take over, tell you how
to chant, how to pogo, how to tifo, how to wipe your ass. Those glory days of
self controlled debauchery were long gone it seemed. You might as well have
just purchased a Rave Green Dempsey shirt instead of a Centennial one. The end
was nigh.
The Jump to Conclusions Mat was in full
effect. Whatever happened between AO and AO Seattle, we will probably never
know. Truth be told, I think it was real at one point and backfired on mainly
just the Seattle guys, who I actually like and consider a few my new friends
made in June. But standing up on the Capo Standing Area (would have killed for
like a stand or something...) on Tuesday night, it seemed awfully American up
there. We had guys from all over the country. My partner for the night was from
DC, and was a United fan, so we shouldn't have gotten along and had such a great
time.
There was only one AO Seattle member
that I’m pretty sure was involved, and it was that one capo that took control
of the microphone for a bit, yeah, you know the one I’m talking about. Mr. 3
Songs, the off tune nightmare. Pretty sure he was one of the leads up in
Seattle, where he was in a much better atmosphere turning local chants into
national ones, rather than taking the usual AO chants and trying to basically
remember them. But overall, the rest of the time, we kicked ass in the North
Bleachers.
Was there problems? Absolutely. The
sound system only worked during spots or not at all in the rest of the stadium.
The corner I was helping with didn't get any of the speaker parts at all, so I
was walking back and forth between NB1 and the corners for the entire first
half til I was exhausted and needed a nice water/sitting break at half.
Thankfully, the corner had some great capos in there that were able to get
their own chants going, but that led to the main stand getting all grumpy about
people not staying on what they wanted going on. The system fell apart fully at
about 30 minutes, when only entire stadium chants, like the Brazil related
ones, were the only ones to get the entire stadium on the same page.
Could we have done it differently? I
don’t think so. Everything was put in place to make it work. AO Columbus did a
wonderful job of working on the tifos with all the other local Crew supporters
groups. The stadium and staff worked well at trying to at least get a sound
system to keep everyone in tune with the main stand. We had some great capos
going in most sections, but would really
want to get more experienced capos in other sections, especially south stands,
next time, was a near disaster most of the time down there apparently. But I
can’t say I’d do it much differently if there was another big game at Crew
Stadium coming up any time soon.
Dos a Cero was already legendary before
this game, but it’s even more so now. US vs. Mexico will be there in 2017, no
doubt. Crew Stadium will either be there upgraded, new stadium, or another
stadium somewhere else in the city. But that game will be in Columbus, and
it’ll be another all American fun time, not just Seattle, but the entire
country. Don’t you fret.
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