U.S. fans make their team feel at home
The strategic ticket sales by the D.C. United staff stirred up considerable discussion prior to Guatemala’s visit to RFK Stadium. United officials readily confessed that they sold as many lower bowl tickets as possible to U.S. Soccer, youth soccer state federations, Sam’s Army and their own fan clubs while trying to sell only upper deck seats to Guatemalan supporters. Some wondered if it was fair. Others predicted a more hostile Guatemalan contingent. Others praised the first concerted effort to make a U.S. venue a truly difficult place for opponents to play. In the end, the selective selling looked like it not only passed, but with flying colors – literally. Fans milling around the stadium beforehand could clearly be identified by the colors they wore. U.S. fans wore red and Guatemalan fans wore white or blue. Rival packs chanted on top of each other, but all had smiles on their faces. Inside the stadium, the lower bowl was about 90 percent red. Upstairs, Guatemalan flags flashed across at least 80 percent of the seats. And the good-natured battle of noise continued throughout the match. U.S. Soccer President Bob Contiguglia expressed his endorsement of the fans afterward. “I think they played an important part – you could feel their intensity,” Contiguglia said. “Particularly when we were a man down, the crowd came alive.” Contiguglia sounded open to the idea of using similar ticket tactics in the future. “We’ll do whatever we can to get the home-field advantage,” Contiguglia said. “We had to face it everywhere else; we should do it too.”
U.S. fans wanted to make sure their team enjoyed the support Guatemala had when it hosted the Americans in the Mazatenango.
D.C. Police said that only one man was escorted from the stadium and no arrests were made. A United official familiar with operations at RFK Stadium said 30 ejections per game were common when the Washington Redskins played there. The only ugly behavior, it seemed, occurred away from the stadium, where about 30 overzealous fans tried to disrupt the Guatemalans sleep at their hotel and tangled briefly with security. The attendance, 51,996, may have fallen just shy of capacity, but it was the third largest crowd for a qualifier in the U.S. and the players noticed. “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the Americans, they did a tremendous job,” said Kasey Keller, who had been critical of fans four years ago when Guatemala encountered a warm welcome at RFK. “We knew there were going to be quite a few Americans, we just didn’t know how loud they were going to be in comparison to the Guatemalans. We were really happy with the support we got. Obviously, it would have been better if it was 50,000 Americans rooting for America in America, but it’s definitely a push in the right direction.” Keller still referred to the 1997 qualifier against Costa Rica in Portland as the measuring stick for pro-U.S. crowds. “The Portland game still goes down as probably the most lunacy of American support I’ve ever been involved in,” Keller said. “It was a nice, loud crowd [here], but it was almost 50/50. When they would do something right, there’d be a cheer and when we’d do something right there’d be a loud cheer. Whereas in Portland, it was just constant mayhem every time we touched the ball and that’s what we’re looking for in Columbus when we play Costa Rica.” by Soccer America associate editor Will Kuhns.