Monday, July 21, 2008

This is What MLS Needs


More fans like those of the Columbus Crew. Yes, the Crew should have a better name and yes, Columbus is kind of a strange place to have a professional sports franchise, but the fact that they have rowdy fans who were willing to fight with West Ham supporters is just great. I'm not really in favor of violence but it is good to see an MLS team have loyal enough support to pull this kind of thing off. And in a friendly, no less.

Obviously West Ham is a better club than Columbus and showed it in their 3-1 victory. But I'm happy to see a club outside of Toronto or Washington have an engaged fan base. The only gripe I have in this case is that there were only 9000 folks in a 22,000-seat stadium. Against a top flight English side? Come one Columbus. Ohio State's season hasn't even started yet, you have no excuses.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Columbus used to be the only place that sold out their stadium. What happened?

Anyway, glad to see that the remaining fans are hardcore enough to fight unruly brits. However, it's easier to beat up some west ham fans in Ohio where their soccer firm (hooligan gang) doesn't exist.

Nevertheless, I like there gumption.

Michael Orr said...

haha, I love the use of gumption. It is a favorite of this blog.

But yeah, nice move on the part of those Ohioans to go 100 strong against like 30 West Ham guys. Though perhaps those are the odds that are required for American 'hooligans' to defeat their English counterparts.