Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

Okay...I've hemmed, hawed, dawdled, procrastinated and otherwise delayed. But here it is, a full two weeks after the game...an actual account of...well...THE GAME.

First off, I was still operating on MST (God's own time zone), so I woke my tired body up at around 8:30 and stared at the ceiling for a while. This meant I didn't actually stir until after nine. I wandered into the living room where Brittany and Catherine were. With a quick shower and all, we wouldn't leave the house until nearly ten. We'd surely miss the tailgate and our only opporitunity for food at the expense of Monty Rodrigues and company.

I had brought extra Rev jerseys for Brittany and Catherine. Brittany wore the Red colared 1998 jersey; she said it looked more "Butch." Heck, I don't see it, but whatever. We had cvonvinced Catherine to wear my old 1996 jersey, but she was apparently turned off by the ring around the colar. Instead, she wore the blue practice jersey that Brad Feldman gave me the day before. I wore the 1997 game worn Leonardo Squadrone jersey. Yep, Squadrone.

We arrived and found a parking space a bit after eleven. I brought my melodica. Hey, works for Roller Derby.We looked around to see if we could catch the Midnight Riders tailgate, instead we spotted a small group led by HooverDam, who informed us that the tailgate had already broken up.

As we got to the gate, I spotted a guy with a Greg Lalas Tampa Bay Mutiny jersey. I would have asked if it was game worn, but well, you know...

Anyway, I get to the gate and the two security geeks told me that I could not take my melodica into the game, as it is a "noise maker." Apparently, "musical instruments" are okay, but a melodica is a "noise maker."

So, let me get this straight: drums, cowbells and tamorines are "musical instruments" and allowed, but a free-reed 18 key instrument is a "noise maker" and not allowed.

I was thinking of saying, "Hey, it is good enough for Tucson Roller Derby, I think your little pissant operation can handle it..." but thought better of it.
Bastards.

I had to take it back to the car. I turned to a guy next to me and said, "Can you believe this shit, they won't let me take this in there."

"Man, I can't believe that."

Turned out, it was Eddie Pope.

The walk back to the car meant that I had to walk into the stadium behind Houston fans. Oh, and some DC United fans holding signs that said "We hope both teams lose." Funny, that's usually how I feel when DC plays...

Anyhow, I made it into the stadium and found some spots pretty close to the field in the section taken over be the Midnight Riders and the other thousand or so Revs hardcores. Brittany and Catherine were further up, but I motioned them to come down, since there was room. The guy standing next to me entrusted me with his Rev banner. He is the guy that markets those tricorns with the soccer balls that you see at Revs games, as well as the "Patrihat," which is the same basic idea with a football that you see among Patriots fans.

Of course, our great spot didn't last long, as a couple of guys said that they paid for those seats. There is an "open seat" policy for the Fort, but it is hard to enforce that at other stadia. Brittany and Catherine made it up to their seats, but I managed to stay down there. The two guys that took the seats, by the way, were quiet and barely cheered throughout the game.

We Rev fans met this game with a lot of hope. I myself had attended two "cup" matches that New England participated in: the 2001 US Open Cup and the 2005 MLS Cup. Both games went into overtime and resulted in Rev losses. In fact, three other Rev cup appearances were losses in overtime. Oddly, Matt Reis was present for all of those games, either as a Rev, or on the bench for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

So, this is why we cheered a bit louder than necessary when Taylor Twellman scored. See, not only had the Revs not been beaten in regular time, they hadn't scored in regular time in all those previous cup appearances. In the back of our heads was the idea that Twellman scoring, along with the Open Cup victory over FC Dallas, may finally be the thing that snapped whatever boogieman was riding on the Revs' shoulders.

I had no breakfast, and I wasn't at the tailgate. At halftime, I had so get something to eat. Unfortunately, I found out that RFK is not the place to do that. Despite there being nearly 39,000 people in the stadium, the managers of RFK only opened about half of the concession stands. Not only that, after waiting twenty minutes in line, I got to the register and found out that there was no food. Yep, they'd run out of hot dogs, soft pretzels, chips, everything except popcorn. I believe that the word for the people who made these decisions: "F*cktards."

In the meantime, Brittany and Catherine had found me and told me that they were leaving early. They told me they would talk to me about it later.

In line, I talked to a couple of members of the Sons of Ben, the Philadelphia supporters' club. There is no team in Philadelphia. No MLS team, and the closest USL squads are the Reading Rage, Delaware Dynasty and the Ocean City Barons. No matter, guys we have a fan club! I asked what they would like to call the team when they get one. Suprisingly, the guy said Philadelphia Athletics or Philadelphia Field Club, both of which call up names from decades ago. It would be like New England calling itself the Boston Wonderworkers or Fall River Marksmen.

Anyhow, I found a concession stand that wasn't only open, but had...concessions! Unfortunately, this enterprise was taking so long that I was surrounded by orange clad yobbos when Joseph Ngwenya scored his goal.

As I made my way back to the seats, there was still orange smoke hanging in the air from the Houston fans' celebration. Yeah, melodica: not okay, smoke flares: okay. Once again: F*cktards.

(Also, souveneir stands only sold DC United merchandise and generic MLS Cup t-shirts. And not enough of them either. F*cktards.)

Despite the goal, the Rev fans were still singing and enthusiastic. There were a few good chances, but the Revs were struck by the bug that has been afflicting them for the past month: all offense seemed to go through Twellman. Houston, unfortunately, actually watched a few Rev games and seemed to know this.

Also unfortunately, Houston had a second guy. Ngwenya got caught up more than once, but round about the 79th minute, he passed the ball to Dewayne DeRosario who slipped it past Reis. Gawdammit.

The Revs were already noticeably deflated from the first goal. Now, we fans were deflated. Maybe tense was a better word. Meantime, the Sons of Ben, who were behind us, had switched allegiances and were now cheering for Houston. I couldn't hear them anyway.

Sometime in there, the whistle blew. Reis did his customary tossing the gloves to us. The one thing I can say is that the fans didn't seem as disappointed with the team as they were in 2005.

At least it wasn't in overtime I guess.

Disturbing Post Script: As it turns out, Brittany and Catherine left early because of the fans. Catherine is from France and said that some of the catcalls and epithets thrown around by the fans in the upper rows of our section reminded her too much of the hooliganism that she saw back home. The fact that some of these fans got into a near ruckus with the Sons of Ben after the game seems to bear this out. One guy, apparently, liked to fart as a way to cheer. There were also fans who shouted racial epithets and the word "faggot." Given the demographics of the security staff, it probably wasn't the best idea to throw the "n bomb" around. Given Brittany and Catherine's lifestyle, displays of homophobia made them less than comfortable. The folks in the row where I was were potty mouthed, but they were also focused on the game. The two of them didn't get that sense about these guys. There were also folks with kids that left too.

It makes me a bit reluctant to invite friends to sit in "The Fort" next time I go to a game.

Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

# posted by Tedski @ 7:37 AM