Sounder-down-under: Being an “Away” fan
by Drew Dickson
I watched the highlights of the Sounders match against CD Olimpia, and the scoreline aside, I had a few questions that I am going to put out there for all to have a discussion about.
Towards the end of stoppage time we saw a penalty awarded to the Sounders and a great deal of time wasting employed by Olimpia’s side. Not startling, I would not put it past any team to try and salvage a point on the road by stalling around. But what happened after Brad Evans buried the shot has me asking a few things.
Ask anyone who has seen a match overseas and been an away fan what their experience has been, and one thing they will immediately tell you is, you sit in your own section. Now, this might seem like a given to anyone who has watched the EPL or any other league on TV, but it appears this is not as big of a thing with the MLS.
My first away match might have been the reason I am ardent about away fans being asked to sit in their own area.
I went with Turkey’s Galatasaray supporters to an away match. Galatasaray has a reputation of flares. Their former home stadium the Ali Sami Yen, had so many flares going off that combined with the yellow and red home stripe, it was given the nickname “Hell” which the fans have taken as a badge of honor.
Sir Alex Ferguson recalled it as one of the most intimidating places Manchester United every played at in 1993. That match ended in a goalless draw and a truncheon across the head of Eric Cantona. A UEFA Cup match there against Leeds saw two Leeds fans stabbed to death. I was expecting most anything and the knowledge of what a Turkish prison might have in store for me did play a few times in my head as we made the trip west.
To start off, we presented ourselves to the Away fan entrance and were escorted into a holding area before being taken to our special section of the stadium in Edrine to watch the game from a small sliver near the corner flag encased in chain-link fences and barbed wire. I was unsure if I had entered a stadium or was about to compete for the WWE’s Intercontinental Title in a cage match.
We were searched by armed policemen before we entered. My friend had told me that this was going to happen before we got to the stadium, so before that happened I finished off my water. We could not enter the grounds with anything that was deemed a projectile. Men surrendered their plastic lighters, any cans of pop or bottles of water were put into a recycling bin next to our Away entrance, and anyone with a bag had all the contents inspected. We were able to keep our house keys (the police assumed we would need to get back into our homes at the end of it all), cell phones (and this was the day of the solid Nokia’s, not a frisbee smartphone), and our wallets.
Before the match, we had a single attendant come down the aisle and offer us water and sunflower seeds (yes, you can buy beer in Turkey but they were not going to waste any on away supporters). The water came in the same small container that you get on a plane. Makes sense, we could not throw those with any accuracy. Once we had been watered and seeded, the attendant left and that was the last we saw of him.
Now to the game. Despite having been searched on our way in, any time a corner kick was taken near our end by the home side, a squad of five policemen in riot gear with shields would make a protective phalanx for the player taking the corner to make sure we had not snuck anything in between the front gate and our seats.
Afterwards we had to wait for the rest of the stadium to leave before we were allowed out of our confined area and filed our way back to the train station.
Now, I know that Seattle and the MLS are not the same thing as Turkey.
Despite the fan fighting between rival New York fans recently, there has been little fan violence (see my previous article about fan/ethnic violence). However the last USOC game where the officiating staff needed protection and trash was dumped on the pitch shows that we are not all innocent in Seattle either.
Combine the sense of injustice that cards bring (perceived, justified or artificial) with a bitter rivalry and you get tension in the stands. With that in mind, I would hate to think that Seattle needs to institute a tunnel for the protection of players and officiating staff. Cascadia is still Cascadia.
But I do question how any smoke bomb at the Brougham End brings down security like sharks to blood, but the Olimpia fans seemed to have a plethora to light off. It did seem like a double standard.
I also question why the Sounders front office has not done more to make sure away fans are with other away fans. It can not be too difficult to tell anyone who sells tickets at the front of the stadium that anyone in opposing fan colors gets a ticket in a specific section. And as I work in IT, I know that it is easy enough to edit a webpage to note that change in policy.
That said, do we really need to tell visiting Whitecaps fans they are unsafe if they sit next to American family at a derby game?
But as the fracas started after Brad Evan’s foot-cannoned the PK into the net, this all occurred in front of a large contingent of the visiting fans. Security and stewards were no where to be seen from all the highlights and goal angles I have been able to find. Was anything thrown? No.
Do we need riot police to protect anyone taking a corner kick from either home or away fans? No.
Would it be easier for security to have all the away fans in one area for their safety as well as enforcement of Century Link stadium policy? Yes.
Will we see Sounders supporters who make the trip to Honduras sectioned off in their own special section for the next Champions League match? Yes.
The events at the Open Cup game should remind us never to be complacent. Passions run high at soccer and we never want fans to become like theater audiences.
It is a tribute to those Olimpia fans that even while suffering a controversial loss aided by a sense of refereeing injustice, as well as watching their players and coaches react poorly, they retained their sense of proportion and propriety.
Let us not assume it will always be so.
