(First written August 24th, X)
With the success of the World Cup in the United States this year Soccer was very much on everybody's mind. The sport grew in popularity over the Summer and was truly embraced for a few weeks by the whole country- it felt magical and really reignited my passion for the sport. The thing I enjoyed most about the tournament though was seeing the atmosphere in the stands, even when not supporting their own nation Americans made every game a party atmosphere and it truly was the party of the Summer. These crowds peaked my interest and I began to wonder if this was how regular American Soccer fans supported their teams- I had a real desire to find this out.
During the tournament I happened to spot a post from the MLS notifying the public of their Leagues return after the World Cup, now I had lived in the United States for around fifteen years by this point and honestly I had never once considered watching an MLS game- it was of no interest to me. I followed Aston Villa religiously and I had been a fan of the sport for over thirty years but for some reason the MLS did not resonate with me and I have no way to explain that- I just wasn't interested at all. Well I saw the post by MLS and I saw passionate fans and I wanted to be a part of that, I wanted to feel as though I was part of a community again, so I asked a simple question- if I want to follow an MLS team who should I support? The feedback from fans all over the country was incredibly overwhelming and I even had some official accounts from clubs reach out to me to plead their case. After a lot of discussion with MLS fans online I decided to follow Columbus Crew. I currently live in Michigan so it is accessible for me to attend games and myself and my wife were already trying to move to Ohio so it just made sense. Plus all of the Crew fans that reached out to me were super supportive of what I was wanting to do. It was a no brainer, this felt like the team for me. I started watching games as soon as they started back up and decided I would order a ticket to a game to go and experience it for myself- that game was the Montreal game that was played in Columbus this past week and man what an experience.
The experience for me can be split into two distinct different categories for the purpose of this article, the first is the game on the field and probably arguably the more important aspect of the two. Now I have experienced English Premier League games countless times in my life and honestly this was not that- but I also did not expect it to be. I went into the game with an open mind but I was already aware that the standard of play is not the best. However, it still felt like an authentic game and in my opinion it looked as though both teams were playing for the win. I see a lot of anti MLS people who completely disregard the league as serious because of the level of play and honestly that is ridiculous. If you go to see Columbus vs Orlando and go into it with the mindset that you are about to watch Barcelona vs Real Madrid then you are simply setting yourself up to be disappointed. With that said if you go into it expecting to see a fun game of soccer and understand that some of these players will make mistakes- then you might actually enjoy the game. On this particular day Columbus lost the game 2-1 and for any fan that is disappointing. We only scored due to an horrendous goalkeeping error and that is becoming a theme of the league, but in a league that tends to be about development and moving on that is to be expected. To summarize, MLS is not to the standard of top leagues around the World but it does not make it any less of a legitimate game of Soccer and I personally found the game a lot of fun to watch.
The second part of my MLS experience is the part that excited me the most and that was seeing what the atmosphere would be like actually going to the game but to best explain this I need to give you a little bit of background. I suffer with a disability, I have very little feeling in my right foot, I walk on a cane a lot of the time and I suffer with fairly debilitating anxiety also, so going to the game was always going to be a challenge and because it was about a 5 hour drive I took my wife to Columbus as a safety net- she would not attend the game though that was all me. I managed to get a hotel on the same street as the Stadium and it was a mile and a half away. I looked up the ride share drop off so that my wife could drop me off but it was so busy that we could not find it- she ended up taking a side street and I simply hopped out. This left me about a fifteen minute walk to the Stadium- this was manageable. I reached the Stadium and it looked immense- it felt like my first walk to Villa Park all those years ago and that is a feeling that is hard to replicate- I already felt a great pride at being there. When I first got there I was nervous and did not even know how to correctly scan my ticket but one of the staff assisted me and that would become a theme of my evening. Next I visited the club shop, I was already lucky enough to obtain a limited time towel when I walked in the Stadium but I wanted to purchase a souvenir for my first game- I settled on a Crew mini soccer ball. After that I did the most English thing I could do- grabbed a beer- I drank that and then decided I would look for my seat. I found my section but as I got there a young lady on the Crew's staff would ask me if I needed some assistance, I ended up talking to her for a while and explained that it was my first game- she then proceeded to tell me some information about the stadium and the history of the famous Nordecke stand- I took in every word, thanked her and headed to my seat. As luck would have it my seat on row 20 was at concourse level behind the goal so I did not have to try and navigate my natural nemesis steps, it could not be more perfect. My anxiety was a little triggered by the height but once the game got going I barely noticed. A short while after finding my seat the same young lady came and gave me a pin which said My First Crew Match- this felt special so I pinned it to my hat.
Once I was in my seat I decided that I would check my messages on X and to my surprise there was a message from the Official Crew account asking where I was sitting because they wanted to meet me. I felt this was odd but I responded none the less and what happened next absolutely blew me away and was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. A few minutes later I was greeted at my seat by a representative of the club, he informed me that people at the club had been following my story and they wanted to properly welcome me, he presented me with a gift bag that had a scarf and hat in it- a gesture I am very grateful for. The young man told me that he also had family in Battle Creek where I live so he appreciated my drive. That moment will stick with me forever, see I am nobody special, just an ordinary soccer fan who wants to experience the feel of the American game, I wanted to be part of something and already the Crew feels like family. A lot of people say that MLS clubs are not real clubs and they do not care about the communities they are in or the people that fund them- this could not be further from the truth. Columbus Crew and their staff genuinely care about their fans and they try to give us the best experience that they can. They did not have to do what they did for me, watching the game and being there was enough but they chose to do it- that is what makes a club feel authentic- a sense of community that we can take pride in.
All in all for me I had a great night out at the Crew, the play felt authentic to me, as some people have questioned the authenticity of the league- it felt like there was something at stake but maybe that is just the fact that when I follow a team I have the passion of wanting them to win every game- there is always something at stake- pride. The experience does feel a little corporate but that is simply the way teams have to be run in the current economic climate- cash rules, I get it. The experience on a whole is very Americanized but I truly believe that is what makes the experience unique. Fans in the Nordecke banged drums for the whole game, we had smoke and explosions, fans were prompted on a screen to get loud and cheer (that is very American) and surprisingly it created an atmosphere and I could hear the passion of the Columbus fans. I did not speak to many people as my anxiety sometimes overwhelms but I did observe and I saw true soccer fans cheering on their team- a feeling I had missed for years and I loved every minute of it. These were my type of people and Scotts Miracle Gro Stadium already felt like home. If you are a soccer fan like me or you just got into it due to the World Cup I would certainly recommend checking out an MLS game for yourself- it was a great experience for me. Maybe it is not for you and that is OK too but it is always worth checking it out and the Crew now have a fan for life. I will be back to the Stadium for a game as soon as I am able.