Wait ‘Til We Get to the Hills

Chivas Tifo from Oct. 11, 2008

Quick blog to keep any interested parties up to date on this weekends game vs. the Goat Shaggers….i mean Chivas USA.

We will continue this year’s pregame ritual of meeting at the Hungry Hound at 4:30pm (CHEAP BEER, I repeat, CHEEP BEER).  Remember to bring cash  since they do not take credit or debit.  The food there is awesome, it is definately worth checking out.  We will start our trek to the stadium at around 6:30pm.  If you plan on standing in our section, we highly encourage you to go to the Hound to get acquainted with the group, ask/say any questions or concerns, suggestions, etc.

And on to the game.  We are expecting roughly 200 Goat Shaggers…i mean Chivas USA…fans at this game.  All Earthquakes fans should be out in full force, shutting them down.  This is our home field, and it should stay that way.

The Goat Shaggers…I mean Chivas USA… is possibly the hottest team in the league right now.  But saying that, if we know anything about the MLS, it’s that never really matters during league play.  Will this game be tough?  Absolutely.  Can we win?  Of course.  Let’s get behind our Boys in Blue, rally them on, and now that we are behind them no matter what.

Man, o man.  What is there to say about this team?  I have to start by saying that the 1906 Ultras will always stick behind our motto…”Win or Lose, We’ll Always Be Here For You.”  But something needs to be done.  Airblair from BigSoccer pointed out some things that hadn’t really occured to me:

We’ve played 6 games, 4 at home. Those six games have netted us:

• one win;
  
• zero goals on the road;
  
• zero goals in the second half from the run of play;
  
• three shut outs against, none by us;
  
• and we’ve allowed 2 or more goals in four out of the six games.

This is not a forum, so I will not be going off on the rest of his post, which I have disagreements with, but the above bullets provide some insight.  During the preseason, we saw and were promised a better product on the field.  Ryan Johnson and Cam Weaver were a scoring machine up top.  A full year of Huckerby looked really bright.  A returning top defense.  Bobby Convey’s addition was exciting.  5 of our first 7 games at home…EASY POINTS.  And what did we get…well you read it above.  RJ and Cam haven’t seemed to keep that chemistry, and I really hope RJ gets over this injury he’s been having all season.  I am a lot more optimistic then some others may be about Huckerby.  To say he’s losing it is crazy.  The guy has a nagging injury and picked up a quad.  We let him rest and he will be back to old form.  Look at his assist vs. Chicago…pure class on his touch from Leitch’s long pass upfield.  The defense…wow…just wow.  I guess Jason Hernandez really was our Defender of the Year.  He are really missing him back there.  This is no knock on Kelly Gray and Nick Garcia, who are awesome guys and good players.  But there is something about the swagger we have in the back when Jason plays that makes Nick and even Denton play better (you heard me right).  Leitch has been the only brightspot of the year int he back.

What can be done?  It beats me.  We have the team.  We have the talent.   We’ve even had the performances…but we have hardly anything to show for it.  I think we just need to win another game.  Frank Yallop said it best, I think, after the Chicago tie, that we just need to grind out a 1-nil win to gain some confidence in our ability to hold a lead.

I know it may be hard, but right now is when our Boys in Blue need us, the fans, the most.  Get behind this team.  Cheer them on.  Get in the opponent’s head.  Do anything to help our boys win (minus punching some Chivas players…well that might be welcomed).  And so I leave you with…

HERES TO OUR BOYS

OUR BOYS IN BLUE

WE ALL SUPPORT YOU

TILL THE END

OH YES WE DO

HERES TO OUR BOYS

OUR BOYS IN BLUE

WIN OR LOSE

WE ALL BE HERE FOR YOU

———————————————————————————————

Big props to Troy Dayak!  Way to acknowledge that we (not just the Ultras, but San Jose fans) had a presence at this past weekend’s Seattle game.  To paraphrase what he said, “these guys are real fans for traveling to see the team.”  I believe he went on to say that the boys would enjoy that…not quite sure.  But either way, I’m sure the boys appreciated seeing some friendly Black & Blue up in section 203.

Big Flag

I was looking forward to my first Galaxy game since the Quakes reintroduction into the MLS.
All 3 of last year’s Colisseum games were all on some of the worst possible days for me, making
me never able to see the “Califoria Clasico”. So my excitement tank was on full going into the
stadium. The Ultras/Casbah connection walking into the staidum was electrifying. The chants
clearly heard by anyone inside of Oakland’s tunnels. Fellow fans looking on and enjoying the
spectacle.

The game was pretty good, performance wise. Unfortunately, the Boys In Blue were unable to again
hold onto the lead. We have all read the match reports, so I won’t go into a detailed description,
but I was happy with the effort. Pablo Campos looks better and better every outing, but isnt quite
there conditionally. We really missed Hucks out there, and Shea. And we have been missing Jason
Hernandez for the season so far. Lets all hope he gets back into the line up soon.

The game was only a fraction of what occured that night however….

I cannot describe in a single word how I, along with most of the group, feel about the Colisseum’s
security. Disappointment? Frustrating? These can both be used. Excluding people out of our
standing section because they have tix in another section, depsite our sections behind open to
everyone…ridiculous. Push anyone, including small children, in their path in pursuit of a pretty
innocent person…ridiculous. To almost allow us to not receive our tickets, meaning close to 100
less people…ridiculous. Ripping our banners away from us, despite their locations being well
within the rules (look under “Accepted Items”)….ridiculous. Hey! I think I found the word to
describe security!

Now I understand that the 1906 Ultras are taboo in American sporting supporters scene, and that
many don’t understand what we do. Let me reiterate what I said during my first post. We use
visuals and our voice to show support for the Quakes. We don’t do it to offend nor hurt anyone.
To restrict that is restricting how we support our team. We have the sense to know what is right
and what is wrong. And how we were handled in Oakland on Saturday night was absolutely not the
way to keep a crowd calm.

San Jose Earthquakes, we plead you to find another stadium for “big games” or keep all the games
at Buck Shaw. If not, then get the Raiders security staff. I attended a game a couple years ago
in which tensions were felt the whole game, and small incidents occured, but the Raiders security
staff handled it all very calmly and made sure nothing escalated. Props to them.

So how was my first experience at the Oakland Colisseum? Ridiculous. And I will never go back
there again.

If this post has come out in a weird format, please inform me. Thank you.

Sorry, last attention-hogging post for a while, I swear.  I’ve started doing a nightly round-up of under-the-radar stories over at Soccer By Ives called “SBI Late Night”.  With Jon seemingly getting the swing of things, expect me to continue to post intermittently, but definitely come find me over there as well.

LA sucks.