Relevancy of Supporters12
Posted In Articles,SoB News
Photo Credit: Dan Gorman (via Flickr)
I often sit down to think about what I just watched and how I can make it better. In today’s time, news and information is so readily available, that by the time you read it, it is out of date. Why do I write this, because relevance is important to me as it should be to everyone. My pledge to you, the readers, is that I will try to keep my posts relevant.
I joined the Sons of Ben (SoB) back in 2009. Not for the cheap seats, but because I wanted to be part of something larger than myself. That something was The Philadelphia Union. The main part of professional sports are the spectators and what they bring to the game. If you do not think this is true, try watching the Union, Phillies or Eagles game on mute. It becomes very boring very fast. I knew that the SoB would be a factor when it comes to games played at PPL, and this was my chance to help my team.
I use to think that home field advantage was dead. In some sports, that may be true. In soccer, this statement could not be more false. When a professional team is playing on the road, they are hoping to come away with a win; a draw, however, will suit them fine. If you are playing at home, nothing short of a win will do. Soccer is one of the few sports where games can be swung by being either home or away, and that is where we, the supporters, come in.
What we do as supporters is bring energy to a game and give it to our team. Some can stand and cheer for hours on end, some are very vocal, and some just like to clap and watch. Regardless of what you like to do, there is one thing that draws us all to the game, and that is to support our team. The players feed off of the energy and we as fans like to think that they care more about the game when playing in front of us. This aspect is lost in some sports, but still thrives in soccer.
On to the relevance section of this post:
I wrote the above because there has been many talks of censorship with some of the chants we choose to use. At first, I was a little taken aback as there are much harsher things being said throughout the league. Then after I cooled a little and thought about it, there are things that need to be changed. As much as I like our goal kick chant, I like to think that we are smarter than the fans in other cities and see no need to use the same chant as they do. We do not need to curse to get our point across, and we can still be intimidating. We should use our brains to come up with something that we know will have more appeal to all fans at OUR stadium and that might get into the opposing keepers head. What that something is, I am unsure of…for now, but I have faith that something is in the works that will be better than what we are currently doing. Until that time, stand sing and cheer, our players need it!
I agree that something more original is probably needed for the goal kick; but I’ve got to say that YSA seems to have caught on throughout the stadium. For as much complaining as there seems to be about the vulgarity, the chant is echoed loud and clear in my section (127) and neighboring sections and it’s clear that fans throughout the stadium are shouting it. I think that while it’s probably possible to change the chant to something that would have a broader appeal, I don’t think YSA will go down without a fight.
And, while people may complain about the YSA cheer, it’s not like “a**hole” isn’t shouted from rafters to rink at Flyers games whenever a referee blows a call; so too at Eagles, Sixers, and Phillies games.
I’m looking forward to whatever new chant the SoBs develop and looking even more forward to putting my voice behind it.
You SoB’s in the River End do a great job; and make me proud to be a Union season ticket holder and an SoB – despite my never having been active. Keep up the great work as the MLS’ loudest and best supporters!
I am Eddie and I approve Matt’s message. Since when did Philly do what everyone else does? YSA is lame, weak, repetitive and not at all creative. In other words everything the Union and SoB are not.
I would say creativity is needed, for our free kick situations. I would also say that as far as the whole league goes. It is ok that we can “adopt” songs and chants from other leagues, but we really need to encourage creativity in this regard. Part of the problem is that many in the River End have little to no exposure to supporter culture. I wish there was some way to let them see some of the videos of other great supporters from around the world.
I have to admit there are a few things we do a games that I think are bush league – You Suck Asshole being one of them. It’s a USMNT chant that works because of the U Suck Asshole – USA acronym. It doesn’t really work in league play for the Union. But the whole stadium does it and it’s become a game as goal keepers try to hold the ball longer or stagger step to throw us off. That means we have gotten into the game and their head. I like that!
I don’t think anyone can take offense to any of our other chants. The only “f” word usage is in “come on you Union score a goal” and that is minor. I’d like to point out that the reporter complaining our use of the f word did so before we ever introduced that chant to the supporters section.
The only thing I’d like to see change is when we turn our back on the opposing teams names and yell “sucks”. Kind of a bit chrism in my view, but if the masses enjoy it, so be it.
Sorry – that should have been “childish” not “chrism” – stupid touch screen.
Uncle Wayneo – while the “sucks” part of the introductions is completely unoriginal (I’d prefer using different terms for each player: mediocre, lousy, blows, horrible, he’s okay, average, awful, and just plain laughter) (imagine, the entire supporters section laughing when a keeper is introduced) I really like the fact that the entire section faces the river when the opposing team is introduced. Just my two cents.
Now that I think about it, I don’t know how well laughter can be amplified, but if the entire stadium were encouraged to laugh at the goalkeeper on kicks, that might be fun; and might even get under his skin a bit.
I think laughter would piss them off to no end! Because you know they would be thinking about it… who laughs at sporting events?? It would really stand out!
Good thinking, Veritas1325!
Pretty much sums up my thoughts as to why I got into this game and this team.
Sometimes I think The problem with YSA is we do it better than every other team in the league and now we will get credit for it. I would like something else more creative and specific to Philly, but until someone more creative than myself comes up with it we’re stuck with YSA.
What I love more than anything about the Union games is that it feels like Europe. I don’t mean to be a Eurosnob, but I did live in Switzerland for four years and fell in love with the sports culture. Trust me what they say in Europe is much much worse than anything the Sob’s have said. There, the parents tell there kids, this is where you can curse and say whatever you want … and only here. I think we should adapt the same policy with all our sports before the experience becomes too cookie cutter and bland. I have been a die hard Philadelphia supporter from birth and will love the Sixers, Flyers, Eagles, and Phillies and now I am very proud to be a fan of the Union. This is the best sports city in the country!
Ask yourself what Ben Franklin would do? If you know much about this great man it would be much more original than being reduced to assh*** or F***ing goal. We can and should do much much better. Don’t make this a comparison with Eagle’s fans or any other fans including other soccer fans, we are unique we are Sons of Ben. Set the bar high and unique like Ben would. Leadership sets the tone, if the Sons of Ben set a tone of better cheers the others will follow. Soccer in this country is and should stay a family sport. Simply put, I have stood in various sections of PPL including the River End, it needs to be cleaner for folks to have their children and themselves enjoy the game.
I agree with the uncreativity of the YSA chant and that we can come up with something better, we have some brilliant minds amongst us. I have created some chants/songs myself that are original, have gotten some good feedback on them too, I just don’t know how to get them integrated into our routine. We need some more chants, so we don’t repeat “come on the U” or “philadelphia”/ others 20 times like we do currently. I know it’s a work in progress and will be for some time, and with all of this said I watched the chelsea-wigan game this weekend and the attendence at the DW stadium was barely 14,000 people, for a team that’s been in the premier league for 5 years. We get over 17,000 every game. This shows how good the SoB and Union supporters really are,now it’s time to work on taking it to the next level, thanks for listening… or reading i suppose
I recently had a friend attend a Union game w/ his grandchildren. I asked him what he thought,and the first thing he commented on was the vulgarity. He said, “My son lived in Munchen for 5 years and never heard that kind of language at the matches.” I can’t testify to that first hand, but my wife is from Rostock and she said that she can believe that supporters in Germany wouldn’t be that crass. Of course, Philly is Philly but attendance is an issue in this league. I would hate to have people feel like they can’t bring their kids to a match because of language. If this league is going to grow and pass the test of time, we need the young kids to grow up going to matches.
I’m torn on it. The City is who the City is. You can’t change Philly. We should be creative and original and “YSA” is well over played, even if we do it better than everyone else.