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soccernet.espn.go.com wrote
Fans clash as West Ham beats Crew 3-1
July 20, 2008
A halftime brawl between more than 100 fans marred an exhibition match Sunday between West Ham United of the English Premier League club and the MLS’ Columbus Crew.
The fights, which overshadowed West Ham United’s 3-1 win, began when a handful of West Ham supporters, some wearing the team’s claret and blue colors, entered the northeast corner of the stadium where the Crew’s most boisterous supporters typically gather.
Crew supporters began directing chants toward the rival fans, and fights quickly broke out between more than 100 Crew fans and at least 30 West Ham fans. Columbus police officers and Crew Stadium security staff eventually separated the groups.
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Fans clash as West Ham beats Crew 3-1
By: dredd
Related Posts:
MLS has similar numbers to the SPL also.
There is diving in all leagues of soccer, it’s part of the game. You are right about the Italian league though, lots there. I’ve been a referee and a player, you can tell when someone is diving. Sometimes people dive on top of getting fouled to make sure they get the call.
Most referees and soccer buffs will always talk about the sprit of the game. There is a reason why there are only 17 laws (rules) for all of soccer. They lay it on the Referee to uphold the integrity of the game. Just some officials are bad :D
An FYI for those more interested in soccer.
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/federation/laws_of_the_game_0708_10565.pdf
“Well that, and comparing MLS to Serie A is like comparing NBA to womens high school basketball “
Crew attendance comparing to a euro league is awesome, but not the final benchmark. A superior on-field product and extreme profitablility on the back end is the ultimate goal. The reason for Serie A being superior (in addition to about 100+ years of existence!) is the legacy of passion amongst its supporters. Which turns into demanding trophies. Which attracts money and fifa ranked superstars. Resulting in a better product. It’s a snowball of growth. MLS will get there if they keep attracting passionate supporters. It will just take time.
Also, it would help if Burlesconi (sp?) owned the Crew. At one point he was president of AC Milan, had a huge stake in Ferrari and was the Prime Minister of Italy. Now THAT’S a stylish scandal! Like when are the Crew players going to get their own Dolce & Gabana calendar [url]http://eng.dolcegabbana.it/calcio/dgcalcio.asp[/url] or model for Armani? [url]http://www.giorgioarmani.com/pressRelease/pressDetail?prid=71&year=2008%20%20%20%20&language=EN[/url]
hahah What’s the Crew equivalent? Frankie Hejduk wearing Dr Mojo? :D
Point is, it takes a LONG time and you need passionate fans. And traditionally, the hard core fans are a lil rowdy. So love ‘em and market your ass of to ‘em.
(full circle thread! yes!)
I agree with you about the Buckeyes, but I think over enough time people will care about both The Crew and The Jackets. It takes a lot of time to build up a sports fanbase, and both of these teams are relatively new. And including the population growth Columbus is projected for, new fans are still coming to the city.
True. I once heard somewhere that it took the NBA 19 years before the average attendance hit 10,000 / game.
And then you start getting fascist salutes and racial taunting.
You can’t seperate micro-local, city, regional and national politics from the passion for most European clubs. The appeal beyond a narrow geographical area of a Barca, AC or ManU is a very recent phenomenon.
I want to see soccer and a passion for the game grow here in its own ways and not be measured against European standards nor import European issues.
A.
For our league to compete for the top players in the world, we will be compared and have to compete with the European leagues.
This is also why the MLS has been talking about and are changing their rules as to how you can get foreign people on the teams now.
They are slowly realizing this, or at least acting on it. For the MLS to continue to grow they need to start introducing stars.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2008
Been going down the last three or so years…
I don’t follow – you don’t think the crappy on ice product has anything to do with fans not flocking to Jackets games? You honestly think Cleveland would have supported the Jackets any better, considering the level of putrid play since the team’s inception?
How did Cleveland do on Cavs attendance before Lebron arrived? I’m guessing they were in the bottom half of the league too, before they started winning.
Winning cures everything, regardless of city. Jackets attendance will go up when they win.
And then you start getting fascist salutes and racial taunting.
You can’t seperate micro-local, city, regional and national politics from the passion for most European clubs. The appeal beyond a narrow geographical area of a Barca, AC or ManU is a very recent phenomenon.
Couldn’t agree more. I do not want to see violence or racism (especially!) make its way here. We should not strive to introduce religion or politics into our league. No one wants to have the problems of a Rangers-Celtic darby, but the passion is amazing. (Notice how the Galaxy is the pretty pop star team and Chivas is almost exclusively marketed to the hispanic population? MLS is not trying to start a race war in Los Angeles, but give certain teams a distinguishable flavor. It’s even how they allocated the original superstars that agreed to try the new league out.)
I was just citing the growth model that (in my opinion) will be necessary to make MLS teams a worldwide brand like AC Milan and Man U are. They started as public clubs around an ideal or religion and eventually lost most of that strong association as the years wore on and after almost 100 years went public and started global marketing. They were able to do that because the brands were so strong domestically.
The diversity of the league (being so new) and teams themselves will never be an issue – we have no foreign player restrictions and nor do most european leagues anymore. Really you can’t find 11 guys from one village, who go to the one church in the village playing for the village club team anywhere on earth. (There’s like no english players on half the EPL teams it seems.)
So it’s about building the TEAM brand. Whoever is on the Crew (African, South American, Asian, whatever) won’t really be the team’s identity in the modern game so the Crew will never be a Catholic team or a Republican team. Right now what’s most important is that we CARE about the team we support. An intelligent, connected, and imposing fan base is what attracts attention.
A.
American soccer does have to be its own thing – but on a national team and league-wide level. Which is why Clint Dempsey being a bad boy from a bad area of texas and rapping on his commercials, but holding his own in the EPL is awesome to me. Let’s shed the soccer mom crap and show that these are AMERICAN soccer players that don’t fit in the elitist prep-school suburban nancyboy mold that this country and others have bestowed upon them for 40+ years. Our team will be sons of immigrants, hispanic, european, punks, b-boys, all american farm boys, etc. We encompass every american walk of life, but all share the fact we are intelligent about the game and can hold our own with anyone. This diversity is an asset (even on the field) and is surely going to be part of this new image of American soccer, but that’s more of a National team issue.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2008
Been going down the last three or so years…
I don’t follow – you don’t think the crappy on ice product has anything to do with fans not flocking to Jackets games? You honestly think Cleveland would have supported the Jackets any better, considering the level of putrid play since the team’s inception?
How did Cleveland do on Cavs attendance before Lebron arrived? I’m guessing they were in the bottom half of the league too, before they started winning.
Winning cures everything, regardless of city. Jackets attendance will go up when they win.
I completely agree on the Cavs attendance pre-Lebron.
As for teh NFL, teh NFL is such a desired commodity that most games are sold out for all teams. The Browns have the 7th biggest stadium in the NFL and actually fielded a winning team last year. It really isn’t rocket science to determine how they ended up with top 5 attendence numbers.
Blah blah blah.
Who’s found pictures?
Who’s found pictures?
tim, the art thread is on another page – this is the sports section. hahaha.
all i found was some high school football style fight footage. I think the whole incident is pretty damn tame
(comparatively speaking) after seeing this. The police were on it right away. We didn’t even make SportsCenter. The Argentine league always makes SportsCenter. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0atjiNzkaMo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-nbFZJYVn4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhFRsSKfgZ4
Frankie seems more like a shredded Scorpions concert t and Levis guy to me :-)
Frankie seems more like a shredded Scorpions concert t and Levis guy to me :-)
haha. he’s more of a surfer dude. i’m willing to bet he hightails it to cali immediately after the playoffs.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2008
Been going down the last three or so years…
I don’t follow – you don’t think the crappy on ice product has anything to do with fans not flocking to Jackets games? You honestly think Cleveland would have supported the Jackets any better, considering the level of putrid play since the team’s inception?
How did Cleveland do on Cavs attendance before Lebron arrived? I’m guessing they were in the bottom half of the league too, before they started winning.
Winning cures everything, regardless of city. Jackets attendance will go up when they win.
Then do I need to reference the fact that Columbus is the only team in the NHL never to make the playoffs?
Meanwhile Minnesota, a team that came in with Columbus, has been in the top third in attendance consistently.
And they also built Nationwide Arena incredibly small also. Limiting what could be done with it, if it wasnt doing low end NHL games.
I know you love bashing the Blue Jackets and Nationwide Arena, but…
Meanwhile Minnesota, a team that came in with Columbus, has been in the top third in attendance consistently.
And they also built Nationwide Arena incredibly small also. Limiting what could be done with it, if it wasnt doing low end NHL games.
Wha….? I thought I already referenced the fact that Columbus has never made the playoffs – which I pointed to as the reason for the lower attendance the past couple of years. What does Minnesota have to do with Columbus? They’ve put a winning team on the ice, hence their attendance is higher.
Also, 18,136 capacity for hockey is “incredibly small”?
You confuse me.
July 21, 2008
By chance, I happened to be saying hello to a friend on the concourse near the smoking area/stair landing at halftime. I moved to the rail above section 101 just in time to see the West Ham fans’ intrusion in progress. When I got to the rail, a very big guy, shirtless and tattooed, had just been met by security and he and his buddies were being pushed backward up the aisle. Video here (for now).
I saw the big guy and his cronies get escorted to the smoking area, although I also talked to some of them later. They had not been ejected.
I also saw a lot of the Crew fans who were in the supporters section move to the top and out into the concourse, where other West Ham fans were among the halftime crowd in line for concessions, heading for the restroom or just milling about.
About this time was when the first punches were thrown in the concourse area and pepper spray was used. Police and security were intermixed with the crowd, and they were able to keep things from getting too out of hand.
Two groups of West Ham and Crew fans had a moving scuffle heading south on the concourse. Security had gotten between them and a pair of police officers was in the corridor with them. A West Ham fan was not deterred, however, and while being pushed backward by security he threw one more punch.
He was taken down – hard – by a security guard and during his struggle he was pepper-sprayed by police, who quickly cuffed him.
READ MORE
Shawn Mitchell is the Dispatch beat writer that covers the Crew. In my eyes, he’s one of the good guys over there. His reports are always interesting and even handed.
He does editorialize more in his blog postings than he would in a news report, however I don’t think this detracts at all from either, but in fact adds value to both his news writing and blog posting.
He did have the scoop on this story by being at the right place to see it all go down..
Wow, even the Guardian’s blog has picked up on this story:
With indifference, possibly, or exasperation, or perhaps a vague sense of national shame. I deplore violence, and indeed chiselling pre-season tours, and yet … oh God, why must a small, unbiddable part of me find it impossible to stifle a laugh?
I am not proud of this part. But there it is, knowing full well that such face-offs are boneheaded and unpleasant and especially pathetic at close quarters, yet still giggling at news that a West Ham fan explained the incident thusly: “We just went over for some tea and crumpets, and the [Columbus Crew fans] got mad.” Pepper spray and a police helicopter ensued.
The pepper spray and Airwolf cameo have been deemed a preposterous over-reaction by the jumpy hosts – but perhaps we’d better start with the facts. On Sunday, as part of their pre-season tour, West Ham beat the Columbus Crew 3-1 after some trouble flared in the stands at half-time. Reports say it is unclear who started it. But you may find yourself working on a hunch.
According to Ohio police, the showdown was between 100 Columbus supporters and 30 West Ham fans. Talk about Light Brigade statistics. Columbus never stood a chance.
:lol: