My seat by NRG Photos on Flickr.
A través de Flickr:
Block C, row 13, seat #1. This is where I sit (and sometimes stand) and watch the home games of my local soccer team, SV Darmstadt 98.
A shade of blue, by Boca del Pozo, supporter group for Club Sport Emelec. Estadio G. Capwell, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Photo: Xavier Romero. Via StadiumDB.com.
Affiliated North American supporter groups to the Independent Supporters Council (ISC) have been marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (March 21st) over the past month with displays on a Show Racism the Red Card theme.
Last night, Section 8 Chicago - the Independent Supporters Association for the Chicago Fire - extended that theme and unveiled a large banner celebrating Chicago and the Fire’s diversity in general. The message, of course, implies a strong opposition to discrimination of any kind but especially homophobia; the Fire’s opponent yesterday was the Houston Dynamo, whose midfielder Colin Clark was serving a suspension last night for his recent anti-gay slur made to a ballboy at an MLS game.
The banners read: “Our City, Our Club. Our Diversity, Our Strength.”
The severe weather made displaying the banner at Toyota Park very difficult - a major thunderstorm caused the game to be delayed 10 minutes in, and it was later abandoned after 66 minutes - but it just about held up. The pictures above also show the making of the banner, which took a total of over 200 man hours by supporters at four builds during the previous week.
XI Reader Survey
Help make a new North American soccer magazine better.
Fill out the XI Reader Survey, and be entered into a prize draw to win a year’s subscription to XI Quarterly - one lucky reader will be selected on May 2nd 2012, the day the XI Kickstarter drive ends!
Yesterday we wrote about the very very first North American Soccer League, oft-forgotten. Top scorer in the first season of the first NASL, 1946, was Gil Heron, a Jamaican-born immigrant to the United States whose prolific goalscoring earned him a trial at Glasgow Celtic. He won a professional contract and moved to Scotland - shortly after the birth of Gil Scott-Heron in Chicago - becoming Celtic’s first black player.
Gil Heron. Wearing the hoops of Celtic Football Club.
A morning Kickstarter drive update for you - help launch a new North American soccer print magazine. XI has raised $3,627 so far and needs $7,373 more to hit the $11,000 target. If that target isn’t reach, XI doesn’t receive a cent! Please reblog and pledge anything you can, $2 is the starting point for some special XI rewards.
More info on pledging: http://kck.st/H51kHc
yourweeklyfootballhistorylesson:
Paulo Roberto Falcão helps out with Internacional’s stadium construction.
The Minnesota Stars unveiled their new and very unique kits for their 2012 NASL season today. The away kits heavily feature references to the Stars supporters group, the Dark Clouds. Showcased are the groups logo, motto and amazingly enough, photos of the group themselves! The club has truly embraced their supporters in a way few if any other clubs have. They even feature photos of those evil and awlful things, flares and smoke bombs.
Photos by Brian Quarstad and Jeremy Olson – www.digitalgopher.net via IMSoccer News
Champions of the Portland Association Football League, 1908. From The Oregonian, December 26 1908.
It’s day #4 of the Kickstarter drive. Remember, XI needs to hit that $11,000 target within the next 27 days or not a cent will go towards starting the magazine. So please keep spreading the word and be a founding supporter of a new North American soccer magazine!
You can help by reblogging this and sharing the Kickstarter link: http://kck.st/H51kHc
Across MLS this past weekend, supporter groups affiliated to the Independent Supporters Council (ISC) arranged Show Racism the Red Card displays.
