Alas, here is the long-awaited follow up to In the Streets. After leaving Frederick, our trio headed South toward our final destination of RFK Stadium. In our limited spectator experience, we have found it much easier to travel by metro, rather than drive all the way into that part of town and secure parking (which is not cheap!). We arrived at Shady Grove station, where we loaded our SmarTrip or fare cards.
And now we settle in for our ride downtown via the red line with a change to orange or blue all the way to Stadium/Armory and hence, RFK. We arrived downtown in time to actually experience some pre-game tailgaiting, which we had been unable to do on our previous weekday ventures to the United games. First, we have to walk down to RFK and then around to Lot 8, where all the support group tailgates occur. That's Art on the far left and Colleen to his immediate right, with RFK in the background.
After a quick stop at the Barra Brava ticket trailer where we procured our tickets and received our free team scarves (it was free scarf night!), we ventured onward toward Lot 8. Little known fact about soccer fans - they wear scarves. Scarves are a big deal in European soccer and are most usually utilized in a cheering fashion, rather than wearing. But, we wore our scarves for now. As we approached Lot 8, we are greeted with lots of fanfare.
There are lots of cool little tables and things for kids and adults alike and on this occasion, even a live cover band playing all the 80s classics. We ran into Linda and her husband (Linda plays for another FWS intermediate team, the Crushers) and apparently just missed Jaime Moreno, who was venturing in and out of supporter groups to hang out (he was out of the game with an injury). It took a while, but we finally came upon the Barra Brava tailgate. We quickly directed ourselves to the community food table and enjoyed some burgers and chips.
Then, it was off to the stadium to scout out some decent seats, far from the inevitable beer throwing and possible smoke bombing. Luckily, tonight's big attraction would be tossing streamers at kickoff. That sounded much better than three days of smoke bomb-induced allergy suffering! Tonight's game actually honored many of the local children's teams before the game. This clearly explained the masses of children in soccer jerseys all over the metro!
It was really neat to see so many children who are passionate about my favorite sport, as well! Finally, it was game time. Of course, they threw streamers ahead of time. And then some. And eventually, at kickoff. So, the streamers flew!
I'm going to add a few game shots. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good night for the United and the game ended in a 3-0 loss. It was Colleen and my first experience with a DC loss, sadly. There are also a few shots from the halftime moshpit, which was more substantial than in previous games, with a higher attendance by Barra
Brava members.
Come back soon, friends, for my favorite fall happening, the Apple Harvest Festival.
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