Philadelphia is a pit of sporting passion – it just needs to find its soccer identity
October 27, 2023

Sunday afternoon under Route 322 in the southern suburbs of Philadelphia and the waning sun has reduced walking speeds to a pace usually found in art galleries. Football fans are congregating here, several hours before their Major League Soccer team face a bellwether match against the best team in their conference. It is Philadelphia Union vs FC Cincinnati and the mood is… polite.

The Sons of Ben supporter group, named for Benjamin Franklin, are throwing this gentle pre-game party. At kick off, two hours from now, they will occupy the River End at Subaru Park, the purpose-built home for their team in the shadow of the Commodore Barry Bridge into New Jersey. This is a significantly milder tailgate than its NFL equivalent. A DJ plays impatiently-mixed bangers exhorting listeners to put their hands in the air. A topless, shoeless painter is working on a 10m banner while a man in the Union’s away shirt carries something in a holster which should terrify anyone who sees it. A megaphone.

Inevitably this year’s main topic in American football (and let us switch now to “soccer” to avoid any further cultural misunderstandings) has been Inter Miami. The arrival of Lionel Messi will do that. Yet there are more established fanbases around the country, particularly in the northwest where the MLS teams of Seattle and Portland are especially popular.

Philadelphia has some catching up to do. Overlooked when MLS launched in 1996, it took until 2010 for the Union to play their first fixture. Their first nine years were largely undistinguished, but the team has now made the playoffs for seven in a row and has a reputation for developing talent. Manchester City’s Zack Steffen, Leeds’ Brenden Aaronson (on loan at Union Berlin) and Sheffield United’s Auston Trusty have all come through the club’s youth academy.

This Saturday the Union play the New England Revolution in the first game of a best-of-three playoff series. They have an outside chance of winning the whole thing and came close last year, losing to LAFC on penalties after one of the most exciting matches in MLS history. And yet the sporting weekend focus of their city, perhaps understandably, will be a regular season NFL game between their Eagles and the Washington Commanders.

Philadelphia is a sporting hotbed with few American rivals, but is it a soccer city yet? “It is,” says Don Smolenski, president of the Eagles and part of the city’s leadership group which bid successfully to host World Cup games in 2028. He points to the sold-out opening match of his team’s 67,594 stadium in 2003, between Manchester United and Barcelona.

We speak on the turf ahead of an Eagles game. “It would have been interesting with Miami and Union recently playing, if that game could have been played here. I think the passion of the city would have shone through.” But it may be years before soccer becomes the main attraction. “When the World Cup is here and the attention will be on the World Cup, the city will listen, engage and rally around the sport.”

No reticence from the Sons of Ben group, who cared so much about soccer their existence predates the team. “They would go to New England or DC games, root for no one and do their own cheers,” says Peter Andrews, managing editor of the Philly Soccer Page. “Everyone would think that it was a bit weird.”

“I’ve covered MLS games in 14 or 15 different stadiums now and the Union does actually have a really great atmosphere.” There are some challenges. The Eagles, baseball’s Phillies, NBA’s Sixers and NHL’s Flyers all play in the same vast complex, 20 minutes from downtown on a subway. That line does not stretch to the soccer stadium in Chester, which takes more like 40 minutes, traffic-dependent, in a car. “There is a young urban core here that struggles to get down to Chester. But whenever a team in Philadelphia is good, people come out and support them.”

Jonathan Tannenwald is chief soccer correspondent for the Philadelphia Enquirer but says his city lacks a component to consider itself a giant in American soccer: a women’s team. “If you’re a full-blown soccer city, you have an MLS team and an NWSL team and you make room in your media landscape for both.

“It helps if the stadium is in town and it helps to have a diverse population. Philadelphia’s has become much more diverse in recent years. For the fans who have a choice on how to spend their money when you can take the subway to a Phillies game or a Sixers game but you can’t for the Union, that makes a difference.”

Accessibility issues do not prevent the game against Cincinnati being close to sold out. As kick-off looms, a large drum is wheeled out and a kid who has just completed cancer treatment strikes it to predictable acclaim. The line-ups are announced and the Sons of Ben punctuate the name of every Cincinnati player with their response: [player name] “sucks!”. “Ah, the charm of Philly,” says the woman behind me.

All this build-up, the peppy chants, the number of people in shirts of various vintage, is highly promising. The trouble comes when the game starts and there are five misplaced passes in the opening minutes which would shame a National League team. The crowd are great considering the standard, vocal, encouraging and patient. It is not like English football at all.

Philadelphia Union’s players celebrate in front of their home fans at Subaru Park Credit: USA TODAY/Kyle Ross

A man named Kevin wins a seat upgrade to the front row, not a position any experienced football supporter would choose. A booking is really not as exciting as these fans find it. Even more baffling, a burly bloke in my block has brought along a novelty-sized card to hold up in protest every time a Union player is fouled.

Then Venezuelan midfielder Jose Martinez scores a ripsnorting opening goal from 25 yards and it is bedlam. Fist bumps, flares behind the goal and ‘Dooping’ all over the shop. This is the song the Union play after every goal, disappointingly not the eponymous Charleston-house one-hit wonder of 1994, but Scooter’s punishing Maria (I Like It Loud) from 2003. The chorus goes “doop doop doop”.

A penalty makes it 2-0 but Cincinnati come back after the break. With the lead halved, Chekhov’s megaphone is finally called on as a Cincinnati defender receives treatment. Little effect, because Cincinnati do equalise. The scorer celebrates at length in front of the Sons of Ben mob and receives peeved booing rather than the ransack of Ohio and purge of the young which might have followed in Italy, England or Argentina

Is that so wrong? No. If anything US soccer should embrace its dorky side. While MLS grows in stature with every passing year, it is still undeniably a third or fourth choice option for cities with longer attachments to older teams. Why not lean into this outsider status, rather than trying to perform a cover version of places where soccer dominates?

“There is a real tension in MLS between wanting things to be organic and also to feel like European or South American soccer,” says Andrews. Banging the big drum banged is a pre-match tradition now, but it is a contrivance. “I think the drum is cool, but it was started by the front office because they’re like, ‘we should have a drum that we bang.’ It wasn’t like in Europe, where they might say “well, some guy 1977 brought a drum to the game.”

MLS cannot claim such longevity but its youth could be an advantage. Cheaper than NFL, quicker than baseball and with more meaningful games than the endless slog of the NBA and NHL, it has found its audience. Now it just needs to find its identity.

Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/sports/soccer/philadelphia-union-vs-new-england-revolution-mls-identity/

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