Denver Road Trip: The Game

At Invesco the group first went down onto the field to be the backdrop for the RSL pregame show. It was nice to walk a proper grass surface. Fun was had, pictures were taken, it was a memorable 20 minutes.

Upon coming out of the tunnel under the stadium some of us were impressed by the large line gathered to enter the game. We later found out that there were only two gates open in the whole place, and there was a give away of free soccer balls that night. From what we were told by a local it was actually their best crowd of the season - twice as many as usual.

We made our way through the parking lot to a tailgate put on by some of the local fans. As we approached the area we were greeted with some obscenities, but the two or three fans that welcomed us were friendly. Some of them were wearing info sheets taped to their chest. The one fan that I met, named Lin, was from Peoria (close to wear I attended high school). With that connection he seemed a bit more friendly and an all around swell guy.

Getting into the stadium I was worried about my backpack, and more specifically the streamers at the bottom of the bag. The security guard searched through and when he found the streamers inquired as to what I was planning on doing with them. Before I could reply he answered his own question. "Oh, you want to throw 'em and get my field dirty.....that's fine - I don't have to clean it up," and he let me through.

Our seats were in the identical section in the northeast corner as the supporters sit at Rice-Eccles. We certainly made ourselves heard, which surprised the spectators around us. At one point we were informed by an exasperated mother that their were children around and to stop using such language. The offensive word being "crappy." Because she was so appalled we took such lyrics out of our chants/songs for the evening.

A few minutes later we were approached by security asking us to "keep it down." I couldn't believe what i was hearing. At a professional sporting even we were getting in trouble for be too loud. In the middle of the discussion I butted in the conversation by saying (something to affect of), "Is it a disruption being loud at a Broncos game?" He was quiet after that, and I would think that he realized he was fighting the wrong battle with us.

Another incident occured when a young lad was blowing a horn directly in the ear of one of our group members, Eirc, who asked the kid to stop. This didn't sit well with the kid's father who came storming down the aisle and proceeded to cuss out Eric out for telling his child what to do, using much more foul language than we were. Eric was the much bigger man. No fists were thrown.

The main problem the Rapids fans had was that they weren't used to the drums. Some where it was decided that it's better to be quiet and let soccer players concentrate rather than "disrupt" the game by cheering on your team. The Colorado fans don't understand how to support a team and neither do their security.

The game started well with an early goal from Cleetus. The team seemed to be inspired and were fun to watch for most of the first half. Then Colorado equalized just before the break. Our boys gave the game away by giving up a second goal late in the game. It was frustrating to watch, one can only imagine what it was like on the pitch.

The night at Invesco was capped off by having an energetic Coloradan chuck a cup of beer into our section. The brunt of it hit my row, with me, Eric and few others getting wet. The culprit cowardly ran up the aisle, but before escaping into the tunnel he turned, took a picture, gave us the bird and yelled some more obscenities at us.

We found out later that the stadium security actually kept a camera on our section and taped us for the entire game. If there was any way we could get that tape...