Crowd trouble at the U.S.-Mexico final
by Steve Davis on Jun 28, 2011 9:33 AM EDT
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We’ve always known that a U.S. national team game on U.S. soil conjures a strange world, indeed.
On the one hand, I always appreciated what it meant in the bigger picture. People come from other lands to share in the opportunities of our great country, and I personally have zero issue with that. Chances to see the national team of their heritage is a way to celebrate both lands; they love the United States for giving them a better life, but they love their homeland, too.
So, the United States national teamers and their supporters frequently feel like visitors, labeled only nominally as the “home side.” This is nothing new.
It has gotten better. U.S. fans contingents have grown and U.S. Soccer has developed better sales tools that help ensure a pro-U.S. crowd. Wiser venue selection has abetted the process, helping establish a true home-field advantage with more frequency.
Saturday’s match inside the Rose Bowl was a different jar of pickles. CONCACAF selected the venue, not U.S. Soccer. The regional fed was also responsible for game management and security, not U.S. Soccer.
All that said, there were apparently problems that have to be addressed. Read on …
All the issues are spelled out quite well here. This isn’t the only complaint I saw (this one was sent to me and other U.S. soccer writers via Facebook.) But as it’s signed and filled with detail, I think there’s a good chance that the factor of exaggeration and emotional overreach is likely well in check.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
As the blog post says, there are lots of good fans that come to watch Mexico and other lands when they play here. Before last week’s semifinal in Houston, I had this exact thought as I walked the stadium’s outer grounds about an hour before the match. “Where are all those rowdy troublemakers I always hear about? They must direct them to a special entrance, because all I see are good mix of soccer fans (younger, older, men, women, etc.) who are enjoying the night and hardly looking to cause trouble.”
Now, I understand that a Wednesday evening match is different than a Saturday night contest, mostly because fans have more time to get, uh, “ready” for the kickoff.
I will also say that a match in Pasadena is a challenge. The stadium sits in a valley, so routes in are always tricky, even for the New Year’s day bowl game, where officials have literally decades of experience. The stadium is old, so load-in and egress (fancy words for “gettin’ in and gettin’ out”) can be a bear, too.
I’ve been to the Rose Bowl maybe 10 times, mostly for bigger soccer events. I was lucky enough to be there for the U.S. upset over Colombia in 1994, for the World Cup final three weeks later and for the Women’s World Cup final in 1999.
More instructive, however, was a trip to the Rose Bowl 18 months ago for college football’s national championship. There I was just a fan – and getting into those pitifully small entry portals was a maddening experience.
I can also see where providing proper security for tailgating is a challenge, considering the vast area that would require supervision.
All that said, if proper security and crowd management mechanisms cannot be established, then the Rose Bowl needs to be crossed off everybody’s list of venues – not matter how much cash the crowds of 90,000-plus may generate for CONCACAF.
This is something that everybody needs to examine. Answers won’t come easily, but the efforts need to be made.
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CONCACAF is cheap
Although there were no major issues at Reliant in Houston, the security was definitely lax. Probably half of the normal security I see a an NFL game.
AO section in Houston
However, one thing about Houston that matches with that linked report — the AO section was marginally AO. There were plenty of Mexican fans that had seats right in the middle of it, and a few AO members were threatened with expulsion if they didn’t move ‘to their own seats’.
When we first settled in, people said ‘This is a general admission area’. I think that’s pretty typical for AO/Sam’s Army, and has been for years. Apparently that’s not the case with CONCACAF events. I’ll remember that in the future, and won’t be going to any more Gold Cup games.
It was made pretty clear that it would be assigned seating at Reliant
But AO should be able to get a block of seats locked in for them where it shouldn’t be a problem. I doubt any AO members were selling tickets to Mexico fans (though I guess it’s possible).
"If my hips had pockets, I wouldn't wear pants at all." @NotBurtReynolds
After reading that letter
I think I can safely cross “see USMNT Gold Cup game” off my list of things to do. The spectacle and atmosphere would be nice to see but it’s not worth catching a beer bottle in the grill for, nahmean?
It's about the place and the opponent more than the event.
I went to the USMNT Gold Cup match in Kansas City and had a great experience.
Bloggin' at JoePasDoghouse.com
by J.Schnauzer on Jun 28, 2011 12:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Houston was fantastic
It was a Semi-final. Not head to head and on a Wednesday. Still the atmosphere was fun and spent a lot of time sitting around having a beer with Mexico fans (and Honduras/Panama) just talking soccer and having a good time. I didn’t have one incident other than a Mexico fan nicely asking me to sit down during the US game so his wife could see (I’m a fairly large guy). Told him I was sorry, but I asked if he would be seated through the whole Mexico game. He just smiled and said of course not.
"If my hips had pockets, I wouldn't wear pants at all." @NotBurtReynolds
wow.
ya know i heard stories similar to that about games in azteca, but this is rididculous. a usa fan can’t support their team on usa soil without fear of physical harm? this is a situation that has got to be remedied immediately, and if concacaf won’t provide adequate security to protect our fans, the ussf has to stand up to them, and refuse to even play the game.
it also really saddens me to see the mexican fans act like this. i have several good mexican friends who are nothing like that, so in no way to i want to put down an entire nationality. but good lord, can you imagine usa fans acting this way on such a large scale? and even if they would, would our government/media stand for it? absolutely not. i am disappointed in mexican soccer as a whole.
remember, this happened on us soil. as if we already don’t have enough of our home field advantage, now the few fans who do want to go have to fear for their safety, and while i may risk it for myself, i could never see myself bringing wife/girlfriend or children to a match like this. and that’s…just sad.
capital letters suck.
I Know Right
Sadly, this makes me happy that i did not buy tickets to the match before the Gold Cup started. me and a few of my classmates were considering it, but in the spirit of watching a good match.
wow indeed
It is my hope that before i die i witness these two things at least once - The Titans winning a Super Bowl and Team USA winning the World Cup.
by Pulp Fiction on Jun 29, 2011 10:25 AM EDT up reply actions
2 things
First, ESPN ran the story about the riots in Argentina when that club team got relegated, but no mention of this? To me that reeks of US soccer trying to sweep it under the rug.
Second, I know everyone hates lawyers and such, but this is why we have them. In the age of smart phones and digital cameras, all this should have been documented, especially securities failure to act when things were pointed out to them. Then sue. If the rose bowl got hammered because of security failings, there would be a lot more attention paid to security anytime a soccer match between rivals like that was going on in this country.
Not that surprising
if you have ever read or heard the stories of people who have traveled to USA-Mex in Azteca, you know to expect to be soaked by beer by Mexico fans. And that’s with tight security surrounding the USA fan section there. It sounds like there should have been way more security at the rose bowl but it still wouldn’t prevent a lot of it.
If you don’t sit in the supporter section then you shouldn’t do anything to call attention to yourself b/c you are surrounded by Mex fans in the GA areas. IE don’t talk smack, don’t stand up when USA scores, etc.
Win or lose, we'll always be there for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Jun 28, 2011 2:55 PM EDT reply actions
Azteca
I’ve been to USA-Mexico at Azteca and I feel 100% sure in saying it is an overall safer experience than USA-Mexico in Southern California.
Sure the Mexicans at Azteca will throw beer on you, but they throw beer on EVERYONE when a goal happens. They heckle as loud as anyone you will ever hear but I barely saw one physical incident in Mexico city.
I equate most Mexico fans in the United States to the same thing as most Yankees and Lakers fans I see at Texas Rangers games and Dallas Mavericks games. They are not from the city, they’re just frontrunners who go to cheer for the superstar on the team, get drunk and act like an idiot. Much different from the true fans in the actual cities of the teams.
www.bigdsoccer.com
-SB Nation Dallas/Ft. Worth-
-FC Dallas-
by Daniel Robertson on Jun 28, 2011 4:05 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Hey Steve, thanks for the post. My experience wasn’t this bad, but there was a gross lack of security at this game, no question. There was as much security for this game as I saw for Inter vs. Chelsea at Rosebowl in 09. When me and a few people around us were pelted with cheesy nachos, security was nowhere to be found. When a guy in front of me got drilled by a full beer, he spent 15 minutes searching for security to no avail.
It was so understaffed I spent 90 minutes in a mob of 15-20k people at gate A to no avail. I began tweeting at USSoccer about my frustration. Their first response was that they had nothing to do with the gates and that I should contact @concacaf. When it became apparent that I was not going to make it in by kickoff, I tweeted them both again. US Soccer sent me a DM that said other gates were free, and we should try to move elsewhere. We tried to go to G which was a complete mob. When we doubled back to try b,c,d we passed A again. At this point (about 20 to kickoff with 9k people still at the gate, police began to stop more people from entering the cluster and told people to move to other gates. This was the first time I had seen police in the nearly 2 hours that I had seen any cop at all. Absolutely anything could have happened in that crowd. It was very dangerous.
Also, after barely making it into the stadium on time, I had to talk to no less than 4 ushers before I was able to find my seat. I literally walked from the top to the bottom of the Rosebowl twice before someone knew that 17-H meant the same as 17. Not only was there a lack of staff, but they were uninformed as well.
I will be fair and say that the majority of fans around us were very reasonable. Most were like me and my father, not trying to rock the boat. If we had lost our cool when pelted with things, it wouldn’t have been worth it and there was no security to back us up anyway. After the game as we excited there were lots of high fives between mexico and US fans.
I’m not defending CONCACAF for having this thing way understaffed, but I have to think that if you selected 90,000 people from anywhere at any given time, at least 20 of them would be fighting. From what I heard on the news that night in Pasadena, there were only 26 arrests at the game, and most of those were public intox. Obviously if there had been enough police at the event there would have been a lot more arrests (or a lot less crime) but it is something to think about.
Also, I’m a real person. @ckswenson
by SaltLakeKiddy on Jun 28, 2011 4:29 PM EDT up reply actions
Azteca experience
I agree with Daniel’s post. I, too, have been to US-Mexico games at Azteca and never felt an ounce of intimidation, even while outwardly rooting for the US. Beer spilled on me? You bet, just like the other 100K in attendance.
I also agree with SaltLakeKiddy. This event was woefully understaffed (in terms of security) and one can only imagine that had a lot to do with the things some experienced.
Maybe what we can actually take from this
and the incident where the New England Revolution threw out their own fans is that soccer in America isn’t very good at hiring security firms that understand the dynamics within a soccer stadium and neither, it seems, are some of the local police departments.
by Russell Berrisford on Jun 28, 2011 10:21 PM EDT reply actions
I'm going to be the azzhole who says it...
Two words – “La”…“Migra.”
A massive ICE/Border Patrol presence outside a match obviously packed with illegals is the best way to contain that crowd. When the drunkest and rowdiest face sure deportation, it WILL change behavior.
Politics really isn't necessary here...
Neither is ridiculously uninformed conjecture that assumes…
A) that if there are a bunch of Spanish-speaking Mexican supporters…they must be “packed with illegals”.
B) none of the Mexican supporters might have been tourists here in the US for the game.
I was going to flag this comment...
… but then I realized there wasn’t an option for “uninformed jerk who’s needlessly injecting an ignorant political statement into a sports discussion.”
by vineyarddawg on Jun 30, 2011 11:14 AM EDT up reply actions
Not that it mattered
But the second goal for Mexico was offsides. Mexico 14 is in a offsides position and is blocking US 14 (Lichaj) from getting a second chance at a clearance since the ball is only dribbling in. It was such a bang bang bang play I don’t really expect this to get called during the game, but after watching it again it was a blown call (in addition to the multiple instances of blown defense by the US on the same play). It was a gift that was never received.
Also if you rewatch the highlights, the entire US defense was awful, not just Bornstein, but reviewing his play in some of these goals, its just like he is wandering around in a daze when he is supposed to be defending, it is so bad it is almost comical, US probably could have done better just going down to 10 as they wouldn’t have expected any help that way. I don’t think he will ever have a US uniform again.
I think the US defense had a lot more trouble than the crowd at the game, but being trapped at the Rosebowl all day because of the slow in and out process and alcohol is not going to produce a lot of good things. Not sure what the hell the US defense’s excuse is and pretty sure ICE/Border Patrol isn’t going to be much help there unless they start letting Italians in.
to me, the biggest defensive lapse was on dos santos' goal
instead of helping with dos santos, he runs away from him to cover a guy at the top of the box. with your goalie out of goal and on the ground, tho, you have to attack the ballhandler at all costs.
capital letters suck.
Yeah..
I would love to see how the game would have played out if Churundolo did not get injured. I still don’t know that we would have won but you’ll never know.
Roll Tide and Vamos United!
