News & Notes

Video bootlegged by Joe Novak an anonymous friend of the blog.

I had no motivation to write anything about Sunday (and you probably don’t want to re-live that experience anyway), so I’m going to wait until next week to post about the end of season events and where City goes moving forward. For now, here are a few recent stories on the club that deserve more attention, listed in the order they were released:

Detroit City FC players balance soccer dreams, day jobs

On most summer weekends, Sebastian Harris can be found roaming a soccer field in front of thousands of Detroit City FC fans.

But on weekdays, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., he sheds his No. 4 jersey for work as a parts manager at Wholesale Forklift Parts.

“I kind of sit at a computer all day working and waiting for calls to come in and just help customers get what they need for their forklifts,” said Harris, 28. “It’s kind of cool, but I’ve always been a salesman and I enjoy doing what I’m doing. It’s better than anything else I can really think of besides playing soccer.”

Click here to read the full article

The Northern Guard: Who are these passionate supporters behind Detroit City FC?

Click here to view the video and article

I spent the weekend working on a piece for an upcoming issue of Stand Fanzine so in lieu of a standard post, I decided to share a couple of videos chronicling the first two matches at Keyworth Stadium.

The first is from Hamtramck resident Sami Ali (Links: Youtube  Twitter) about his experience at the opener against AFC Ann Arbor:

The second is from The Hero of Kentucky, Nick Miko (Links: Youtube  Twitter), documenting the FC United of Manchester match:

I’ll write something soon once I physically recover and have a little time to process my thoughts. For now, I’ll be watching this over and over and over and over and over:

Extended cut and POV aftermath:

LIVE on #Periscope: Dcfc bucks in PKs #dctidhttps://t.co/2mH64s5ic5

— JJ (@junckyarddog13) May 12, 2016

Video #1: Ian McCulloch
Video #2: Jeremiah Juncker

If you’re reading this, I assume you know what I’m going to talk about, but I’ll summarize just in case you don’t. MLS is coming to Detroit, and the team will have no affiliation with Detroit City FC (probably). I could dissect all the statements and news that’s come out, I could examine all the possible scenarios for the future of DCFC, or I could take the low road and make personal attacks on the billionaires responsible for this new venture. None of these will accomplish much, though, and I know none of them will put me in a better mood, so I’ll take a different route and just say what I feel.

I’m bummed.

Not disheartened, not really angry, just bummed. Partially because I’m writing this instead of about who I think will start at striker this season (which I’d planned on doing earlier in the day before all hell broke loose), but mostly because for the first time, my favorite thing in the world is facing a threat to its very existence.

I love City because of how different it is from all the other sports in town. At any other game, you’re treated at best like a customer, and more typically like a money cow to be milked. You go through the metal detectors and pat-downs, pay for your drastically overpriced merchandise and concessions, consume your nicely-packaged sporting product – complete with plenty of advertisements – then scurry back to your car with the thousands of other people and go home.

I love City because it’s where I met most of my friends. It’s what inspired me to start writing again and create this blog, my main vehicle for self-expression. After three years of doing this, it’s allowed me to dream a tiny tiny bit that maybe, one day, I might be able to get paid to write, no matter how small the check is.

I love City because, after years of watching football and seeing supporters from around the world, I’ve gotten to experience what they experience.

As it stands, a hypothetical Detroit MLS team likely wouldn’t begin play until 2020 at the earliest. I have no say in that matter, but what I do control are my own thoughts and actions. I’m going to continue doing what I’ve been doing, and I will never stop as long as I have a club to support.

To be perfectly clear, if all goes according to plan and the Gilbert & Gores creation comes into being, I will not support it in any way, shape, or form. My heart belongs to another.

Okay, enough of all that. I have a season preview to write. I think this Deakin kid’s gonna be pretty good, y’all.