Story of the Club

Sunday, July 7th, 2013 – Detroit City FC 2, FC Buffalo 1

If you’re part of the millennial generation, you’ve grown up in a time when sports have become almost completely commercialized. TV deals for the largest leagues have grown from millions to billions, only a handful of stadiums have escaped corporate naming (some less fortunate than others), and the phrase, “It’s a business,” is slowly replacing the phrase, “It’s a game.”

If you’re a little older, you’re probably more conscious of these changes that have taken place over the past several decades. You may remember a time when most players spent their entire careers with one team, when not every game was available on TV, and when the only logo on jerseys was that of the team.

One of the things that makes Detroit City FC unique is that it is a throwback to this earlier era. The most obvious parallel has to do with watching the games. If you want to see them play, you have to do it the way your grandparents did – show up to the stadium (and buy an affordable, reasonably-priced ticket). When City plays on the road, however, the story is a little different.

The situation is akin to an even earlier era of sports, one in which radio hadn’t yet taken off and people relied on ticker tape for baseball scores and horse race results. In our time, Twitter has become the preferred method of up-to-the-minute news, and the mysterious person(s) in charge of the official Detroit City feed holds sway over the mood of thousands of supporters, moment-by-moment. As 21^st century sports fans, used to 24/7, high-definition coverage, this is intolerable. Those few hundred miles between us and our team when they are playing on the road might as well be a million. So when the regular season finale at Buffalo was streamed live online, it seemed like a gift from heaven.

———-

Going into the game, City needed only a draw to clinch the 2013 Rust Belt Derby and the first trophy in club history. Things started well – a goal from Jeff Adkins gave Detroit a 1-0 lead at halftime. The first half also gave us this epic photo:

A decade or so from now when Josh Rogers is having his jersey retired, this picture will feature in some form or another, most likely tifo.

Buffalo drew level early in the second half and continued testing Bret Mollon, but as the minutes ticked away, the crucial one point seemed in hand. Then this happened: (I couldn’t get the specific start time to work so either fast forward to 34:55 or click this link.)

Ugo Uche’s first and only goal continued the trend that had developed over the course of the season. The year before, City’s bad habit of giving up late goals had resulted in Cleveland snatching the RBD away, and had allowed Erie to stay in the hunt and win the division on the last day.

2013 was a complete reversal:

• June 16^th @ Erie – 2-1 W, OG 90’+3
• June 21^st @ Cleveland – 3-2 W, Chong 89’
• July 5^th @ Cleveland – 1-1 D, Cameron 76’
• July 7^th @ Buffalo – 2-1 W, Uche 79’

The excellent home performances probably won the division for Detroit, but these results on the road allowed them to win it going away.

Although the game was played hundreds or thousands or millions or however many miles away Buffalo is, being able to watch live made it seem a little closer to home. In conventional soccer wisdom, a road draw is a good result. That may be, but winning is a lot more fun, especially when you get a trophy.

May 17^th to June 14^th, 2013 – Detroit City FC 15, All Others 2

Normally when I write a featured post on here, I try to take a memorable game and wrap a larger idea or narrative around it, such as Evil Twins, Rites of Passage, or the City of Detroit itself. When I think back to the first part of the 2013 season – the five straight home games following the Mother’s Day Massacre of FC Sparta – no single game stands out to me more than the others. It’s not that they lacked excitement or memorable moments, but the way in which City played makes them just sort of blend together.

2-1, 2-0, 4-1, 3-0, 4-0. Efficient, ruthless, consistent.

The theme that emerged from these early games was that of progression. Whereas the 2012 team was starting from scratch, the 2013 edition built upon the successes of that first year. As each game went by and the wins piled up, it became clear that this team represented a new and improved model. They were deeper, more talented, more cohesive as a unit. If a player went down or wasn’t available, another stepped into his place and performed.

Some of the highlights from City’s campaign of laying waste to all in their path:

-The home opener. In front of a then-record crowd of 1823, DCFC earned its first ever win over rivals AFC Cleveland.

-Before the first Zanesville game, the intern in charge of that team’s official Twitter account made fun of DCFC’s camouflage jerseys. These were worn and later auctioned off for the purpose of raising money for the Northern Guard’s ‘Hooligans For Heroes’ project to benefit wounded military personnel and their families. The tweet was later deleted, as was the entire Zanesville franchise a few months later.

-I will remember the second (and ultimately final) game against FC Sparta for the downpour it was played in and the wonderfully derogatory banner that was displayed.

I will also remember the befuddled look on Eric Kallis’ face when he saw it – the kind of look that says, “Why are you doing this? What have I ever done to you?”

-The second Zanesville game included a visit from Jennifer Hammond and her FOX 2 sports team, the first real coverage of DCFC from a major local TV outlet.

(Total embed failure, click here to view the video).

When a couple thousand people are showing up to an event on a consistent basis, it makes it hard for the media to ignore. More coverage can, in turn, lead to increased visibility and publicity for the club, drawing in new fans and making it more attractive to potential players. At the midway point of the season, the growing attendance numbers and high quality of play on the field were evidence that City was already reaping these benefits.

– – – – – – – – – –

On that note, I should mention that the first tryouts for the 2014 team (City 3.0?) are on March 22^nd. Click here to register.

I thought about going undercover and trying-out just to write about the experience, but my extremely basic skill level would probably expose me in a matter of minutes.

Sunday, May 12^th, 2013 – Detroit City FC 5, FC Sparta 1

I’m a big fan of Star Trek. I’ve always been fascinated by its themes of space exploration, the search for intelligent life, and its vision of life in the future. I’m more of a The Next Generation guy, but I appreciate The Original Series and its massive contribution to popular culture. Even if you’re not a Trekkie, you’re probably familiar with the “Goateed Opposite Self from a Parallel Universe” concept.

———————————————————————————————————————

This comes from an episode in which members of the Enterprise become switched with their evil selves from the Mirror Universe via transporter mishap. Now that I’ve sufficiently bored you I will cut to the chase: I believe FC Sparta Michigan (I think that was their final official name) is Detroit City FC’s polar opposite from a parallel universe.

I’ll discuss my theory in greater detail later, but first I’m going to attempt to recap the brief and bizarre history of the club formerly known colloquially as “The Disease.” My purpose in doing so is to preserve the hilarious ineptitude of this organization for all time. Since Sparta’s web presence and visibility was only slightly higher than Silk Road, I will be basing this section off of memory and pieced-together fragments of social media.

I normally try not to disparage other peoples’ work – I’m far from perfect and I’m sure some would find what I do amateurish and low-rate. I make an exception, however, when it is obvious that the people responsible for a product just don’t give a damn about what they’re doing.

Let this serve as a warning to echo throughout the ages: If you are going to start a 4^th division soccer team, try to at least put a little effort into it. If you don’t, people will make fun of you on the Internet.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

Mid-October 2012

A new NPSL expansion club, Michigan FC Spartans, is announced. The club is an outgrowth of Windsor FC Spartans (aka FC Windsor Spartans), and will play in Berkley, a northern suburb of Detroit.

The club is immediately derided by some supporters of Detroit City FC who see this as an attempt to capitalize on their own club’s success and siphon off part of their fanbase.

Late 2012-January 2013

Michigan FC Spartans changes its name to FC Sparta Michigan and releases its official crest, featuring a Corinthian helmet with the skyline of Detroit as its backdrop. Some Detroit City supporters find this ironic as FC Sparta does not actually play in the city of Detroit.

Around this time, FC Sparta launches its official Facebook and Twitter accounts. A second official Twitter account is created later and over the course of the next five months, exactly SIX total tweets are sent out.

The official club website is also launched at this time, and it truly deserves a section all its own. The original site no longer exists, but I was able to find a screenshot:

Although this is the only shot I was able to track down, it gives a good feel for the general layout and quality of the site as a whole: Web 1.0 (Angelfire/Geocities) format, light text on a black background, misspelled words, terrible grammar, random capitalization and font changes – the list goes on.

[Update 3/30/14: It’s almost two months late, but I just found another shot that I need to include]

The site’s content was what made it truly special, though. Some highlights:

• A rambling statement (in the form of a long block of text with no paragraph breaks) about the club’s philosophy of “Player Development,” said to be based on the Brazilian youth system
• A page for the team’s bodybuilder strength and conditioning coach, complete with one of his competition photos
• For a team yet to play a game, not one, not two, but THREE empty pages dedicated to “Accomplishments”

Early 2013

FC Sparta holds a series of player “try outs.” Among those left standing is one Gabriel Poulino, the subject of an AND1-style mixtape entitled: The next Ronaldo: You decide

February 2013

The 2013 NPSL Season Schedule is released. FC Sparta’s first home game is against Detroit City FC.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

“They have way more fans than us. They’re intense. But this is between FC Sparta and Detroit City. We’re going to go and show them what we’ve got. It won’t be a boxing match.”

– FC Sparta Head Coach Eric Kallis

In a previous post, I mentioned that I’ve missed three City home games over the first two seasons. I should have said four because that’s exactly what the “Invasion of Berkley” was: a home game.

Although unable to attend the game, I’ve heard enough first-hand accounts to get a good idea of what it was like. Among the words used in description: surreal…crazy…ridiculous.

In addition to the local police on patrol watching their every move, everyone entering the stadium was subject to a frisking and/or bag search. We may never know the purpose of the pat-downs (there may have been actual security concerns or they may have been done purely out of spite), but we do know that they were done poorly because a prohibited and potentially dangerous substance made it into the stands undetected:

Any worries that Sparta would field a competent team were dispelled in the subsequent 5-1 thumping. With more than a dozen returning players from 2012, and newcomers such as Kevin Taylor and Zach Myers (who scored twice), City was able to get off to a running start and give new head coach Ben Pirmann a win in his first game.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

In every moment of Sparta’s existence, it seemed as though they were trying to do the exact opposite of Detroit City:

• DCFC chose a simple yet perfect name and stuck with it from day one. Sparta only officially changed names once but were always associated with their Canadian counterparts, so much so that their coach didn’t even bother to wear a jacket with his team’s actual name on it.

  

• DCFC incorporated an iconic city symbol into their crest. Sparta chose to use the image of the RenCen, which, while also iconic, was located 17 miles away from their home field.
• DCFC teamed up with local independent businesses as sponsors, launched a professional website, and used regular social media updates to spread news about the club. Sparta’s website evoked memories of a time when e-mail was cutting-edge and AOL was America’s hottest company. They also treated social media updates the way a survivor of a zombie apocalypse would treat rounds of ammo – only a few left, save ‘em for when you need ‘em.
• DCFC immediately attracted multiple supporters’ groups and overall attendance has steadily grown. Sparta’s first home crowd numbered in the tens and never got much larger than that.
• DCFC’s owners were passionate and committed to their project from the beginning. With everything that went on at Sparta, it was clear that the people in charge were only mildly interested at best.

While these things may not scientifically prove that FC Sparta is from a parallel universe, I think they provide very compelling evidence. If you still doubt my theory, consider this:

Eric Kallis has a goatee.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

EPLIOGUE

As of today, all that remains of FC Sparta is this teaser on their official website:

As a final testament to their astounding incompetence as an organization, they are promising a new site for a team that no longer exists.

Wednesday, July 18^th, 2012 – Detroit City FC 0, Windsor Stars 0

I never spent a summer at camp, but I’ve seen enough movies to get the general idea.

———————————-

My following of Detroit City’s first season took on the same basic story arc:

Part 1 – Slight apprehension, not knowing what to expect

Part 2 – Getting used to the people and surroundings

Part 3 – Defining moments, both high and low

Part 4 – Realizing you really like it here and hating when you have to leave

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

The friendly against Windsor was unremarkable in terms of on-field play – a scoreless draw with a few excellent saves by both goalkeepers – but the post-game scene was unforgettable to those who were there.

This end-of-the-season celebration – fans, players, coaches, owners, and media jumping around and singing together – is a microcosm for why many of us care so deeply about a 4^th divison soccer club. We care because this is such an exciting, unique experience. We care because the people in the organization are genuine and work their asses off. We care because it’s really, really fun.

In the age of the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl and the KFC Yum! Center (Yes, that is the actual name of a sports arena. Click the link if you don’t believe me), we have an outlet for escaping this accumulation of corporate gunk (for the most part) and experiencing a sport for what it was meant to be: an enjoyable, entertaining way to spend your free time.

We may not have buckets of money and a shiny, state-of-the-art camp like the rich kids across the lake, but we have something that they don’t – the opportunity to build a club and a culture from the ground up, the way we want it.

As the field cleared for the last time that summer, I did what many of us do at the end of a great vacation or a summer at camp. I started counting the days ‘til I could come back.

Sunday, July 1st, 2012 – Detroit City FC 1, Erie 2

Another title that I’ve shamelessly borrowed from Fever Pitch, “Graduation Day” is a chapter in which Nick Hornby describes his “debut” as a fifteen year old – moving from the Schoolboys’ Enclosure to the North Bank, the Arsenal supporters’ section at Highbury.

I had plotted my debut with great care. For much of that season I’d spent more time staring at the alarming lump of noisy humanity to my right than straight ahead at the pitch; I was trying to work out exactly where I would make for and what parts I should avoid.

The final regular season game of 2012, in which the division winner would be decided, was my graduation day. Up to then, I’d watched every game from the main stand, frequently referred to as the “Family Stand” or “The Quiet Side.” If asked to describe myself, the words loud, rowdy, and boisterous would never be used, but I couldn’t keep myself away from the supporters’ section any longer – it just looked too damn fun.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

As with the Rust Belt Derby showdown with Cleveland, this game didn’t go according to plan. In the scorching heat of a Sunday afternoon an early City own goal and a late winner gave Erie the 2-1 victory and the division title. In the first round of the divisional playoffs two weeks later, Cleveland ended City’s season by the same score.

Despite the season ending with a whimper, my experience in the supporters’ section was invigorating. Contrary to some reports and complaints, I found that the people around me were not murders, arsonists, rapists, or human traffickers. Some of them are mentally unstable, but having too many normal people in one place would be boring anyway.

I’m an easygoing guy, but I also believe that there is no better reliever of stress than screaming and yelling at the top of your lungs. Most of us have ample daily motivation to do this, but because of our fears of firing, arrest, and general alienation of the people around us, our opportunities are frustratingly few and far between. Unless you regularly find yourself on the top of a mountain or the bow of a ship, sporting events are pretty much all you’ve got.

A raucous atmosphere is the exception and not the rule in pro sports. College football and basketball are better, but generally favor raw noise instead of coordination. Soccer is easily the best outlet for vocal energies and visual displays.

[ ^ Number 2 on my 2014 song/chant wishlist behind Dirty Old Town.]

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

I love the supporters’ section and that’s where I’ll be for the forseeable future, but there is something to be said for sitting across the field in the main stand. Watching a soccer game is nice, but watching a soccer game with a mass of people in the background and a wall of sound coming at you is incredible.

Again from Fever Pitch:

…atmosphere is one of the crucial ingredients of the football experience. These huge ends [supporter sections] are as vital to the clubs as their players, not only because their inhabitants are vocal in their support, not just because they provide clubs with large sums of money, but because without them nobody else would bother coming.

It would be arrogant and presumptuous for supporters to claim credit for all of DCFC’s success – the players, coaches, and owners (most of whom have careers outside of the club) have put in thousands of hours of their time and thousands of dollars of their own money into a situation where success is essentially measured by entertaining people and breaking even.

That being said, supporters ARE responsible for the club’s popularity. Without a passionate, dedicated, vocal following, Detroit City would simply be at best another run-of-the-mill team with a few hundred people showing up to each game, or at worst another occupant of the ever-growing NPSL expansion graveyard (52 and counting since the league’s inception in 2003).

Having sat in the main stand and listened to the people around me, I can say that a great number of them were there not only because of the winning team on the field, but also because of the incredible atmosphere that is generated. As a wise man once said, “We make the party and people show up.”