I planned to write something about Detroit City FC’s short and long-term future before next season, and I still probably will, but with all the talk about the downtown stadium proposal, I thought now would be a good time to put a few thoughts down.

As I mentioned in my piece, Two Obsessions, I fell in love with the game of soccer in 2006 and waited six years before I had a club to call my own. “City Til I Die” is not just a phrase to me, it is a declaration of passion and loyalty. Detroit City is my club, and will be until it ceases to exist or I do, whichever comes first. This may seem melodramatic, and it even slightly feels that way to me since, in the grand scheme of things, sports are an exceedingly minor and insignificant part of life.

On the other hand, they are also our greatest form of collective experience, and some of the fondest memories of my short life have been made in the past two years at the narrow, bumpy field off of Grand River. I’ve had more fun among a crowd of 1000 than I ever have in Ann Arbor with 110 times as many people. With major teams, you could theoretically go to every home game without seeing the same person twice, but at City games, there are always dozens of faces I recognize, even though I’ve never met most of them.

City’s greatest strength and the main reason for its success is that it is tied to the community. Founded by five men who met through a local league, based in the heart of the city, made up mostly of local talent – this story is not very different from that of Liverpool, Celtic, Manchester United. The difference is those clubs’ stories unfolded over a hundred years ago, and ours has just begun.

It’s very exciting to be in on the ground level of something like this, and I intend to follow it wherever it goes, be it USL-Pro, NASL, MLS, or even just NPSL (although if the current rate of growth continues, I don’t see this as a viable long-term option).

Putting aside all the talk of job creation, revenue generation, and proper use of resources, if, by some chance, a non-DCFC MLS expansion franchise is awarded to Detroit, I will not support it. This isn’t out of bitterness – I would wish the team and its supporters all the best and be happy for them if they were successful.

The simple fact is I already have a club.

Allez Le Rouge

Forevermore Rouge et Or

City Til I Die

Saturday, May 12^th, 2012 – Detroit City FC 1, AFC Cleveland 1

First, a confession: I don’t remember every single moment of every single City game I’ve been to. Alcohol had nothing to do with this since I’m not much of a drinker, it’s just that three and four goal beat-downs of hapless opponents tend to blend together over time. Once you’ve seen Knox Cameron box-out and turn a 5’9” center back a dozen times, it loses a bit of its novelty.

That being said, one match that I do remember, almost photographically, is the very first one. I remember not wearing my scarf because I didn’t think anyone else would. Not sure what was going through my head, but I never made that mistake again. I remember standing at the fence near the restrooms watching Cleveland warming-up and thinking “Man that one guy [now known as Vanilla Ice] has a stupid haircut.” I remember being surprised at how many people were wearing City jerseys and t-shirts despite the fact that the team hadn’t actually, you know, played a game.

Maybe the most vivid memory I have is from when the players took the field for the first time. Here came Cleveland with no warm-ups and wearing uniforms that looked more appropriate for a cash-strapped high school team. And here came City, wearing gorgeous, brand new white jackets with the tags still attached and professional-looking, Nike-made jerseys. As someone who grew up watching such classic films as The Mighty Ducks and Little Giants, the thought crossed my mind that City were the rich, cocky team about to be upset by a plucky band of underdogs. All Cleveland needed was a wise-cracking chubby kid and our fate would be sealed.

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But as the game unfolded, it became evident that City had substance to go with its style – Rogers and Bedell broke up attacks at the back, Spencer Thompson made hard tackles and barked at the ref in midfield, and Stefan St. Louis made dangerous-looking runs up top. When the striker bagged The First Goal early on, a nice backheel redirection off a low cross, my childhood sports movie-induced anxiety disappeared.

What stood out to me most, aside from the play on the field, was the crowd. At the sporting events I’d been to, mainly Tigers, Red Wings, and Michigan Football, the crowd was passive. We sat around waiting for something bad to happen and cheering out of relief when it didn’t. This group was different – they chanted and sang and set off smoke throughout the entire 90 minutes. Although the supporters’ section was in its infancy – some empty seats, flags but no tifos, no Sgt. Scary (at least in his current form) – they kept with the theme of the day: a good start.

Cleveland equalized later on in the first half, a good finish from a bouncing long ball, but City controlled possession and created more chances, especially toward the end. Cleveland’s manager, standing about 20 feet from where I was, clapped his hands and seemed quite happy to escape with the draw when the final whistle blew.

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With the first match in the books, the building of Detroit City’s foundation was complete. The club’s identity (name, crest, colors, etc.) was a total success, the attendance (1047) was double what the owners had expected, and most importantly, a competitive team of promising young players mixed with a few veterans had been assembled.

The shirts that the City players wore were not signs of status or privilege but of ambition. If the goal as a player or a club is to be successful and eventually compete at a higher level, why not look the part from day one?

First Obsession: The Game

Like many Americans under the age of forty, I once played youth soccer. With the youngest teams, “Everyone Gets a Trophy!” and the recent unearthing of mine revealed that I competed at the U-7 level. My playing career culminated right around the time of the USA-hosted 1994 World Cup, and I have a vague memory of watching the Round-of-16 matchup between the US and Brazil in which the Americans put forth a gritty, hardworking effort only to fall short 1-0.

Shortly after that, I moved on to watching and playing other sports and my interest in soccer fell off the face of the earth. I never belittled or denigrated the game the way some people feel the need to (I’m sure everyone knows or has met a “soccer-hater”), I just didn’t pay it any attention. It wasn’t until I was in college that I happened to stumble upon the game again.

Mainly out of curiosity, I watched parts of all three USMNT matches at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Although the results were abysmal, my interest was piqued enough to watch some of the non-US matches and I even sat through the entirety of the tense but somewhat drab final (the Zidane headbutt game). Almost immediately thereafter, I went out and bought the latest edition of FIFA and began to learn more about the players, teams, leagues, and minutiae – it took me a while to understand aggregate scoring and the away goal rule. I’ve loved the game ever since, with high-points being the USMNT’s run in the 2009 Confederations Cup, Landon Donovan’s goal against Algeria, the USWNT’s epic comeback against Brazil in the 2011 World Cup, and attending my first live match – USA vs. Canada at Ford Field in 2011.

You may notice a theme here – all references to country and none to club. This is simply due to the fact that up until 2012, I had no club.

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Second Obsession: The Club

Being born and raised in Metro-Detroit, I found it impossible to just “adopt” an MLS team. I couldn’t bring myself to support the three that were geographically closest – Columbus (being a life-long Michigan Wolverines fan has disqualified me from ever being able to stomach any team from Ohio), Chicago (Chicago’s sports teams are historic rivals of their counterparts from Detroit), and Toronto (see Chicago + foreign country), and latching on to any of the more aesthetic or well-supported teams – L.A., Seattle, Portland seemed too “bandwagony.” On top of that, the foreign teams that I had gravitated to – Everton, Barcelona, A.C. Milan – were on another continent an ocean away and it was impossible for me to ever become connected to them in any meaningful way.

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“Not only was it [Detroit City Futbol League] a way to meet each other through the league, but the success of that league really made us think, ‘Hey, there is an underserviced market for soccer in this region.'” – Detroit City FC co-owner Sean Mann

“It will work because there’s a market for it.” – Detroit City FC co-owner Ben Steffans

I can’t find the video that contains the second quote, but I can repeat it word-for-word because it is burned into my memory – I remember it because I am that market. Playing FIFA and watching a half-dozen USMNT games a year wasn’t enough for me – I was starving for a club.

I first heard about DCFC on a Sunday afternoon in March or April 2012. My brother had found out about the club online and we both purchased season tickets that day. $30 for eight games was a great deal, but I was just as excited to get such a beautiful scarf.

I wasn’t at all dissuaded to find out that City would be playing three levels below MLS, or even that at that moment they only had three players. I was sold by the incredible job that the owners had done with the branding and marketing of the club.

In short:

1 – The name: Detroit City Football Club – simple and professional. The use of the word “football” instead of “soccer” should not be ignored. FC is in the names of some of the greatest clubs around the world (FC Barcelona, Manchester United FC, FC Bayern Munich), and Detroit City Soccer Club would’ve sounded amateurish and decidedly minor-league

2 – The nickname: Le Rouge – French for “The Red” and an homage to Detroit’s history (founded as a French fort in 1701), the potential pitfall of a cheesy mascot (Kickers, Wizards, Strikers) was thankfully avoided.

3 – The crest

Incorporates the iconic Spirit of Detroit statue and stays away from the dreaded cartoonish soccer ball that is far too prevalent among American clubs (see San Jose Earthquakes).

4 – Playing in the city – The significance of this cannot be overstated and will be discussed at greater length in an upcoming piece. Suffice it to say that it would be incredibly hypocritical to call yourself “Detroit City” and not actually play in the city of Detroit.

5 – Local sponsors – Instead of trying to find one big sponsor to slap across the team’s shirts, the ownership group teamed-up with a number of local businesses and had each one sponsor a player. This kept the team from having a faceless, ridicule-inducing corporate logo (a la Erie Admirals + Burger King) and gave exposure to Detroit-based restaurants, bars, shops, and services.

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With all this, I was still a little hesitant. A little Wikipedia-ing turned up the fact that Detroit had had a successful NPSL team in the recent past – Detroit Arsenal – which had won the championship in 2005 but folded after 2006.

My thinking at the time wasn’t “I finally have a club!” It was “I finally have a club and I really hope it doesn’t flop after a year or two but it looks like these owners know what they’re doing so let’s see where this goes.”

Wednesday July 17^th, 2013 – Detroit City FC 2, Windsor 0

Among the many tired sports clichés is one that goes something like this: “We play for the fans, we wouldn’t be here without them.” At the highest levels of American sports, this is largely untrue. Multi-billion dollar television deals, revenue-sharing and a bevy of corporate sponsorships ensure that many franchises turn a profit or at least break even no matter how many people actually show up to watch them play. The worst of the worst owners may even intentionally put forth mediocre teams season after season, knowing that for them, fan support is largely irrelevant.

When it comes to soccer in America, the reality is quite different. Supporters’ groups are generally fond of reminding their ownership, the league, and pretty much anyone else who will listen that, “Soccer Without Supporters is Nothing!” I always thought this was a bit melodramatic until my first-hand experience this week.

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In response to a plastic bottle-throwing incident at a match three days earlier, the supporters of Detroit City FC were informed that (at the behest of the NPSL) representatives of Detroit Public Schools would be at Cass Tech to monitor us and that any vulgar language or other misbehavior would result in the club losing access to the stadium next season.

Due to this disproportionate crackdown, the march to the stadium was held in silence, the usual chants and songs were replaced by nursery rhymes and sarcasm (“generic sports chant clap-clap clap-clap-clap”), and a 10 minute period of silence was held.

Hearing the people who live along the route of the march to the stadium (“We wanna hear you sing we don’t give a damn!”), the kids in the stands (“Why aren’t they singing?,” “Where’s the smoke?), and even the captain of the team (“Get back over where you belong”), I realized what an integral part of the club that its supporters have become in such a short time. I’m not so pompous to say that the club would be nothing without us, but it certainly wouldn’t be as popular and successful.

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City won the match, but the story of the day was the club itself. In less than two years, Detroit City FC has gone from an idea in the heads of five men to a club that is close to outgrowing its fourth-division crib.

Since the offseason is long, cold, and dark – as of today there are 9 months and change until the next match – there is plenty of time to retrace City’s steps over the past 20 months and maybe even speculate a bit about the future.

If nothing else, it will at least be a way to pass the time…