Good Afternoon, eastern conference leaders! Instead of my normal more focused article, I am going to let my mind drift this afternoon as I fly across our beautiful country from Charlotte to Denver before Denverde 3.0 on the 4th of July.
It’s really too bad that we don’t play in the bonus conference since I think this team may be able to win the Supporters Shield if it played 26 matches against Eastern Conference opponents this season. It’s truly insane and more than slightly concerning that Austin FC has 16 points from the 6 Eastern Conference matches than 15 points from the 11 Western Conference matches. Remember, we only have 2 more Eastern Conference games in the regular season, and that schedule is done on July 24th.
After last season’s road struggles, the fact that the Verde and Black have won 5 road matches from our first 9 (in the MLS) is nothing short of outrageous. If you had told me before the season that on Canada Day (honestly a holiday that is probably more worth celebrating than July 4th this year), Austin FC would have more points on the road than at home (again 16 vs 15), I would have thought you were smoking products that aren’t legally available in Texas but quite available at our compound
Our fans were outstanding last night. We brought 50 or so fans in our official supporters’ section and there were probably another 100 or so in Verde around Bank of America Stadium for a Thursday night match. Despite having no instruments (not even kazoos), our supporters went the full 90 and were loud (apparently, we could be heard from 20 sections away, which seems almost impossible), which was quite different than our supporters section in Montreal a few weeks ago. Juan Morinelli did an outstanding job of capoing, and there was a tremendous amount of energy in Section 254. Since there were no instruments, I didn’t record a Murga report, but I probably could have done it.
Now, I am thankful that we don’t play in an NFL stadium. Charlotte claims there were 31,000 or so people in attendance last night, but that was likely a tickets sold number. My guess is that there were about 25,000 fans in the place. That number is more than respectable for a Thursday night game on a holiday weekend. I do like that their huge stadium makes it possible for more people to attend matches. However, playing in a third-full NFL stadium, means that the atmosphere isn’t going to be the best. The Charlotte supporters (more on them later) filled up multiple sections on their end of the stadium and had drums and all. But honestly, I could barely hear them (partly because we were in our bubble), and they lacked a roof or anything for their sound to echo off. While it’s hard for the rest of the stadium to get into a 1-0 loss that lacked many great opportunities for the home side, I was left wondering what their atmosphere would be like at McKalla or a stadium like GEODIS Park. I hope Charlotte can get a proper soccer-specific stadium and practice facility in the coming years.
The Charlotte supporters are among the nicest I have met in the league. We were literally presented with a custom Austin FC cake before the match that was delicious (with caramel and dulce de leche) and did not poison us or end up in any of our faces. It’s wonderful to play big brother for once as Charlotte is the newest team in the league, and they are learning a lot from our culture. We even brought Pollo briefly on CLTFC Fan TV post match.
While I don’t think we will play in Charlotte again anytime soon in the Carolinas (barring a US Open Cup or Leagues Cup match), I would highly recommend making this trip in the future. The stadium doesn’t have the best atmosphere but it’s a quick Uber from the airport, and everything is centrally located in Uptown (what they call downtown) with plenty of bars and tailgate spaces nearby. I am glad to see Charlotte in the league, and am even more thrilled that our guys got 3 points here.
Now we’re onto Denverde, where I will likely write up a relatively rare road Murga Report as we will have 4 drums at this match. We’ll see if we can repeat the magic of Denverde 1.0 as the kickoff to the second half of this wild season for the Verde and Black, as we aim to go over last year’s point total in our 18th match of the campaign.