An Ultras Day In Toronto

[Grizzly]

Since most of the end section of this account has to do with the stuff they are posting on RPB, can someone in RPB post it there for me. I have been registered for 2 days on that forum and they have sent me activations twice but I still can't post there.

The Ultras left the City of Champions at the ungodly hour of 6:30 am mostly due to regulations concerning the amount of rest time a bus driver needs before driving again. Our prearranged brawl with the feared Kingston FC Inner City Head Hunting Hooligans Casuals Firm did not materialize because both of their members slept in. We were forced to settle for eating breakfast in Kingston. We arrived in downtown Toronto at 12:30 pm and after fending off the hundreds of bankers and businessmen who attacked us, started wandering around aimlessly, singing our songs to bewildered Torontonians and dressing your statues with Ultras scarves. Did you guys know that Glen Gould is a member of the Ultras Montreal? One of the wierdest things we saw in TO was the monument to workers killed on the job with a plaque to each dead worker with an incredbly graphic description of how he died, for example, killed by a flying piece of wood that entered his eye and pierced his brain. Walking by the CN tower we spotted the ultras favourite Impact employee, Nick DeSantis, and discovered that the soon to be heroes were staying at the Renaissance Hotel. We serenaded NDS with a short version of “Fire DeSantis – Give us a Real Coach” for nostalgia's sake.

As hard as it is for a Montrealais to admit, we had a pretty good time in Toronto before the game. Everyone was particularly impressed that we could get two free beers at the Steamwhistle Brewery. Who cares about that tower when you can get two free beers across the street! We then decided to eat and being Montrealais who will only eat the finest cuisine, a vote was taken and we unanimously decided to sample the delicacies of that internationally reknowned four star restaurant known as Hooters. This unanimous vote was achieved by the Athens system of democracy, ie. the votes of our female members were simply ignored. Following the gourmet feast we wine-drinking Frenchies bought some of the finest and rarest wines that one can buy at the Beer Store to drink on our way to the stadium. The Creemore Reserve was a particularly fine example of a Cabernet Sauvignon.

Arriving at the stadium we were searched on entry but two of our members did manage to get a couple of smokebombs into the stadium for the anticipated victory celebration. Everyone was quite impressed with BMO stadium, it was much more impressive when inside than from looking at pictures. Obviously the one thing that was less impressive was the plastic turf. We went to our part of the stands and the BMO security for our section introduced themselves by name which was very professional. In fact all of the BMO staff was very professional in their dealings with us. Soon the security were joined by two police officers who also were very professional in their dealings with us. TFC fans need to realize how lucky they are to have a club and its employees who have some understanding and tolerance of soccer culture. In particular, the security doesn't fret about little things that don't create any problems and concentrates on stopping the important things such as fighting. BMO security treated us better and were far more professional than the security at our own stadium and the situation in Vancouver also seems to be poor. If there was one thing that should be improved though is ticketing near and in the away section. We actually had a family and two women who had tickets in the middle of our section and below us there were a lot of families as well who probably didn't know they were getting tickets near the away fans. There were not any major problems between us and them but I doubt TFC would sell families tickets in the middle of the U-Sector section so they really shouldn't be sitting by the away fans either.

We were in the stadium for about half an hour before the TFC supporter's march. As much as we are rival groups and were giving each other the finger, etc. I think we can respect each other and admit when the other group does things well. The march was well done and an impressive entry into the stadium and was the most coordinated effort of the TFC supporters that night. At the beginning of the game attendance seemed poor but by the 25th minute the stadium was full. What impressed us most about the match was the general atmosphere. Even in the sections of general fans there was quite a bit of atmosphere and everyone was into the game including the families. A soccer fan could sit in any section and enjoy the game. This contrasts greatly with Montreal where only the Kop has any soccer atmosphere and there are many empty seats even in a sellout and many families only mildly interested in the game. The problem in Montreal is that the team is marketed to families not soccer fans and there are many tickets given away or heavily discounted so people often don't show up or are not very interested in the game when they do. The families at BMO have to pay a decent price for the tickets so as a result the only families that go are ones who are soccer fans. The visual aspect of the supporters groups was quite good, lots of flags and a sea of red, above all large numbers. The songs were less successful because of a lack of coordination between and within the groups. With that number of people you should be able to start some pretty impressive chants. The problem is that if you have 3000 people simultaneously singing three different songs it just sounds like crowd noise. The only chants that were really sung together were very simple ones like “TFC” or “Who are ya?”. On the plus side, the rest of the crowd did join in on some of the simple chants when the supporter's groups did sing together. Regarding the chants themselves, there could have been more variety but your first priority has to be getting the ones that you do know sung in unison. Even though it is meant to insult us, I quite like the “Tic, Tak Tabernac, Who the F uck's the Impact” chant. It is both original and funny. You need to get rid of the “Who Are Ya?” chant. It is one of the lamest soccer chants I have ever heard and just because they sing it in England doesn't make it cool.

The first half of the game was quite even and 1-1 was a fair result. Have to admit I was pretty worried when TFC scored but it was a great feeling when we tied it up. The second half we defended but kicked the ball up the field too much instead of keeping possession and running out time. Our strikers have to learn to bring the ball into the corners when they cross midfield as they can waste a lot of time there and possibly win corners. We gave the ball away too easy which allowed TFC to have a big possession advantage. Yet despite this possession advantage, TFC was rarely dangerous. Both teams missed sure goals by Brown and scoring challenged Cunningham and arguably the next best chance was by our Matondo. Having seen TFC live twice and the Vancouver games on tv, I am disappointed in the MLS level of play and was expecting better. To be fair, even though I have been a big critic of the USL in the past, in the last year it has drastically improved. Montreal, Seatle, Vancouver, Portland and Rochester used to have good teams most years and the rest of the teams were crap. This year every team that has come to Montreal has been very competitive and the tightness of the table shows that. My take on the difference between TFC and the Impact is this. When all of your players are healthy and available, the first 4 or 5 top players are better than anyone we have. Guys like Robert and Guevera are definitely well above anyone on the Impact, at least when they are actually putting any effort into their play. The next 4 or 5 best players on TFC are probably equal to the better Impact players. The next 2 or 3 players are equal to the weaker starters and subs on the Impact and your substitute players are worse than the Impact's substitutes. The Impact are a pretty balanced team, no stars but a solid group of players including the substitutes. TFC by contrast has a very big difference in skill level between their top players and their average players and substitutes. I think there are a number of players on the TFC first team roster, ie. substitutes and guys like Velez, who would have a hard time even making the Impact. It also makes it very hard for your top players to perform when some of their teammates are so far below them in skill level. This has to do partly with the salary structure of the MLS and Mo's lack of ability in assessing talent or finding bargain players. There is also a problem in coaching in that a good coach knows how to effectively employ average players in a system so that they seem better than average yet Mo and now Carter do not seem to have this ability.

When we finally won this was a really great feeling, one of the best I have had as a soccer fan. I have been to a lot of away games in Europe and winning them is alway a bit more special than winning at home. Yet at most of those games I was with 2 000 fans against 20 000 home fans. Being such a small group of 50 celebrating in front of 20 000 home fans was really a great feeling, a victory against the odds. Next year we are hoping with more organization and planning to bring about 200 fans but I am sure glad I got to experience this. It was too bad CBC did not televise the awarding of the Cup because it was quite well done. After they got the Cup the players came and celebrated over by our stand with the Cup and motioned for us to throw them our flags and scarves. That went on for about 20-30 minutes and the police and security still didn't want to let us into the other area of the stadium. By this time a lot of us needed to use the washroom so they decided to bring us to the VIP room. We had a good celebration there but it was marred by the fact they closed the bar and would only let us drink tap water and wouldn't even give us cups so we all had to drink water out of one beer cup that one of the Ultras had. At the very least if they were going to keep us in the room for an hour and didn't want to give us alcohol they could have given us some Coke. Also our own team management could have sent over something from the team party. I doubt the players knew we were there but there were members of the Impact management who came over so management did know we were in the VIP room for a long time. Finally we were allowed to leave and had a great party on the bus to the City of Champions arriving at 5 am.

The one thing that really bothers me when we play Toronto is afterwards reading the Internet sites of the Toronto fans which are full of accounts of how bad and classless we are and about how honourably they have behaved. It is particularly irritating because not only are the accounts completely biased many of them are absolutely untrue. Unlike the first TFC-Impact game, I didn't notice too much of this type of post on the U-sector forum but RPB was full of it. In particular, we had the story of the guy who claims he had to protect his children from the bottles we were throwing from up high over the back of the stand as he exited the stadium. First of all, where did we get all the bottles that we were throwing at them? You can't buy bottles in the stadium and we were checked more than anyone else entering the stadium. Plus, our goal was to get in our smoke bombs so we were definitely not trying to draw attention to ourselves by smuggling in other stuff. We had no stuff to throw even if we wanted to. About the only thing one can buy to throw in BMO is cobs of corn and I didn't see any Ultras eating corn so if any corn got thrown down it must have been thrown at us in the first place. Secondly, we had two police officers and two security guards with us the whole time so if we were throwing things don't you think they would have stopped us. Thirdly we were celebrating and focusing on the field and the celebration not standing at the back of the stand, watching people leave the stadium so we could throw things at them. If things were being thrown at this guy as he claims they were not coming from us.

We are all fans who like to intensely support our team. Those who are not fans like this should not join supporter groups and should sit in other parts of the stadium. Every group is going to have some idiots and also people who are not idiots but cross the line because they are drunk or in the heat of the moment. None of the groups are angels and most incidents occur because both sides are participating. I knew this trip was going to be intense, we would be massively outnumbered and there was a certain amount of risk I took in going on it. If it weren't for a significant number of posters (though not all) on various forums posting stuff about all the bad things the Ultras did without provocation to those well behaved TFC fans, I wouldn't even post the following since this was the type of thing I expected anyway. However, here are some of the things I experienced on the trip. Most of the families in front of us were quiet but there were a few where the father took it upon himself to insult us constantly. One in particular had a running commentary that covered such subjects as what a-ssholes French people are and how all Montrealers are unemployed and receiving welfare checks which we spend on drugs and booze. He certainly got an earful from us as well but this is exactly the type of guy who will then complain to TFC or write internet posts about how nasty the Ultras are and how we were swearing in front of his kids. Then there was the time I went to the washroom alone and some guy tried to steal my scarf while my back was turned. Then he thought since he was pretty big and there were about 20 other TFC fans there that he could intimidate me into giving him his scarf. Wasn't going to happen. I shouldn't have gone to the washroom alone, my mistake but hardly the classy Torontonian I am reading about on RPB. I did go home without my scarf but that is because a Mr. Adam Braz is now the proud owner of an Ultras Montreal scarf. There were a number of guys in 105 who were yelling at us and challenging us to fight. Part of the show as far as I am concerned but not exactly Toronto the good. Strangely enough there is a group of guys who sit near the away supporters at the top of 105 and try to pick fights with them according to the TFC forums but we got along with those guys just fine and were talking with them at intermission. Once the game ended and we were celebrating a guy sitting in 105 came over and threw a beer in my face. Then again as we were celebrating there were a lot of guys in the beer garden who came over to the garden fence and were making gestures for us to come fight them. Again part of the show as far as I am concerned but there is no doubt in my mind that had police not kept us in our seats we would have been attacked exiting the stadium by a far larger group than the small group that attacked the TFC supporters in Montreal. There were also reports on the TFC forums of groups waiting outside the stadium for us though I imagine they eventually got bored and left considering how long we were in the stadium. I am not complaining about any of this, merely stating it so I don't have to keep hearing how the Ultras cause all the s-hit that happens. There were also a lot of Toronto fans that came up to us and congratulated us and we were also friendly to them. However, I read on RPB that 10 of us ganged up on one of these guys and beat him up. Didn't happen and had it happened the police certainly would have intervened. The only TFC fan that was touched by an Ultra was the guy who threw the beer in my face who I grabbed by the neck and gave him an earful. And yes the policeman was standing there and didn't do anything probably because he had just seen him throw a beer in my face unprovoked and thought he deserved what he got. Had I hit the guy I am sure the police would have stepped in. Even the two women who had tickets in our section didn't move to any of the empty seats lower down which I am sure they would have done if we were attacking people and throwing stuff the whole game.

We had a pretty good time in Toronto both before and during the game. Most of the TFC fans didn't give us any problem and those who did got back as good as they gave. I don't think we really want to have a good reputation anyway but reading these blatant untruths on the TFC forums is a bit irritating. If you want to b-itch about what we do, at least b.itch about the things we actually do instead of making it up and don't ignore the stuff going on in your own section. Some of the RPB were offended by the U-Sector banner calling Montreal the Mogoloid Little Brother of Toronto. Didn't bother us but can you imagine the bloody murder the TFC forums would be screaming about racism and making fun of retarded people if the Ultras put up a similar banner? This rivalry is only going to get more intense and more fun in my opinion. I think most of the leaders of all the supporter's groups are trying to avoid having any incidences of hooliganism. Noone knew what the competition and the accompanying fan relations would be like before this year but now we know and can make plans for next year accordingly.

[Guest speedmonk42]

Grizzly. Sometimes I think you have a manic typing disorder.

Good post.

[Sam]

Good post.

Grizzly -The TFC fans are just angry their team is doing so badly. When they are winning those forums are filled with threads like "Guevara is better than Beckham", and when they are losing they go back to the self-adoration of their own fans. For 2 years on every single TFC broadcast I've heard "Toronto has the best fans in the league". I DON"T CARE ANY MORE!! When the results aren't going their way they start talking about how good they are and how s-hit the other fans are.

Very annoying, I completly understand where your post is coming from, even as a TFC fan (not a member of any supporter group for TFC) myself.

[JamboAl]

As a member of RPB, I would like to apologize for the offending posts on the forum. I think you realize that some of that is a display of male bravado without any consequences of getting your head kicked in. As a whole, the guys I've met are proper football supporters who like me will dish out verbal abuse but won't cross the line and get into fights. When you have 20,000 TFC supporters at BMO, there are bound to be a very small minority who will have watched a bit too much "Football Factories"; your scarf incident at the bathroom is symptomatic of that. You'll see when the Canada-Jamaica match is on that all differences will be put aside.

[JamboAl]

As a member of RPB, I would like to apologize for the offending posts on the forum. I think you realize that some of that is a display of male bravado without any consequences of getting your head kicked in. As a whole, the guys I've met are proper football supporters who like me will dish out verbal abuse but won't cross the line and get into fights. When you have 20,000 TFC supporters at BMO, there are bound to be a very small minority who will have watched a bit too much "Football Factories"; your scarf incident at the bathroom is symptomatic of that. You'll see when the Canada-Jamaica match is on that all differences will be put aside.

[tmcmurph]

quote:Originally posted by speedmonk42

Grizzly. Sometimes I think you have a manic typing disorder.

Good post.

That or he has voice recognition software running? Griz?

[Mpenza]

I saw an empty plastic water bottle fly down from our section after we were being thrown all sort of objects. It fell near a kid. Must be why the guy posted on the RPB forum. I understand him being concerned about his kid's safety.

I also saw a used smoke bomb make its way down the 104.

The cops reacted quickly to have us move away from the railing. A couple of us stayed behind to remove the banners as the cops requested.

Apart from that, all that came down from 104 was stuff thrown at us that was hitting the railing behind the section and going back down. I know, I was there trying to remove banners with all sorts of **** flying around me. I decided to leave the banners there and move away as we couldn't see the objects coming towards us and it was getting really dangerous. Plus I didn't want to miss the trophy ceremony. One of us eventually removed the remaining banner and moved away and the throwing of objects stopped.

So anyhoo... this goes to show we really need to get the rocks at Saputo removed. []

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by JamboAl

As a member of RPB, I would like to apologize for the offending posts on the forum. I think you realize that some of that is a display of male bravado without any consequences of getting your head kicked in. As a whole, the guys I've met are proper football supporters who like me will dish out verbal abuse but won't cross the line and get into fights. When you have 20,000 TFC supporters at BMO, there are bound to be a very small minority who will have watched a bit too much "Football Factories"; your scarf incident at the bathroom is symptomatic of that. You'll see when the Canada-Jamaica match is on that all differences will be put aside.

It is not the trash talking male bravado posts that bug me. A few of our guys post this internet hooliganism too especially on YouTube even though we keep telling them not to (the stadium is the place to call each other wankers not the internet ). The posts that bother me are the ones that claim we are throwing bottles at kids and beating up women, etc.

Can someone post this on RPB for me? I still can't post there although I am able to log in to the site. It was favourably received on the U-Sector board but then they weren't the ones making the wild claims about how evil the Ultras are. And yes I do like to write, sometimes too much!

[Blue and White Army]

Great post. Loved the intro, especially the part about the "Athens democracy".

[maccaliam]

Good post Grizzly. I enjoyed that!

[Seb of Mtl]

Great Post Grizzly!!

To be honest, I am Fn pissed off with these Torontonians. I was not at the game Tuesday, but I believe that without a doubt the Montreal Ultras behaved as honourable gentlemen and surely did not disrespect anyone in the stands. However, these good damn people who pretend to love soccer and have a deep knowledge of the sport decided that they would act like those idiot hooligans, Why? is it because some montrealer disrespect them, or they knew that TFC was going to lose or is it because they see highlights on sports centre of fights and riots at European soccer games? I think the answer is the latter. These people starting trouble with the opposing team's fans trying to intimidate them and provoking them to fight is beyond stupid and is ridiculous and I think they are doing it cuz they believe it is cool. I was at the impact game in montreal versus TFC and these two guys tried to provoke me while i was walking back to my car but the worst part in all of this is that i was at the game with my 78 year old grandfather! Really cool and tough guys! Hats off to TFC, if it wasnt for them, the impact wouldnt dream of the MLS and we probably wouldnt have the Saputo Stadium; their franchise is doing great, most of their fans are dedicated and truly enjoy soccer but its too bad that there is a minority of losers that are trying to be cool. Having fights breakout over soccer in North America is probably the worst thing for soccer in terms of its development; sports in North America needs the corporate market for sponsorship and luxury boxes in addition they need families for it to be sustainable because they will buy merchandise, food, parking passes etc. So finally, if these people had the least bit of intelligence, they would realise the kind of losers they are and resolve that soccer in North America will forever be market driven and not population driven as it is elsewhere in the world.

[Cashcleaner]

Too long, didn't read.

Can someone summarize?

[Tintin]

Excellent post. I'm just curious about leaving and going back to The City of Champions...I didn't know there were so many Ultras in Edmonton. Did you mean La Cité des Champignons?

The first bit was entertaining. I, like you, hope that this sort of thing is nipped in the bud by the "leaders" of the various supporters groups, although if people near you were the main problem, I'm thinking they aren't members of any supporters group, and that's more scary. Acting like a total prat is, I'm sure, frowned upon by the rest of the RPB, U Sector, etc and they can be somewhat self-policed.

As for the RPB's internet testosterone fest, I hadn't seen any of that. I stopped going to their site when I discovered I couldn't post there no matter what I tried.

I supported TFC from afar last year, just because I want a Canadian team to do well, but this year with them involved in the Voyageurs Cup, and especially after seeing them play here in Vancouver, I wish them well in the league, but I was glad Montréal won the cup once we were out of it (thanks to Montréal beating us twice).

Congratulations Montréal.

[RS]

quote:Originally posted by Tintin

As for the RPB's internet testosterone fest, I hadn't seen any of that. I stopped going to their site when I discovered I couldn't post there no matter what I tried.

Were you not the same person complaining over there about this sign...

[Mpenza]

That sign makes me laugh everytime I see it.

In my book, this is a classic.

[Montreal_FC_fan]

Pffft!! []

[Tintin]

Rudi: 1. No I wasn't. As I said, I don't even go to that site anymore, and haven't since last year. 2. What makes you think it was me anyway?

[RS]

quote:Originally posted by Tintin

Rudi: 1. No I wasn't. As I said, I don't even go to that site anymore, and haven't since last year. 2. What makes you think it was me anyway?

There was a board member with the same username as yours who was getting all vaginal over the content of my banner.

If it wasn't you, I apologize.

[Tintin]

accepted...nice to know someone else likes Tintin, but it sure wasn't me.

[JayWay]

quote:Originally posted by Montreal_FC_fan

Pffft!! []

I didn't know Roger Clemens was an Ultra...

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by JayWay

I didn't know Roger Clemens was an Ultra...

Yeah, that guy in the bottom left hand corner of the picture

[Mpenza]

I see 2 ultras in that picture and Roger ain't one of em.