BSH Hates YSA Too

“We are a supporters club. By definition we should be supporting the club. YSA is having a direct negative impact on the team that we say we support. It cost them another suite holder this weekend. If you support the team and want it to be financially sound, us getting rid of YSA is a no brainer. If the chant means that much to you, I would ask that you start a YSA Supporters Club and hand in your SoB membership. I’m sure the team will be happy to seat you elsewhere. I am that serious about not wanting to be personally affiliated with that chant. Not only is the chant not original or funny, it has little effect on anyone except your fellow fans, especially parents and/or businesses trying to entertain clients in a non-offensive environment. Impacting these patrons impacts the team. If you want to rattle a goalie, learn his wife’s or sister’s name. I don’t mind the Score a Goal chant or swearing in general and will defend our rights to do so. But this chant is loud and lame and makes us all look immature and it is time for it to go.

Ad finem fidelis

Bryan James President”

I know a lot of people don’t like to be told what to do and a lot of people don’t like YSA and are telling you all to stop it, but YSA is really dumb. Generally I hate stealing chants from other places and this is th absolute epitome of that. (Yes we stole Doop, I didn’t like that at the start either, but the energy that’s gone behind that has turned me around a bit.) I absolutely think the best things we’ve done are the most creative things. The Peter Vermes Give Us Your Keys bit last year was absolutely beautiful. Some of the chants and Tifos we’ve had up against the Red Bull and DC United have been just as good, even if many of them aren’t exactly original. Everything we do should have at the very least a personal touch and YSA is the exact opposite. I can’t imagine hearing You Suck Asshole after every kickoff has any meaningful effect on the players because they’ve all heard it so many times. I’d love to hear something more creative come out of the River End. You guys have been great in every other way and I think the push back against YSA is one of the better signs of the things you guys have done. Maybe a specific keeper directed chant ould ork well for each game. Even something like yelling a dragged out “Union” on it would be good. YSA won’t catch on around the stadium, and getting something that could come in from around the full stadium would be awesome. These are the kinds of chants we need.

Of course the best way to end something as dumb as YSA is to actually come up with a much better alternative, which shouldn’t be particularly hard.

A few suggestions,

1. Uuuunn-Ioon. (The closest thing I can think of is Notre Dame taking kick-offs yelling Go on the kick and Irish on the catch. It’s not the most creative but it works and could fill the stadium in a very cool way)

2. Phi-la-delph-ia (I really like the idea of something simple here, especially if it’s just moving something we already do into this spot. These are less suggestions and more nominations really. Although this probably means a few YSA fans still get there’s in as the rhythm is the same, hopefully the rest of us can at least out blow them.)

I know neither of these are particularly creative, but I think that either of them works better than YSA and is much more associated with this team in this town (obviously.) I’m sure other people have more creative ideas, I’ve seen a few on BigSoccer, but this is all I’ve got at the moment. If you’ve got any better ideas put them in the comments.

16 Years, No Cups! 60% Posession, No Points!

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In the words of Sports Illustrated’s Avi Creditor

“There’s a beast in the East, and it’s not New York. The Philadelphia Union doesn’t seem to care about all of the talk about the New York Red Bulls’ vaunted attack and sound distribution from the back. It’s looking down on its Eastern Conference rivals from atop the standings after a gritty win at an electric PPL Park.

The Red Bulls had their chances, with Juan Agudelo hitting the woodwork twice and countless other opportunities for the team to get on the board. The Red Bulls also had a sizable edge in possession. But a failure to convert chances is always the downfall of any team, and Tim Ream’s horrid mistake from the back was all the Union needed to pad its lead atop the East.

Ream, lauded for his distribution — and rightfully so — in the United States’ recent friendly with Paraguay, was hardly under pressure when he passed directly to Danny Mwanga and gave the Union a two-on-one breakaway in the attacking third. Mwanga slotted the ball to Roger Torres, who coolly beat Bouna Coundoul to set off a celebration along the banks of the Delaware River.

Over the course of the full 90 minutes, the Union may have been outplayed, but all that matters in the end is the scoreboard. And in more ways than one, that scoreboard reads Philadelphia 1, New York 0.

The rematch on Oct. 20, the last game of the regular season, should be riveting.”

Obviously considering the expectations going in to the season the Red Bull should be in the hunt for a top seed, and considering the current position of the Union, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them up there as well (especially if they sort out the offense which we expected so much from).

Hans Backe apparently threw a fit after the game saying he saw “only one team on the pitch” in reference to the fact that the Union played a relatively defensive game. Of course the Union knew that Henry and Agudelo were a large part of NY’s game and decided to actively take them away. They did so successfully and Backe didn’t like it. Nowak’s response? “You can complete a thousand passes but if you don’t score it doesn’t matter.”"What’s difference between winning 1-0 and 5-0?” he continued, “You getting 6 points for that?”

The Union again looked much better in the second half; a trend through the beginning of the season. Although they allowed the Red Bull to dominate possesion in the first half the second half was much more even and (although I’m definitely a little biased) I though the Union did look the better team. If nothing else I think it continues to show that teh Union don’t exactly have things sorted out offensively. Some combination of Ruiz, Le Toux, Mwanga and Torres need to be up top but it seems that only three of them will fit. Ruiz has played well, but not necessarily well enough to start. I championed the idea of giving him a little time to see where he fits in, and I still believe that he deserves that, but he should be in to top shape by now and comfortable enough with the players around him to get started pretty soon. If he continues to look out of place through the next two or three games I wouldn’t be surprised to see Torres take his spot on the field. Torres looked good up top, and the team looked better  around him. As good as the Union have looked defensively this year, with the key additions of Valdes and Modragon, we expected much more from them offensively. If they can get that sorted out I would expect big things from this team. The current stretch of games is one of the rougher ones for the team, with the Galaxy, Red Bull, Sounders, and Real Salt Lake but if they can make it through and get at least 5 or 6 points from those 4 games it will be considered a successful stretch and they will deserve to be as high on the table as they are currently. Also the fans at the game sounded great, and we have yet to lose a game at PPL this year. With an atmosphere like that I fully expect that trend to continue.

 

>> http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/avi_creditor/04/10/mls.snaps/index.html#ixzz1JA8h3rSq