Jungite aut Perite

"Join, or Die!" What Philadelphia fan wouldn't love that?

We know what some of you are thinking, wait what are these guys talking about? Is the city really looking forward to an MLS playoff game? Our answer to you few is, “Shut up.” Although we have not written anything about this team all season, it’s not because we don’t follow them closely. It is more of a… how do we say this? We know absolutely zilch about the game of soccer. We know the rules and things like that, but as far as tactical or strategic moves in the game… Our most profound thought is try to put the ball in the net and we enjoy good crosses into the box. We learned this from our many, many hours and late nights playing FIFA World Cup 2010 for Xbox (Hint: Didier Drogba and the Ivory Coast or Cote d’Ivoire are disgusting in this game. Just send one into the box in the air and soccers’ version of Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain, better known as Didier Drogba, will put it in the back of the net every time.) . Needless to say, with this being our extensive knowledge of the game, we have been hesitant to write about soccer, but we do watch almost every game and go to many of them as well. Here a couple things to get excited about with the upcoming MLS playoffs.

1.     This team is only a second year expansion team and they are already in the playoffs. Think about how hard it is in any professional sport to accomplish something like this. Ask the Bob McNair and the Houston Texans how good they are doing with the playoffs 10 years later. Pretty well actually, they are undefeated BECAUSE THEY’VE NEVER BEEN TO THE PLAYOFFS. This is a pretty big task for a young expansion team. The team has done well with Peter Nowak as the manager and drafted well to get to this point. They have done a good job of mixing young talent (Danny Mwanga) with solid veterans (Faryd Mondragon, Sebastien Le Toux) which has created solid chemistry with this team.

"Oooooooh... you suck @$$HOLE!"

2.     The Sons of Ben will be rocking. If you are unfamiliar with the Sons of Ben, it is the supporter section for the Union at the Rivers’ end of the stadium. On any normal regular season game, the side is loaded (not only are there a lot of people but the people in the section are loaded also), the SOB are always rowdy and loud, and they are everything a Philadelphia fan should be. They are loud and abusive to the opponent, they never sit down during any point of the game and most of them dress up in ridiculous attire to support the squad. The SOB will be loud and proud on Sunday night and we can’t wait to see their excitement after the first Union playoff goal.

You the fans... you're what drives me. I am a man of the people

3.     There is one man that encompasses all of Philadelphia Sports: Sebastien Le Toux. Yes, yes, yes you read correctly, we did say that all that encompasses Philadelphia sports is a French guy. He does not put up the white flag as many of his kind do, instead he continues to fight on. Sebastien has been with the team since its inception and he is everything that a Philadelphia fan enjoys seeing on a daily basis. Both of his years with the team he has been in MVP talks (which is important because if you’re not a winner here then go to Chicago, they’ll accept a loser). These talks were mostly spurned by a second half onslaught that saw him record 10 goals in the last 12 games including 2 goal performances versus DC United, New England, and Dallas. He does nothing but hustle up and down the field on offense and defense. As a striker it is easy to get lazy on defense and focus all of your energy on the offensive side of the ball, but true to form, Sebastien does play both ways (haha) very well. He realizes that defense generates an offensive counter-attack and he wants to be involved. The last thing you can say about this guy is that he loves the fans. After every home game he will walk around the stadium signing as many autographs as his fingers can bear. He wants every kid to leave with an autograph or a picture of their hero so that they can go home happy. Mind you, this is after he just gets done playing a full 90+ minute game of soccer in which he is sprinting up and down the field. Not even a lot of baseball players do this after they stand in the outfield on and off for 3 hours. He is loyal to his team, this city, and most importantly the fans that pretty much help pay his salary. Le Toux really does not get enough credit in this city for his all around great play and respect for this city so be excited for him to do big things for the Union in their first ever playoff run.

4.     DOOP. There are a lot of neat traditions with a lot of Philadelphia sports. All of Philadelphia and the sports world in general loves the Phillie Phanatic and he has become a staple of fan spirit at Phillies games. With the Eagles, we have our Eagles fight song which we sing after every touchdown. The Flyers have their amazing goal songs, and now there is something else… The stadium gets transformed by the Union’s goal song: DOOP. It is a song that brings about passion and excitement when there is a goal scored at PPL stadium. The manager, one of the architects of this young team, Peter Nowak, picked this song because he thought it was something the city could get behind. The stadium loves it and it is something that has taken on a life of its own. There are bumper stickers and tshirts with just DOOP on it and you may have even heard it somewhere else. It has found its way into the Flyers goal song at home as well. It gives the city of Philadelphia its own celebration and is something that, with backing, will continue to be known as one of the better sports traditions in the city.

This team is good enough to win an MLS cup for the city and for the franchise. We love a winner in Philadelphia and trust us this is a winning team. We don’t guarantee a championship this year, but this young team is going to be winning for years to come with all the talent we have so jump on the bandwagon now and get excited for the playoffs.

If you have never gone to a Union game before now is the perfect time to do it. Get in on the action and strike while the iron is still hot. The stadium is beautiful and the atmosphere is going to be electric. Even if you can’t go, support our boys by watching on ESPN2. If you don’t understand a lot that is going on, don’t worry, just do what we do and get extremely loud when the ball goes in the net behind their goalie.

 DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP