Saturday's game was, in many ways, a very strange one. The deliberately subdued atmosphere due to the Red Patch Boys and North End Elite protests. Dan Gargan as captain. TFC, without Dwayne De Rosario, Chad Barrett, Adrian Cann and Stefan Frei, arguably our 4 best players this year, playing a decent game against a good team. Maicon Santos scoring one of the best goals in TFC history. Jacob Peterson scoring. Nicholas Lindsay putting in one of the best performances by a TFC winger in a long time. A double sending off after an incident that almost led to a full on brawl. Columbus' two goals both scored by goalies, their first bounced off the bar and then off John Conway's back and in, it was very charitably not given as an own goal, and the second scored by their goalie Will Hesmer, going up in desperation for an injury time corner. The only thing weirder would have been if TFC actually won, but alas we didn't quite get that one.
The game itself was fairly meaningless so I won't talk much about that, but I'd say that was the best game we've played under Dasovic so far. Santos and Lindsay had great games (I feel bad for Lindsay, his substitution got lost in the chaos after the red cards, if anyone deserved a standing ovation off the pitch it was him yesterday) and were ably supported by Nick Labrocca and Jacob Peterson. I was also happy for Dan Gargan to be given the captaincy in De Ro's absence. With Nick Dasovic talking pre game about how players have been showing their character recently, that decision speaks volumes.
The main talking point though is of course the continuing supporter dissatisfaction and the protests, which continue to get attention in the media, even going as far as the New York Times.
It could be argued that the game showed how much of a minority the more hardcore supporters groups members are, an argument used by the Front Office in the recent townhall meetings. Despite the promotion of the "Wear Green" protest by the Red Patch Boys, TFC red was still by far the most prominent colour in the stadium. The silent treatment was in a way also quite ineffective, though U-Sector never made any official decision, many of their members chose not to let their gripes with the front office get in the way of supporting the boys on the field. This combined with most of the stadium continuing their usual support, not singing all the time by any means, but reacting to the play, cheering goals, booing the ref and so on, meant that there was still atmosphere in varying degrees, though in that respect this was one of the more entertaining, incident filled games all year, so probably not representative of the average experience. Probably the best representation of fan anger wasn't any of the organised displays but instead the spontaneous and widespread booing of the announcement thanking fans for coming this season and reminding them to renew for next year, followed by the very audible booing of Julian De Guzman after he skied a shot way over the bar early in the game.
To me though, while not as effective or widespread as many might have hoped it was still successful, and a very good representation of what the could happen to TFC if things continue to slide. It was very reminiscent of the crowd at the Chivas game, and at many other MLS grounds, a small supporters group singing throughout the game, and then plenty of empty seats and sporadic cheering as the game goes on in the rest of the stadium, but often eerily quiet enough for any reasonably big away contingent to be heard, and the Crew fans' "Guillermo" chant could certainly be heard often from my seats in 227.
If the team keeps alienating supporters, this is what it will become, it won't be the end of the world, the crowds won't completely disappear, the club will keep going, and if the team starts winning the crowd size will probably bounce back to be decent, essentially we'll be an average MLS club. But given the potential that still exists (even the angriest supporters desperately want to have something to cheer about again), what it could be, and especially given what TFC started with, average would be a terrible shame and a real wasted opportunity.
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