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United Force
(Toni L. Sandys - The Washington Post)
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Tonight, we must win
Even between goals the scene is much the same. Just as the clock never stops in soccer, so the hurricane possesses no off switch. About the only way the Barra Brava can amp it up any further when a goal is scored is to let fly jets of beer, confetti and the occasional colored-smoke bomb.
"The worst is when you just buy a beer, and they score, and you got to throw it," says Bob "Scruggs" Bancroft, 28, an accountant. "It's like $7 in the air, come on! I'm not that rich!"
Drums, flags, jumping, singing -- singing!-- nonstop for 90 minutes. And never, ever, sitting. Is this any way to be a sports fan in America?
* * *
In the beginning, 11 years ago, a real estate agent from Bolivia named Oscar Zambrana bought 15 tickets for the first D.C. United home game. The only way he knew to root for the home team was the way they do it back home in Santa Cruz.
He went to a pawn shop in Wheaton where the owner, a Uruguayan, offered to exchange drums for a ticket. Deal.
Stadium authorities did not understand this exuberant form of fan love. The second game, drums were barred.
But Kevin Payne, president of D.C. United, did understand. "This is not other sports," says Payne. "Rather than have a band getting up occasionally to play a rehearsed song, our fans make their own music." Deny this urge, and the cost to a franchise in passion, atmosphere, noise and ticket sales is incalculable.
Payne talked to the stadium officials. The third game, the drums were back, and the Barra Brava was in the house to stay.
Now the Barra Brava has more than 800 members paying $25 dues. What began as a predominantly Latino club is multicultural, with songs in English and Spanish. Zambrana, 39, is still "el jefe," the boss, and fellow Bolivian Javier "Chico" Solares, 48, a BMW wholesale parts manager from Fairfax, is "el primer capitán," the first captain.
But "el segundo capitán" is Marshall Conner, 40, a strapping descendant of Scots, who was one of the first gringos to join the group several years ago.
