NY hooliganism - the disease comes to America
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
I think this is more to do with New Yorkers and underlying social problems there, than it is to do with soccer specifically.
It isn't even the first time. Didn't read but the gang overlap with the Chivas LA shooting years ago was terrible and had little to do with the game or SG's.Originally Posted by BelfastBoy
FORMER FULL TIME KOOL-AID DRINKER
Good!
This is nothing like "England in the 80's" as I see mentioned in at least 1 of those articles, in fact I don't even think it is anything like England today, England is rather safe place today for Soccer, however every now and then hooliganism still flares up in England, and it looks a lot worse then this. England by the 80's pretty much every single club had some Hooligan Firm, in the higher divisions many clubs were very organized, very violent, and they traveled up and down the country every weekend, often causing lots of damage where ever they went. Police had to get just as organized to combat the violence and special police forces were set-up. That did not all happen over night, but rather a build up from the 60's to the 70's into the most violent period of the 80s. It was build up of increasing violence every year. This in New York was most likely un-planned and un-organized. This is more to do with Red Bull fans planing to walk into Yankee stadium as a group, make there presence known, and make as much noise as you can, it is following the Euro or South American image of Ultras mentality atmosphere (sing, bang drums, wave flags, make banners), however I doubt a planned fight was actually organized as this is very early days in MLS and many fans are even new to this type of Soccer atmosphere. Now what happens in this scenario is NYCFC fans are obviously going to be majority of the fans, they also will like to make as much noise as they can and make Red Bull fans know that this is NYCFC fans home and let there presence be known. What happens when 2 opposite groups of fans collide with minimal police, and no police escort right outside the stadium? you get little fights like this break out.
Soccer atmosphere is very different to sports like NBA, NHL, or MLB and very new atmosphere for many Americans/Canadians. Other sport fans in this country are not sectioned off and rather spread out across the stadiums, away fans (if any) often do not actually travel in groups with other away fans, and they do not have the same mentality as Ultras. MLS has adopted some of the Ultra mentality from other countries, but has not reached the same violence aspect of it, and the biggest reason I believe is the massive distance between cities across the country. If you had all these 20+ MLS teams in say Ontario, this could create more violence amongst fans with Ultra mentality as weekly road trips would be the norm, and away fans traveling would be bigger, and the closeness of th cities could create more rivals and hate. But with MLS being so far apart, most teams can hardly travel meaning violence is very unlikely to break out. Only clubs that are close can clash like this. Can hooligan type firms be formed in the future of MLS? yes I think they can, but in small numbers, and only within close by cities. I do not think it will spread like wild fire as it did in other countries due to the size. However this could be baby steps into seeing the soccer hooligan aspect in games like future NYC vs Red Bulls, DC United vs Red Bulls, Toronto vs Montreal or Portland vs Seattle as per haps example of future close rivals (Toronto and Montreal have already seen little bits of it) ..MLS atmosphere is growing, more clubs are starting to slowly travel to away games, and little fights like this are slowly creeping in. As the league grows, things like this might as well. however I think better policing can go a long way. However the policing a soccer game in Europe is very different to policing a NBA game or NHL, and MLS is going to more Europe way. If there is going to be away fans at a game in medium - big numbers, you need to keep them apart, something kind of new to USA/Canada sporting day event.
Last edited by james; 05-23-2016 at 03:18 PM.
No different than a NFL game.
Or level 5 at a Jays game.
LOL they're fighting each other over teams owned by billionaires...
Toronto FC baby...best team everrrrrrrrrr -Jozy
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