Richard Bamber
July 27th 2014
Friday night saw the traveling Palace support converge on a
German bar located a few blocks south of Philadelphia's bustling city centre.
The reason was simple & was nothing to do with a sudden love of all things
Teutonic; the bar was the only place providing a fun & easy way to get to
Philadelphia Union's stadium, which is located about 20 miles south of the city
in the suburb of Chester. While the stadium lies just of the I-95 interstate,
parking was a slightly ridiculous $20 & the public transport option
involved two trains & a bus. There was a degree of hopefulness amongst the
fans, in particular the English contingent as we all clutched PayPal
confirmations that claimed a bus would duly pick us up 90 minutes before the
game.
Throughout the afternoon, fans clad in red & blue
arrived, with a particular mention going to the New York Eagles who brought
their giant 3x2m flag which was hung from the upstairs balcony to rapturous
cheering. Old friends caught up with each other & a large amount of German
pilsner was consumed.
Much to some relief, two American style yellow school buses
arrived at the allotted time & the Palace faithful started to board.
Better still, these vehicles each featured two enthusiastic Union fans who
begun handing out canned & bottled beer immediately. My red & blue flag
was attached to back of one of the buses & we set off.
The flag didn't last three blocks as it seems that having
one job is too much for some of our inebriated regulars! I am reliably assured
that the driver behind got a bit of a fright & had to swerve as it exited
the window at the back of the bus. Luckily it was a generic club shop one
so replacing it shouldn't be hard.
This wasn't the only casualty of the trip, as with the
traffic not being great & nearly an hour after departure, it all became to
much for one Palace couple who hadn't been to the toilet. They were let off
& presumably had an enjoyable time walking the last mile to PPL Park.
We got into the stadium, which is only a few years old
having opened in 2010 after being expressly built for Philadelphia Union to
join the USA's Major League Soccer. About 100 Palace fans gathered in a
corner section on a beautiful summer's evening. The game kicked off &
To be fair was nothing remarkable. Palace broke the deadlock on midway through
the first half with the game's only goal, which unfortunately was scored by the
Union's Ethan White. However the highlight was the moment that the away
contingent spotted a young guy sporting a Liverpool top sitting next his mum
who had a Palace scarf on. '3-0, & you f*cked it up' & 'If it wasn't
for the Palace, you'd be top' chants rang out for the next few minutes.
Hopefully that kid learnt his lesson that if you aren't wearing the colours of
one of the teams playing, it really should be plain clothes!
Special mention should also go to Palace co-owner Steve
Parish, who took the time to come over to the away end at half time & chat
with fans. The gesture was roundly appreciated by those lucky enough to meet
him.
After the game, we headed back to the buses which were
restocked with beers. The ride back was excellent with the 'old guard' teaching
the newer fans some of the more obscure ditties from the Palace songbook. We
arrived back at the bar around 10pm for more drinks after which things begin to
get a little blurry!
Most on the fans on tour spent the day after in either New
York, Philadelphia or Washington before heading south to Richmond, Virginia for
Monday's nights game against local side, the Richmond Kickers. Some of the
latest updates & pictures from the tour can be found on Twitter via
@ColoradoPalace.
Again Thank You to Richard Bamber for keeping all us UK based Eagles supporters updated with the latest happenings on Crystal Palace's American Adventure!
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