Richard Bamber
30th Jul 2014
After two days spent in various East Coast cities such as
Washington DC, a lot of the touring Palace faithful arrived in Richmond the day
before the final tour game against USL Pro (a 2nd tier of sorts after MLS)
side, the Richmond Kickers.
After we explained why we were in Richmond, it took the
barman about 2 seconds to break into 'You'll Never Walk Alone' & proudly
explain how he was a Liverpool fan who'd actually been to Anfield. He laughed
at our response, a chorus of '3-0, & you f*cked it up'. One interesting
fact is that of all the cities & towns in America that tune into Premier
League action, Richmond punches way above it's weight in being the 6th market
for this.
There was only pub to go to pregame, the Commercial Tap
House, an establishment that has almost legendary status amongst traveling
Palace fans after it hosted us 8 years ago when we played the Los Angeles
Galaxy in Richmond. That day Palace completely took over a bar which normally
sees a handful of customers. The manager remembered us from years ago &
joked that the bar had been surviving on the takings from that day ever since!
If you want proof of what the Premier League & good
ownership does, you only has to see the crowd who were twice as strong as last
time. This included a group of about 15 American lads, who had latched on to
Palace in the past year and had formed a local supporters group.
The bar really hadn't changed & this was evident by
comparing it with old photos posted on the BBS (www.cpfc.org). Apart from drinking, we amused ourselves by
trying to recreate the old shots of people slumped over the bar & striking
silly poses.
A short cab ride to the stadium & we were introduced to
realities & disorganization of lower league football, USA style. After two
designated away fans section at Columbus & Philadelphia, it appeared that
the Kickers hadn't quite understood the message & made the whole stadium
general admission. This resulted in pockets of Palace fans, all worried that
our chanting, singing & chanting would annoy the locals. After 15mins of
hurried conversation & a general stadium-wide round up of Palace fans, we
had an away section of sorts.
The line-up was the first interesting thing about the game
as due to Ward, Dann & Delaney having picked up knocks, our centerback
partnership comprised of Glenn Murray & Peter Ramage - not exactly who we
are expecting to play there in the Premier League!
The game began & apart from the odd attempt by the home
side, Palace rarely looked troubled in a 3-0 win with headed goals from
'defenders' Murray & Ramage plus Chamakh. With a relaxed atmosphere, the
away end started going through the songbook, much to the amusement of the home
fans sitting nearby. Palace fans scanned around for other Premier League
shirts, with Liverpool, Chelsea & Arsenal particular targets for songs. I
should add that in America it is perfectly acceptable to where any football
shirt to a game, regardless of which two teams are playing. Hopefully a few people
learnt that the unwritten rules are a bit different in England!
After the game we all headed back to the Tap House for a few
more beers to wrap up the tour. There was one final treat in store as I
ran into the entire squad at Richmond Airport the next day as we all began our
respective journeys home.
* A big Thank you to Richard Bamber for his coverage of Crystal Palace's tour of America for Burchyspalaceblog.* his twitter # is @ColoradoPalace.
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