Cosplay Bars & Concacaf Champions: chasing MLS history in Seattle

Seattle Sounders defeated Pumas 3-0 last Wednesday to become the first MLS team to win the Concacaf Champions League. I went to Seattle to poke around the "city that invented soccer" ahead of the game

I watched Real Madrid stun Manchester City at Seattle’s long-established soccer hole, The George and Dragon. TGAD opened in 1995 and advertises itself as “Seattle’s #1 English Pub”. When you enter Seattle's number one English pub you’ll find dark mahogany, fish and chips and if you’re lucky, a group of Americans singing in fake English accents in the corner. 

“Come un citaaaay! Come unnn!” chanted the melodious crew ahead of the UCL Semi-final, crooning in the distinct accented intonations of men from Stockport. But these men were not from Stockport, nor within 3,000 miles of it. 

I texted a group of MLS-watching friends: “I changed my mind. I’m cheering for Pumas. This is a cosplay bar.” 

“Yeah the fake accents are the worst,” replied one. (How pervasive is this problem?!)

“Well what did you expect,” replied another, “Sounders fans are the worst.” 

The George and Dragon preserves the memory of tournaments gone by inside its faux-British environs. People tell you, “This is where I came to watch this or that final.” There’s a poster advertising the 2002 World Cup hanging by the men’s bathroom wall.

Observers arrive early the day of a big match, descending into dim lighting, out from Seattle’s perennial white mist. Most of them are men. They file in by ones and twos to claim some corner of space. 

Seattle’s number #1 English Pub drew a crowd decidedly in favor of England’s first-placed top-flight team last Wednesday. Which is to say I was surrounded by sky blue. Which is to say I was playing a game in my head of ‘how many of these people are actually British’, and I identified three of them, one of whom was sitting to my left and ended up being German. 

So thorough was City’s support in Seattle that afternoon, I did not believe we had La Liga legionnaires among us. But we did, and they identified themselves shortly after kickoff by yelling at the fake Mancunians: 

Come unnn citaaaay! Come unnn!

Fuck off city, fuck off!!!

Hey! That’s a good one! Retorted one amongst City’s central support at TGAD after the latest ‘fuck off’ echo midway through the first half.  

More bass in your voice, bro, replied Real Madrid’s TGAD captain. 

Man A then accused Man B of homophobia. Man B then accused Man A of only watching soccer since 2012.

A discourse commenced between them which lasted well into the second half, stopping only when a TGAD employee emerged with arms raised, palms outward in duel-facing stop signals to say: “Boys!” three times.  

The boys stopped. Real Madrid won. And I left TGAD sure I’d be cheering for Pumas in the Concacaf Champions League Final. 

My pledge to support Pumas and my MLS group chat’s “ugh, typical Seattle” response is hardly the first time Seattle’s fans were alleged to be the ‘actual worst’. In the lead up to the much-anticipated Concacaf Champions League Final, even Alexi Lalas lamented we’d need to overcome “insufferable” Sounders fans in order to cheer for the last MLS team fighting. 

If you google “are Sounders fans the worst”, or, “why are Sounders fans the worst”, you come up with multiple reddit threads considering the subject. Most agree it’s because the Sounders have been so successful, are exuberantly proud of their record-setting fanbase, and they like to let you know. 

There is also the subject of cringe, a topic which bears consideration as we look back at MLS. “Cringe” haunts soccer Americana like “penalties” haunt the English. Which is to say of course that neither is as guilty as the world believes it to be, but the meme outlives itself, and a complex has blossomed beneath the accusation. 

Cringe’s most viral example is a Sounders fan himself, known to the world as the “fight and win guy”:

There were whole VICE think pieces and seemingly endless tabloids written about his chant heard round the world, holding it up as proof the fandom in America was so ‘plastic’, so cringe.

But in the years since, Sounders fans evolved the memed-moment and made the chant proudly their own. They sing it to this day. 

Seattle has absorbed assorted accusations about the state of their fandom over the years. Regardless of where you stand, make no mistake: 68,741 fans in a sellout crowd in downtown Seattle is no accident of place. 

Something about the alternative mentality, reliable rain and mossy green lawns made Seattle ripe for the sport we imported. Its metropolitan area has among the highest rates of kids playing soccer in the country. Their MLS team is consistently top ranked in average yearly attendance. And while other cities muddle along the path of growing popularity, for a long while now it’s been cool to like soccer in Seattle. 

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There are certain crowds that sense what’s coming and celebrate the ending from the start. So it was with Seattle. But the match wasn’t always so decided. 

Two early injuries gave them pause. The crowd lulled slightly as Nouhou Tolo and Joao Paulo departed, hurt. The match was fairly even in the first but Raul Ruidiaz settled nerves before the half with a 45th minute goal in the box.

Pumas chased the deficit to no avail, putting consistent pressure on the Sounders. Both sides created chances. Both sides snuffed the others’ out. And just when you thought the Sounders would pull it off 1-0, a pair of late goals sealed their victory with three. 

Raul Ruidiaz struck first in the 80th minute, claiming his second of the night. The crowd thanked him in a deep vibrato “Rauuuuuuuul”. 8 minutes later Uruguayan international Nicolas Lodeiro ended the contest with his third against Pumas and Sounders’ third of the night. 

I took a few 360 turns, soaking in 68,000+ people roaring on their feet, hands raised in the air, heads thrown back, laughing, hugging. A man behind me yelled “history!” into the air like William Wallace once yelled freedom. 

MLS teams have won Concacaf tournaments before, but only twice and not since 2000. Seattle is the first to win this iteration and they deserve the milestone. 

They deserve it for many reasons, but maybe even in particular for their fans. Yes, for their fans, who didn’t just cheer on their team to historic victory, but set the record for the tournament’s largest-ever crowd in the process. 

So here’s to them.

Here’s to whatever recipe of culture and counterculture and constant rain made Seattle so ripe for the sport we imported from a rainy island.  Here’s to the guy that yelled fight and win, wherever he is. Here’s to the people that think they invented soccer. Here’s to you, Seattle.

(Please don’t be insufferable about this).