Photo by @PNWmf 

Brougham Faithful

Sounders Til I Die

For Our Boys Until the End

Eternal Blue Forever Green

On every matchday, these are the words you chant and sing, they’re the words on the flags you wave, on the banners you stand behind, and the scarf you wear around your neck and raise overhead. They’re true every day, they’re the reason we stand together as one, focusing our collective energy into support for the Boys.

This season, or at least the last 3 months of it, has been a real test of our mentality. With wins not coming, heartbreaking losses piling up, and even draws feeling like losses, our faithfulness has been put to the test. And despite the poor play and results, our support has carried on. We’ve beaten the drums until our hands bled, we’ve sung our hearts out, we’ve waved flags until our arms fell off, because we never quit on the Boys just like we expect them to never quit on us.

We'll see you at first practice in January.

Photos by @PNWmf 

Born in Nineteen-Seventy-Four,
Sounders! Sounders! 

And now we win like never before,
Sounders! Sounders! 

We love our boys in famous green,
the greatest team you've ever seen 

Seattle Sounders,
Born in Seventy-Four!

As part of the celebration of our CONCACAF Champions League banner drop, and to bask in a meaningful championship in front of our rivals, we took the opportunity to remind the team on the pitch - and the fans in the stands - that this is the greatest team we’ve ever seen.

Then, since the league won’t give anyone an answer on how to display such a feat on the crest, we took the opportunity - via curtain switch - to give our two-star crest a proper crown, befitting of a CCL Champion.

Along with the swap of middle curtains, the visual display featured cards to hold in the entire Brougham End, with shiny diamonds carrying on the pattern of the text curtains. Also included as part of the choreo, with many thanks to our tireless volunteers who set these out individually, were 30,000 tiny cards in the cup holders seats throughout the stadium. The cards included the lyrics to the display’s namesake song on one side, encouraging fans to sing with us during the deployment. On the other side was a QR code to visit a special website with the lyrics, when to sing the song, and a trip down memory lane of past displays for our rival derby.

If you want to help with production or deployment for our next display, sign up for the tifo volunteer list. If you’re not local, or can’t make it out, and want to donate to the tifo fund, you can do that in the ECS store.

Photo by @PNWmf

The history of Pride month being in June is tied to the protests that happened at Manhattan’s Stonewall Inn in 1969. Over the years, protests and riots have turned into parades and celebrations, which is what we wanted to share in with the 100+ flags in the ECS section.

However, it is increasingly clear that the rights of the LGBTQIAP+ community that have been fought so hard for are being targeted by both lawmakers and less progressive communities, with a primary emphasis aimed at transgender people, especially our youth.

So while we wanted to celebrate the LGBTQIAP+ community and the diversity within that community, we also wanted to share the reminder that not all wins are easy - sometimes they need a little extra support.

In the flag celebration in the section, we started with the common Progress Pride flags and then added many identity flags mixed in. Included were flags representing the transgender community, aromantic community, asexual community, bisexual community, lesbian community, non-binary community, demisexual community, and pansexual community. While the widely used Pride flags are meant to be inclusive of the different identities, flying additional flags are a reminder that we aren’t all represented by one symbol or piece of fabric. We are individual and unique in every community that we enter.

You are welcome as you are in the Emerald City Supporters. We will support the boys on the pitch alongside each other and we will support our LQBTQIAP+ members and family in your fight for equality.

Photo from @SoundersFC on twitter

Photo by @PNWmf

Next: CONCACAF

With every choreo we strive to motivate our players in the last seconds before they take the field of battle. We remind them of the club’s history, ambition, and values. An occasion as important as the CCL championship called for a strong message, to remind them of the who we are, and of what comes next. And that’s what we set out to do with this display.

We have won so many Cascadia Cups, we had to have a new plaque made this past offseason to add room to list them all. Seriously. We have been so dominant since we joined MLS that we’ve filled the downtown Seattle trophy case and had to buy half of Renton to build another one. Every other club in the league measures their success by comparison to us. 

But this match was about expanding to a new level, going where no MLS team had ever gone before. This display shows the Sounders as the center of the universe, with circles around the crest demonstrating the continued expansion of our dominance. We set our eyes on this next objective, and 90 minutes later our boys brought it to us. 

So now that we’ve captured CONCACAF, who’s ready to take on the world?

More information on the forums about how you can be part of making these and next time you'll be able to say: "I helped make that happen!" 

Photo by @PNWmf

Take Your Spot Among the Stars

Throughout history humans have looked to the stars for inspiration. Humans have named these formations after legends, gods, and heroes that they aspire to be like. For the 2022 home opener we wanted to create a “constellation map” honoring a few of the club legends from our MLS history.

We honor Sigi Schmidt as the Sounders first MLS head coach and steward, who guided the club to 4 Open Cup Trophies, a Supporters Shield, and an unheard of 6 playoff appearances for any expansion club. Next to Sigi is our own Fredy Montero, the club’s first MLS goal scorer and leads the team with 68 goals across all competitions, so far. Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey represent our “Gemini” twin constellations of sorts, because as a pair they rival any forward combo to ever grace the MLS universe. To the “love of our life” we needed to include Roman Torres and him celebrating the penalty kick to win our very first MLS Cup in 2016. Above Roman, is a special star formation, that of Tom Dutra who has been the Goalkeeping Coach and mentor for the Sounders since 2006. He has shaped the careers for some of the greatest Goalkeepers in the Northwest including: Chris Eylander, Ben Dragavon, Kasey Keller, Terry Boss, Bryan Meredith, Marcus Hahnemenn, Michael Gspurning, Andrew Weber, Josh Ford, Troy Perkins, Stefan Frei, Tyler Miller, Stefan Cleveland, Spencer Richey, and Alex Roldan. On the final constellation curtain we wanted to include two of our most recent stars, Nico Lodeiro and Raul Ruidiaz celebrating goals in their most famous manners.

These constellations don’t represent EVERY Sounders legend by any measure. But for 2022 these players and coaches represent the high bar in which we desire our club to aspire. To that end, we added the overhead message of “Take your spot among the stars.” This phrase makes the display more personal to the audience on the field, because those are our future legends.

As always, thank you to our amazing tifo volunteers - this one took a lot of hands to help produce and deploy. If you are an ECS member, come out and help with the next one!  More information on the forums and next time you'll be able to say: "I helped make that happen!"