We love the Whitecaps sha la la la la la la la!

By Santiago Endara

The first season of the Whitecaps in the MLS is going like, pardon my French but: like Scheiße. The team is last in the standings, the victories at home are sparse, we beg the referee to please blow the whistle before they tie us, and as visitors our record is so bad that we already lost track of it.

Fortunately, the Whitecaps have a group of fans that rain or shine go to the stadium carrying more equipment than a Pink Floyd roadie in the late 80's.  Yes sir, in a Football afternoon, close to the stadium you will see a line of devoted guys carrying big drums, flags, banners, small drums, güiros, trumpets and many other fine articles to the section 222 of the Empire Stadium. That is the section of “La 12 Vancouver”

Of course, life is not easy for the guys of La 12; after a long journey and one or two casualties in the road, they finally arrive with all their Football paraphernalia to the gates of the stadium where the guards start looking with suspicion and scorn because, they have heard, they will be doing something almost unthinkable in a North American Stadium: Cheer.

Inside the stadium, the guys from La 12 start their chanting “like in the great stadiums of South America” with the only difference that the “Barra” is formed just by 10 to 15 strong that, as they have no visitor fans opposing them, then they have to deal with the insults and heckling of oue own legendary State of the Art Vancouver “fans” and their constant “Hey man, can you please keep it quiet!  I’m trying to eat a Hot Dog here!”  “Maaan! Don’t these guys know that we have to wait for "Spike" to give us the signal!” Geeez! 

Sad?  Depressing?  Maybe you, dear reader, will think that the life and vicissitudes of the suffered members of La 12 is just a string of bad things happening to good people, like in “The Godfather”, but believe it or not there is a light at the end of the tunnel for this good guys! 

Yes indeed, because out of 100 “fans” that go to order some food at the stadium and slip in their own puddle of beer, there is that 1% that is getting the songs and learning to cheer like fans should in a Football stadium. Yes, because at the end of the game, Eric Hassli comes and say thank you for the support and sorry for missing 5 goals in front of the empty net, but next time I will score a great goal in Seattle!   

And yes, because after repeating and repeating the song “Come on Vancouver” for the 100^th time, some other fans start to join in.  Their faces still look like “Am I being too ridiculous or what?” but they are joining in, anyway, and that is when the people from La 12 Vancouver can wipe their foreheads, drink a mouthful of water and say “Well… we are doing something positive for the Beautiful Game in this Beautiful Country, and that's enough to keep us going!"