Free Beer Stories: Eric from Baltimore

Editor's Note: Here's another part in our continuing series featuring stories from Free Beer Movement members and soccer fans who've used free beer to convert people to the sport in America. Every person who send us their stories and/or pictures gets one of our FBM stickers to do with as they please. If you'd like to share your stories and pictures just shoot us an e-mail at: freebeermovement(at)gmail(dot)com.

By Eric Wheatley, Baltimore Brigade

Two buses, two cities, two teams, and two days to recover.

Two years ago the Baltimore Brigade started when three guys wanted to watch USA matches together. We all have friends that like sports, but none that really liked soccer. So our journey began as many do, seeking like minded individuals to drink beer with and watch soccer. Those three were John Knapp, Stephen Dietrich and I. Sadly, Stephen didn't make the trip. He chose to be the best man at a wedding instead of going to this match. So to think that the Baltimore Brigade started as three, but most recently took over 100 people to a US Soccer match is pretty impressive.

On Saturday May 29th, the Baltimore Brigade packed two charter buses with soccer fans and headed to Philadelphia.
It was the first major road trip of our young supporters group, and turned out to be a huge success. We teamed up with Sláinte Irish Pub (our home bar) and began this journey from historic Fells Point. In full Free Beer Movement fashion, we invited everyone to attend. Die hard soccer fans, rookies and even....British Royal Navy sailors. That's right, British Navy Sailors. The HMS Sutherland is a Type 23 frigate that has been in port, directly across from our home bar for the past week. They purchased the remaining tickets for the match, and 21 sailors joined us on our maiden voyage. The sailors were awesome to hang out with, and loved the American tailgating experience. They have nothing like it in England because of the violence and fighting that is often associated with football matches. The British Navy consisted of sailors from all over Britain. The English guys, of course, believed that we will be destroyed in two weeks and the Welsh and Scots hope we kick England's ass.

We arrived at the Linc around 11am, parked in lot M, set up the cornhole boards and got busy. The American tailgate truly is a fantastic experience. Nowhere else in the world do sports fans congregate in such a way; friend and foe together, drinking, eating & playing games together. For three hours we hung out mingling with fans from across the country and foes from across the ocean in an amazing celebration of beer and football. I refer to the English as foes, only on the pitch. The United States has no greater friend in the world then England, and we are lucky to have them.

Remember that on June 12th.

After an hour or two, I departed the Baltimore tailgate and wandered around. I ventured over the Lot N, and ran into a a few good friends. The first one I saw, was Alex Singer. He's a Baltimore Guy, but was in Philly for a bachelor party, so he didn't ride the bus up with us. Alex greeted me with a boiling hot Smirnoff Ice Raspberry Burst that he has had in his pocket for a couple of hours awaiting my arrival. He told me of Bros icing Bros at the Czech match on Tuesday, so I knew that I had to take a knee and chug. And trust me, chugging the HOT Ice, on one knee in a parking lot is no easy chore. Also in the same lot, right next to where Alex was set up, was another good friend, Eric Shertz, from SOB. He offered me a hot dog and beer, we chatted about the match, coaching his son's team, the World Cup, Cornhole, Bro's Icing Bros and everything else in the merry world of a US Soccer tailgate. Oh yeah, about this time, Alex's friend approached me to ask where we were sitting. I pulled out my ticket to show him mine, he pulled out...another ice! Crap! Third time being iced today. I really hope this is a passing fad...


I knew that my time was up in lot N, so I headed back to the Baltimore Brigade tailgate to begin our march into the stadium.

We packed up the cornhole, put away the beer and marched into section 130, right behind the goal with the rest of the American Outlaws fans from across the country. The atmosphere at this game was one of the best that I have ever attended. Smoke bombs went off pretty often, scarves were on full display, we sang the entire match, and I saw very few people sitting. Plenty of other sites have covered the match, so I won't bore you with those details. This site is about beer and the American soccer experience, and if you missed this one, you missed a doozey. The send off match is the pinnacle of matches to attend (well, on home soil at least.) After 4 years of qualifying matches in brutal environments, to give one last hoo-rah to the boys, to say thank you, and good luck, then this match, this venue, this crowd and this result could not have been any better. We won the game, and I hung out longer than I should have to see the boys off.


So after the match TRULY ended, I headed back to my bus. I rounded the corner of lot N, and walked towards lot M. I saw Justin Coughlin of American Outlaws DC Chapter, so I stopped and said Hi. We spoke for maybe 30 seconds, before I noticed that my bus was pulling out of the lot! What??

I know that we said, "We will not wait for anyone, but COME ON!" It is 4:35, and I am literally five minutes late. Apparently, everyone else on the bus thinks that the match is over when the final whistle blows. I feel that the match isn't over until the team walks over to the supporters section. This is why I was late. I stayed to sing a few more songs, they left after the final whistle, which is fine, I just prefer to stay a little longer. So there I was sprinting across lot M to catch my bus, which planned on leaving me.

They stop, the door opens, and our resident Frenchy, Willy scolds me with his thick French Accent. "What are you doing! You're Late!" (Willy is from France, and was wearing his Les Bleus jersey during the match.) Luckily I made it and the bus trip home went by pretty fast. Everybody had a good buzz and had a wonderful time. Jon provided comic relief via the buses PA System to the delight of most. We collected a couple of hundred bucks for a great charity, the Craig Willinger Fund, and pulled into Fells Point by 7pm and shared our stories with all who would listen.

Poor bloke (British Navy sailor) couldn't handle his liquor.

Overall the experience could not have been any better. The fans were great, the bus drivers were great, the British Navy were great, and the t-shirts from Matt of Objectivo.com were fantastic. I would like to thank Slainte Irish Pub for helping us put this bus trip together, and especially Willy Dely for his continued support and promotion of the Brigade.

If you are in Baltimore, stop by and hang with us! We are at SlaintePub for all USMNT matches.

Support the Movement. Get the Free Beer Movement T-Shirt. Only from Objectivo.com

Free Beer Stories: Jesse from Paraguay

Editor's Note: Today marks the publication of our first "Free Beer Story" from outside the United States. Normally we get stories and pictures from Americans promoting American soccer, but in this case we have an American using Paraguayan soccer to get Americans interested in the sport. And free beer, of course! This week's story comes from Jesse, a sports-fanatic-but-not-soccer-fan-turned-soccer-fanatic-turned-free-beer-mover, who we featured in an interview a few months back.

Got your own "free beer story"? Send us it at freebeermovement @ gmail (dot) com and get a FREE Free Beer Movement sticker!

Some of the teachers here in Paraguay are big fans of one of the local soccer teams called Guarani and regularly attend games. Their excursions usually involve large amounts of beer being consumed prior to the games so I figured that this would be a perfect fit with the ideals of the Free Beer Movement.

We gathered two other teachers and another friend who had not been to a game yet together at the house of one of the fans before the game for the free beer part of the evening. We imbibed some imported Nut Brown Ales, Red Ales, and Golden Ales from Argentina to wash down a nice asado consisting of a large chunk of beef and some spicy chorizo. Having just discovered that these beers were imported they went over especially well as a change of pace from the national beers which all taste suspiciously like Budweiser.

Full of beer and meat we hopped in cabs and made our way to the stadium for the game between Guarani and the defending champions Nacional. Unfortunately for the superfans, Guarani came up on the short end of a 1 - 0 final despite dominating most of the game and having multiple good scoring chances.


Even with the loss, the new recruits had a good time watching the game, listening to and observing the "hinchatas" (crazy supporters groups that some might call gangs), and drinking beer. It was an overall successful night as evidenced by a quote from one of the recruits, "I think I just associate soccer games with being drunk at this point. This is fun, why don't we do it more often?"

Got your own "free beer story"? Send us it at freebeermovement @ gmail (dot) com and get a FREE Free Beer Movement sticker!

Free Beer Stories: James from Chicago

Editor's Note: Twitter follower James posted this story on his personal website last fall and we wanted to share the tale with the American soccer world. Normally we share stories of free beer in action, but this one is more of a family tale sans beer. He did happen to bring a "soccer-newbie," though so we'll give him half-credit.

It's important to remember, as we've mentioned previously, that beyond free beer, we are promoting the game and hoping that the atmosphere of American soccer stands on it own laurels as well. James' story is just that.

A fan of the National Team and "over-there" soccer, James had not given the domestic game a serious look yet. What he left with was not just an appreciation of Major League Soccer and the Chicago Fire, but the desire to establish fandom for himself and his next generation. Read on.

Got your own "free beer story"? Send us it at freebeermovement @ gmail (dot) com and get a FREE Free Beer Movement sticker!

This past weekend I decided it was time to go check out the Chicago Fire for the first time. I have been a fan of the USMNT and Fulham for about 6 years, but have only been a casual fan of MLS. The MLS has a lot of issues to work through before they gain the respect needed to be considered a major soccer league in the world, but this post is not about those issues. I wanted to write up a post describing my first live experience at a MLS match and explain why the Chicago Fire have made me a fan for life.

Saturday night's match was the Eastern Conference Final between the Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake. The match was being played at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL. The stadium is only a few years old, and is a very nice setup. There isn't a bad seat in the house in my opinion. Tickets for this Championship match were very cheap considering what it costs to go see a MLB or NFL game. I spent $25 a ticket, and had what could be considered premium seats. We were 12th row in section 104 which is only 2 sections from midfield.

The match was a sellout crowd of just over 21,000. Not too shabby considering the lack of popularity for MLS. The tickets for this match had completely sold out by Wednesday, so I was lucky to have bought my tickets on Monday. If you have ever been to a professional or national club match, you understand how the environment of the crowd is totally different from what you find at other sporting events. The crowd is very enthusiastic singing team chants and rooting with all of their hearts for their club. The Chicago Fire supporters club, Section 8, is a group of hardcore fans unlike what you would find at any other Chicago sporting event. These guys live and die with the Chicago Fire. For the entire match they are on their feet chanting, waving flags, and even lighting flares during the 90th minute. It is really an experience you cannot truly appreciate unless seeing it in person.

I do not think I could have ever picked a more exciting match to be my first experience seeing the Chicago Fire live. Needless to say it was an awesome game to bring Julie to seeing that she has never been to any live soccer match at a professional level. As time ticked away and we approached the 90th minute there was a nervous feeling that cannot be explained. You knew every time Chicago or RSL gained possession that it could be the end of the match. After 90 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime we had a 0-0 tie. We moved onto penalty kicks where the Fire eventually lost 5-4. When the winning kick was made you could hear a pin drop in the stadium. You could feel the heartache of all of the Fire fans in that moment of quietness as RSL celebrated on the field. In no time though, Section 8 was back with chants of "Fire til I die!"

I walked away from the game with one question "How much for 2010 season tickets?!" This Saturday sold me on MLS and the Chicago Fire. I can't wait to start a new family tradition, and take Luke to the games next year. This past Saturday's experience was an epic experience for me, and the Chicago Fire have a fan for life.

Julie and me before the start of the game


The Section 8 tifo during the national anthem.


Flares going off in Section 8 during the 90th minute

Got your own "free beer story"? Send us it at freebeermovement @ gmail (dot) com and get a FREE Free Beer Movement sticker!

Free Beer Stories

Allison - Pittsburgh, PA:

Shamelessly trying to get a bumper sticker...

This is a picture of me with my buddy Jon. Jon happens to live with three other guys, all pretty huge soccer fans, who form part of a group that will travel pretty far to watch a U.S. National Team game (at least as far as our student budgets will allow).

Members of this group have also been known to ask bartenders for Man U flags hanging behind the bar, and think that this video is perfectly appropriate to show at parties. It's not that Jon isn't supportive, he just doesn't get enthused about soccer. So we decided to invite him to a local pub to watch the Everton/Man City game a few weeks ago and supplied him with beer.

I won't lie -- I don't think he's an official convert, but it's a start!

Free Beer Stories - Joe from Chicago

Editor's Note: While surfing around the Inter-net-blog-o-sphere we stumbled across this story from Joe Baur about his experience at the Chicago Fire versus New England Revolution Major League Soccer playoff game at Toyota Park last November. Joe considers himself relatively new to the American soccer world (he said that he grew up with the idea that soccer was "commie-round-ball") so he might need some convincing. Enter Section 8, the Chicago Fire Supporter's Group, and their beer bus. Joe was kind enough to allow us to re-publish his story and some pictures that originally appeared on his personal blog, "Mildly Relevant Thoughts".

Got your own "free beer story"? Send us it at freebeermovement @ gmail (dot) com and get a FREE Free Beer Movement sticker!


This fall the Chicago Fire, a professional soccer team (yes, we have them in America), took on the New England Revolution in some hardcore Eastern Conference Semi-Finals action! …Okay, maybe it wasn’t that “hardcore” to the national media, but the fans would have you believe you were watching the Super Bowl on obscene amounts of crack (as if simply being on crack isn’t enough).

I grew up with the notion that soccer was commie-round-ball, so it should come as no surprise that I had never gone to a Major League Soccer match before this past summer when Courtney and I decided to give this Chicago Fire team a chance to entertain us. Per the advise of some Fire fan-friends of ours, we sat in the fan section known as Section 8. We went on to watch a 0-0 tie against the defending champion Columbus Crew and still had a blast. It was a blunt reminder that soccer can, indeed, be painfully boring. But sitting with Section 8 made up for the lack of anything relevant happening. Courtney and I were unfortunately only able to make it to one other game before getting caught up in our big-kid lives. But when the opportunity to go to a playoff game arose for a measly $10 (my frugal senses were tingling), we jumped on it.

On Saturday, November 7th the Fire were to take on the New England Revolution after losing their first playoff game against them last week by a score of 1-2. MLS is weird and does a two game, aggregate scoring system, something they’ll need to change in order to get American, best of ( ), sports fans on board. Basically, the Fire needed to win by 2 in order to advance. While I still find it weird to cheer for any city in anything other than Cleveland, I was definitely on board with cheering against New England in all their bandwagon fan glory. So in order to prepare ourselves for yelling expletives at what’s probably New England’s least popular professional sport team, Courtney and I (along with our two mutual friends, Arthur and Adrienne), opted for the Section 8 beer bus. It’s exactly what it sounds like.

The buses rolled up, reeking of elementary school with the stench of exhaust filling the air. The camaraderie began immediately upon entering the bus as we were all handed a can of PBR. No names exchanged, no greetings – just beer in hand. Adrienne and Arthur, first time MLS goers, were already on board with Section 8. As the buses roared their engines and their fumes began to fill our lungs, we cracked open our first beer and began the trek from downtown Chicago to Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL. Not too long into the drive (after pulling over to reload on beer), a gentleman next to us began chanting.

“Guapo, Guapo! Sing us a song! Sing us a song! Sing us a song! Guapo, Guapo! Sing us a song!”

This went on until a man in the front of the bus arose with a trumpet in hand. One could only assume Guapo had some tunes in store for us.

First Guapo led us in a simple Chicago Fire chant. “Fire! Fire! Fire!” with a mixture of “da-da-da” instead of actually chanting lyrics. Say what you will about soccer, my traditional American brethren, but who doesn’t love repeating nonsensical gibbberish at the top of their lungs? Nobody! That’s who.

After taking us through a playlist of Fire chants, including humming the Tetris theme song, Toyota Park could be seen off in the distance. The bus erupted in cheers more intense than how most sports fans respond to a one yard touchdown run or a base hit single. Toyota Park was their cathedral.

Soon after parking, everyone hustled off of the bus, with the men running to bushes for a quick pee. The beer had taken its toll, to say the least. It was here in the bushes that we were watering where I made some friends.

“Did you go to Ohio State?” one gentleman in mid-stream asked, looking at my Ohio State hoodie. One mistake I made was wearing my Ohio State hoodie and Columbus Blue Jackets hat. The Columbus Crew are hated amongst Fire fans. It seems to be MLS’ Ohio State/Michigan rivalry, except only soccer fans know about it.

“No, Miami,” I responded.

“Big Ben!” a fellow pee-er shouted next to me. Before I could allow myself to grimace over the mentioning of the hated Steeler’s quarterback from Miami, the other two (pee-er one and pee-er three) began conversing. Apparently this is how it’s done with Fire fans. Chatting with a cup of tea in Britain is replaced with peeing here in Fire country. Not to sound like a douchebag (inevitable), but as long as there’s beer involved, I’m cool!

With a couple of shakes, I was finished emptying the tank and met back up with Courtney, Adrienne and Arthur. The whole point of the beer bus, beyond being able to drink excessive amounts of booze without having to worry about driving, was to get to the game a couple of hours or so early for the tailgate. Supposedly there would be $5 food, so once again my frugal senses were tingling and we made our way to the food. To my delighted surprise, the food was free! Some fire Fans in a tent were handing out hotdogs and burgers. Sure the personal trainer in me would have a hard time locating those foods on the food pyramid, but there aren’t many rules amongst soccer fans other than screaming until your voice die for the right team.

After the grub, we remembered that we were supposed to get scarves for our tickets. In soccer, they do scarves like baseball fans do caps. I don’t know how it started, but whatever. They look pretty badass considering it’s a scarf. Unfortunately, we f-ed up. The deal was 1 scarf per order of two tickets or more. Courtney, being the efficient gal she is, ordered all four of our tickets at once. Since it was the same order, we only got one scarf. But then again, Courtney is also, as she likes to say, “stealthy like ninja.” There were still plenty of scarves left in that damn box and there was no way they’d get rid of them all. With that, Arthur and I stayed behind as the ladies went to work. A minute later and they returned with another scarf.

“Keep walking,” Adrienne and Courtney said. Like the good significant others we are, we did as we were told. Evidentally Adrienne gave her name as “Courtney” and they never crossed off the name from when the real Courtney claimed a scarf. We didn’t feel guilty. It just made us cheer that much harder, so take solace in that, Chicago Fire. Speaking of cheering, at this point it was time to head in for the game!

As we were walking toward the stadium, a Fire fan apparently took notice of my Columbus apparel, none of which were Columbus Crew, mind you.

“You from Columbus?” he asked.
“No, Cleveland.”
“Columbus is a shitty town. Chicago is a real city.”

Great. Another Chicagoian who thinks the world starts and ends with the Chicago city limits, I thought to myself. I told my brother, who lived in Columbus at one point, about this interaction later on and he lamented that “Chicagoans think anything not Chicago is shitty. Shitbags.” It made me laugh.

“I disagree, but okay,” I politely responded. Courtney tried to play mediator, assuring the gentleman that it wasn’t a good idea to insult Ohio in front of me, unless he wanted a history on why Ohio, in fact, rules.

“He’s a Fire fan, though!” “Oh, no. You don’t want to get into that,” Courtney kept repeating.

“There’s a reason you’re here,” he said in regard to me living in Chicago and not Ohio.

“I plan on moving back sooner rather than later.” I wish I could’ve taken a picture, because his face looked so baffled after hearing someone say they prefer someplace else over Chicago, you’d think I just told him the world is in fact flat.

“Fuck the Crew, that’s all I’m saying,” he finally finished, offering a handshake, which I halfheartedly accepted. For better or worse, Fire fans act as if the rivalry they have with the Crew is on par with that of Ohio State and Michigan or New York and Boston. It’s not, but I guess it’s good for the league to have such a powerful rivalry. It only becomes a problem when half-ass Fire fans, such as myself, have no problem with Columbus and actually think it’s a pretty cool city.

Game time.

Before grabbing our seats, we also remembered that the first 200 or so entrants got a free tee shirt. There was no way we were one of the first 200, but we figured we’d give it a shot anyway. Before I could even give a lame explanation, the woman working the counter gave me two shirts, because I wasn’t wearing red. Sure the shirt was 2 sizes too big, but it fit nicely over my Buckeyes sweatshirt and made me look much more built than I really am.

If everything leading up to the game was the prologue, then the game itself lived up to one of the best sports narratives I’ve seen in person. The fans are literally, certifiably nuts, yet I’m okay with it. The entire game was spent jumping up and down (quite the calf workout) on bleacher seats you think are about to bust at any moment. City of Chicago and Chicago Fire flags filled the stands as we yelled at the New England team. The “Fuck New England” chant was admittedly uncreative, but by far my favorite. As I said before, I have NO problem cheering against Boston sports.


The city pride was in full force. I give Chicagoans a hard time for thinking the world ends outside of their borders, but they’re definitely great fans and obnoxiously proud of their city like I am Cleveland. It makes me wish Cleveland had an MLS team to yell and scream for. I guess I’ll have to become a die hard Green Army member and support USL-1’s Cleveland City Stars! Hey, if the Seattle Sounders could win and move up, maybe Cleveland can, too. It’s not like the Browns, Cavs and Indians are winning championships left and right (or at-freaking all!).

When the action in the game seemed to stall a bit, out came the flares. Yes, fans literally set off flares as if they were sending a signal to the team that our collective boredom needed rescuing. Perhaps the constant chanting, flag waving and flares did the trick, because the Fire did what they needed to do in order to advance to the Eastern Conference finals and beat New England with a score of 2-0 (14-0 in American football, as Kenny Mayne would like to say). They’ll move on to play Real Salt Lake this Saturday. Personally, I don’t get how a Western Conference team like Salt Lake can be in the Eastern Conference Finals, but whatever. Soccer’s still a bit foreign to me, so I’m willing to live with it.

After the game, we were all beat. Courtney guaranteed she’d fall asleep immediately on the bus. Some drunks girls on the bus felt differently, though. As much fun as the lead up to the game and the game itself were, the bus ride home was an experience in of itself.

While on the freeway, for whatever reason, the previously mentioned drunk girls started singing “Yellow Submarine.” One guy told them to stop, because it just so happens to be a Columbus Crew chant, but that didn’t stop them. Instead, they started chanting “O-H! I-O!” Another guy tried to tell them “fuck, Ohio!” but that only strengthened their buzzed resolve. Despite the fact that their high pitched screaming made my ears bleed, I loved seeing fellow Ohioans who are as obnoxiously proud of their state as I am.

It was the perfect way for me to end a night of cheering for a non-Cleveland team.

Free Beer Stories: Patrick from San Antonio

Editor's Note: Here's another part in our continuing series feature stories from Free Beer Movement members and soccer fans who've used free beer to convert people to the sport in America. Every person who send us their stories and pictures gets one of our FBM stickers to do with as they please. If you'd like to share your stories and pictures just shoot us an e-mail at: freebeermovement(at)gmail(dot)com.

Today, we feature Patrick from San Antonio, Texas. Read on:

I've been dying for some Free Beer Movement stickers to post around San Antonio and until recently I hadn't remembered my very own Free Beer Movement story. Here goes...

It wasn't till the Gold Cup in 2007 that I had truly embraced the beautiful game. That tournament and my new aquisation of Fox Soccer Channel meant a whole summer of soccer. Soon my enjoyment of the game grew into an obsession and I would wake up at sunrise the following summer to watch the USA U-23's get knocked out of their group live on the interwebs. Eventually myself, my two dogs, and my girlfriend left the Texas border town of El Paso and headed for San Antonio because of my acceptance in to law school for 2008/09.

With the move came the meeting of many new friends and one in particular is my buddy Pablo from Puerto Rico. Great guy...huge baseball fan. After a whole year of my ranting and raving about random Major League Soccer games and the English Premier League season at hand he was eventualy forced to watch some World Cup qualifiers with me while our study group was mastering criminal law.

I digress...the heart of the story centers around the day that ye Yanks of the USA hammered away 'El Nino' and the rest of the Spaniards. The morning of the game I wandered into the law library to begin some last minute studying before our administrative law final. Summer school sucks...summer school in law school sucks harder.

I was still pretty excited because of the Egypt win and as I swung the doors open to the law library, the guy behind the counter asked me what the USA-Spain score would be (I was wearing the 'Stars and Stripes home kit). I said, "Well, honestly 2-1 Spain. In my heart 1-1 and we win on PKs". He laughed and said he hoped the USA crushed Spain.

Shit... I hoped too. The time came for the final and I was pretty energized and it wasn't because of the three Red Bulls and the coffee, but because I knew I had to finish an hour early to make it to the pub across town. Pablo and I finshed at the same time and luckily for us the law school has a lounge with a huge flat screen tv that I had left on espn2. When we got out the game was 30 minutes away from starting....it was on.

We were a good 20 minutes from the pub and we were far from out cars. I promised him two Guinness (he's a sucker for those). He was reluctant at first, but hell, we had just finished out last final of summer school and beer sounded real good.

We got there right at kick off and the crowd wasn't huge, but modest. There was a group of Spaniards that were pretty loud and I was the only one with a jersey or US apparel on. Once the game started it was clear that the guys in suits were taking some time off work to come support the red white and blue.

Pablo, unlike most people that need the encouragement to watch soccer, had said he had seen a few Islanders games while in Puerto Rico so he was cool with "grabing lunch" while the game was on. Five or six Newcastles later and a USA win...

Now he has come with me to see the Nats every game at the local pub and is always asking me about players and info. He got FIFA10 a few days ago and we are planning on going to Houston or Dallas with some more non-soccer fans to see USA vs El Salvador if they come down February

Although he wasn't totally an anti-soccer dude to begin with the beer ended up converting the guy to a fan is the USMNT. He recently told me after class that his favorite part of the BSC Championship Game were the World Cup commercials. Mine, too.

Patrick toasting to Charlie Davies at the Lion and Rose Pub in San Antonio, Texas

Free Beer Stories: MLS Cup in Seattle

From Shawn Wheeler, Seattle, WA:

Last summer, when I found out the MLS Cup would be in Seattle I started giving Matty Biggs from Constantly Offside a bunch of shit that he'd have to come up for the match, and that if he did I would buy our tickets. When he finally booked his flight a month before the match, I found us some pretty sweet seats on Stubhub and snatched them up.


Not being a big soccer fan, I wasn't sure quite what I was getting myself in to but Biggs promised me a free beer and a sticker, so we headed downtown for the 5pm game about 11am. A quick apparel stop (scarves and sweatshirts galore) and we were ready to get started on some drinking. Within about 4 blocks of the stadium are some of the best bars in Seattle, so Biggs and I had our day lined up pretty quick. A shot of Patron at Elysian Fields (home of the Emerald City Supporters), a Smithwicks at Fado (home of Gorilla FC), Manny's at Swannies (home of the North End Supporters), then I got serious and killed a few jack and cokes at FX McRory's (please note, Biggs drinks water on game days and someone had to drink his share of the booze).


We marched to the stadium with the INSANE La Barra Real and we could only try to keep up with their enthusiasm.


Instead of entering the game, we turned around and marched back to FX McRory's (Biggs wanted more water and I made up for it again) and saw the RSL drummers some more:



Finally head in to the stadium and the Galaxians are in the south end of the stadium, La Barra Real is in the north end and Sounders fans have packed the area between. Biggs and I went for a walk to compare the volumes, I'm not sure if my ear drums have fully recovered yet from this epic drum:


It's finally game time, and Biggs and I make our way back to our seats and much to my surprise the SSFC fans are standing... for the entire game... when our team isn't even playing. So Biggs and I excitedly took our spots and begin to hurl insults at Beckham and friends.


After a thrilling 90, then 120 minutes, Biggs and I had some of the best seats in the house for PKs:

After the game, sitting in Swannies with the remaining NES crew I come to the realization that this is infinitely more fun than any other sporting event we have in Seattle. Mariners baseball games are as boring as you'd think baseball would be, Seahawks suck and tickets are insanely expensive, and our Sonics have been shipped to Oklahoma. So that day, it was decided that the Sounders had a new fan.



I've got my season tickets reserved for next season, behind the south goal right next to the GFC and ECS. I went ahead and bought 2 tickets, planning to introduce as many friends as possible to the glory that is the SSFC, giving them a Free Beer and a game to enjoy. Hopefully their first experience with professional soccer is as impactful as mine was!

Found Free Beer: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Free Beer Movers Nick (in the Fulham jersey) and Jon ("photographer") were at McMahon's Pub in Minneapolis, Minnesota for yesterday's English Premier League action representing the Movement.



If you're looking to joing the FBM fun at McMahon's we can get you in touch with the Free Beer Boys up there!

Free Beer Stories: Leslie from Houston

Free beer does it again:

"I convinced my boyfriend's friend Dane to attend his first Major League Soccer game; a 2009 MLS playoff game between the Houston Dynamo (duh) and the Seattle Sounders on 11/8/2009. Bought him some beers, the ticket, and loaned him a scarf! Now he wants to come to more games during the 2010 season! Success."

- Leslie

Jaime, David, Leslie, Dane (the newbie)

Thanks for sharing your "free beer story'. We'll have a FBM sticker in the mail soon to reward you for your efforts.

Everyone else... we want to hear your success stories and well. Send an e-mail to us with your stories and pictures and you can be handsomely rewarded as well.

Constantly Offside and the Free Beer Movement at MLS Cup 2009

Editor's Note: Our friend Biggy from Constantly Offside wrote to us a few weeks ago asking for a bunch of our stickers so he could represent the Free Beer Movement when he went to MLS Cup 2009 in Seattle. "On one condition," we said. As long as he was introducing the sport to soccer newbies then we could reward him with a stack of FBM stickers.

Biggy brought soccer newbie Shawn with him on the journey from San Jose to Seattle and they represented the FBM and American soccer in style. Here is Biggy's "free beer mover" story:

Day One

So we pretty much took the Free Beer Movement everywhere we went in Seattle.


Saturday we hit the Seattle Underground tour, and we found even gnomes and gremlins like free beer. Probably because they generally don't use US currency, so beer for free is their only option.

We then hit up the gift shop and among all the sweet signs there was a warning for free beer!

We headed down to Pike Place to scope the sights and even the pigs were all about the FBM, and honestly who could blame them. It is hard to drink though if you are made of metal, so we kept the beers to ourselves and they kept the swine flu in return.

Our friend at the sports shop on Pier 57 was all about the FBM, he even stashed his sticker right by the register, which is pretty legit. I was impressed at all the jerseys they had on sale, particularly the Sounders gear that dominated the store. Surprising coming from San Jose but it's awesome what soccer is doing in Seattle.


Day Two


On gameday I got my buddy Shawn involved in the movement by hooking him up with a free beer as it was his first professional soccer match. He likes soccer now almost as much as he likes beer. He likes beer a lot, so that should tell you something. I bought myself a tasty refreshing cold one as well just so I could be one of the cool kids.



Of course, the NES (North End Supporters) are all about soccer and beer, so they wanted in on the action as well. Some fine fan support out in Seattle.

Then we got in a different sort of Free Beer Movement, the Free Beer related Wristband Movement, which is solid.

We found an RSL fan from LA at the bar, and he embodied everything we were all about all weekend, unfortunately he already bought his beer.

Many stickers were given out, many beers were enjoyed, and we really hope RSL downed at least one beer outta that bad boy.

The FBM x Constantly Offside were just part of the epic movement that is the MLS and American Soccer, in general. Cheers from Biggy at Constantly Offside dot com! Make sure you get to an MLS Cup in the near future, one of the greatest experiences of my life for sure.

Free Beer Stories: MLS Playoffs in New England

From Midnight Revs:

Sunday, Nov 1st, All Saints Day... also known as Post Halloween Sugar Crash Day.

I was packing up the car to go to Foxboro to watch the New England Revolution take on the Chicago Fire in the first leg of the MLS Playoffs, and realized that my cooler was still full of beer from the night before. Halloween is always a big party in my neighborhood, and so I was well stocked to provide refreshment to those adults accompanying their kids out trick or treating. And it occurred to me - I should use my beer to aid the Free Beer Movement. So I sent out a post on Twitter, and headed down route 1 to Foxboro.

midnightrevs
12:01pm, Nov 01 from Echofon

Heading to gillette for #revs. Will be there by 1:00.#freebeermovement will be in effect.@FreeBeerMovemnt

Now the tailgate party at Gillette Stadium is usually pretty well stocked with beer, even at Revolution games. And it was a pretty nice November day by New England Standards - Warm (meaning above 50 degrees) Sunny (i.e. NOT raining) and just a slight hint of Autumn (leaves stuck on your windshield wipers). I was hoping for a big crowd - but it never showed up. Maybe it was the fact that it was Sunday, and usually the Patriots are playing, or maybe there was a youth hockey tournament, or maybe everybody was just suffering from post Halloween meltdown disorder... but the crowd was minimal. The Midnight Riders of course showed up, and they were getting their rowdy faces on. Other small tailgating groups were already in full grill out mode - I broke out the cooler, made a quick sign, and let 'er rip.

Thanks to Midnight Revs for sharing his "Free Beer Match Day"! We'll be sending a Free Beer Movement bumper sticker his way for his efforts.

And you can get one too! Just send us your stories, pictures, and/or video showing how your free beer efforts are bringing people closer to American soccer. Next time you're off to a match grab a few friends, a case of beer, and good times will follow for sure. When the hangover is done, send us your tales!