An Open Letter To The REDS - Repost

By: Robert | July 22nd, 2008

I was in the process of writing my thoughts on tonight’s monumental game when I came across a post on the Usector board written by one of our supporters whose board handle is SweetOwnGoal. I think he captured what we all feel heading into tonights game and so hopefully with his blessing I’ll share his words instead of my own… You can see the original post and comments here.

I hope every fan and supporter comes out tonight to show your support and share in what will hopefully be a historic evening for our football club that will not only take us to our first CONCACAF Championship but also turn the tide for the Reds in our remaining MLS season.

REPOST CREDIT: SweetOwnGoal
Posted: Jul 22 2008, 07:35 AM

Dear Reds,

It’s been a tough few weeks, what with us going eight games without a win. We’re sorry for the nasty words we used Saturday. It was likely the heat talking. But, we think you must understand and share or frustration. It’s time to get out of this funk.

And, tonight is the perfect opportunity. I know that your sports information department called an earlier game in this tournament a friendly, but we hope that you understand that isn’t the case (we also hope someone had words with the intern that made that error. It was an intern, right?). Tonight is most certainly not a friendly. Actually, it’s the most important game we’ve ever played.

We know that this is a new competition to most of you. The Voyageurs Cup is hardly the English FA Cup. We get that. With only three teams competing it might not seem like much to you. But here is the thing: It’s ours. I’m not sure you can appreciate the battle that went into getting even this far. Nothing comes easy for this sport in this country and we take great pride in that trophy you are playing for tonight. You see when no one else would step up we went out and bought the thing ourselves.

If (when, right) you raise it up tonight you will be holding onto the hopes and dreams of every supporter that has ever fought for this game’s acceptance in this city and this country. At the risk of being overly dramatic there is a tiny piece of all of us in the thing.

Those of you that are new to this city must think that things have always been like this. After all you hear every week that we are the best fans in the league. You see it with your own eyes every time you step out on the pitch. But, talk to Jimmy. He’ll tell you. For most of us this is still a dream. We go to every game with the understanding that we need to push ourselves to increase the atmosphere. We can’t let up, because we know the critics will pounce: It’s a fad, a novelty. We’ve been through too much to let go of this now.

Which is why we so badly want you to win tonight. We’re Canadian soccer fans. From Toronto. Winning is not something we have much experience in. So, we desperately want this. And, if you appreciate what we do you should badly want to win it for us.

If you don’t win we’ll still be back in numbers in two weeks time—and we’d wish Montreal well against the Nicaraguan team (well we’d try anyway)—but that’s not the way the script should be written. At the risk of being presumptuous, we think we deserve this.

So, we hope you understand just how important tonight is.

Cheers,
The boys (and girls) in the south end.