Brehs, we finally won one.
Been down with the team (season ticket holder - club level) since the 1st game at Bobby Dodd in March 2017. This ish feels super sweet. I had opportunities to sell my seats to this match for minimum $1000 each, but I figured...who knows when we'll see another championship in Atlanta, so I kept my seats and went. Brehs, me and 73k others witnessed ATL win a championship in ATL. "Uncle Arthur" finally was able to raise a championship cup over his head in front of Atlanta. Pastor Troy ringing out from the voices of the 73k.
To the brehs not in Atlanta, yesterday it rained all day and pretty hard through the night. Further north, it snowed. That slowed down the tailgate action down in the Gulch and around town, but made folks head into the stadium earlier. The bars were lit around Atlanta. I saw the carnage in East Atlanta after the game.
I drove over to the Benz for the match, since very luckily, I still got a premium hookup at the parking deck there. I knew what the aftermath would look like getting out of there and planned ahead. Uber and Lyft on that 5x surge pricing, and couldn't even get near there to pick up passengers.
The Benz was buzzing from the time we arrived until after we left, approx. 30-45 mins after final whistle. Crazy level of noise and energy in the Benz. People didn't want to leave....except the Portland faithful. Everyone soaking in the fact that Atlanta has a professional sports team that won something, and more importantly for recent Atlanta and Georgia sports, we didn't choke. No one was celebrating until the final moments of extra time when the game was in hand.
I've already re-up my seats for next season and look forward to the next version of this team. The next manager search will be interesting, to say the least. I've heard the names and we'll just see how it plays out. Almiron will be playing in the EPL, as soon as next month. Supposedly, his replacement has been identified and will probably sign. We'll see. The rest of the core of the team appears to be poised to return.
Salute to Tata and Miggy on their next endeavors. They'll always rep ATL United in Mexico and England. Martinez and Almiron balled out as usual, as did Guzan, Remidi, Nagbe, Almiron, LGP, Parkhurst, Escobar, Garza and Jeff. Villaba and Barco brought pure energy off of the bench. We killed Portland's will. The refs basically let them play and kept the cards in his pocket for most of the game.
Salute to the brehs here who supported the team from jump, to those who joined in and jumped onboard, and to those who want to be down. Come as you are, enjoy the experience, bring others and they can form their own opinions. 73,000 people in the Benz last night. Cheapest tickets were standing room only at $150. We did it.
Vamos vamos vamos ATL...