Watching the world champion USWNT win 2-0, for the opening night at Q2 Stadium on Wednesday, was an iconic moment for soccer in Austin. For the U.S. Soccer faithful in the Austin chapter of American Outlaws, and fans of the women’s game from across the state, it’ll be a moment we cherish forever.
I woke up the next morning pinching myself. Could I still be dreaming? Or did I actually witness the first tifo ever raised at Q2 Stadium, the first-ever goal at Q2 Stadium, and the first win in front of a capacity crowd at Q2? Did I really see the supporters' section come alive and light up the night? Did we energize the crowd for 90 minutes? Was that Queen Carli Lloyd being honored for her 300th cap? Did Megan Rapinoe really toss her boots into the crowd?
Last night was all about history. As Head of Community Outreach for American Outlaws Austin, I knew we wanted to do something special to welcome the USWNT to Austin as a chapter. We wanted to roll out the red carpet for the world champs and let them know that Austin is here to be their new fortress.
Christened by queens
From the day the game was announced, we started planning to make a tifo. We wanted to celebrate the entire team’s achievements and honor one of our most important players: Crystal Dunn. The “Christened by Queens” tifo was an honor to help create, design, and raise over the supporters' section to delight of fans across the country. After putting in so many long days and nights at the tifo warehouse, as well as going to the stadium itself to test it out, I was absolutely charged up to see that tifo raised high in the sky. The first-ever black player on a U.S. Soccer tifo, on the day Juneteenth was recognized as a Federal Holiday, and featuring one of the only defenders to ever be featured on a tifo. It was a great way to help celebrate 4 Stars and Pride Month with fans all back together side by side.
From the initial design elements, to finding someone to sew 50 x 40 feet of fabric, to helping prep the 20 person tifo team to get ready to hoist it into the sky – I was involved in every element of this tifo. It was a labor of love. I hope we created the inspiration for young players, especially the young Black girls out there who need to see themselves in the sport of soccer in America. I rarely had representation in soccer growing up. Goalkeeper Brianna Scurry is my hero from the 1999 Women’s World Cup squad, who made me want to be a goalie as a kid — but Crystal Dunn represents a different kind of player.
Dunn is an outfield dynamo that can do everything on the pitch. She can drive forward and beat players on the dribble, she’s pacey, keeps defenders off balance, can put in great cross after great cross and score iconic goals. She is truly a superstar, and one of the USWNT engines worthy of all the lights, cameras and accolades. After being overlooked for so long, despite having over 100 caps and winning the highest accolades in soccer at every level, we wanted to make this tifo for her.
Being a capo at Q2 Stadium
Since 2014, I’ve been on the American Outlaws In-Stadium Committee. Our role as capos is to create the epic soundtrack in the stands for iconic moments that happen on the pitch. Is there anything better than the U.S. scoring a goal while you're in the middle of a chant with your arms spread out wide? I feel like I never get to watch the game. My role is to be focused on the energy of supporters, and through their eyes, I get to sense what’s going on. Eventually, you get to read a crowd like someone might read Braille, as you interpret thousands of people's emotions being thrown back at you. You can see anger, frustration and hope just by seeing who’s leaning forward, who’s on their feet, who’s scowling, who’s mouth has just dropped open. I’ve gotten good at turning around right in the nick of time to see the goals.
Most of the time, being a capo is more than just being on the stand in front of the cameras. I arrived at the stadium at noon for an 8 p.m. kickoff to help rig the tifo, hang banners and check in instruments. On Wednesday, we also went over safety plans with U.S. Soccer and Q2 Stadium staff. At the AO Tailgate at Oskar Blues, we helped amp up the crowd and lead the march to the stadium. Once we arrive, we focus on organizing the capos, making sure the tifo team is ready for showtime and getting people excited in the crowd.
The most rewarding thing about being a capo is creating memories for players and fans. I want to facilitate people having the best moments of their lives. I want to see them having an awesome moment with their best friends, significant others and even their kids. I know I’m doing my job when I see people dancing in my section. For me, the most important thing is that people are having fun. Supporters' sections are like interactive performances where everyone participates. Capos aim to empower people: Through our actions on the stand, people can find the power in their voice to spur on the team. We aren’t watching the performance, we are the performance. The team plays for us, and we sing for them. When they need us, we are there. The crowd can give the team a little extra something, and sometimes that something is a 94th-minute stoppage-time goal to seal the win.
There are a lot of elements of finesse in being a capo. Communicating with each other over the noise that a crowd of 20,000 people make can sometimes be a challenge. We also are the closest thing to a DJ that exists in soccer not counting someone playing songs over the PA system. For us, it’s all about setting the vibe. A mix of classic songs everyone knows, and songs that you want to encourage people to learn. Sometimes we’re teaching an entire crowd a song on the fly, including choreography. COVID-19 is not yet in the past, but we’ll be able to lock arms and pogo again soon. Sometimes we clap, sometimes we bounce, sometimes we get the whole stadium to “light it up” with their cell phone flashlights for an amazing effect.
Capos come from different chapters all over the country, and some places are more familiar with certain songs than others. People with instruments also fly in from other regions, often not having the ability to practice with each other people before the game, so we are teaching people the chants during the match. Wednesday night was an example of this, being at a new venue. It was with new capos and new musicians, but with the epic energy we’ve come to expect from American Outlaws. I shook off some of the rust myself! This was my first USA game since January 2020. It was an honor to be the first capo on the stand at Q2 Stadium for 90 minutes, and absolutely an honor to represent American Outlaws, Los Verdes, and La Murga De Austin out there!
Austin soccer celebrates Pride Month
Pride Month in the soccer community represents a broad spectrum of empowerment. It’s an opportunity for LGBTQIA fans and players to express themselves. Pride flags can be seen dancing across supporters sections all year long in MLS and LGBTQIA representation is one of the few arenas within sports culture where fans are driving the dominant changes. By supporting one another, daring to be seen, the fans are empowering players to do the same.
Soccer support at its best is about creating culture. It’s about supporting a community and a team. It’s about creating memories and building bonds between people. This threading of human experiences is what makes the game so beautiful and the supporter section so vibrant. However, for both players and fans in the gay community, being out and proud has been about overcoming unbearable odds and discrimination. We sing loud and proud now for all those in the past who have been silenced.
Before Megan Rapinoe and Robbie Rogers, there was Justin Fashanu and Eudy Simelane. No male professional footballer in Europe’s top five leagues has come out since Fashanu in October 1990. MLS and NWSL has been a gay-friendly league for players, but the only other player who’s come out in MLS since Rogers in 2018 was Collin Martin.
The U.S. Soccer is probably the most LGBTQIA-friendly federation in the world. Despite their other shortcomings, the support for pride has gone beyond just being commercial. There’s more than a few openly gay players on the USWNT. It makes me happy to support these women in their excellence, and their status of pioneers for LGBT people in sports.
Most of my life, I was absolutely petrified of coming out. I spent most of my life in a religious family. I was already an outsider in my community, and I was distressed about having another trait that would make me more different. I had already faced so much racism, I had such a legitimate fear of giving other people an excuse to hate me. I faced my fair share of discrimination supporting soccer too. Not all supporters' groups are as welcoming as American Outlaws, Los Verdes or LFC Austin are.
I was once bullied and verbally abused so bad by a soccer supporters' group in New Haven, Conn. that I thought that I didn’t belong in the world anymore. I would cry before and after every game – but I’d still show up to watch games because I didn’t want to give them what they wanted by walking away. Eventually, I realized that I deserved better, and I wasn’t letting them win by deciding to no longer allow myself to be subjected to that kind of abuse.
It takes a certain kind of energy to lift a whole stadium, it’s not something a person can just shut off as soon as the game is over. I was one of the first black female capos in the United States, I had been recognized by Liverpool FC and U.S. Soccer as being one of the best fans in the country, so I guess if people were dedicated to making my life a living hell, then I must have been doing something right.
I’m really grateful for the community that I’ve had around me since then. If it wasn’t for soccer, I don’t know if I would feel so comfortable being myself. Some people live their whole lives hiding huge parts of themselves, but we try to create healthy, thriving communities where people can come as they are. The soccer community around the U.S. and abroad made me feel more comfortable. Seeing pride flags in the supporters' section, and the various pride kits around the stadium, always makes me feel like I belong.
Diversity is our strength
Y’all means all. Soccer is a sport for everyone. Diversity makes the game stronger. That means ethnic, religious, cultural, financial diversity – it means being inclusive of our disabled community. It doesn’t matter if you’ve played and coached soccer your whole life, or if you’re just experiencing your first game as a spectator. We all can learn so much from each other. The future of soccer is radically inclusive, it’s part of the human story, and to bring that to Austin a city that already holds diversity as one of its core values is special.
We have an incredible women’s soccer legacy in the United States. Our players are generation-defining, and our supporters are as well. The fervor with which we are dedicated to supporting our women’s team is a model for the rest of the world. The NWSL is strengthening, and I hope we get a team here in Austin as well so we can showcase our support. Women leading supporter culture for both men’s and women’s team is unique to soccer culture in the U.S., and very few places elsewhere in the world. It feels really special to be a part of that legacy building for the future.
Wednesday night was special. With the last game of the Summer Series, we wanted to welcome soccer fans from all over the country to Austin. We wanted to show the USWNT so much support that it would carry them through the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. We were successful in doing that, and I couldn’t be more excited for the city.
The best part? This was just the appetizer for the main course! Austin FC’s first-ever home game is this Saturday at Q2 Stadium, and that’s where the fun really begins! I’ll see you there!