Tanna Kinnaman/DN
is made up of about 15 Brazillians living in the
iy night. Takamira chipped in two goals and an
if night's game. (Photo by Tanna Kinnaman)
Mami Speck/DN
Goalkeeper Mike Ammann goes up to get a corner kick, knocking New England Revolution defender
Alexi Lalas and members of his own team out of the way. The Wiz beat the Revolution Saturday night
4-2.
By Matthew Waite
Editor
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the
great pantheon of sports fans, many
have made a creative mark.
The NFL’s Green Bay Packers have
the cheeseheads — throngs of fans
that wear goofy foam slices of cheese
on their head.
Major League Baseball pitcher
David Cone has a following of fans
who wear large rubber head exten
sions and call themselves
“coneheads.”
But no teams’ loyal followings are
as loud as the Kansas City Wiz’s
Samba Club. And there are only about
15 of them.
The group, made up exclusively of
Brazilians, pound drums for 90 min
utes of Major League Soccer. They
are at Arrowhead Stadium, rain or
shine, win or lose.
The group has their own section in
the Wiz Zone seating section, and
every one of the 11,555 people that
came out for the Wiz’s Saturday
matchup with the New England Revo
lution knew exactly where they were..
The Samba Club has entrance mu
sic. They give out their own MVP
awards. And they have fun.
These are the fans that have the
organizers of MLS smiling.
MLS, a professional soccer league,
has exceeded all the expectations for
attendance that were laid before it last
year.
In order for the U.S. to host the
World Cup in 1994 — the most
watched sporting event in history —
they had to plan and start a profes
sional soccer league.
In their inaugural season, the 10
teams of the new professional soccer
league have taken in more than 1.8
million fans. 1
In Los Angeles, with it’s large soc
cer-crazy Hispanic population, the
Galaxy’s average home attendance is
an impressive 40,430, the largest in
the league.
The world’s sport has come to
America, and most of the responsibil
ity lies on the shoulders of the U.S.’s
popular World Cup team, along with
a host of international stars that have
come to America.
Players like Alexi Lalas, the wild
haired media darling that endured
much of the World Cup attention, and
Jorge Campos, the flamboyant Mexi
can goalkeeper that brought with him
a following when he started play for
the Galaxy, have built the foundation.
Now, players say, they are ready
for next season to be bigger and bet
ter.
Lalas, standing outside the visi
tors’ locker room signing autographs,
said he was encouraged by the large
number of World Cup players from
America that left their European and
South American teams for MLS.
Lalas has said any chance he gets,
that soccer’s life and death in America
relies on the players, especially those
from the World Cup team. It is a
responsibility he has said he enjoys.
“But we don’t want to overdo it,”
he said. “We’ve had tremendous suc
cesses this year. We want to get big
ger and better.”
Lalas said he knows how to do just
that.
“The way to do that is to keep
doing what got us here, and that’s to
work our ass off,” he said.
The usually flamboyant Lalas was
more reserved Saturday evening,
partly because of the U.S. Olympic
team he played on not making it out of
bracket play, partly because the man
he marked on defense this night scored
two goals and had an assist. ..
That man was Vitalis “Digital”
Please see MLS on 8