The Official Los Angeles Football Club Home Opener

The Los Angeles Football Club comes home
Will I still be a loner? Most likely
Anxious? Yes
Nervous? Yes
Sick? Yes
Overwhelmed? Yes

Well. Let me start to with... this was on my sister's bday and I only have one sibling.
Her husband, my brother-in-law, my FIFA opponent for the past 17 years... is a Galaxy fan and was hurt by my switch. Hahaha
My LAFC start was on fire. LFG.

Sunday April 29th 2020, LAFC and the 3252 get their first ever home match and I am fucking losing it.

By this point one other friend decided to get season tickets for the North End with some of my peer pressure... and till this day made it only to two NE matches, gave me his ticket every match and eventually gave up his season tickets for normal seats somewhere in the stadium (he also missed the home opener) So since they were playing Seattle, I invited a Seattle hater aka a Timber's fan aka my old roommate to the North End with me.

I made it a thing to match sure we were early enough to check out the tailgate scene and obviously join the 3252 march into the stadium an hour before kickoff. Ugh, I didn't make it into the big march... felt to awkward to jump in BUT we finished our beers and followed them in right after and OH SHIT, we are inside the Banc of California Stadium. This is the cool stadium I saw in model size in the LAFC Experience Center, where I took a virtual tour of the stadium and virtually see what my view will be from the North End (virtually, didn't do it justice)

Stadium is decently full as I am standing kind of high up in the NE with old roommate and the homie that convinced me to get the season tickets.
We have a beer on our hands and a gold foil sheet a paper. Everything was so overwhelming, that I couldn't really focus on much. The crowd was stoked, the 3252 were making their noise, there were huge L A F C letters in the middle of the field that shot fire from the top, a falcon that flew around the stadium and then it all stopped and my love for the 3252 hit my fucking soul.
I may not be THAT patriotic but I do support the national anthem in soccer/sporting events (#ImWithKap tho) but as I grew up watching these epic matches in the World Cup my entire life, there was nothing like the teams singing their national anthem with their crowd at the top of their lungs. Announcers says "please stand and remove your caps, as we ask the south, east and west to join the 3252 in singing our national anthem"... and it got so silent for 1.7 seconds you could hear a pin drop... then you hear a loud but muffle...
"1! 2! 3!" and we sang the FUCK out of that national anthem and at that moment I 100% KNEW. OH MY GOD, THIS IS IT. THIS IS GOING TO BE INCREDIBLE. The 3252 blew me away more than I could have possibly imagined and I saw the build ups at Carson and Seattle away from home! We sang, we chanted and we were a part of the match.

I chanted but was so focused on the match, it was my very first time seeing this team play and Seattle came in to spoil our party! This game was pretty good, both teams had their decent chances. We make it to the last minutes maybe like 89th or something, and the game is 0-0 and it was almost like daaaaaaamn, I hate Seattle even more! They're ruining our home opener. THEN... a foul happens and LAFC get a free kicks about 25-30 yard from the Seattle goal.

Then the Banc woke up... remember the gold foil sheets? well, people brought them back out around the entire stadium. The 3252 erupts with LA! FC! LA! FC! and the rest of the stadium joins all while everyone is waving their gold foils. Laurent Ciman lines this ball up, runs up and fires a bullet straight at the Seattle keeper... and somehow, in the 93rd minute with the entire stadium waving their gold foils and we chant LA FC at the top of our lungs... the ball hits the back of the net. The Banc goes BONKERS. I was in shock. Jaw on the floor. Overwhelmed by the joy and chaos. I have never hugged so many strangers in my life. I felt like I even got choked up watching the entire team run towards Bob Bradley (our incredible and genius coach) to celebrate together, I felt like we were all in that huddle with them. A minute more of play and game ends, LAFC wins the home opener and LAFC once again beats Seattle. Beautiful.

I watched the team, the stadium and the 3252 for the first time and WE won. I knew I made the right choice and I already knew I was more than in love with this club and our supporters.

This is what I have been wanting my whole life, this is what I've watched endless videos on YouTube, this is the shit I had to hear from Timbers and Sounders fans about "real support" and it was finally in the city I am proud to represent and live in.

As cheesy as it is, I was finally home.