USA In Need of Soccer Chants

Submitted by JohnnyV123 on

From a conversation I had with my brother (a fellow mgoblogger) over the weekend, we were talking about how the United States soccer experience feels like it's painfully lacking in chants and that we need to come up with new ones.

The U.S.A. chant is great and all but when it's all we have and you compare it to what they have in other countries it doesn't feel like it's enough.

So any suggestions for chants or songs for the U.S. Men's National Team?

loosekanen

June 20th, 2011 at 4:48 AM ^

US Soccer made a hell of a good commercial pre WC2010 featuring the Cohan WWI anthem "Over There." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCqZsFM7Sg8

It never caught on and I have no idea why. It probably makes too damn much sense being that it's a historical anthem, it includes "Yanks" which is the team's nickname, and it's super easy to sing. So naturally... didn't work.

As far as popular music is concerned there just isn't a lot of melody-filled music popular these days. It's either rap, r&b, indie rock, or country. The internet has helped turn our country into a niche-based musical nation. We can get what we want when we want it.

The best anthems are upbeat in my opinion. Cohan has actually done a bunch of stuff that could work. "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" being two more. I hope it gets solved. We sound like garbage with our 2 chants and the warbling failure that is en masse "God Bless America"

addendum: As annoying as "Seven Nation Army" is while cranked into every college football stadium every Saturday, it actually works fairly well as a US Soccer chant. At least The White Stripes are American...

Vasav

June 20th, 2011 at 8:26 AM ^

I've never been to an international soccer match, but wouldn't a fight song work? For example:
<br>
<br>Hail! HAIL! America!
<br>The champions of the west!
<br>
<br>Or
<br>
<br>Wish that I was on old Rocky Top,
<br>Down in the Appalachia hills
<br>...
<br>Good, old, Rocky Top!
<br>Rocky Top, U-S-A!
<br>Rocky Top, U-S-A!
<br>
<br>Or (and this one is ironic but go with it)
<br>
<br>I wish I was a Yankee!
<br>Hooray! Hooray!
<br>And lived out West in Yankee-land!
<br>And lived and died a Yankee!
<br>Hooray, hooray
<br>And lived and died a Yankee!

JonSobel

June 20th, 2011 at 10:18 AM ^

Heck, learn the whole song, verses included.  How awesome would it be to take over a stadium with an intelligent and well thought out song or chant of our own for a change.

VERSE 1:

John-nie, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun,

Take it on the run, on the run, on the run,

Hear them call-ing you and me, ev'-ry son of lib-er-ty

Hur-ry right a-way, no de-lay, go to-day

Make your Dad-dy glad to have had such a lad,

Tell your sweet-heart not to pine, to be proud her boy's in line



CHORUS:

O-ver there, o-ver there, send the word, send the word, o-ver there,

That the Yanks are com-ing, the Yanks are com-ing,

The drums rum-tum-ming ev'-ry where

So pre-pare, say a prayer, send the word, send the word to be-ware

We'll be o-ver, we're com-ing o-ver,

And we won't come back 'til it's o-ver O-ver There!



VERSE 2:

John-nie, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun,

John-nie show the Hun you're a son of a gun

Hoist the flag and let her fly, Yan-kee Doo-dle do or die

Pack your lit-tle kit, show your grit, do your bit

Yan-kees to the ranks from the towns and the tanks

Make your moth-er proud of you and the old Red White and Blue



CHORUS:

O-ver there, o-ver there, send the word, send the word, o-ver there,

That the Yanks are com-ing, the Yanks are com-ing,

The drums rum-tum-ming ev'-ry where

So pre-pare, say a prayer, send the word, send the word to be-ware

We'll be o-ver, we're com-ing o-ver,

And we won't come back 'til it's o-ver O-ver There!

74polSKA

June 20th, 2011 at 8:22 AM ^

Since vuvuzelas were so popular, how about the US implementing a kazoo army for all of it's fans.  I really don't care about American soccer because soccer moms, although sometimes hot, don't really do much for my sports interest (and switching from minivans to SUV's doesn't make your sport tougher).

jg2112

June 20th, 2011 at 8:58 AM ^

There's nothing wrong with how games are right now. On the international stage, in particular, hardly any nations' fans really sing songs. The only one I ever really notice is England, and really, English fans sound stupid because they sing songs about the Germans in World War II and repeatedly sing "God Save The Queen."

Noise, cheering, and drums are cool when its organic. Trying to force feed chants to a crowd who doesn't want to do it is just a waste of time.

Needs

June 20th, 2011 at 9:41 AM ^

This is exactly right. Almost no national team crowds sing the kind of clever, funny songs that the crowds of club teams do. National teams don't play as regularly and don't play before the same audiences enough for the kind of singing you see in the EPL or other leagues.

The reason Seven Nation Army caught on at most international games (and it started at the last Euro) is that it's easy to sing and capable of being repeated ad naseum.

swaglikeM

June 20th, 2011 at 9:20 AM ^

world cup last summer at Claddaghs in Canton area there was a Tim Howard chant that was said every Howard save:

chim chimmery chim chimmery chim chim cherooo

We've got Tim Howard and he says, "F*ck you"

momo

June 20th, 2011 at 9:35 AM ^

you have to understand what the character of the team is. That's why U-S-A (apart from being a lame chant in itself) doesn't really work for the US soccer team, because it implies a level of dominance that the team is not able to produce. This is not to denigrate the team, by the way, it's just an observation of its international standing.

 

Unfortunately, self-deprecation is seldom much in evidence in the US. Otherwise, you could mine rich veins of chant lore by emulating the English cricket "barmy army" circa 1980. We're only here for the beer, etc.

 

And before you dismiss the power of cricket chanting, check out the best chant of the past few years in any sport:

 

http://youtu.be/oEY8bK1UyEM?t=40s

 

"He bowls to the left, he bowls to the ri-i-ight,

That Mitchell Johnson, his bowling is shite."

MAgoBLUE

June 20th, 2011 at 10:11 AM ^

The problem is that a lot of our patriotic songs are based on melodies from traditional English songs.  English people really hold the undisputed title on singing in groups of people and I'm ok with that.  I like when their fans do the song from Bridge Over the River Kwai with a rousing "ENGLAND!!!" at the end.

Keyboard Cat

June 20th, 2011 at 10:58 AM ^

 

Yankee Doodle went to town

Riding on a pony

Beat the red-coats at their game

And ____ that WANKER ROONEY!

Yankee Doodle, keep it up

Yankee Doodle dandy

Mind the cards and score your goals

and with their girls be handy!

fleetwood

June 20th, 2011 at 12:24 PM ^

We all dream of a team of Altidores is a classic but they have not used it yet in the Gold Cup. Similar to the following although substituting Altidore for Carragher:

Sam's Army used it in a game a few years ago that I went to and it was very popular. But that also brings up the problem of specialized player chants and whether you want to use them.

jmblue

June 20th, 2011 at 3:38 PM ^

I don't think they really need any.  The "When the Yanks Go Marching In" one sounds pretty forced (and its U-M derivative, with "Blue" in place of "Yanks," is downright cringeworthy).  Just cheer for the team and don't worry so much about what other countries do.