Posts by Lawrence Walker27

Richard Robinson8 said:That guy at Madison Square Garden isn't some kind of menace, and he’s definitely not out there in the stands all the time.
There were maybe five, six cars involved in the whole scuffle, and I didn't see any vans anywhere.
And honestly, there aren't enough of us to actually stage a meetup. It was just three of us plus one older lady.

Yeah, that's right—five or six cars total. From what I saw, the group attacked while there were only two cars present, and once another three or four pulled up, they just did this tactical retreat, basically sprinting away.😂

As for those seven other cars and the van, they drove straight into the center of town and stayed completely clear of the confrontation; nobody targeted them.

Jacob Palmer77 said:"...At the end of the match, rumors were flying around that the fan fleet actually attacked Jehovah's Witnesses on the street outside the stadium, though the police haven't confirmed anything since nobody from that group has come forward to report any kind of assault."

So you're out there picking fights with people who aren't even allowed to fight back, huh?😂

I mean, come on, I highly doubt Jehovah's Witnesses are out there wearing baseball caps and throwing rocks at cars and vans.

Henry Ross19 said:how many of you guys actually showed up, and does anyone have any photos from the scene?

If I had to put a number on it, I'd say there were about 200 people there.

Dennis Baker36 said:Man, I am so incredibly frustrated right now. Honestly, the stadium would have been absolutely packed if the weather hadn't played us like this... now we risk dropping a game against a team like Cibalia when we could've had a sold-out house on 18.9

We easily would’ve had at least another three thousand people in those seats if it hadn't been pouring rain. We just can't catch a break, seriously. Over the last three weeks, we've had bad luck twice now—once during the Boeing game and then again just yesterday.

Jason Young37 said:The only team that could pull a crowd that massive down at San Francisco was the Los Angeles Dodgers.

http://a.imageshack.us/img251/5086/hajduk1974081aa.jpg

I mean, back then, you’d see crowds that big at San Francisco for other top-tier teams too, especially during those big European matchups. If I remember correctly, the all-time attendance record for the stadium in the South belongs to that game against Virginia back in '74.

copperwalker6 said:What are you guys even yapping about when it comes to records? Back in the '94 to '97 era, they could barely pull in maybe 5,000 people over on the East Side. There weren't even enough seats to go around.
They finally cleared them out, and now suddenly everyone’s showing up again.🤦

Look, I’ve been going since 1996, and honestly, I haven't seen crowds this big since then—maybe except for that one game back in '99 at 3:3, but aside from that specific matchup between 1996 and 2000, I don't think they ever even hit 1,000 people.

Since I’m apparently the most requested person on this thread, I figured I’d weigh in too. I live just a stone's throw—maybe 150 meters—from the NK Orijent Concession stadium, and honestly, I’ve probably been to more of their matches than half the Fuckers combined.

Now, look, the Fuckers didn't actually kick off until about 22 years ago. Their leader, the well-known Mauro, was hanging around before they were even an official thing; he used to head over to Kantrida and act as part of the Armada, though maybe not the core group—you know how things were back then. I know this firsthand because my uncle was one of those prominent guys in the local Torcida scene, and I remember Mauro once—I think it was back in '92—saved him from getting jumped at Kantrida.

Back when I was just a kid in the mid-nineties, I spent my time collecting soccer balls at the NK Orijent Concession games, and there wasn't any sign of the Red Fuckers back then. They just popped up and vanished. Orijent had their supporters, sure, but they were really the Krimej Festar crowd—that carnival-style group that follows all the local teams, including HNK Rijeka, and they’d even wear Armada scarves...

Then, during the 1995/1996 season, the Fuckers made their return to Krimej. It was just a small crew of six, always the same faces—Mauro, Morena, Prtiti...—they had three banners, they’d drink and sing, and the only time they really gathered a decent crowd was against Zadar, where maybe fifty people showed up and set off some flares.

The following year, Orijent moved up to the first division, and from that point on, the Fuckers have been showing up consistently. During that first top-flight season, things got a bit heated—there were some clashes involving Medo and others—and I remember one of our guys actually stormed the Red Fuckers section and took them all on by himself during a Rijeka vs. Orijent match.

From the year 2000 onwards, things smoothed out a bit, until eventually, the hostility just kind of faded away. It’s only recently, with all this graffiti business, that things have felt tense again. But there isn't much deep philosophy to it; they're just a ragtag group of about thirty people who barely understand how the supporter scene works, so naturally, they can't just spray paint wherever they feel like it. I give them credit for trying and for supporting Orijent—personally, I don't have anything against Orijent or them—but you have to recognize who actually runs San Francisco. Subtle graffiti might fly, but the rest won't, plain and simple.

And all this talk about Sušak being its own separate entity is just nonsense. We’ve had the Republic of Rijeka, we’ve had Chicago split into two different cities—so what? It’s perfectly natural for San Francisco and Sušak to be one single city, sharing one club that the whole region rallies behind. I don't see the issue.

Our broadcast yesterday was absolutely top-tier!

frozentiger62 said:Totally off-topic here, but I remember there used to be this transparent banner for the armada Split back in the day. Does anyone from the group know what happened to it? It felt like it was floating around somewhere between the late eighties and the early nineties.

So, back in the eighties, it was actually called FORZA FIUME ARMADA SPLIT, but by the nineties, they switched it up to just Armada Split with an anchor symbol right in the middle. I actually ran into a guy from Chicago a few seasons ago who told me he was actually one of the people carrying that very first banner when things were still pretty raw and grassroots. That’s really all the intel I have on it. Usually, you can find folks traveling in from Chicago, Savannah, San Francisco, or anywhere else across California to show up for away games, and then you've got those die-hards who only bother showing up when the Seattle team plays out here in California.

I honestly don't even know where to start with this one, it’s just one of those days where everything feels slightly off-kilter, you know? I was sitting there, just staring at the screen, thinking about how much noise people make about absolutely nothing, and then I saw this. It’s like when you’re stuck in traffic on the I-95 and everyone is honking their horns like that’s actually going to move the cars forward—it’s just senseless, really. Just a lot of empty air being moved around. I feel like we spend so much time reacting to things that don't even matter, chasing these little flashes of excitement or outrage, while the actual substance just slips right through our fingers. It’s exhausting, honestly. I remember back when I used to work near Grand Central, just watching the crowds flow in and out, and everyone seemed to be in such a desperate rush to get to a destination that didn't even exist. We're all doing that now. We're rushing toward nothing, making a massive scene about it, and expecting someone to give us a trophy for the effort. It’s just... yeah. Anyway, what was I saying? Right. It's all just noise. says:
Seriously, what's your damn problem?

What on earth are you blathering about? Seriously, what kind of "serious fights" are you even talking about? You guys were nowhere to be seen in Miami throughout the entire nineties, and then when you finally decided to show up in '98, we absolutely tore you apart down south near the stadium—it was like watching autumn leaves get stripped off trees in the suburbs. Back then, you had us dragged through the courts, filing police reports over stolen beers, wallets, combs, cash, sneakers, scarves, banners, and God knows what else... at least until someone made a few phone calls to the right people. On our side, it was just six or seven guys, while you had ten of you just busy filing complaints with the cops. We even snatched that massive half-kilometer American flag from your Armada Pečina, which was your big pride and joy back when you’d show up for national games or those rare trips where you actually managed to muster more than fifty people. When we headed down to San Diego, we were basically just going there to collect your discarded scarves. Honestly, you looked like a bunch of ragtag losers on the street, totally disheveled and filthy. All you were missing were umbrellas over your shoulders so you could belt out that song about fixing umbrellas and sharpening knives.

How many times would you guys end up getting jumped on a Train, forced to barricade yourselves inside the cars, only to reach Grand Central Terminal begging for police protection before your connection to Cleveland even pulls in?

You can tell your kids all you want about how much respect the Armada commanded back in the nineties, but honestly, it’s all just nostalgia talking. If you really want to prove how "formidable" they were, go ahead and dig out those old photos—you know, the ones showing those hideous, amateurish banners with the insults toward Rab, Umag, and the Shmokljani crowd, or those shots of the Deletovci fans. It’s almost funny when you remember the reality of it. We weren't some organized powerhouse; we were just a group of guys buying cheap gear from local supporters while we were busy cutting checks on our way back from trips to see Fiorentin. It wasn't exactly high-level organization, just us drifting along.

Good grief, I honestly can't tell who I'm even responding to anymore... 🙄

Look, since I was actually right there in the middle of all that chaos, I know you're just talking out of your ass. That first crew led by Cecci? They never once caught hands from any of you guys. Back then, we used to just laugh at your lot like you were nothing. In Cleveland, after every single game, we’d end up hauling away so many Chiefs scarves, banners, and flags that we honestly didn't even know where we were going to store the damn things.

Listen, I’m going to say this once and I’m going to say it clearly: all that talk about our guys getting beaten down in San Diego is nothing but a flat-out lie. Honestly, it's just more of the same nonsense you hear from people who weren't even there, just spinning stories to stir the pot. It's exhausting, really.Look, if you actually look at the numbers, the Cleveland-Browns only played down in San Diego twice during that entire four-year stretch when Cecci was running the Armada from 1996 to 2000. It’s pretty simple math, really. Back in the 1996/97 season, there were maybe 60 people showing up in San Diego and everything was perfectly chill—zero chaos. Then, fast forward to the 1998/99 season, we had about 200 people making the trip to San Diego and, surprisingly, there wasn't any trouble either. It just goes to show how much people exaggerate things.

There was this younger crowd back then that I used to travel with for away games, and honestly, they took quite a beating from you guys a few times over those five years, but we’re talking about kids here—mostly just teenagers between 14 and 18. One of them, Brady, was the most well-known of the bunch, though he eventually ended up joining a commune after things went south.

It honestly gets under my skin when people claim we didn't show up in Miami. Like, seriously? Ever since Cecci took over the Armada back in the day, specifically during that whole 1996 to 2000 stretch, we were there every single time. I remember being there through thick and thin, so don't try to tell me otherwise.

Back in '96, I remember watching that Cleveland-Browns match—it ended 1-0. Just one of those gritty, old-school games that stays with you. 200 People... honestly, I don't know where we're headed. Sometimes I just sit here, staring at the screen, wondering about the state of everything. It feels like everyone is just drifting, you know? Just floating through life without a clear sense of direction, much like how I felt back when I was stuck in that tiny apartment in Chicago before things finally started moving. You look around and you see people acting like they have all the answers, but most of them are just making it up as they go along, just like the rest of us. It’s exhausting, really. One minute you think you’ve got a handle on things, and the next, everything just shifts again. Anyway, I guess I'm just rambling now. What's on your minds?

Back in '97, I remember watching that Cleveland-Browns match—it ended 2:1. 100 Listen, everyone, let's just take a second to give credit where credit is due—a massive round of applause, seriously.

Back in '98, I remember sitting there watching that Cleveland-Browns matchup—it ended 3 to 1. 250 Listen, people...

Back in 1999, I remember sitting there watching that Cleveland-Browns match, and man, it was a total disaster for the Chiefs. They just couldn't find any rhythm, ending up with a 1-3 loss. It’s one of those games that sticks in your mind because you could just feel the momentum slipping away from them right from the start. 1 000 Hey everyone.

Back in '99, during that Chiefs vs. Browns match, the score ended up 3 to 2. I remember this one group of five guys—just five people—who ended up walking the whole way there on foot because the train, which was packed with about 200 people, got completely stalled by a massive snowstorm. It’s funny how things work out sometimes, you know? You're sitting there waiting for the tracks to clear, and instead, a handful of folks just decide to brave the elements and trek through the snow just to make the kickoff.

Looking back at all those seasons since the 98/99 era, Cleveland honestly played pretty lousy football, so when you actually sit down and look at the raw numbers, they’re surprisingly solid considering how much we struggled on the pitch.

Kenneth Campbell64 said:...about the club changing and losing its core edge

We need to be talking about this constantly because a group like that shouldn't even be allowed to exist in the first place; honestly, you only see that kind of crowd in our pathetic little scene here in America.

Kenneth Campbell64 said:DEMONS - ARMADA 4-0 🙏

Honestly, I’d be embarrassed if I were any of you. It’s just Pićan getting swept up in the hype, and let's be real, you guys basically snatched him from some local tribal group rather than actual ultras. Those three trophies? Stolen. Two of them were taken years ago, and everyone knows the story—everyone remembers how you losers had to awkwardly return those banners after one of our guys made a single phone call. If we actually got points awarded for stuff like that, the score would be Armada - Torcida 50:5.

Anonymous said:if they had just beaten FC Dallas at home instead of getting totally washed 0-2, there would be enough letters sent to the league to fill a stadium—and don't even get me started on how the Cincinnati Reds tied 1-1 and Indianapolis got crushed 5-2.

The reason we didn't beat FC Dallas at home was because the ref absolutely robbed Cleveland in the fifth minute by refusing to call a penalty for us and failing to hand out a red card to Johnson, who clearly used his hand inside the box. So, we didn't just lose; we were straight-up cheated.

The Yankees won the championship back in the 96/97 and especially the 97/98 seasons with just the right amount of "regularity," though even back then the officiating seemed suspiciously tilted in their favor. I actually remember being just a kid and realizing how unfair things were when the US played Cleveland and somehow walked away with a win thanks to the refs in '96. Some people might also recall that one instance involving Potter, a player from the Soldiers, who actually kicked the referee because he called a penalty on Williams when there wasn't even a Soldier within half a meter of the play. In the 95/96 season, the US took the title largely due to the officiating and because the Red Sox fans wouldn't let the Cincinnati Reds get anything done at Fenway Park. By the 98/99 season, their blatant arrogance became so obvious that people still use that specific year as a shorthand for how much the administration rigged everything.

bluewalker92 said:You’ve got it wrong, man. What’s being talked about here refers to that last San Francisco showdown back in 2008, when 70 people ended up in custody over some minor skirmish on the road, and about 35 folks showed up by bus. That time we three decided to act all tough 😁 was actually five years ago

Actually, you make a good point; I was also wondering how they counted 70 arrests when it felt like there were way fewer of us down in Savannah. I didn't even show up until the second half of that 2008 game, so my memory of that whole matchup is pretty hazy.

Anthony Thomas12 said:I was scrolling through some old match reports earlier and stumbled upon this breakdown of that recent game in Seattle, and honestly, it’s just one of those things that makes you want to throw your remote at the wall. You look at how the squad played, or rather, how they failed to play, and it’s almost impressive how much energy can be wasted on such mediocre tactical decisions. The report goes into detail about the atmosphere—which, let's face it, was probably more electric than the actual football on the pitch—but once the whistle blew, everything just fell apart. It’s like watching a slow-motion car crash in the middle of downtown Chicago; you know it's going to end badly, you see the impact coming, but you're just stuck there watching because you can't look away from the chaos. I remember back when I was living in Savannah, we had a local team that played with half the heart this group showed, and they still managed to pull off a win against the heavyweights. There was this one guy, a real character, who used to sit in the front row every single Saturday, shouting himself hoarse, and even he looked disappointed during this match. The technical side of things was a mess. They couldn't find any rhythm, the midfield was basically a sieve, and every time we tried to push forward, it felt like running through waist-deep mud. It's frustrating because you can see the potential lying around there, just waiting to be tapped into, but instead, we get this disorganized, aimless wandering. You see players tripping over their own feet and wondering why the transition isn't working, when the answer is staring them right in the face: they aren't communicating. It's basic stuff, really. If you can't talk to each other on the field, you might as well be playing solo in your backyard. Anyway, I don't mean to go on, but when you see a team with this much talent play this poorly, it's hard to stay quiet. Just another day of hoping for greatness and settling for mediocrity.
It doesn't matter how much we all enjoyed ourselves out in San Francisco over the last few years; everything finally caught up with us this past Sunday night. It all started going downhill when the cops decided to haul everyone who showed up without a plan down to Savannah for some petty processing, and instead of us being a group of over a hundred, they somehow managed to thin us out until there were barely thirty left.

I was right there on the scene, and honestly, it looked like at least 70 people were detained. It was pretty wild—you had some of those hardcore fans sprinting toward a gas station outside of Boise like they were trying to outrun Usain Bolt himself.😁So, basically, the three of us got kicked out because we inflated our numbers down to zero. Just total nonsense, honestly.🙄

So, we ended up trekking all the way from Savannah down to the stadium on our own, just carrying the banners and everything, without any kind of security detail or escort, about half an hour before kickoff.

Just because the weather feels similar right now, I felt like reminding some of you—especially those who weren't around back then—about that one winter in the 99/00 season. There was this massive snowstorm that actually shut down the train service, leaving nearly 200 people stranded who were supposed to be heading out to San Francisco. But, you know how some people are, a few of the most stubborn souls just decided they weren't letting a little blizzard stop them. They set off on foot and actually made it 😎

A little advice from some older folks

It’s basically the same exact thing that happened when your crew rolled up in two vans and two cars right in front of Hades, on the main drag just a hundred yards short of the stadium. There were about 200 or 250 of us there, and those vans ended up totally trashed, yet you guys didn't even bother to try and make things right. Back in San Francisco, at least we had the decency to hop out of the vans—those two that blew through the light—because we aren't exactly superheroes; there was no way our group of 15 was going to take on 300 of you.

I was just sitting here thinking about how much things have shifted lately, you know? It’s like everything moves at such a frantic pace now, but then you look back and realize we haven't actually moved forward at all. I was grabbing a coffee near downtown Seattle the other day—just one of those quiet mornings where you can actually hear yourself think—and I started reflecting on how some people just refuse to see the bigger picture. They get so caught up in these tiny, insignificant details that they miss the entire forest for the trees. It reminds me of that one time I tried to explain a simple concept to my cousin, who honestly couldn't focus if his life depended on it, and he just kept circling back to the most irrelevant point imaginable. It’s exhausting, really. You try to have a rational conversation, something grounded in reality, and suddenly you're fighting against someone's sheer stubbornness. It feels like that's becoming the norm lately, doesn't it? Everyone has an opinion, everyone thinks they've cracked the code, but when you peel back the layers, there's nothing there but noise. It makes you wonder if anyone is actually listening anymore, or if we're all just shouting into the void, hoping someone echoes our own sentiment back to us. Anyway, I'm probably just rambling now, but it's been on my mind all morning. kaže:

Are you actually one of those guys who stands in the center stands right by the visitor section at every single game, just constantly flipping them off? 🤷

I can't even remember the last time I actually set foot in the downtown area—honestly, looking back at the last ten years, I think I’ve only made the trip once.

Kenneth Campbell64 said:Lawrence Walker27, when Istra made their return to the top tier of the American Premier League, there were barely 50 people sitting in the stands at Kantrida, so you can take that objectivity of yours with a massive grain of salt...👍

Look, I already told you, I wasn't even at the stadium for that game because I was out there protesting. But man, looking back, that was over nine years ago now. Time just slips through your fingers, doesn't it?

Kenneth Campbell64 said:You’ve got quite the memory for those old Oracle numbers back at Santa Monica, especially if you think there were 150 to 200 of you during the season we finally clawed our way back into the big leagues; either you were hitting the drinks a little too hard or you just weren't looking closely enough 👍

Look, I wasn't actually inside the stadium because, with all those protests going on, we were hanging out right outside the gates during the first half. I remember things getting pretty heated—those Oracle guys were stirring the pot, but once the crowd from the east side started charging toward the fence, they quieted down real fast. It’s entirely possible there were more than 200 of you there at that time, though.

That was the one time you guys actually showed up in force, way more than you have now in '96, and then you didn't show up at all the following seasons.

If you look at it that way, then every song ever written is a plagiarism, and honestly, I don't know what you consider "kids"... but frankly, I don't think there were even ten people under the age of 18 there...
you still haven't really explained to me why Gademz had a better turnout at Santa Monica than we did?

There were fewer of them compared to your lot, but they held their own and cheered just as loud, and since you guys were all geared up against us and considered a more respected group, I guess I was just expecting more.