Atlanta, GA - Buckland neighborhood watch captain and Atlanta United supporter Carl Thomas stated, "It's just not like the old days anymore," as he reminisced about the nascent days of being an Atlanta United fan.
The halcyon early days of 2016.
"It was hard days being an Atlanta United fan, back in the day," stated a wistful Thomas as he told the story of the old days to the n00bs getting stuck in to the team. "We had the hard work ahead of us with the formation of the team, the updating of the standards, the formation of supporters groups. Why it was everything we could to hold out the fascists and right wing ultras groups in the early 2017s. Not like today, where everyone is on board and the sport is popular."
Thomas told of early battles on the terraces of Chattanooga where men and women made their stars and the campaign of, "getting people together at a bar somewhere..... preferably where there is a happy hour... like.... you know... to talk soccer n'shit" was waged.
"Why, we used to have skins, heads, antifa, rude boys, punks, riot grrls, fourth wave feminists, communists, black bloc agitators, union members, leftist Bolshevik dissidents, metal heads, emocore dubstep operators, hairdressers, sportos, motorheads, geeks, pro-body-image-sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads, one guy from Sandy Springs who brought cookies, Hawks fans and Methodists in our ranks. It was diverse. Now it's just all those people but like 49,000 more. The energy is just diluted. It really is just not like the old days, these days."
The Nutmeg News will have more on this as Thomas spends the first 5 minutes of the upcoming game with his arms crossed before letting the magic of soccer transport him to his happy place.