Odes to Atlanta Soccer · Track 5 · middle
From Silverbacks to Stripes
History of Atlanta soccer — the Atlanta Chiefs (1967, NASL), the Silverbacks (founded 1995, the ASL/USL years at Silverbacks Park), the Atlanta Beat (WUSA, 2001-2003, women's pro soccer pioneer), the long fallow stretches when soccer in Atlanta was a Sunday-league rumor, then the 2014 announcement of MLS coming, then 2017 inaugural game. Five decades to overnight success.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Verse 1] It wasn't born in 2017. It was a whisper in 1967. Vic Crowe on the touchline at Atlanta Stadium, trying to teach a town about a different kind of line. A different kind of faith. Kaizer Motaung, a ghost from South Africa, chasing something on a field that wasn't quite home. [Verse 2] Then the long quiet. Broken up by summer nights in 1995. Silverbacks Park. Aluminum bleachers, cool under your hands in the Georgia heat. Mosquitoes dancing in the cones of the floodlights. The smell of boiled peanuts on the breeze from the concession stand. We were there. We remember the hum. [Chorus] Fifty years to become an overnight success. A Sunday-league rumor told at 8 a.m. on a field with no lines, just the smell of cut Bermuda grass. We kept the faith in the fallow years. We kept the ball in the air when no one was watching. [Verse 3] And the women of the Beat. 2001. A different promise, in red, white, and blue. A league of their own, for a moment. Gone by 2003. Another seed that bloomed and scattered before the season truly turned. But they were here. They drew the first maps. [Chorus] Fifty years to become an overnight success. A Sunday-league rumor told at 8 a.m. on a field with no lines, just the smell of cut Bermuda grass. We kept the faith in the fallow years. We kept the ball in the air when no one was watching. [Bridge] Then, a date. April 16, 2014. A man at a podium, a city holding its breath. Not a whisper anymore. A crack in the dry ground. The sound of rain coming after a long, long drought. The sound of a foundation being poured. [Outro] So when you see the Five Stripes, remember the Silverback. When you hear seventy thousand roar, remember the quiet hum. March 5th, 2017. The harvest. All those years. Finally home.