Moment 3: Freedom Visits
It seemed that each visit of the Washington Freedom provided its own special moments. Aside from the Maren Meinert ceremony, the majority of the moments were ones shared by those standing in the Dock. With the exception of a certain St. Louis goalkeeper, every player that heard (or appeared to hear) one of our chants seemed to play for the Freedom. Whether that is to be attributed to the vocal strength of the Dock or the nature of the players is undecided.
What is decided is that Abby Wambach (and her teammates, mainly her teammates) got a great laugh from our chants when we noticed that a certain Mia Hamm was standing at the RedBones tent behind the goal. I am not entirely sure who started the chant, but soon the entire Dock was chanting "You're Nothing Without Mia! You're Nothing Without Mia!" in Abby's general direction. Their laughter signals a response that they as players understand the purpose of the Dock and that the chants are all in good fun. I'm not sure that the legbreaker chants fall into that category, but ask our treasurer his opinion.
The other vivid memory of a Freedom player responding to our chants is Erin McLeod. Erin had just given up what turned out to bethe game winning goal (if memory serves correctly). One of our more vocal (to put it politely) members began to belt out "Hey Erin it's all Your Fault" at the top of his lungs. This continued long after the rest of the Dock was prepared to move on to another chant. For one reason or another (maybe the echo off of the wet concrete) not only did she hear us, but she smiled a bit and waved. That is a moment that those present will not soon forget.
