GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Houseman Field, a stadium tucked in the middle of the city, was half full for the Grand Rapids FC soccer game Friday before the first rumble came from down the street.

As it drew closer, the rumble turned into drum beats that turned into chants that become the arrival of the Grand Army, the backbone of support to the city's minor league soccer team.

They marched about a mile from Bob's Bar on Michigan Avenue, an estimated 250 of them, many wearing blue and white Grand Rapids FC scarves, beating drums, waving blue smoke bombs and singing songs of support.

The Grand Army is the soccer team's traveling band of enthusiasm.

Even residents cheered them on as they walked by.

"It's fun, way fun; even more fun than the excitement around Friday night football," resident Shelli Tabor said from the front sidewalk of her home on Lyon Street.

Once inside the stadium, the Grand Army faithful took up two corner sections and never stopped singing, chanting, pointing, whistling, yelling - and especially drum beating - for two hours as Grand Rapids FC took on Force FC in the third home game of the season.

They went nuts along with the rest of the crowd when Elmedin Zukic and Domenic Barone scored in an eventual 2-2 draw.

They even had chants for players on the team, including Noble Sullivan and Mark and Domenic Barone.

"It's unbelievable the energy they give us," Domenic Barone said after the team's first home game.

The Army has grown along with attendance. About 100 marched as part of a crowd of 2,409 in a rain-soaked debut. That grew to 200 and 3,843 last week and 250 with a crowd of 5,012 on Friday.

There are no dues, no official membership and no requirements other than undying support for the team. Oh, and be loud.

"We just want to be rowdy and raucous and fun and enjoyable, but nothing too crazy," Matt Post, one of the main organizers who's a real estate agent by day, said in the closest thing to a mission statement.

Fan support groups are common in Europe and growing among some MLS teams around throughout the country. It's just another way to cheer on the home team, said Matt Roberts, the founder of Grand Rapids FC.

"There's a long tradition of supporters in soccer all over the world, including some legendary ones," he said of the fan groups overseas commonly known as Ultras. "The Grand Army has been fantastic so far. They have been so loud, so vociferous and it gets the players, everyone so pumped up."

When Roberts was trying to put together the soccer team, he received interest from soccer fans who wanted to assemble an official group. Within months, The Grand Army sprouted up, created its own Facebook page, and a fan base had begun.

"We love them and want them to have a good time, but we also want to make sure that families around them have a good time, too," Roberts said, looking to avoid the reputations of some European groups. "They've been very respectful because we want families to have a good time."

Members of the Army, meanwhile, just want to make a difference for their team.

"We've been thanked by players, by parents and by fans," Post said. "I think on a whole it adds an authenticity to it.

"So many of the bigger teams in Europe have such big support groups with all these signs and banners and the chants on such a huge scale. So for us to have something like we have going, it's kind of cool."

Pete Wallner covers sports for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at pwallner@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.