Sometimes a certain magic happens in the Southside. You can be singing and cheering for what seems like hours, and suddenly a small thing happens and a wave of energy hits. The chants find a perfect rhythm and the tempo of the match below seems to sync up with the drumming. People in other sections stand up and start singing too. Something builds and an air of undeniable inevitability takes over. It's beyond and beneath confidence - it's like the fuel that powers confidence. There is nothing you can do: capos, drummers, supporters, Southsiders, and prawnsiders are all caught up in it and carried by it. And then it catches fire on the pitch.

Back in 2011, was the first time I felt it in our MLS incarnation. Playing against Sporting Kansas City at home in our third MLS game ever and down 3-0. In the 72nd minute Atiba Harris scored and from that moment in the Southside it felt like something changed. Everything notched up a little, the noise reached a sustained level and by the beginning of added time, when Camilo slotted home a little Davide Chiumiento pass to accompanying pandemonium, you just knew - just KNEW - we were going to come away with points. Two minutes later, Camilo scored another one with his head and we were level and the Southside was full of jumping, cheering, delirium. And then Nizar Khalfan fired one barely wide and we almost won it. Leaving that match with a point in hand, we all had the taste of what it might feel like to experience the undeniable inevitability of a result.

It's a kind of energy that sweeps through the supporter's sections and suddenly moves everywhere. You would have seen it last year in our final league game against Dallas, when we were revisited by the feeling a few minutes before Kendall Waston headed in the goal that secured our playoff spot. And last night we felt it again.

All night in the Southside there was great energy. The whole end was flying flags and even the east siders brought a bit of tifo to start the match. The Blue Trio down below me were becoming self-styled upper Southside capos, the Tall One and I were blowing out our vocal chords, and the Bearded One had given his tickets to a couple of Irish friends, who pre-emptively begged forgiveness at the beginning of the match for cheering a little for Robbie Keane. ("Not in this section," I said, kind of teasing.)

That energy was consistent from the start, but it felt like work a little. And when the second half started and the Galaxy decided that they had better get a result, I had a sense that we might be in for a turning point.

And we were, but it was not the one I expected. It came in the 52nd minute, when Russell Teibert intercepted a through ball, and suddenly there it was again. That feeling. That spontaneous, emergent, out of control feeling that locked the whole stadium together. Our chants become self-propelling, and started to carry us. And four minutes later, from yet another Teibert interception, Kekutah Manneh scored out of nothing, and it was back. The undeniable inevitability. The feeling of certainty that somehow we had this game.

Rivero scored ten minutes later and you could seen the spirit had gone out of Omar Gonzalez. He was ball watching when Rivero scored, and whatever hope and confidence Gonzalez had fled into the Southside. A transformation had taken place. Even the Irish guys were in on it, leading the cheers against Keane. What Omar was looking for to get his team back in the game was gone. Fully owned buy the 2000 behind him. And we weren't giving it back.

When the match ended no one wanted to leave. We stayed and sang for a long time "Whitecaps FC, How we love thee, So stand and sing, For victory!" which is fast becoming a standard that I think might eventually find its way into every section. We sang the players off, which is immensely satisfying, and then joined the songs on the concourse for more.

This is one of the things to live for in supporter culture: when it goes from just the Southsiders doing all the work, to a shared, sustained and self-organized effort. It is not predictable, it is not guaranteed. But when it appears, it comes like a wind, overtaking everything and changing everyone. And moments like that are all you need to experience why supporter culture matters.

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