SEATTLE — Ahead of the Seattle Sounders match against the Sporting KC, a group of right-wing agitators showed up with an intent to cause a ruckus and Sounders fans mostly ignored them. At least two of the agitators were openly carrying firearms.

About two hours before the match kicked off, a group of a dozen or so right wing activists showed up to one of ECS’s prematch pubs, Fuel, to try to infiltrate the bar and cause a scene. Thankfully the bouncers did not allow them in.

White nationalists trying to infiltrate Fuel... https://t.co/lJG1FEQOHO — Miki Turner (@turneresq) August 4, 2019

Sounders minority owner Drew Carey then showed up to the bar to order every Sounders fan in the bar a round in hopes of calming everyone down. For the most part, it worked.

"You don't want to deal with anti-fascists? Simple! Just don't be a f*ing fascist!" - Drew Carey who just bought us all drinks as the fucking fascists hate from across the street pic.twitter.com/CwFIEh0OWa — Cocktail MD (@CocktailMD) August 5, 2019

While ECS and Sounders fans were entering the match, the right-wingers were yelling, “You’re allowing terrorists in your soccer game!” Obviously repeating the right wing talking point that “antifa” are the real terrorists. One of them, who had an American flag hanging out of his shirt was the loudest of the bunch, saying things like, “This is our city. We will protect our cities from you.”

I went to the March. ECS and their leadership should be commended for ignoring the dozen or so agitators that were obviously trying to start a confrontation. Seattle PD was present during the march, with more officers than usual, but they didn’t really do anything except observe. Nothing really happened despite the racists saying some pretty wild stuff that I won’t repeat here. Good job everyone involved.

Update: Video from the white nationalist’s stream shows that one situation arose between the group and at least one Sounders fan. The group of agitators confront a man wearing an Iron Front shirt while he is walking to the stadium. The man tries to get them out of his way, and then some punches are thrown. The police do a very, very poor job of resolving the situation.