“We’re the original fucking dynasty here. Not the Red Bulls, not the Galaxy, not any of these teams.”



It’s 2012, and Kevin Payne, D.C. United’s president at the time, has just grabbed my voice recorder. Before his intervention, I was doing a post-game interview with former United midfielder Nick DeLeon in the visiting locker room at Red Bull Arena. DeLeon had just scored the game-winner in one of the most memorable playoff games in MLS history; a wild, 1-0 affair played the day after a freak snowstorm, and just a week after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the area.



I’d been out in the hallway outside the locker room just after the final whistle, where I watched United goalkeeper Bill Hamid — who’d been ejected for the game for a rash challenge — prowling up and down the corridor shirtless, beating his chest like a man possessed and bellowing out what would go on to be United’s rallying cry for at least a half-decade...