The choice of 'wildcatter orange' as the primary color of the Houston Dynamo surely raised some eyebrows back in 2006. But in the team's third season, the orange has become a rallying cry - literally.
One of the catchiest cheer from the supporters' group El Batallón is "Yo si le voy, le voy al Naranja!" which means "If I go, I go for the Orange!" Countless Dynamo fans file into the stadium decked out in orange jerseys, T-shirts, hats and more. The occasional orange streamer even finds its way to the field during many games. And, of course, there was that orange smoke bomb in Frisco. At any rate, the sight of orange shirts, whether they be the players' jerseys or the fans' paraphernalia, has been an imposing one for other MLS teams.
So the Dynamo hope to see even more orange than usual for their August 31 game against the Chicago Fire, who are currently in third place in the Eastern Conference but three points ahead of the Dynamo. On Orange U-Nite, DishLatino will give away 5,000 orange T-shirts to arriving fans in an attempt to make sure that everybody will be wearing orange.
"You do notice the fans," Dynamo defender Bobby Boswell said. "When they're motivated, it helps us out."
Dynamo fans and their orange colors were especially noticeable at the 2006 MLS Cup final in Frisco, Texas, when hundreds of Houston fans made the trip up I-45 and filled Pizza Hut Park with orange colors and pro-Dynamo cheers as Houston took the championship.
The 2007 postseason was another chance for Houston's fans to prove their mettle, as the Dynamo played to sellout, orange-clad crowds in the Western Conference semifinal second leg against FC Dallas and the Western Conference final against Kansas City. It is those type of atmospheres the Dynamo hope to see Sunday evening.
"If everybody's wearing orange, that's a big plus for us, because we know everybody's behind us," Boswell said. "A good crowd makes for a better game. It can definitely hurt the other team, especially in close games."
