By Chuck Finder, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

This didn't look or sound like your usual Heinz Field football crowd. Oh, sure, in the parking lot beforehand, Dominic Warwick had a Canadian-made brew in his hand, a grin on his face and a slight slur to his speech. Yet he wore a Chelsea Football Club kit (that's British for jersey), spoke with an accent befitting a chap from southeast London  and knew all too well how fans should act on this night when the North Shore was invaded by what the rest of the world considers professional football.

"Beat up the Italians," Warwick said.

Ah, he was only joshing about the hooligan reputation that preceded the Chelsea club played Italy's AS Roma last night, and beat them by 3-nil, in front of 25,317 patrons.
Most of them were fans of Chelsea and comported themselves in the other way Warwick suggested: "Have a bit of a song."

True, some local smart aleck chanted "Heeere we go, Stee-lurs." The sound and furious fun, for the most part, came from Section 114.

That's where the Chelsea fans gathered, blokes from Florida and Iowa and Maryland and New Jersey, expatriates and converted Americans alike. Side by side, they
chanted. They waved their arms. They reveled in a team that wore a Raiders-like silver and black in a radical departure from their normal colors and the color by which their
fans are known.

For these Blues sing.

It started in the pregame introductions. At the announcement of new coach Jose Mourinho, in only his second match at the helm, the fans o 114 broke into the tune of
"Volare," as in: "Mooo-rain-hoe, whoa-oh-oh-oh." And they were just warming up.

A taunting fan in a Liverpool jersey sauntered by, causing the boys to chant: "You make my stereo." When another Blues follower asked for access into their section, he
broke into the familiar refrain: "We are Chelsea, so truck all the rest," or something like that. Of course he was immediately welcomed.

"There's only one team in London ... in Pittsburgh ... in Europe" was sung to the same ditty as "When you say Budweiser." Soon after, there was only one team on the
score sheet, as the Brits say: Chelsea's Joe Cole scored at 10:25 of the first 45-minute half, while most of the Blues were idly chatting about matches, parking, Eidgur
Godjohnsen players released under owner Roman Abramovich, their version of George Steinbrenner of the Yankees. The Cole goal revived them from their brief silence,
during which they actually crooned: "We're gonna sing in a minute."

"It's just like playing Lazio," they taunted Roma, a reference to the club's cross-town rival. "We are the fahns of CFC." "Chell-see." Funny, but even the American-born fans
chanted with an accent.

"When fans go back," said Jonathan Dawe, an expatriate of 14 years who flew to Pittsburgh yesterday from his home in Tampa, "they normally try to get a game in. Any
game. Desperately."
 

Roma lured fans as well. With Francesco Totti being an international star and heartthrob, fans of Il giallorossi (the yellow and red) breed anywhere. One came to Heinz
Field dressed in a Roma scarf, fake leaves over his ears and a white toga covering up ... a Liverpool kit?

"The English fans are in the majority," said Dennis Wodzinski, who came all the way from Ben Avon. He visited Rome last spring, hence his affiliation last night.

"Pretty subdued on this side here," Bruno Corlavecchia of Bridgeville said from the opposite corner of the stadium from Section 114. "We're not like Chelsea. Hardly any
hooligans here. Plus, you got an older crowd of Italians. Some of the Chelsea fans are louder."

That was indeed true of the five dozen men -- and a few scattered women -- that gathered in the corner, as they would in the Matthew Harding Stands at the north end of
Stamford Bridge grounds. Many of them knew each other only from being "on the chat" online at the U.S. Blues Web site or the team site, buddies from New York and
Philadelphia and all over. They knew how to carry a Blues tune, too.

"Chelsea, we laaav you." "Same old Roma, always chee-tin." In between, they jeered, they stood to applaud lovely defensive plays, they offered golf-polite applause. When
high-priced forward Mateja Kezman missed an open net in the first half, one fan joked, "Sell him." They yell at refs just the same as American football fans. They enjoy
their lagers, but this group last night seemed content merely to see their club in person. Chelsea is, after all, something of the Chicago Cubs of English soccer. As Dawe
pointed out, they won the Premier League on their 50th anniversary, and their fans once again hold close the hope of another in this season, their 100th.

"Now," Dawe said, "we think we can win."

If they do, they'll be a song in their hearts, and it'll probably be one of the favorites that are unprintable in a family newspaper. Sorry, Blues blokes.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04212/354123.stm