This Boston bar is a Chelsea bar, and a Manchester City bar. On Sunday, it was both.
It’s a quiet Sunday morning on Dorchester Avenue in Boston, except for the bursts of yelling and cheering that escape the doors of the Banshee, beneath the Irish and American flags outside the bar entrance.
Football, the other football, is back — more than 3,000 miles and five time zones away.
The Boston Blues, a supporter group of the London-based Premier League club Chelsea FC, claim the bar as their home. The local Manchester City FC fan group, MCFC Boston, also claim the renowned soccer bar as their home.
On their respective match days, Chelsea or City fans flock to the Banshee to watch their team play. But on this day, Chelsea play Manchester City, so both fanbases are out early for the power-matchup.
Who needs coffee when you can start the day with a Guinness?
From kickoff, every barstool and table is filled with fans, eyes glued to the TV screens that wrap around the walls of the bar, among plaques of Red Sox and Patriots memorabilia. What walking space is left is completely filled with fans, wearing apparel in various shades of Chelsea and City blue, holding pints in various shades of amber.
Bartenders push through the jersey-clad, standing room-only crowd as they try to serve breakfast plates to the few fans who snatched a table. The fans are completely focused on the match, forcing the waitstaff to squeeze through the standing horde.
It’s like a Saturday night, except with more eggs.
“Come on, Chelsea!’’
Though technically claimed by both supporter groups, this morning the Banshee ostensibly appears to be a Chelsea bar. There is far more Chelsea royal blue, than there is City sky blue. The biggest cheers of the first 30 minutes erupt following diving saves by Chelsea’s goalkeeper. Whatever applause is drawn from the bar by Manchester City is quickly and deliberately drowned out by Chelsea chants, led by Garrett Burke, 35, who is wearing a Chelsea jersey, a Red Sox hat, and has a long russet-red beard.
Burke, a Waltham resident, is the chapter head of the Boston Blues and founded the group with Ben Horner in 2010. After meeting through Chelsea fan blogs and watching games at the Phoenix Landing — a Liverpool FC bar — they decided they needed their own place.
Burke estimates they fill the bar with about 25 people every weekend morning during Chelsea games. Their group includes one fan who regularly drives up from Rhode Island.
“We pride ourselves on singing a lot of songs and being loud and proud,’’ he says.
But then, in the 32nd minute, Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero cuts between a circle of Chelsea defenders and softly slots the balls into the bottom left corner of the goal.
1-0, Manchester City.
Scattered throughout the room, the minority of Manchester City fans pop out of their seats celebrating, as Burke and his cohorts go silent.
A few minutes after halftime, it’s the Chelsea fans that explode, after Brazilian midfielder Ramires rolls in a goal. It takes a few moments, but eventually the jubilation turns to aggrievement, as the Chelsea fans realize Ramires was ruled — controversially — offside. No goal.
Burke remembers a similar morning in August 2011. Chelsea were playing Norwich City one morning, and in walked Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea. Burke says the Russian oligarch and his bodyguard quietly sat down at a table below the bar’s stairs and ordered a “room-temperature glass of water.’’
“It was apparently move-in day and his son was going to Northeastern,’’ Burke says, “and he just wanted to watch the game.’’
The Boston Blues could barely contain themselves. Abramovich was gracious enough to take photos and sign autographs after the game, said Burke, who personally thanked the Russian billionaire for his commitment to the team.
“It’s not a for-profit club, it’s a for-trophies club,’’ Burke says of Chelsea.
The 2014-15 league champions, however, have seen better days.
In the 79th minute, City score again on corner-kick header. Burke is hearing about it from a fan in a longsleeve City jersey named before the cheers even die down.
“There’s some pretty good banter,’’ Burke told Boston.com. “We made a bet that for every goal we score, he’d buy me a beer and for every goal they score, I’d buy him one.’’
With an arm around his rival’s shoulder, Burke turns to the bartender.
“Get this man another Stella.’’
Burke is paying for it again after City’s third goal, just a few minutes before the final whistle. He takes the loss in good fun, even posing for a picture posted on the MCFC Boston Facebook page.
“It’s all really fun,’’ says Burke, noting that he had limited his own consumption. “It’s my few hours away from my wife and 3-year-old on the weekend, but of course I have to come home. And Waltham isn’t a short drive.’’
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Correction: a previous version of this story incorrectly spelled Ben Horner’s name. The typo has since been fixed.
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