seat. And the raccoon. The raccoon which has become so deeply ingrained in the club's lore that I almost don't believe it even existed. I really wouldn't believe it, had I not heard from so many players and coaches who locked eyes with it in the stadium's underbelly, or an employee at the team store who had to chuck an entire case of jerseys after he discovered that the club's unofficial mascot had been using them as a personal toilet. "Ronnie The Raccoon" plush toy (mlsstore.com). PHOTO BY: D.C. United – Pablo Maurer

I’ll always remember the night David Beckham made his MLS debut in 2007, coming off the bench for the LA Galaxy in front of a bumper crowd that lit up the muggy summer air with flashbulbsas he took the field, forever changing the course of the league’s history: In 2004, D.C. and the New England Revolution met in the Eastern Conference final, back then a one-off game, not a series, and produced what some consider the best game in MLS history: a 3-3 thriller that had to be decided by a penalty-kick shootout, ending with future US men's national teamers Clint Dempsey and Nick Rimando facing off. The game remains one of Ben Olsen's favorite RFK Stadium memories: Going back a decade further, RFK witnessed Saeed Al Owairan scoring one of the greatest goals in FIFA World Cup history as Saudi Arabia upset Belgium at USA 1994: Dwayne De Rosario produced another stunning solo performance in 2011, bagging a hat trick – his