I’ve written some pretty derogatory things about the direction Barca were going over the years. A lot of people thought that’s because I was a Liverpool fan. It wasn’t.
In fact, while we are on that subject it’s important people realise there is no rivalry between Barcelona and Liverpool. The people of Barcelona know this. They came to Anfield, they sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and they applauded albeit in shock when Liverpool overturned what seemed like an impossible deficit.
Proper old school Barcelona fans are a class act and no matter how much social media tries to create animosity, it’s not actually there and both teams and fans hold each other in high regard.
Historically even, there were men from Liverpool who chose to fight against Franco, something many Catalans have not forgotten.
I’ve been a Liverpool fan for three decades now. I love the club with all my heart, but in recent years I’ve fallen out of love with watching Liverpool.
This is mainly down to the Premier League and the “win at all costs” mentality and down to who I am as a football fan.
We all want our teams to win but the best explanation I can give of the type of fan I am is that I enjoyed football more when Liverpool were playing what Klopp referred to as “heavy metal” football and not winning the trophies we went on to.
“So you’re a loser” perhaps, but more so I’d want Liverpool to continue in this manner and win.
I’ve written about it before but when Klopp came to the Premier League he was a free spirit, his energy was boundless and his style of football clear.
Maybe Klopp needed to win at all costs for his legacy, maybe after the harsh defeats he’d suffered and he did that. I’m happy for him and Liverpool but I feel like the league moulded him into something he was not.
Klopp used to love being the underdog, he thrived off it and it’s why the best Liverpool performance and most like him in recent years was overcoming Barca at Anfield.
Part of the reason Liverpool fans go on about that so much is that to beat Barcelona is about as good as it gets. Every Origi gif is actually a huge compliment to the Blaugrana.
I’m loathed to talk about him, especially in a positive way (read my other posts and you’ll see why) but one thing Guardiola has over Klopp for me is that he refused to bend to the league, instead he made the league more like what he had known.
He made it common place in England that goalkeepers play like sweepers (he didn’t invent it as a lot of people have said but he did bring it to England)
Klopp getting the better of the likes of City and United doesn’t get the credit it deserves when you look at the wage budgets and net spend.
You’re here for Barca though, right? Well Barca are a shitshow thanks to Bartomeu. The reason I gave all that abuse Barca’s way? Him. I’d say I’ve been proven more than right.
He turned Barca into a poor man’s Real Madrid with high transfer prices and high wages paid to players who had undoubted quality but were square pegs to be fitted into round holes.
When you think back to Barcelona at their very best, they had indubitable style. Players from the academy who knew only one way, the Barca way.
How do Barca get out of this mess? Players like them. Busquets, Araujo, Pique, Pedri, Fati, Moriba and those to come like Gavi et al. No offence to Alba who is now Barca through and through and De Jong who is perfect for the club as they are the kind of supplementary signings that bring it all together.
This is where Barca will find themselves again.
A billion in debt with a manager I’m not sold on and a 34-year-old Lionel Messi.
Cruyff summed it up for me in regards to how I see football:
“Quality without results is pointless, but results without quality is boring.”
I think it will be a while before Barca are going to be winning in the manner they have in the past but if they commit to playing the Barca way, the Cruyff way, the Rinus Michels way, the Ajax way then Barcelona will not only be back on the top of the mountain, but they’ll be there playing the most beautiful brand of football there is.
In an era where football is more about winning than ever before and substance seems less and less important to people, Barcelona are the perfect club for me because they can only be Barcelona if they mix style and substance.
In 1999 the Wachoski Brothers created something special. The Matrix has been used over and over again to explain conspiracy theories, and if it ain’t broke then why fix it?
First off, the term conspiracy theory doesn’t exist because conspiracies aren’t a thing, it exists because they are.
“Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without.” – Merovignian
The outrage at those who have perpetrated and are involved with the European Super League (ESL) is warranted but a more important question to ask is, why did it take this long?
We didn’t see it when Manchester United floated on the stock market. We didn’t see it when former Liverpool CEO Rick Parry’s brain-child, the Premier League, was born and Sky Sports/ Rupert Murdoch got far too much of a controlling stake in the game.
Nor did we see it when Chelsea allowed an Oligarch to buy a club in the league, or when Taksin Shiniwatra bought Manchester City despite him being so corrupt that a coup d’etat by the Thai Royal family removed him from office.
If you were still deluded enough to have any belief in the so called “fit and proper” test, that was annihilated when Sheikh Mansour, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE (just one of his many titles) and member of the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi was the man allowed to take over from Shiniwatra. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire.
So that’s an extremely brief chain of the most important events.
“You think that’s air you’re breathing” – Morpheus
When the news broke about the European Super League, I was shocked, I was angry but I wasn’t surprised because this was the logical conclusion of the events mentioned above.
There’s a reason that half of the 12 are Premier League clubs, because we have the most cut-throat opportunists in the world and they’re here because of what the Premier League always wanted to be more than anything, flithy rich at any cost.
Of course the other callous money grabbers who have fleeced their fans and used their loyalty and passion as a weakness to exploit them wanted in the league that made this debauchary an art form.
So as the gasps went up around the football world, mine was less pronounced because I’d already started to question football’s matrix.
I’m of course not alone in that, but there’s not enough of us sadly.
Then came the moment for me to actually make a decision. I stopped watching the rest of the Premier League earlier this season but I made an allowance for Liverpool. I did this in spite of them getting into bed with AXA who financed the murder of Palestinians.
“Neo, sooner or later you’re going to realize, just as I did, there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” – Morpheus
I became part of the problem and used the same flawed rationale as those who I was rallying against. I have to own that. My logic to try and keep a tenous grip of the love I had for the sport that had given me so much was that Liverpool weren’t directly responsible. It was the same cognitive dissonance that those who got us here displayed and I became one of them.
“It is remarkable how similar the pattern of love is to the pattern of insanity.” – Merovingian
I’m almost glad Liverpool decided to do what they did for two reasons. From a personal point of view, there is no defence for it, I won’t even try and I don’t want to, and with that realisation came a freedom from what little of my hypocrisy was left.
From the point of view of football, this is a pivotal time where we can remember why we support football and what if anything we intend to do about it.
“What do all men with power want? More power.” – The Oracle
The problem is, this isn’t about the ESL. FIFA/UEFA wanted exactly the same thing as the ESL is promising, they are just more clandestine and subtle about how they will go about implementing it.
Also, there is the small matter of FIFA turning up, taking money from countries, paying no tax and changing their laws. In 2014 they decided that the laws that were previously in place were not to their liking. Brazil had banned alcohol sales in stadiums because of the link to the amount of deaths. FIFA decided that was a no-no and changed the laws of an entire country to suit them and their sponsor Budweister.
They also decided that the 2022 World Cup was to be held in Qatar. Given the feasibility of this, they may as well have decided to host it on the sun. They changed the season in which the World Cup takes place and gave Qatar a deadline. A deadline Qatar reached through slave labour and abysmal “working” conditions which contributed to the death of 6500 construction workers …. and counting.
Guess who owns “P”SG by the way, a club some people are incredibly lauding for deciding to not join the ESL? That would be Naseer Al-Khelaifa, Minister without Portfolio of the Qatari government.
He also is the CEO of beIN media. As Jim Morrison said, “Whoever controls the media, controls the masses”.
These are the most evil people on the planet and between them they run what we call our “beautiful game”.
They position themselves as the saviours of the game (just as Perez incredibly tried to) but they are the same organisation that in their new Champions League tournament want the richer clubs to have a access to 3 of the new 4 spots and they hide this behind “co-efficients”.
It’s just another more subtle attempt to ring fence and get the games they want, same as the way they seed teams to give the bigger clubs the best chance to get to the final.
Speaking of finals, they sell the majority of tickets to corporate sponsors while we, the life blood of our clubs are left to scramble for the crumbs from their table.
Uniquely as a Liverpool fan, I got to experience what fans of the “smaller clubs” have to go through to get to the Champions League proper even before the seedings lessen their chance of winning the competition. This happened as Liverpool won the European Cup in 2005 but did not qualify for it in 2006.
There is a debate to be had whether or not the rules should have been changed for Liverpool. I believe they should have an I can say that without any bias now as I don’t support Liverpool any more. I would have hated to see any club that won the competition not have had the chance to defend it. That’s the truth.
As Gianluca Vialli said “Is Champions League, without Champions, would just be League”.
I loved that quote at the time, I then saw what he said next which was absolute madness.
Vialli didn’t just want Liverpool to be in the competition, he thinks the winner of the competition should just go straight to the final every year. As crazy as he was to suggest this, don’t let the owners get wind of this ….
“The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease. A cancer of this planet.” – Agent Smith
The European Super League as bad as it is, that’s just the “sound of inevitability”, it’s a symptom but the disease is the greed that runs through football as a whole and just like any organisation – like say, oh I don’t know the mafia – if extreme wealth is obtainable then you’ll always find the same kind of people ready to exploit others to get their piece, if not the whole pie.
You want to know who is responsible for this and the owners are the most convenient scapegoat for all of us but it’s time you knew the truth:
“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.” – Morpheus
We are ALL to blame.
The owners prey on hope:
“Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness.” -The Architect
We hope we’re part of something bigger than ourselves by supporting our football clubs and when we get together as a collective to do something meaninful, we can be and that’s what they fear most.
“That’s how it is with people. Nobody cares how it works as long as it works.” – Councillor Hamann (no not that one)
Gary Neville was somehow a hero of the people and a potential saviour of the sport when he spoke out about how this is the “death of football”.
That’s the same Gary Neville that works for Sky Sports, the same Sky Sports that have so much influence they decide what time games are played and their TV contracts were instrumental in destroying football. The same Gary Neville I don’t remember speaking up about the human rights abusers who took over the league but who worked for a company and joined them in profiting when they did …
Up until now, it “worked” for him and he, like the majority of people associated with English football and the media that run it, were identifiable only through their silence.
I’m not saying he’s a bad person by any means and I will give him nothing but credit for opening up his hotel to NHS staff that needed it. I just don’t think he’s got much credit in the bank when it comes to standing up to football greed.
Same for Carragher, Lineker and the rest of them who now suddenly have a voice about what is “right” and “wrong” when it comes to football.
Of course they were all in such privelleged positions that had they spoken up earlier, they could have made a positive difference. What do they really want out of this? To go back to the way it was, that same unsustainable model that favours the big teams and TV contracts or to actually give football back to proper football fans?
“I’ll show these people what you don’t want them to see. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible.” – Neo
The good news is, there is a different way but we all have to want it and fight for it. A world where football belongs to the fans is possible. It’s up to men much smarter than me to figure it out but I might suggest that it is based around the 50+1 model in Germany only with no grandfather loophole, no special treatment and a structure where money is shared equally aside from prize money and if TV wants to cover it, they do so on our terms, not theirs.
“Ever have that feeling where you’re not sure if you’re awake or dreaming?”
Football is dead. It has been on life support for some time and last night 12 clubs – and there will be more who will tag on – just decided to pull the plug.
I’ll start with “English” Football, given that’s where I live.
In 1991 Manchester United floated on the stock market. It felt wrong. There are those that say Liverpool fans like myself were “jealous” and many of us no doubt were, but I was honestly not one.
I was envious of Manchester United in the 90’s. As a kid growing up, I hated them they were them and we were us. To my mind a polar opposite and a rivalry that could never be reproached.
As you grow older you realise we’re just the same set of wankers with different sponsors with questionable business practices on our shirts.
A lot of people in this country claim to love the game and its tradition but little by little we’ve allowed them to take it from us and why? Because they gave us shiny things while they did so.
Who are “they”? Anyone who was interested in just making money out of our passion.
Bill Hicks famously used to go on impassioned rants on how marketing was the death of anything good in this world.
He commented music companies would take people with no talent and target impressionable youth. You see while they didn’t have their own money, they had access to their parents money.
In the culmunation of his rant he purported an extremely graphic hypothesis that to get on in the music industry, all you had to do was to fellate Satan.
How right he was.
Given the choice to prevent a Premier League – an idea not of Rupert Murdoch’s making as some believe but of former Liverpool CEO, Rick Parry – we instead lined up in droves to clap at the new shiney shiney.
Year by year after that the game slipped away, whether we knew it or not. The money increased, the big names from abroad increased but the game was dissapearing over the horizon.
Enter Roman Abramovich.
Again, I was disgusted he was allowed to own a football team give his links to certain human rights abusers and how it was suggested he acquired his vast fortune.
I was also angry that a team could become a power over night. It’s at this point I admit freely that some of this anger was that it would diminsh our own chance of success. I’m not a hypocrite, or at least I try not to be.
I accepted Chelsea after a few years, mainly because of what was to come next. Deep down though, I knew this had opened the door for what could only be deemed as a hostile takeover of the game I loved.
These things don’t happen overnight. I honestly couldn’t believe what seemed to be genuine shock from some people in their reactions last night on social media.
The writing had been on the wall for years and while I was roundly ridiculed and told I was guilty of hyperbole – and no doubt will be again by the same kind of people whose apathy to tradition and sanctity allows this blindside to be facilitated – I knew deep down it was coming.
The last straw for me watching the league as whole came last season. Liverpool won the league and I felt empty. To some degree, it was down to not being able to be there or celebrate it as we would have wished but really though it was the realisation that even when we won, there would be little respite until the next onslaught.
Couple that with Liverpool choosing to partner with AXA a company you can read all about here:
and my love for “English” football was all but gone. I then fell victim to the same whataboutery that I hate. I made myself believe that because Liverpool were only sponsored by AXA, it wasn’t the same and therefore wasn’t as bad as being owned by the human rights abusers directly.
There is a truth to this and one I was desperate to cling on to. There is however also a truth that I let myself down by not walking away there and then. I was guilty of the same kind of cognitive dissonance that allowed human rights abusers to buy a huge stake in this game.
You see Abu Dhabi don’t just want to PR wash in England, they chose England for viewing figures – not as some will suggest that they were “fans” – do me a fucking favour with that one.
Most people know the major players but one man seems to slip through the net, that man is Ferran Soriano. Abu Dhabi’s name might be on the label but this is the fella that created the “secret sauce” City Football Group was his idea, he wanted to to take the idea of academies all over the world to the next level and have a “franchise” of clubs that all fed into one another and create a talent network that clubs didn’t work alongside the main hub but were owned by it.
Anyway fuck “City”, it was just important to acknowledge how out of hand this is and how when Abu Dhabi heard this proposal they jumped at the chance to fund it as their plan is, was and has always been to not partake in a sport, but to dominate it.
The whole idea of sport is that it only matters if it is competitive on at least a somewhat level playing field, the big clubs now actively look for ways to make that not the case and the ultimate result is the death knell we have now seen for the sport.
To wrap things up in England, you only have to look at two groups, the fans and the owners. We the fans (myself included) patted ourselves on the back for the minor victory that was getting clubs to not raise their price any further from their already extortionate amounts.
We applauded ourselves as we got an extra crumb, meanwhile in Germany they just tell the league they’ll take the whole loaf and that’s why football still matters in Germany despite idiots over here referring to it as a “farmer’s league”.
The second obvious player here are the “owners” I mean the fact we freely refer to them as owners and yet some didn’t see this coming is the kind of cloud of misplaced whimsy that we live in when we talk about “our game”.
We’ve been over “City’s” owners who the fans would happily allow to sacrifice puppies at half time as long as they keep pumping their ill gotten gains into the club and Manchester itself.
Liverpool, a club owned by a consortium that features owners who backed both Biden and Trump in the last election – so seemed to care about their own country’s plight but then got into bed with AXA showing they definitely don’t give a shit about Palestinians.
And the Glazers who give a fuck about no one and nothing as long as they can keep syphoning funds from one of the most marketable brands in the world.
This is football?
I decided I was done with English football and went to La Liga. I enjoyed it infinitely more but again it was not to last.
I chose Barca for their history and tradition and overnight the owners pissed all over it and set it on fire.
I thought that the idea of “socios” would be a safety net and that it couldn’t happen at such a club as the fans “owned” the club. That naive notion has been well and truly been disuaded.
Surely the Bundesliga though, surely they will be safe, right? Surely their big clubs wouldn’t take on the most fan savvy of all the leagues in my opinion?
If rumours are to be believe, wrong again. There is no hiding place from this kind of greed, it’s all consuming.
Where does football go from here? If the country that are given the majority of credit for inventing the sport can’t stop this, another country that prioritised “fan ownership” can’t stop it and the most fervent of all football fans when it comes to the idea that football is nothing without them can’t prevent it, where is our out?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely and the big clubs are desperate for said absolute power and they are all but there now in the shadow of big daddy JP Morgan.
I’m reminded of the end of Barney’s black and white film entry in The Simpsons.
Don’t cry for football, it’s already dead.
He killed himself with alcohol, we killed football with our apathy.
The way Barcelona approach football is everything to me that football should be. From the youth players in La Masia being taught how to play football the Barca way, to the world class players who arrive at the Camp Nou and are forced to adapt or never reach the greatness at the club they perhaps promised.
Throughout my life, I’ve come to realise and live by a certain mantra. It covers football, politics and every day life. That saying is “the destination only matters if you went on the right journey”.
Basically another way of saying that the ends do not justify the means.
It’s at this point that we bring in a man with whom I have a love/hate relationship, Josep Guardiola.
Guardiola is responsible for the greatest footballing performance at a club I have ever seen, the 2010/11 European Cup Final.
This is no disrespect to Manchester United, they just happened to be the lamb led to the slaughter, I’m not sure any team would have coped that night.
Barcelona did something I thought I would never see, they took a team who were as dominant as there has ever been in the country of football that I grew up in and made them look average at best. They turned a European Cup into pracitcally a training ground exercise, it was breathtaking.
Guardiola was obviously the mastermind of this but it started back in Ajax in the 70’s but not with the man you might be thinking of.
Rinus Michels revolutionised football. He is the greatest manager the game has ever seen in my opinion and not nearly enough is done to preserve his incredible legacy.
The man created total football. Everything Cruyff, Sacchi, Bielsa, Guardiola and all these visionaries are doing, it all began with him. He looked at the game like no one else ever had.
The main difference to how Michels changed the game was the idea of not seeing football as a man to man game, but as a game where space, and how you would manipulate and exploit that space, was key.
No one in modern football uses space better than Guardiola, no one. It’s the main reason he is the manager he is. The term “half-space” is common place now and he’s the reason why.
Basically the conceptulization of football began with Rinus Michels. Cruyff played under Michels and learned and then built on Michels’ teachings and he took it Barcelona in 1988 and from that point on, Barcelona was never the same team again.
Barcelona with the most important and influential coach in their history created a philosophy of how football should be played.
Cruyff is the reason players like Messi, Iniesta and Xavi were even considered for Barcelona. He stated from day one that size and strength didn’t matter, ability did.
The great man made it clear that winning and losing were imposters and that playing what he considered the right way was the only way. He also believed that if you played the right way, you’d be rewarded not just in wins and trophies but in the pure aspect of the act of playing beautiful football.
Guardiola is a disciple of Cruyff who was a disciple of Michels and you could go further back and say that Michels was a disciple of Jack Reynolds at least to some degree.
What we saw in 2011 from Barca was not only a culmination of Guardiola’s work, but it was the apex at the time (and I don’t think it has been bettered since) of a philosophy that was decades in the making.
Unfortunately Barca in recent years have lost their way. I as a non-fan of the club at the time commented on this and stated that they were no longer “mes que un club” and that they were now “a poor man’s Real Madrid”.
When Laporta left Sandro Rossell came in and then the nadir was reached with Bartomeu. This I believe was when Barcelona became “a poor man’s Real Madrid”. Youth took a back seat and it wasn’t about developing players, it was about buying them.
I’m not going to lie, I thought Coutinho could be built for Barcelona, although I said he would have to adapt his game because despite his ability he was quite a selfish player if you actually watched him.
I think Turan did better than people think he did but he wasn’t coming into what I considered a Barca team and became somewhat of a scapegoat.
Dembele? Immensely talented but reminded me of when Barca tried to shoehorn in the likes of Simao and Quaresma. This was going backwards, not forwards. Same deal for Malcolm.
Griezmann? Built for Atleti, not Barca. Unsurpisingly it caused a tactical problem. Again Griezmann is a fine player, but it takes more to play for Barca.
It was clear to see there was no longer a was to play at Barca, a philiosophy that was rigidily stuck to at all costs, but instead something more akin to Real Madrid’s Galactico policy of the idea to get quality players and make them fit.
People remember the peak of the Galacticos when they were a joy to watch, they don’t however seem to realise that when they first came together they were not a “plug and play” solution. This proves that while Real Madrid’s way is different and is no doubt aided by the resources and ability to attract players, it takes more than just throwing money at it.
Which brings us back to the love/hate relationship I have with Guardiola. He took the purest teachings of one of the greatest men in football and has exploited them for his own gain.
Cruyff believed in the purest aspects of the beautiful game and on the pitch, so does Guardiola but off it he will do absolutely whatever it takes to prove he’s the best. His insatiable thirst has sadly led to him taking the most beautiful brand of football to a league that will appreciate it least and have allowed it to be used as a PR exercise for human rights abusers.
The heir to the throne of the greatest legacy the sport has known in my opinion, is using his powers for evil. It breaks my heart.
Guardiola himself said that legacy is what matters most, will they still talk about you in 25, 50 years? Well yes, we will. We’ll talk about a world class manager who revolutionised the game in England along with the likes of Jurgen Klopp and of course Arsene Wenger, but we’ll also talk about the fact that he betrayed the greatest gift that he was given.
And that brings us full circle because you see while Guardiola took Barca to their absolute peak, once a hero to people like me he’s now a villain. Now I doubt too many Barca fans would agree, but that’s okay we all view things differently, I’ve done no more here than state my case.
For me though, Guardiola is allowing himself and the teachings of Michels and Cruyff to be manipulated for his own personal gain and his own personal mission to win at all costs.
Winning at all costs is NOT and should never be the Barca way. If Laporta can remind Barcelona of that, bring in a manager who understands and can implement this(or maybe he has one?), if he helps make shrewd signings that fit a pattern that was created and improved decade after decade, Barcelona will once again rise to the level of where Guardiola put them.
I believe in no pasaran! I stand with Barcelona’s right to be free and independent, though I would prefer for all involved that they chose the kind of autonomy that the Basque region enjoys.
There is no doubt that when Barca were most mes que un club is when they provided shelter for Catalans to be Catalan under Franco’s regime of terror. That’s the most important aspect of mes que un club and should never be forgotten. It should also be pointed out that from what I’ve read Franco used Real Madrid more than as is sometimes suggested that Real and Franco had some kind of symbiotic relationship.
What happens off the field is important to me and unlike Guardiola, my morals don’t change to fit the situation. Freedom and the right to govern ones self is something I will always believe in.
All these reasons are why I chose Barcelona. As the game falls further and further from the game I knew and loved, I need something pure on the pitch and to some degree at least off it.
I’ll always be a Liverpool fan. I was born here, I grew up here and I have too many memories and friends and too much of a bond with the club not to be (unless we go the way of PSG or City) but English football no longer excites me, I feel like a stranger to it.
In La Liga and Bundesliga more so, I still feel that the game belongs to the fans.
I was called a glory hunter, people will think that and I accept that. The more I think about it, the more I realise these people are right.
You see there’s an inherent glory playing football in the right way, not just to win regardless and that’s the glory I seek no matter which club or which country I have to find it in.
Update: I’m going to be studying in Barcelona and chances are I’ll be working and living there, so there is even more personal now.
When I was being taught how to improve my writing, I was often told I “bury the lead”. I understand why and that there is an accepted format of how to write, but I just don’t agree with it.
We are all different people and we see many issues and stories from a different perspective, one man’s lead is another man’s close.
For example: As I’ve explained before, for me to follow a team is not just to follow the results on the pitch. If I follow a team, I want to know about the whole culture of that club. From the social reactions to issues I deem important, to the part of the club that others don’t see unless you look deeper.
I lucked out. When two years ago I spoke with the 31Crew on my podcast – a Columbus Crew supporters club based in Chicago – I knew soon after the show that I’d found something I didn’t even set out to seek.
You see, I had no idea I’d find a team that fit who I am as a person as well as the Columbus Crew. I continued the podcast for a few more episodes and I’m glad I did, especially as it led me to MLS fans from around the league who I now consider friends. You know who you are.
Strangely enough, my first game for the Crew was against DC United back in 2018. March 24th 2018 precise. The Crew ran out 3-1 winners at Mapfre.
I was warned time and again not to Support the Crew. I even – during a Twitter post – said that I would have to support Toronto if I ever lived there, this wasn’t any knock on Columbus, it’s the belief I have that it is important to support your “local team”.
I mean, that’s the reason I started supporting the Crew in the first place, because so many supported their local team with a passion and defiance I’ve only witnessed once before in my life time.
The idea of supporing a team other than the Crew lasted a few hours before I metaphorically slapped myself in the face and realised I could never.
You see I suffer from anxiety and with anxiety comes something that can be a gift but is more often than not a curse. I overthink everything.
At times I literally can’t stop my own thoughts and I second guess myself constantly. This is another reason I know I love this team. For me “I can’t help falling in love with you” is about as literal as it gets.
On my previous post I spoke of how I decided to follow all things LA because of the Dodgers. That didn’t last either. I can’t follow LAFC because the reason I love the Dodgers is how they bring LA together. LAFC don’t do that.
It’s not their fault, just their existence causes division. I wish them well, I wish the Galaxy well. I wish LA well.
By contrast, I can’t support the Lakers as they are basically too good. My want to support them diminished with every great move they made that basically now has it in betting terms as “Lakers v Field” and I’d be tempted to take the Lakers.
I don’t want that. The reason is exactly the same reason I’ve always burried the lead in my writing when writing for myself. The destination isn’t the lead, the journey is.
John Lennon was once asked at school what he wanted to be when he grew up, he replied: “happy”. They told him he didn’t understand the question, he replied: “you don’t understand life”.
Yes I’ll remember last night for the rest of my life, but without what came before, without the late night games that started at 1am. Without the painful defeats, without them trying to take our team away, without me speaking to at this point literally hundreds of Columbus Crew fans and without having met my dear departed frend Crazy Dave, yesterday is just another game.
Because of everything above and due to the natural culmination of this era of the history of the Columbus Crew and because I couldn’t help falling in love with a team that were founded as member 01 in 1996, there are now 6 words that will forever evoke a burning passion filled with memories that will last a life time:
If you haven’t already heard of it, there is a term well known to bookmakers which is “implied probability”.
In America the odds of Columbus Crew winning the MLS Cup before a ball was kicked was +4000 which equates to 40/1 in our money.
This is to say in America if you placed $100 on the Crew, you would get $4000 back and in England if you placed £10 (as I did) you would get £400 back plus your stake, so £410.
Before this is able to happen, someone within the company attaches the value of implied probability. The implied probability is far too complex to state how it is worked out and is not an exact science, however, it is worth noting that the implied probability of Columbus Crew winning the MLS Cup was 2.4%
For the Crew to even be in the final is an amazing achievement and when you couple this with where we were two years ago fighting for the right to save the Crew, it’s’ all but miraculous.
What the Haslems, Dr Pete Edwards and all those involved in the Save The Crew movement have done is above and beyond what we could have expected or dreamed of, let’s get that clear right away.
We not only saved our precious black and gold, we gave it the promising future it never had but always deserved. American’s founding member, number 01, home to the most important stadium in American soccer not just MLS.
This morning I woke up early, 5am. I don’t usually wake up at this time, perhaps I sensed a disturbance in the force?
As always, I took to my regular websites to get the news of the day, which now includes the Columbus Dispatch.
There it was, Darlington Nagbe and Pedro Santos out for the MLS Cup final. Ouch. I was gutted. I couldn’t help but think how 2020 continues to just take, take, take.
The most important implication here of course is that Nagbe and Santos are okay and recover from their illness and to that end I send nothing but my heartfelt best wishes to them.
As Queen said though, the show must go on. So how does it go on? Well in terms of MLS, the way it has all season. I’m not a virologist or qualified in any way, other than in basic infection control as a former Health Care Assistant, to speak about how that should happen. I will leave that to those far more qualified.
I’m also even less qualified to talk about soccer ironically but as my opinions don’t affect people’s health, livelihood and general well being, I will continue.
What silver lining can I possibly find from Columbus Crew losing in my opinion their best player (Darlington Nagbe) and one of their most potent attacking threats (Pedro Santos)?
It’s tough. If Porter is the coach I think he is, he’s planned for this kind of setback but that still doesn’t take away from the specific work he will have done in the lead up to the game.
Let’s be realistic and look at the negative first. Seattle are a team that like to press high up the pitch, the attempt to control the game in your half and having arguably the best player at beating this type of press out of the starting 11 does not bode well.
That’s the worst of it in my opinion.
The potentially good news is that every player in black and gold should understand their importance even more than they did. They should know that they will have to be more mentally aware and give more of themselves physically and their importance is even greater without two of our most influential players on the pitch.
Don’t undersestimate what this can do for a player in terms of mental strength and how that can translate to a solid defensive performance.
Another reason this doesn’t bother me quite so much as it may have is, it doesn’t change our approach to the game. Against teams like this, our best bet is to be solid with men behind the ball and counter attack. It fits our personnel.
We have strong, intelligent defenders who are positionally sound and rarely make big mistakes. As a team as a whole we are defensively aware and work as hard as anyone in the league.
From an attacking point of view, we are built for the counter attack, especially with players like Etienne Jr who I believe could be the difference maker if this plays out in our favour.
Even in games where we’ve played poorly this season, we’ve found a way to win and recently especially his pace, willingness to run at people and crossing ability has been invaluable.
Seattle will go into this game as favourites and rightly so with this latest development. Also, they have been here and done it multiple times in recent years and are the champions for a reason.
Their opposition though, the team that will walk out at Mapfre, the fans in the stands, tell them something can’t be done. Tell them they have a 2% chance, hell tell them they have less than that and all you will do is strengthen their resolve.
I’ve been lucky enough to support Columbus Crew for two years now, this is my third season to have that privelege. The biggest things I’ve learned in that time are, everyone is welcome at Columbus Crew and “impossible” is not a word in their vocabulary.
Tell us something is impossible and we will tell you, not for our Crew.
“The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. That’s how I see football, that’s how I see life.” – Bill Shankly
To answer the question posed in the title, yes. Or at least we could well be if we don’t right this wrong extremely quickly!
If you look up the word “fan”, you will see it is derived from the word “fanatic”. This is pretty well known but the importance of this I think is understated.
A fanatic is someone that is single-minded, an extremist and is often associated with political or religious causes.
I’m not a fan. I know this because there is no team in any sport that would make me sell out the game to achieve success at all costs.
When Liverpool and Manchester United were found to be in cahoots (not just them either), I looked at the proposal they put forward. A lot of it was good and would have helped those in “lower leagues”.
It all seemed pretty straight-foward and even dare I say generous to some degree and then I came to the point where it all made sense.
Nine teams would have the final say on all voting for changes that would happen in the Premier League. Basically this was a cash for power deal.
It got worse. I then read about how the same antagonists had been working with clubs around Europe to create a European Super League.
It didn’t take long to realise they wanted their cake and to eat it, so to speak. Not only do they want the power to change the Premier League to make it easier for themselves but now they want to finally kill off the chance of other European teams entering the Champions League.
It is already ridiculously hard for clubs outside of the top 5 leagues in Europe to be succesful in the Champions League. By the time some of them have made it to the group stages, they’ve already played in 3 qualifying rounds.
Liverpool notably had to do this in 2005/06 to allow them to defend the European Cup they had won the previous season.
While I believe it was right for them to be allowed to defend their title and I’m glad the rule changed, I can definitely see how other teams were not so pleased about how that decision was made “on the fly”.
I also question would this have been the case were it not a team with the fanbase and global stature that Liverpool has.
I’ve been falling out of love with Premier League football, to the point where it is no long the league I consider mine. La Liga is my league of choice now.
The reason for this is I am fed up of how Premier League fans are treated, be it by the Government, the broadcasters or their own clubs.
The latest addition to this litany of greed is the idea that we should pay £15 to watch a game of football in our own homes.
Some idiots actually paid this. The mind boggles. It’s important to point out that fans of many clubs did not and instead gave that money to charity.
If you tried to introduce £15 games at home in Spain or especially Germany, they’d cry laughing at you and then if you still persisted they would shut the league down.
Don’t believe me? Check out what German fans did when the Bundesliga tried to have matches on a Monday.
Sadly it’s just another example of the bootlicking culture that has become so prevelant in a Great Britain that was never really that great to begin with and is now a quivering melt’s dream.
So I stopped watching the Premier League but I continued to watch Liverpool because my team hadn’t done anything wrong.
Our owners hadn’t been responsible for human rights abuses.
Our owners had listened when they tried to up prices and we stood firm. A small victory given how far out of hand the situation already is but a victory none the less.
Now though? It is our owners that are looking to close off competition, create a monopoly and take from the game we claim to love.
I was heartened to see that many Liverpool fans responded as I did. Many others though didn’t care. You see those people are fans/fanatics.
They don’t care about what is best for the sport at all levels.
The idea about the unbearables tag was to get back at all those who had given us nothing but abuse for 30 years and turn it on its head and own it.
It wasn’t to actually become so unbearable that we turned into those people, obsessed only with hate and abuse for our rivals to the point where we’d sell the soul of the game just so we could stay on top and prosper at the expense of competition.
“We are Liverpool” we sing proudly. If we want to continue to sing that proudly then we better start fucking acting like we are indeed Liverpool.
I was watching the build-up to the derby the other day and they showed Bill, Bob and Jurgen. Three socialists, three men who have at one time or another understood and embodied the heart and soul of this football club.
They are Liverpool in terms of the club and we are Liverpool in terms of the club and in many cases its people as well.
Liverpool might be one of the biggest clubs in the world now, but we got here after relegation, after playing in the second division and before that even more humble beginnings.
Imagine now if that path was never open to us. Imagine we rose to the top of English football only to be told that the European places were decided and our name wasn’t on that list.
That is what we are threatening to do to other clubs and personally, I’d rather walk away from the game than ever end up with that being the case.
You know why? Because this actually does mean more!
With that awful but irresistible pun out of the way, we begin our journey into Turkish football which starts and all but ends in Istanbul.
The “big 3” of Istanbul
No offence to any of the other sides, but finding out much or anything about the majority of you is an exercise in futility with few exceptions.
When you have three teams in one city that have won no less than 56 of the 62 titles available since 1957, they have earned the right to be called “the big 3”.
The outliers? Trabzonspor, a team from Trabzon who have won 6 Super Lig titles and Bursaspor who won their solitary title in 2010.
The only teams to have won the league outside of Istanbul
As if to laden the point further as to how dominant the “big 3 plus Trabzonspor” have been, only four other teams in the whole of Turkey have ever finished as runners up. That’s 4 teams out of a possible 68 making it to second.
BESIKTAS
Located on the European side of the Bosphorus are the “working man’s club”, Besiktas.
Besiktas or Besiktas J.K (Jimnastik Kulubu) started as you may have guessed as a sports club and as it shows on their badge, they were founded in 1903 as a multi sport organisation but only became a football club in 1909.
Besiktas celebrate their 14th title – the season after they would make it 15
The Black Eagles have won 15 league titles, 9 Turkish cups and once made it to the quarter finals of the European Cup in 1987 and twice made it to the same stage in the UEFA Cup/Europa League in 2003 and 2017 respectively.
Besiktas circa 1957 – the first recognised champions of the nation of Turkey and winners of 3 of the first four in 1957, 1958 and 1960
Super Lig (previously Mili Lig) is the first professional nationwide league established in Turkey and was officially recognised in 1959. Despite this, Besikas requested that their 2 league titles in the previous seasons of 1956-57 and 1957-1958 be counted towards their nationwide trophy haul. As Besiktas represented Turkey in those seasons in Europe and only a “national champion” was afforded that honour, this request was granted.
GALATASARAY
Also located on the European side of Istanbul, are the current champions of Super Lig, Galatasaray. The biggest club in Turkey, it is estimated that 1 in every 3 Turkish fans is a Galatasaray fan.
Galatasaray (seen as the “academics club” historically at least) are so named after “Galatasaray High School”.
The team formed in 1905 and was made up entirely of students. You may have heard of their old stadium, the Ali Sami Yen – or “Hell” as it was also affectionately known due to its intimidating atmosphere – which was named after the first president of the club.
Ali Sami Yen stadium – without doubt one of the most intimidating sights and atmospheres in European football
Galatasaray are not only the biggest club in Turkey, they are also the most successful with 22 league titles to date.
20 years ago Galatasaray won the UEFA Cup after beating Arsenal on penalties 4-1
They also have a record 18 Turkish Cups and are the only team in Turkey to win a trophy in European competition, the UEFA Cup in 2000.
FENERBAHCE
Which brings us to the final side in the Istanbul “Big 3”, the only side of these located on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, Fenerbahce.
Fenerbahce is a name taken from a neighbourhood of Istanbul meaning “lighthouse garden” which I’m sure you’ll agree is quite nice and a million miles away from the animosity that roots itself in their rivalry with their greatest foes, Galatasaray.
The picture-esque area of the eastern entrance to the Bosphorus that features the lighthouse that lends its name to Fenerbahce
Fenerbahce were founded in 1907 in secret to avoid persecution from the Ottoman authorities and their strict rules. It was not until 1908 when they registered afte a law was passed forcing all clubs to do so.
Fenerbahce are known as “the rich club” despite their formation being shrouded in financial problems. They are not shy of spending money, but I don’t see a huge difference between them and Galatasaray in terms of income or expenditure over sustained periods to be honest.
Fenerbahce won the inaugural league back in 1959
Fenerbache have won 19 league titles, 6 Turkish cups and made it to the quarter final of the European Cup in 2007/2008 where they were knocked out by Chelsea ins the semi final of the Europa League, where they were beaten by Benfica.
So there you have it. The three biggest clubs in Turkey are all in Istanbul. Galatasaray hate Fenerbahce, Fenerbahce likewise hate Galatasaray and Besiktas hate Fenerbahce.
Stadium, Kits, Fans, City.
It’s at this time that I have to use my tried and trusted formula:
So, let’s get to it.
STADIUMS
The stadiums in Turkey are a thing of beauty. In my time of searching for teams outside of the top four league in Europe (England, Spain, Germany, Italy), I think they are my favourite.
A bit different given the dominance of Istanbul, I will include all three of their teams and then I will suggest others if they really stand out. As always, thank you to TFC on YouTube.
All beautiful stadiums in their own way but the Istanbul contest? I’m giving it to Besiktas.
While I’m not a fan of the sponsorship on the outside, the shape of the stadium just lends itself to what I believe would be an amazing place to watch a game of football. Of course, this is purely based on aesthetics and there is the surrounding area.
Despite being officially called Medical Park Stadium, the stadium is also known as the Senol Gunes complex. While being sponsored in name, they have resisted the urge to plaster it all over the building like in Besiktas and that coupled with its austentacious design, location and overall “feel” of the stadium makes it my winner.
KITS
Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and yes that is Loris Karius modelling the Besiktas 19/20 kits
In the battle of Istanbul, I have to give it to Fenerbahce’s brave new home top.
Why brave? Fenerbahce are synonymous with their classic yellow and blue stripe design and this was a modern take which some loved an some hated.
Galatasaray’s strong home effort is enough to grab them second while once again it’s bad news for Loris.
Nothing personal, I like a lot of the old Besiktas kits but this lineup doesn’t do it for me so it takes the bronze
Can anyone beat Istanbul, particularly Fenerbahce for kits?
Sivasspor away and then Nike showing off with their Antalyaspor range
That’s a resounding yes from me.
The away kit for Sivasspor definitely deserves its props but our winner is a team that has done something I’ve never experienced in that they’ve made four kits in the same season which I absolutely love!
Antalyaspor with the most dominant victory in the kit stakes I’ve ever seen. If that’s all that matters to you, this surely has to be your team?
Fans
They’re all mental. I’m not touching this one other than to post these videos and let you decide:
This one isn’t too hard is it? There’s nothing that Istanbul does not have. It’s one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to and I am gutted I only got to spend a day there but travelling over to it on the Bosphorus is something I will never forget. I mean would you forget that view?
Trabzon is a lesser known beauty in the North East of Turkey
Outside of Istanbul? There is Trabzon which is insanely beautiful in a more natural way. It looks more like something you’d find in the Swiss Alps, but I assure you it is very much found in the North East of Turkey.
There is no winner or loser in this battle. These two places are far too awe inspiring to pit against each other. I’m just going to admire them both.
Erdogan and the new team in Istanbul
I didn’t want to, but you simply can not talk about Turkish football without mentioning him and Istanbul Baseksehir.
Because I personally don’t want to, I will simply enclose this excellent YouTube video for you to watch, if you wish.
I will definitely be taking more of an interest in Turkish football from now on. While the passion can overspill, it is passion which I miss most about our game.
Football without fans may not be “nothing” but it’s pretty close.
In terms of overall, I get a feeling for two clubs, namely Besiktas and Trabzonspor.
Trabzonspor is beautiful, it has a resurgent football team that are finally being ran properly and is supplementing “big name” signings like Daniel Sturridge and Jose Sosa with home grown talent like Ugurcan Cakir and Abdulkadir Omur, both of whom have been linked with a host of European admirers and rightly so from what I’ve seen.
I would love to support them – especially as relative underdogs, but in the end I am choosing not to and the reason is politics. I’m not saying I’m heavily into Turkish politics but I know a little about world politics and any region that votes overwhelmingly in favour of Erdogan’s party? That’s just too much for me to overcome.
Let me make sure I’m being understood here. I don’t blame the people of Trabzon, I couldn’t possibly begin to know or scratch the surface on who they are or why they vote as they do, I am just saying that I feel that another club is more inline with my own political beliefs.
So for the reason that Besiktas fans are known for their conscience, their dissension, their atmosphere, their wit and humour. For their history, the club and the many examples of what I liked about them as stated above, I will henceforth be a fan of Besiktas.
I don’t even have to say “if they will accept me”, they are one of the most welcoming clubs, if not the most welcoming in Turkey for people like me.
It is important to note that Istanbul is in the majority against Erdogan and this obviously includes fans from all of the clubs in the city, just none more so than Besiktas.
I can’t wait to get back to Istanbul in the future, once again my trip will be primarily based around football but this time, it will be to hopefully see a game in the home of the Black Eagles.
Yakında görüşürüz İstanbul ve özellikle BeşiktaşTeşekkür ederim ve güvende ol.
Given Japan is known for it’s adherence to set rules and servitude, you would be forgiven for thinking that it isn’t the best place to look for football passion. In its own way though, Japan has adopted the beautiful game and made it their own.
If you followed my previous piece on how I find my teams you will know I have a formula which allows me to narrow it down. By chance, this is also quite a nice way to give you a simple overview of the league.
Stadium, Kits, Fans, City.
It has served me well thus far, so I shall stick with it but like with my Korean team, I didn’t end up where I would have expected and it again came down to the last two of these critera.
To be honest “Stadium” thins the herd, kit is a nice little addition but once you’ve seen you like the stadium the important part can begin with “Fans” and “City”.
If you are supporting a club and you don’t know anything about the fans or the city, you’re not really supporting the club.
In terms of stadiums, none really massively stood out other than for the views (i.e. backdrops) they provided. I was surprised at that but basically I just allowed for stadia without a running track and as in previous examples this narrowed it down.
Japan has the curious distinction of the stadiums that appeal to me most being spread throughout their lower leagues,other than one outlier and the clear winner for J1 at least, even before we take into account its insane light shows.
Panasonic Stadium Suita (39,694)
The Panasonic Stadium, home of Gamba Osaka, is my kind of stadium. A “less is more design”, clean lines and a great view of the match. I really don’t ask for much from my stadiums. It shocked me though how much more unique the stadiums were in Korea.
It’s of no real consequence to my decision, but it’s still pretty cool.
In terms of J2? Well here’s where I prove my point. I find it much harder to split the following stadiums :
From left to right: Fukuda Denshi Area (JEF United), Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadium (Kashiwa Reysol), Level5 Stadium (Avispa Fukukoa)
And again curiously J3 also has more to offer in the stadium stakes than J1 and competes quite well with J2 based on the scenery alone.
Some J3 stadia even hold their own in terms of design and attendance
Truth be told, Iwagin stadium has no place on this list other than the view. As a J3 stadium it of course is one of the best in my eyes but a capacity of less than 5,000 just doesn’t get it done.
There is one stadium that has it all, though you may not be able to see that from the pictures abovem. Minami Nagano Sports Park Stadium, home of AC Nagano Parceiro. For a J3 team, this stadium is ridiculous.
Also, all the stadium pictures were courtesy of TFC, which can also be found on YouTube.
The backdrop to our winning stadium. The only stadium in J League to have it all
Next up, kits. I know a lot of people love this part and boy does J League deliver! Unfortunately I’ve been unable to find J2 and J3 kits easily so I’ll narrow it down to merely J1.
From left to right: Consadole Sapporo (A), Gamba Osaka (A) Vissel Kobe (H), FC Yokohama (H), Yokohama F. Marinos (H), (A)
First thing you notice is that Yokohama are well represented on this list. Be it the J League Champions and City Football Group plaything Yokohama F. Marinos – who if it went on body of work would win this – or the team that formed as a protest group against them FC Yokohama after the disbanding of the wonderfully named Yokohama Flugels.
In third place – YFM away kit. It’s just clean, I like that.
In second place – Gamba Osaka away. Really like this kit. It’s unique in its style which appeals to me. A play on the “sash” that I’ve not seen before earns it a worthy second place.
My winner though – Consadole Sapporo. They have missed out on the Levain Cup (Japan’s answer to the League Cup) but a slight – alright extremely scant – consolation for them is they have won my kit competition.
The contrast of the gold and dark blue, the sponsor, the badge and the real clincher, the island of Hokkaido where the team are from on the back. If it wasn’t already winning, that personal touch set it apart. Well played Kappa, she’s a beauty.
Now comes the tricky part. Fans.
I’d like to start if I may by dissauding the original notion that Japanese football teams don’t act out. Some of them do. The most notable of whom are Urawa Reds and Gamba Osaka.
Urawa Reds are the most hated team in Japan, apparently. They are considered the “Manchester United” of Japan. Many people say the reason United are “hated” is because of their success but if that were the case here then Kashima Antlers are the most successful side, so why not them
What is it that makes Urawa so hated? Perhaps it is their partizanship. I have no issue at all with this or the fact they don’t care if other teams like them.
What I do have an issue with is their xenophobic bordering on – if not already – racist message that was displayed in their stands back in March 2014. “Japanese Only” it read in English.
The Japanese FA were quick and decisive in their reposnse. Urawa were made to play a game without any fans in attendance. It isn’t fair to accuse a whole team or area of racism, that’s certainly not what I’m doing.
When asked the fans said it was to discourage non Japanese fans from sitting in their section and ruining their chants. I’ve certainly seen this sentiment throughout English football, so judge not lest ye be judged.
Urawa Reds as an organisation however can be judged because they apparently didn’t see this as an issue at first and allowed the banner to hang. It was only after it was flagged up and the people of Japan in particular made it an issue that Urawa responded.
So to Gamba Osaka. A small group of fans waived a flag with a Nazi like “SS” logo. Gamba’s staff immediately took action and had the flag taken down, thankfully.
The J League rightly fined Gamba for for not preventing this from happening but Gamba were more pro active in their approach. Gamba banned all those associated with the flag from attending any games and banned the use of flags or banners within the stadium, a ban which at the time was indefinite. Banners and flags allowed again and are more strictly controlled.
Like them or not though, it’s hard to argue that there are any more passionate fan bases in Japan than Gamba and Urawa, which is probably part of the reason they have the rivalry they do.
Gamba Osaka fans v Urawa Reds fans
I’ll let you decide for yourself which one you prefer but it’s a two horse race for me. Much like Liverpool and Manchester United being the biggest game in England, so it is that Urawa Reds v Gamba Osaka rivalry is the biggest game in Japan. So much so, this game is referred to as “the National derby”.
Is it a derby? Well no, not really, neither are. While you could say that Liverpool v United is at least a North West derby, Urawa in the east is approximately 400 miles away from Osaka in the west.
Both “derbies” are built on the old adage of familiarity breeding contempt of course but from what I can guage, while Liverpool and United’s is about being the two most successful teams in their country, Osaka and Urawa’s is simply about having two passionate sets of supporters who don’t like each other.
Again, the brilliant “Lost in Japan” sums it up much better than I ever could:
Other teams are available of course but a lot of Japanese support is too tepid or “support by numbers” for me from what I’ve seen. That is certainly not the case with either of these.
So now we come to our winner, which one did I choose and why?
Adding up the scores, you would think Gamba Osaka. They had my favourite J1 stadium, my second favourite kit, and were top 2 in the passion of their fans. We’ve seen before with my Korean choice that is it not always that straight forward.
Well this time, it actually is. There were a few concerns. The SS sign was a big red flag – or in this case Nazi flag – but it was an isolated incident from idiots that were removed and banned for life. I can’t hold that against the club. In fact I admire the way they dealt with the issue and there have been no such incidents since.
I was also a bit worried about the “Italian” influence. I don’t like it when teams try too hard to be something they are not and I certainly don’t like it when they are trying to be Italian hooligans, or any hooligans for that matter.
Luckily having read the excellent Ben Mabley’s piece on this https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/gaijin-gamba a lot of my concerns were allayed and he also goes into a far more nuanced reason of why this frustration for some with Japanese culture, manifests in the way it does with Gamba in particular.
Ben’s article told me all I needed to know about the Gamba fans, and how basically they – just like us – were looking for an outlet for the frustration of their working week and football is it. That’s where the passion comes from, no different than our own when football was still a game for the prodominantly male working classes.
Every video I watched and article I read there was a common theme running through them all, people from Gamba are cheeky, funny, passionate and friendly. It sounds very similar to another part of the country over here I know. This coupled with having always wanted to visit Japan and with me now knowing that the place I want to visit most is not Tokyo, but Osaka. I have found my Japanese team.
I could only sign off with a haiku:
A forced spring lockdown Can a man have too much time? Gamba Osaka!
At a time when the world needs understanding, kindness and compassion, it seems there is more squabling and divisivness than ever before or at least it does if you are living in Britain or paying attention to the U.S. for example.
And yet, a shining beacon of hope comes to us from the Far East, South Korea to be more precise in the form of the K League.
The K League – thanks to the selfless nature and actions of the people of South Korea – is now playing professional football once again.
I’m obviously aware that at a time when great strides are being made to unify Korea and its people, that speaking uniquely about South Korea may be seen as some as somewhat polarising, but to my knowledge there are no North Korean teams in the K League… yet. (We live in hope)
So with that said due to a combination of overwhelming gratitude and passion for the game, I set about finding myself a K League side.
There are some simple criteria that have served me well when finding a foreign football team and through years of practice I have developed somewhat of a formula.
Stadium, Kits, Fans, City.
Choosing a stadium usually narrows it down hugely. If you have a running track, I’m not interested. In my opinion a football stadium should be made for football first and foremost.
Now I understand that due to financial constraints or location or many other factors that is not always feasible but I have to stay true to myself here. It’s no offence to those who can’t have a football specific stadium, merely a personal preference.
So how many teams in the K League have a stadium I in my infinite wisdom deem suitable? Seven. Out of the possible twelve, I’ve already nearly halfed my choices.
Which teams do they belong to? Daegu FC, Pohang Steelers, Incheon United, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Suwon Samsung Blue Wings, Ulsan Hyundai and the team of the capital FC Seoul.
My personal favourites are the stadiums of Ulsan Hyundai and Incheon United. In terms of which “wins” it depends which you prefer.
Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium
Despite the breath taking scenery of Ulsan (I can think of few places I’ve seen more beautiful) this is about football and that Incheon Stadium is a work of art that any team would be proud to call home.
The kits? Again it’s all about personal preference but for me there are four that stand out above the rest: Daegu FC, Pohang Steelers, Ulsan Hyundai and Suwon Samsung Blue Wings.
To be honest, I counted the Blue Wings out because they are a bit too “Chelsea” for me (though the away kit has a French flavour and is extremely nice) but I wanted something more uniquely Korean.
Again Pohang kits are nice but have a “rugby” feel about them as well as the colours reminding me a lot of Flamengo, not that all kits won’t remind you of something in some way but these two are obvious in that manner.
So down to two for the prize of best kit.
Daegu FC kits – less is more
I’m tempted to give this one to Daegu just for “Korean Spock” who is clearly the leader of this no nonsense K-pop meets gangster rap group. We know he is the leader because he’s wearing a polar neck. I can’t be swayed by this though…
Ulsan Hyundai
Hummel have absolutely smashed it out of the park with this. Yes it is sponsor heavy but you know what, in this case it just seems to work. Sorry Korean spock, but it was only logical that these clean cut kits got the “W”.
So if you’re keeping count that’s Incheon winning the battle of the stadiums and Ulsan just missing out and Ulsan going one better in the battle of the kits with Daegu just missing out.
Fans. I won’t judge the fans in the K League for one simple reason, Respect. I like to show respect in all cases where I can but I am inclined to do so even more as we owe a debt of gratitude for all of them bringing football back into our world.
One team did stand out to me in terms of what I was looking for. I won’t reveal them as they ended up being the team I picked.
Again in terms of Cities, I can’t really go into too much depth. I’d have no problem visiting any or all of them and I’m sure they all offer something unique but it’s time to reveal our winner.
Ulsan Hyundai have it all, a team competing for titles, a specifically built World Cup stadium, as beautiful a backdrop to a game of football as you could ever wish to find and a kit that could go head to head with any I’ve seen in the world
So it stands to reason that I picked Daegu FC. Wait, what? Yep Daegu are the team I will be following in Korea.
For everything that Ulsan has and boy is it a lot, as I watched videos of the city of Daegu, I fell in love with the place. It just seemed different to everywhere else I saw.
Being from Liverpool living next to a river is a big draw, also music and Kim Kwang-Seok – the most beloved folk singer of Korea – was born in Daegu.
Kim Kwang-Seok
As an added bonus were I ever to go to Daegu, they also have a Baseball team, which also obviously is now my Korean baseball team, the Samsung Lions. The most succesful team in KBO (although they lost 12-4 at time of writing to the KIA Tigers) they are sometimes referred to as the “New York Yankees of Korea”, this isn’t something I like but we’re Daegu now, so we move…
The Daegu Samsung Lions
In terms of the City itself, it looks effortlessly beautiful and authentic and it just oozes culture even in the snippets I have seen.
Daegu NEED fans as well. They are not one of the bigger sides in Korea, they are perennial underdogs despite overcoming the odds in 2018 to win the Korean FA Cup (yes that is what it is referred to as, I’m not just being lazy) they only came back into the top division in 2017 having spent three seasons in the lower league.
Economically, Daegu was the commercial centre of the Korean peninsula but sadly as the textile industry declined, so did Daegu’s economy which as it stagnated also led to a decline in population.
The heart of the Covid-19 outbreak in South Korea? You guessed it, Daegu. These guys can’t catch a break!
Fans of Daegu FC
The fans though from what I’ve seen seem as passionate as any in Korea and if they will have me, I will be proud to visit their city, experience and learn from their culture and of course stand next to them one day and sing:
All In The Game 