Scenes
The month of May breeds more jealousy than any other. Watching the Blues win a Game 7 at home over the Stars in 2OT to move on to the conference final is the sort of moment you’d kill to have for your team. The Rockets bringing the series back to 2–2 against the Warriors and maybe, MAYBE, finally knocking off the greatest basketball team ever assembled is the sort of opportunity that can redefine your teams identity. As for what Liverpool did against Barcelona in the Champions League Tuesday? Well…
The great majority of teams in this world will never experience anything like what Liverpool did. Overturning a 3–0 deficit from the first leg with a 4–0 win against the current Spanish champions who oh-by-the-way have the undisputed best player who ever lived to secure their place in a second consecutive Champions League final and the chance to make up for last years disaster against Real Madrid? You love to see it.
Let’s compare this to a team like the Chicago Bears. The Bears have existed since 1922 and are the only football team in the third largest city in America. In the Super Bowl era they have won once, it was 33 years ago, and all three of their playoff games that year were blowouts. The 10 points the Patriots managed in that 46–10 loss in Super Bowl XX were the only 10 points the Bears gave up those playoffs. Is that incredible? Yeah, but it’s not much for drama.
And that’s without any agenda against the Bears. I present that information without judgement. It just highlights that a team of great means cannot guarantee their fans a night as exhilarating as Liverpool fans had Tuesday. The Champions League format has a lot to do with this. A two legged matchup with aggregate score being the tiebreaker means the table can be set for a massive comeback in a way that a single game or a seven game series can’t always provide.
The 2004 ALCS is the best comeback in baseball playoff history but it took 18 hours 12 minutes spread out over four days. Game 7 was a comfortable 10–3 Red Sox win. It’s a totally different sort of event.
I say all of this to say I am extremely jealous of Liverpool fans. This could all blow up. There’s still a final to be played, but getting there is a massive accomplishment in itself. Liverpool might go more than other English clubs historically, but they don’t have the money that the other European giants have. They’ve been forced to sell their two best players of this decade to Barcelona.
Say what you’d like about John Henry, there are no good billionaires, but to have an owner that is both willing to spend and, as far as we’re aware, not guilty of any human rights abuses is really a dream. I am an Arsenal fan. Arsenal are owned by absentee landlord Stan Kronke. As the Premier League continues to increase in value, as Arsenal continue to increase in value, there is genuinely no reason for him to invest in the club. He’s making money by doing absolutely nothing and won’t be forced to make any changes unless the bubble bursts or Arsenal somehow completely fall apart. As it stands, Arsenal look like they will continue to finish 5th for the rest of time, and that’s not bad enough to force a change.
I spent yesterday afternoon getting extremely worked up about this. That something I have invested myself in so heavily is almost entirely dependent on whether or not a rich guy stakes his pride on the success of the team he bought or if it’s just another revenue stream. I said we might as well be Blackpool, which may have been a bit much considering they’re a third division club currently in receivership who have had 10 managers since 2012, but the situation feels hopeless. A massive overhaul is needed to get on Liverpool’s level, and the owner just isn’t interested.
Soccer is weird because context matters so much. As fans of smaller clubs who have been crushed under the boot of the Premier League and their TV money know, it’s sort of understood that in the ultra capitalist world of top tier soccer that there are teams you will just never be able to compete with and you look to punch above your weight when you can. Arsenal have been to the Champions League final once, but they are a club with the resources to challenge for a place in the final more often than they do. Much in the same way that I do not ever expect to own a home, I don’t believe that Arsenal think they can or should be Real Madrid. However, just as I hope to run over some rich guy with his own Tesla in the upcoming Water Wars, Arsenal should be trying to win the competition Real Madrid have won 13 times at least once.
Sports are about the journey. Winning and trophies are not everything, but we show up to games assuming that everyone is actually trying to win. When simply being in the Premier League is enough of a prize for the extremely rare few who can afford their own team, actually trying to win the whole thing and beyond that becomes the exception.
I hate Liverpool the way I’m supposed to hate any rival club, but I don’t begrudge them their moment. It just makes me hate my own team for not having the desire to try it themselves. You can go on all day about daring to dream, but if the guy writing the checks doesn’t, it’s all pointless.
