Fans' View

Fans’ View: Life, the Unionverse and everything

Photo: Michael Long

With the 3-0 victory over New Jersey providing perfect symmetry to void last season’s close out, I’m ready to call the rebuilding process a success. Not done, mind you, but a success. That has me reflecting on what it took for the team to get to this point.

Those of you who’ve been reading my Fans’ View posts for a while got to bear distant witness to the dissolution of my marriage last season. I often wound those events and the emotion surrounding them into my thoughts and feelings on the Union. I found myself looking to lean on the team and the routines associated with being a fan of the team to get me through, both as simple distraction and as meaningful, (mostly) constructive action.

Now, as we all recall all too well, the beginning of the 2012 season was a disaster. Seemingly out of nowhere, our team was being torn apart, nobody was talking, and eventually Nowak was asked to leave the house.

(Side note: I am not comparing the ex to Darth Nowak. She is a pretty awesome person, all things considered.)

Anyway, that early season team was a little too on the nose to be very distracting. However, with Nowak’s ouster, things settled into a new groove and began to brighten.

Items that had been packed away out of compromise, or stubbornness, or plain old pride could be unpacked and re-explored. One of those is on his way to a Golden Boot and a fancy new cap.

Some meaningful items were lost to the transition. One to Panama, never to be seen again, but another that we’ll perhaps see from afar at the World Cup.

Other items were so ill fit that their absence left no void at all. One of them has managed 8 minutes of play in Brazil.

So now properly inspired by my team and their ability to rebuild, I think I’ll take a look around and see what things of mine have been packed away for too long. I think I’ll see what I can build. For that, and so much more, I thank them.

7 Comments

  1. Nice post, Chris.

  2. The Chopper says:

    Patience is a virtue. Usually. If nothing else, it can’t be easy for a first time manager at this level to exercise long term patience with a grumbling fan base and a team that had been struggling to post results until recently.

    Right now, his team is posting results with a far from perfect cast of characters and he is creating the neccesary space to improve the roster in the future. We can bitch about Danny Cruz and moan about Roger Torres, but overall, it looks like he is managing well.

  3. Dig the post. It’s cliche to say sport mirrors life, but it’s true, especially with soccer.

    “Sport is where an entire life can be compressed into a few hours, where the emotions of a lifetime can be felt on an acre or two of ground, where a person can suffer and die and rise again on six miles of trails through a New York City park. Sport is a theater where sinner can turn saint and a common man become an uncommon hero, where the past and the future can fuse with the present. Sport is singularly able to give us peak experiences where we feel completely one with the world and transcend all conflicts as we finally become our own potential.”

  4. Southside Johnny says:

    Wow…Poignant article and perfect follow-up post…Nice going, guys.

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