Photo: Earl Gardner

Remember when you met that first person who really gave you butterflies? The one who made you think, this could be the one? The one who made you want to be a better person? That time when you felt so much that your stomach hurt?

Early in a relationship, your significant other can do no wrong. Those little things that if someone else did would annoy you to death, you now find quirky and endearing.

Well, love is the drug (or so Roxy Music would have us believe — you’re welcome for this video). And three games into this season, I’m still feeling high.

Early this season, the Union has done a lot right: the midfield is vastly improved, the play is more exciting, and the back line is doing a good job of holding itself together through injuries and growing pains. Even if sometimes a player chases a ball like a cat chasing a laser, or an opposing player runs unmarked as if wearing Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, I mind it less because so much of what they’re doing is so pretty. I am a simple man.

Once the first shine comes off the bulb (or the bloom from the rose, whatever it is), love becomes daunting. “Holy crap,” you say, “is this the one?” And then all of the trappings of that question fall in front of your face like cartoon pianos or anvils crashing your reality, in a scary, positive way.

Following the loss last weekend against Columbus, my lofty expectations plummeted from the heavens back to this terrestrial hellscape we call home.

Are they the ones?

Can we score enough goals? ANVIL.

Can we put together a full 90 minutes?

What’s the ceiling for this team? PIANO.

What is the basement? ANVIL.

Will Vincent and Maurice mesh?

How can the team possibly live up to these lofty expectations? PIANO.

Since it’s like a drug though, those questions are never enough to pull you away from true love. You go back for more because in a strange way you’re addicted. Maybe you think back to the rougher times you’ve had and how good it is now and just how good it can be when you’re with that other person.

So far, that’s how it’s felt for me with the Union. I can’t remember being prouder to be a Union fan than I am so far this year.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s probably a bit of rose-colored glasses, but I don’t care — some of the open play has been spellbinding! 

What’s important now is that the team starts to show some level of consistency. I think any married couple can tell you love is not all bottle rockets and duds, it’s a lot of sparklers and firecrackers. A full 90-minute performance featuring a stout defense supporting the fluid, creative play we’ve seen in flashes is the biggest key to making a commitment. That’s what we need from them.

What they need from us is continued faith. We’ve got to support them no matter what. So come with me fans. Be bold. Take a hit.

Fall in love.