“TAIWOOOOOOOOOO”–everybody

It’s been quite the English week for us. Because I embarrassingly have some business education, I’ll list the highlights in bullet form:

• Tie with Leverkusen, the best start to the season
• Bushwhacking of KuPS, our first European win in 20 years
• The return of Ultras (and away fans) for the Conference League game
• Another tie 3 days later

It astoundingly keeps getting better for us. It seems like every other month some new record is set and then broken, the progress moving so swiftly as to almost become disorienting. And it is in fact disorienting: when Niko Gießelmann scored against Hoffenheim, I was of course overjoyed for the man’s first top-flight goal. But it was almost uncanny how much I expected it to fall: with an open game and a team like ours it almost felt unsurprising. Of course the bitter response and turnaround were somewhat of a surprise, but Taiwo’s goal felt just as natural and I found myself fully expecting a third.

Taiwo, by the way, has been an absolute joy to watch, probably because he himself is so full of joy. I could wax on about his skills—I always thought the complaining about his finishing was unfair, given that he was so adept at creating chances in the first place—but I don’t really know enough about the tactics to do that. Instead, what I like about Taiwo is not just his goal scoring, but what looks like a generally positive attitude towards life and a genuine gladness to have finally found a home at Union. I think that’s something we can all identify with.

It’s an uncommon feeling, this, to expect not just a decent showing as we might have years ago, but an actual head-to-head or even superior performance against teams with balance sheets orders of magnitude larger than ours. Of course, the longer someone has been a fan the more they’re able to temper this expectation. As they say: whoever has joined in the last few years is having delusions of grandeur, those who joined in the last 5-10 are enjoying the ride, and those who were around before then are still living the dream.

It’s hard not to have expectations go up of course—and it does make me wonder, what will we do if/when we become truly good? We’ll fall victim to that same phenomenon where people gradually grow discontent with what they have and always want more. As we’re becoming better, it’s important for those of us with relatively little experience of the truly tough times to put things in perspective and enjoy the victories. I’ve learned to do this with my other team, UNC basketball. Every victory is fun and good and even when it’s expected, we celebrate it. Otherwise we run the risk of letting the emotional weight of the defeats outweigh the joy of the victories. This is the path to unrealistic expectations and toxicity.

And what happens if we lose a bunch? Well, we’ll just have to adjust. I’ve also experienced that with Carolina—it’s been frustrating, but I’ve learned not to turn on the team, to celebrate when they win, and to know when to take a step back to avoid emotional exhaustion. I’ve learned to save my energy for the key games—especially those I can go to and make a difference at–and not tear my hair out watching midweek upset loss on TV. As I watch Werder and Schalke fans do exactly this, it’s reminded me of the need to avoid getting too high off the wins and too low off the losses. Just enjoy the moment and use every game to build community.

And speaking of community, how great was it to see the Ultras at the Helsinki Olympic stadium? They’ve been missing for so long, and after I have wrestled with the meaning of their absence, it’s been an absolute highlight to see them. More than any other player or coach or functionary or media, they set the tone for this game. Here’s to hoping for more of them in the future.  We should also pay special attention to—and support—the message they sent with the flares (an impressive logistics feat, by the way) and the “UEFA Mafia” banner. We want our Fußballgötter to smash their way into and through the final, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that this was a competition born in corruption and designed to disproportionately benefit the powerful. It’s essentially a fig leaf for the in-house UEFA Super League—which is what the CL will become. Fußballmafia indeed. Some in the DFB have wet dreams about this stuff.