“The person that said winning isn’t everything, never won anything”.
- Mia Hamm
Balance. The Beautiful Game. The passionate dance. Smooth, majestic, flowing.
In dance, as in life, perfection is achieved through balance. When all the pieces on the pitch are flowing and moving as one, “a well-played game of football is”, as described by Eduardo Galeano, “a thing of beauty, a beautiful dance.”
This season, and the last, and the last, before the last, it would seem that the Chivas faithful, well, TBH, “Nos toca bailar con la mas fea.” We get to dance with the ugly one. That reality we would all like to ignore. We get to toe the line and grit the teeth. No one said ¡t was going to be easy, then again, no one said it was going to start so soon!!!
Week after week, we keep waiting for our boys to find their feet and pull together some semblance of balance as they run up and down the pitch. We are waiting for the ‘click’ to appear. We wait for the magic. Last Saturday night everything was ready for a reconciliation with the faithful Red and White. The parking lot was full, music and laughter were in the air. Most of all you could feel HOPE. It was there, almost palpable. You could cut it with a knife. Hope was back on the menu and on paper we could come away with a win.
The Homecoming Match! The most perfect time to calm the waters and rebuild that connection with the fans who have been avidly waiting to return to the hollowed, glorious halls of the Akron Stadium. Fans in search of a place to call home, to let free the passion held back for so long. The New Normal has made any place for social interaction, oasis-like spots where we can pretend to return to a pre-Covid time, a moment which translated into post-Covid currency, is like gold.
Fans, true connoisseurs of course, know when they are being fed a line. We could see the boys going through the motions and for brief instances, the magic appeared. But too brief, sans staying power. Broken. The lines were broken up. Communication between them, confused. When it seemed a moment to push forward the ball was sent back. Soon it became predictable, counter striking was out of the question, Atletico San Luis just waited for us as wave after wave bounced off its defensive line. They were patient and two mistakes later we were down 2-0.
Second half, changes made, a younger more aggressive mid-field made a mad push forward. Chivas dominated with incisive passing and creative ball circulation. It was not enough. Zaldivar brought us with one for a tie but the push came too late.
Time dragged to a halt. The faithful, we walked out, not so rambunctious as we had on our arrival. Shaking heads, outbursts, incredulity. Once again, we had given our hearts. Once more we had believed. And we will return once again, our hope intact. For such is the path of the true believer, impossible for us to walk away. We will return, our hearts on our sleeves, our fists raised in defiance. We will return and sing to our Rebaño Sagrado, a century old serenade to bring peace to our souls.
Desde la Angelópolis, hoy es el día de estar JUNTOS, apoyar y salir a la cancha por los 3 puntos.
— CHIVAS (@Chivas) July 30, 2021
¡HOOOOY JUEGAAAAA CHIIVAAAAAS! pic.twitter.com/An9XdgkJ5x
