The Champions League semi finals are here to remind us that there is nothing quite like the love of football
Champions League semi-finals kick off tonight as the defending champions Real Madrid face Juve and Barca battle Bayern, in two match ups of giants.
It's the most wonderful time of the year! Forget Christmas and birthdays, NBA Playoffs in full swing and Champions League coming down to the wire. What more can you ask for? Barca makes fools of people with 8-0 victories, CR7 dominates with another hat trick, while Juve and Bayern clinch titles of their respective domestic leagues. All this in recent days and now these teams come together as the final four of the world's most prestigious club football competition – the Champions League.
The story lines are definitely there this year. Most importantly, Pep Guardiola returns to face his former club for the first time since he left it after winning an unprecedented 13 trophies in four years. Many of the players that Luiz Enrique will field on Wednesday against Bayern played for Pep during Barca's recent golden age. Juventus return to Europe's elite after dominating Italian football for quite some time. They would also love to give their fans a proper return to glory before presumably cashing in on stars Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal, who have long been speculated to make mega money moves away from the club. Juve fans will cite their triumph over Real Madrid 12 years ago at the same stage of the competition when they were also the underdogs but managed to upset the original galacticos which featured the likes of Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo, Roberto Carlos and many more greats. And then there is the possibility of an el clasico final between Barca and Real Madrid in what is probably footballs biggest game. A concept even the most avid Barca and Madrid fans haven't really rooted for in recent years, presumably for fear of a heart attack. It makes your mouth water. Well, at least it does mine.
You see, my love of football started with the dumbest of reasons. A friend of mine sent me YouTube compilation video of a smiling, buck-toothed Brazilian footballer named Ronaldinho, whom I was familiar with in the past as I've watched a few Champions League games with my friends in Poland. But there is a reason I emphasized the word “love” above. Because watching 'Dinho make fools of defenders, perform roulettes, rainbows, flip-flops, all sorts of madness awoke a spark in me that was more than a casual interest in a sport – it was the beginning of a passionate and life-long affair.
Ronaldinho controlled and passed the ball with his back in that video. With his back, man! If that doesn't get your attention, I don't know what will. FC Barcelona, where he played at the time, is a very popular club among Polish football fans, so I've seen plenty of Barca games in the past, but now I've started researching the club, watching documentaries, and most importantly, the matches. There are no commercials! You've gotta be ready at kick off, no bathroom breaks, beer runs, munchie runs, no nothin'! You sit down and you watch every second because every second can prove to be the crucial moment that will be the main factor in determining what sort of mood you'll be in for the next 36 to 72 hours.
“These are the chaaampions!” we sing like crazies, “the chaaaaampions are heeeere!” we yell uncontrollably, though often, admittedly drunkenly, as we take our places at bars, living rooms, friends basement's, or massive public watch parties to watch our teams.
There is nothing like it. A Barca/Madrid argument is unlike anything else in sports. Truly! I have friends with whom I had to come up with strategies on how to deal with the topic in order to remain friends. A plethora of my friends in the States are actually quite avid soccer fans, but the game struggles to break into the top four of America's most popular sports. If you find some sort of a connection to a European football team, supporting it will consume you in the most intriguing of ways. There is a reason for all the passion you've always seen on World Cup videos. It matters. I don't know why, but when your country or your club plays, it just matters.
My team is in action on Wednesday and I'll be watching all these matches with the utmost interest. And I hope everyone reading this will get to experience what it's like to support a great football team. So no matter if it's a YouTube video, an incessant friend, an ESPN Classic binge, or a blog post, I hope you find your trigger. And I hope yo start loving this sport.
