Got up around 1, and as all addicts do, the first thing I do is check my phone. The first particular thing I did was check my Twitter feed. And one of the tweets that struck me was one from Oliver Kay, Chief Football Correspondent for The Times of London, who took these photos of an empty railway station and railway car that took him to Old Trafford, the stadium for legendary soccer club Manchester United:
Heading to Old Trafford as a new season dawns pic.twitter.com/vAJd8hQF54
— Oliver Kay (@OliverKayTimes) August 8, 2015
It is the calm before the storm: The beginning of the EPL season, which begins today, and in fact a couple hours from now as I type this.
And it was seeing that where I harkened back to all the articles I have read over the week from reporters who themselves anticipated the start of the EPL, and now, right now, I am addicted to it. It feels like the first Sunday of the National Football League season, the first Saturday of the college football season, or, more traditionally, Opening Day (which is Monday but, for the past several years, not technically the first day since Major League Baseball's first regular season game appears to happen the Sunday night before). It's a time where you are connected to your young self, where you yourself are in fact born again, and you can revel once again in what feels like an endless supply of installments of a sport that you love. And, of course, the beginning of the year means that every team's record is 0-0, and therefore your favorite team has a chance to win it all ... until the reality of loss after loss makes you all bitter. But then, hey, it's the beginning of the season and you're all happy again! That's what the beginning of a sports league's season does to you, and I understood that giddiness just now.
Or did I? Thursday night I stayed up a lot longer than I should have revisiting something I did a couple months ago: What should be my favorite EPL team? I really think that it's best to watch a league that you don't have a hometown team to root for; Lord knows that not having the Vikings would actually make the NFL a little more enjoyable to watch, in my opinion. Nevertheless having a team to be loyal to is an easy way to get deeper into a league and sport. So that time a couple months ago I thought if there was a team out there I could pledge allegiance to.
My first instinct was to see if there were any EPL teams that were close to the city of London itself. After all, I have visited the city twice, so there is no other "hometown" I would belong to than the city proper. I'm still getting used to the idea that there are many teams that are based in London. I can barely stand the fact that New York has two teams in nearly every major sport; I mean, how can a city have divided loyalties on sports teams, even one as big as New York City? Anyway, from this time a couple months back and on Thursday I am seeing that there isn't a team that plays in, like, the touristy parts of London. The closest ones aren't that close, but they are two of the biggest clubs in not only the league but in all of European football: Chelsea and Arsenal. I think Chelsea might be closer from downtown (wherever that is), but both of them are located in Zone 2 of the London Underground, so I consider both to be the "closest" London club.
But I thought of it further. Is proximity the only way to decide on a favorite team? That doesn't sit entirely well with me. Also, these are two powerhouse clubs, and I'm not sure I want to be a front-runner and hitch my wagon to a club that already has so many supporters and so much support. Finally, there's this guy on Chelsea named John Terry, who plays Center Back. He's a dick and he may also be a racist. Can't support Chelsea with an asshole like that on the team. So I have also thought about using another fact to decide on a team: Length of time in the English Premier League, the highest level (consider it the "majors") of the English Football Pyramid.
When researching this vein I came across a particular fact that I like: Since the formation of the EPL in 1992 (which formed when powerhouse clubs such as Chelsea and Arsenal wanted to break from other football clubs that weren't as financially successful as them and think they were only leeching off of them), there have been seven clubs that have stayed there and have avoided relegation to the second-tier every year. Chelsea and Arsenal are two of them. The media notes a "Big Four" of super-powerful and -wealthy teams; Liverpool and Manchester United join Chelsea and Arsenal in that group. But I always root for the underdog. These four are kind of like the New York Yankees of the EPL, and I fucking hate the Yankees. Also, Manchester United has had long ties with Rupert Murdoch, the tabloid smut king and conservative shit-stirrer that's sending U.S. politics down the tubes, so although I don't have a team to root for, for a long time I've had a team that I could root against.
The three other teams that have been permanently affixed to the top of the Pyramid are Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur. Aston Villa was in serious danger of dropping last season, and there are more than a couple prognosticators that say they will this year. But other than that, I can't decide. And even if I did, I don't feel that loyalty, that sense of, "Yeah, that feels right!"
So I go further. I'm now thinking that I can pledge my allegiance to a top-flight (thought not powerhouse) club that is very, very old. After all, England is the birthplace of soccer; I can at least appreciate a team if they've been around since the beginning of the sport itself. To research that, I got to, where else, Wikipedia, where I'm still kind of confused as to which really good team has been around the longest. I guess it's Everton, but they only became "Everton" in 1878. A team that turned into Everton was founded in 1870, but back then it was called St. Domingo's, and from its Wiki I'm not sure if the name change was accompanied by a restructuring or relocation or what have you. I may be confused as to what goes into a change with soccer clubs, but it might affect whether or not I think a club was "born" on a particular date. Anyway, there is no such difference to worry about when it comes to Aston Villa. They were formed in 1874, as Aston Villa, and they have stayed as Aston Villa to the present day.
So, Aston Villa, I guess. But wait ... where is Aston Villa? Oh, in Birmingham. But I've never been to Birmingham, England. So why should I root for them? Why don't I root for a team that's based in a city I've at least been to ... like London? So it all circles back to Chelsea and Arsenal. You see my plight now?
Ah, hell, maybe I'll just root for good soccer.
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So it's 5 o'clock now. The two downtown pubs are celebrating EPL "Kickoff" by opening their doors at around 6:30; fifteen minutes later comes the first game of the season, Manchester United hosting Tottenham. I want to go. But that means I'll have to be up in less than an hour. I'm pretty awake now, but I'll be crashing like a motherfucker around noon time, and I can't come back until dinnertime at the earliest. Or, I can not celebrate the start of the season, listen to the body that's been up since 1 and go back to sleep until -- oh, I don't know, 11:30, when Chelsea hosts Swansea to start their seasons. But what if I can't fall asleep? Might as well get up, right?
My God, I am at a crossroads. But what a thrilling anticipation it is!
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