Sporting en primera!! But why do I care?

Hey those who read this blog, if any! How’s everything going? I’m still trying to find a particular subject for this blog, since blogs aren’t supposed to be diaries, and my thoughts are rather dull. So meanwhile, I'm going to write about sports, football (soccer for my dear American friends) in particular, but really just about why we love sports so much...
For those who don't really know me and just stumbled upon this blog, then I'll have you know I eat, breath and do everything soccer certain times of the year. One of these times is by the end of the season, where things get real interesting, by this time champions are declared and teams that slacked or downright suck are demoted to lower divisions, if any. Also for those who don’t really know me I will name my affiliations: first and foremost I support the Real Sporting de Gijon, a rather small but very proud and historic team from the city of Gijon in Asturias (Spain). Second, and tied there, are Liverpool FC, Real Madrid, and Motagua (when I’m in the mood for Honduran soccer). My teams fared rather well this year, Liverpool and Real Madrid both achieved the second place in the Premier and BBVA league’s respectively, Motagua was rather dull but survived and finish probably fifth, and finally Sporting stayed in first division after a very long and grueling couple of weeks for the fans.
First just let me tell you a little about the story of Sporting, the team that made me really think about this subject. They come from the city of Gijon in the Spanish principality of Asturias. It also one of the historic teams of the Spanish league and has the honor of having and playing the oldest stadium of all Spain. They also have one of the best group of fans that any team in world, besides probably Liverpool. These people, just like the Kop of Liverpool, really don’t let their team walk alone, they are loyal and always there, suffering more than celebrating. I am proud to be a part of that group, regardless of never being there for a game and not really following the team as much as most of them.
Suffering? Yeah, suffering. The team was condemned to second division for 10 years before, last year during the last match, we finally gained the coveted honor of calling ourselves a first division team of one of the best leagues in world. We stayed in the dark pit called second division regardless of having a school that has created some very important players for Spanish and World football. Some clear examples are David Villa, the maximum scorer of the last Euro, and Quini who was kidnapped and when he was liberated the players were so happy that Spain finally beat England at Wembley, one of the most important stadiums in England. I could name much more big names of world football that were “created” there, but that’s not the point of the post.
So going back to the subject at hand, we had to suffer a lot this year too. We lost most of the games, some rather miserably others with some sort of honor. And also like last year, the last game was crucial if we intended to stay in the first division. The standings were really scary, but the team depended on themselves to win it, a.k.a. no matter what happened in other stadiums, if they won, they stayed there. Also similarly to last year, we started losing the game. By the last minutes of the match, we pulled together and the same guy that saved us last year, did too this year, in the same goal posts and with the exact same goal. As you can imagine, the city and the fans went nuts, just like last year and the Apple cider was popped everywhere (this shall be the topic of some other post), people were jumping into fountains and parading around el muro or the levee by the beach like we just won the Champions League! Personally, I was bawling my eyes out, enjoying it a couple of thousand kilometers away, but my heart with them in the fountains and in the bars.
A couple of days later, while the city was still enjoying the sweet taste of victory and defending their honor from our nemesis city who insulted us (subject for another post), the newspaper published an article that said that the coach had shown a video to his players before the game. The song of the video was by this guy called Dark la eMe, and the song was called “Su Sitio” (Their place). I could translate the whole song but it wouldn’t probably make lots of sense and the post would be too long. But basically the song talks about the fans of the team, those special people that suffer every single weekend, proud and faithful regardless of the result. He says “En primera es su sitio” (In first division, that’s where they belong). And then he goes explaining exactly what the team means for the town, the principality and fans.
When we finally made it to first division, it didn’t really solve our problems, yet we were as proud as if we ourselves won something. That is how every win is for me, and how these two years have been for me. The song talks about a bricklayer, who was just so proud and happy, yet that didn’t solve his problems, or put food on his table. So true…
Then I began thinking, why do we care? Why sports are make us so happy and make us feel accomplished regardless if it’s not us who win? And then I realized, I don’t really know, and I don’t think I really want to know. It makes the fans smile; it joins people with nothing in common, like brothers and sisters for at least 90 minutes, or whatever time for whatever sport, every so often. Sports are life, really. Just easier, because there are thousands of people supporting you every step of that particular way. I suppose it’s an interesting question…
Anyways… SPORTING EN PRIMERA!!!! PUXA SPORTING, PUXA ASTURIES!! ;)

Mood: Weird mood.
Song: Su Sitio by Dark la eME