The Wonder of You: A love story (Part 1)
When I talk about my love for Arsenal Football Club, a Premier League soccer team based in and ruling North London, I feel silly, but I don’t know of a better word.
I was introduced to this team in college circa 2006 by a boy and it stuck because of the composition of the team-a lot of French players led by a composed, professorial manager named Arsène Wenger (I have a painting of him in my bedroom). The once and eternal star of our team, Thierry Henry, sealed the deal for me and then it was a done deal. I missed the Invincible season (where the lads were undefeated for 38 matches straight-a feat that has yet to be surpassed 💅) However, like with all relationships, there’s been ebbs and flows. I moved from the East Coast where “early” matches still started at a respectable time to the West Coast where I’ve seen 4 am too many times for a rational person who isn’t waking up early to start a job to feed their loved ones or save a life. It was all worth it.
I reconnected with the team after watching the documentary Arsenal: All or Nothing (streaming on Amazon Prime). It follows the team throughout the 2021-22 season which had highs of hope and lows of reality and they got me again.
I decided to watch matches live with Bay Area Gooners and was rewarded with so much joy and connection. I was reminded of the importance of intention in building community and what can grow when you commit. For me, that looked like a community that came together to donate money to the nonprofit I work at on the strength of our connection and shared love. I immersed myself in the foolishness of modern fandom, listening to infinite hours of podcasts dedicated to recapping the matches (that I had just watched), learning about tactics and strategies, and generally falling deeper and deeper.
I love this goofy team and community so much that I even wrote a poem:
The Wonder of You
I love you, like a new world created through chants
and revelations that can only happen in a new language.
Love your harmony, discipline, and doing things our way.
I love you in years of no trophies, but with glimpses of beauty.
Love you through decent start times on one coast
And through hella early mornings on the other.
I love you with the roar of millions.
But also, the love of a fan tuned into one tv at the end of the bar.
Love you delusionally. Tribally.
Love you for reminding me what it’s like to love mortals who sometimes transcend, but also fail and fight.
I love you for irrational joy and illogical tears.
Love you like a pilgrimage and conversations throughout the years.
That’s the wonder of you.
At the end of the 2021-22 season, all we wanted to do was qualify for the Champions League (4th place out of the 20 Premier League teams). However, through the brilliance of our coach and young players, and sometimes luck, we spent 248 days at the top of the league. By late December, the improbable seemed possible and I booked tickets to London for the last match of the season wanting to be in town for the glorious end of a magical season.
“When you start supporting a football club, you don’t support it because of the trophies, or a player, or history, you support it because you found yourself.”