William K. Wolfrum

I grew up a sports fan and have slavishly worshiped Major League Baseball, the NBA, NFL and boxing. Plus I have dabbled in other sports like tennis, golf, auto racing, bowling, strongest man in the world competitions, track & field, triathlons, eating contests, etc.

I have rooted on many a player, athlete and team. I have been, and continue to be a fan. And it is only recently that I learned something: being a soccer fan is harder.

Being a fan of American football is more intense because of the scarcity of games in a campaign. But being a soccer fan is still tougher - a nearly endless roller coaster ride filled with dream-like highs and spirit-shattering lows.

For me this season, being a fan of the Brazilian League team Cruzeiro has been like that. Yes, as in the vernacular, I am Cruzeirense. I am a fan of the Foxes. And they have been particularly thrilling this season.

Things started out bad. Really, really bad. In Brazil, the soccer season starts with the state championships. Cruzeiro is from the city of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais. Minas is just a fine state, and all, very interesting history, very beautiful. But it’s not much of a soccer powerhouse, like say Sao Paulo or Rio. There are only two Series A teams here - Cruzeiro, and arch-rival Atlético.

So Cruzeiro stumbled past minnows like Tupi and Caldense to make it to the Minas State Championship finals against Atlético.

The two-game final was a true nightmare for Cruzeiro, as an uninspired and lousy team went out and got outhustled and brutalized by Atlético 4-0 in the first game. How bad was it? The final goal was scored from midfield while the keeper had his back turned. That’s how bad it was.

Cruzeiro went on to lose the title to their much-hated, and generally considered stupid and immature rivals (ask a Flamengo fan, they’ll totally agree). Being that this is Brazil, management pretty much fired everyone and sent the keeper (Fabio) out on a soul-searching walkabout or something.

After starting the Brazilian League with a slew of losses, however, something odd happened. Cruzeiro started winning. And scoring buckets of goals. All the additions worked, mixing in with younger stars to create a wicked fast team that combined a near total disregard for defense with a high-scoring offense. Add to that a return of two of its previous stars (Wagner and Alecsandro) and a player showing up from Columbia (Marcelo Moreno), and Cruzeiro managed to get itself to second place.

It has been a wild ride. Cruzeiro still is seven points off of Sao Paulo’s torrid pace (in 25 games, Sao Paulo has only allowed seven goals), but remains a joyous team to watch. But heck, even that is just mentioning two tournaments. Cruzeiro also suffered heartbreaking defeats in the Brazil Cup and South American Cup. And next year they will very likely be competing the biggest South American tournament of all, Copa Libertadores.

To top it all off, this weekend is O Classico. Cruzeiro gets a chance to get further revenge on Atlético on Sunday, and could push them further toward relegation with a win. A loss to Atlético at this juncture is completely and totally unacceptable. It better be a classic for the Blue.

It’s all nearly too much, actually. Basketball fans get style and speed, football fans intensity, and baseball fans get a long walk in the park. But being a soccer fan is just harder. Much, much harder.

–WKW

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 15th, 2007 at 5:23 am and is filed under Sports, Essays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.