I sat at my desk, huddled over my dad’s laptop so I could watch the grainy stream and still type. I knew we’d hit rock bottom—or it felt like it at least. Liverpool—the most successful English soccer club of all time—had just lost, at home, to Wolverhampton, the last-place team in the English Premier League. And I didn’t care.
Down by a goal, Liverpool put the ball over the line in the 87th minute. I was anxious for a second, but then relieved—not as the team celebrated, but as they looked over and saw the linesman had flagged for offside. I could breathe again. We hadn’t scored.
Wait. What?
As a fan, it’s your duty—is it not?—to support your team through tough times and outstanding moments. If you’re only there when things are smooth, let’s face it: you’re not a real fan. You’re using the team only when it’s convenient for you—when they’re winning. It’s a two-way street, authentic fandom. By being there through the shit, you’ve got a right to enjoy the success. And you can fully enjoy that success. It’s made all that much sweeter by the past struggles.
But does that include rooting for your team to lose?
Liverpool is managed—and I use that term in the loosest sense—by Roy Hodgson. This is his first year. Over his career, he’s been a master at helping lower-level teams punch above their weight, but a massive failure at teams with tradition, good players, and great expectations.
At Liverpool, his record and his postgame comments have shown that he’s satisfied with not winning games away from home. He’s turned the team into a clueless group, 11 guys bumbling around like hungover amateurs at the first Sunday-league game of the year. To call them the anti-Barcelona would be an insult to the sport.
Anyone who isn’t a member of the British media knows Hodgson is in over his head and knows he needs to go for the team to move forward. Fans at yesterday’s game broke into a “Hodgson for England” cheer, ironically suggesting that Hodgson is fit to manage the English National Team. So as I watched the clock tick down, I wasn’t mad. I wasn’t frustrated. I was … happy.
Happy that my favorite team lost? As a fan, is that acceptable?
It’s a moral dilemma, really. On the one hand, by rooting for them to lose, I’m rooting for them to succeed. Losing moves Hodgson’s tenure closer to the edge, brightening the club’s future at the same time. But at the core, I’m still rooting for my favorite team to lose a game. That is the opposite of support. And isn’t support what fandom is based on? Behind all the screaming, face paint, and overreactions, you’re a fan because you’re supporting some fashioned athletic entity.
This isn’t a unique situation to European sport. It happens in the NBA when teams are eliminated from the playoffs. Fans root for their teams to lose in order to up their chances of landing the number-one pick. And when the Lions set the futility record in the NFL, losing every game to go 0-16, fans rooted for Detroit to lose in that last game. It meant their team was something special. They’re remembered for being brilliantly awful. With a win, they’d just be another 1-16 team, a futile footnote in the league’s history.
So, as a fan, do you have a duty to support your team no matter what? Am I a cheating, adulterous skank of a fan for turning my back on Liverpool? My intentions are the best, I think, but should I trust that the club will turn it around and support them until they do? After all, they’re the ones getting paid, right?
Someone help me out. My head hurts.
—Photo Tim Hales/AP
Are you a cheating, adulterous skank of a fan? No, you’re a Liverpool supporter. But, I repeat myself…
I can’t believe Liverpool fans have forgotten what Hicks and Gillett did to their club so quickly. Benitez was forced to sell good players and buy cut-price replacements, while still qualifying for the Champion’s League, to service the monstrous debt they had laden the club with. He failed to make the Champion’s League last year and was sacked. Hodgson, when he came in, had to service the same debt with no Champion’s League money, so he had to ship out Mascherano and Benayoun and bring in the likes of Poulsen and Konchesky, stop-gaps at best. Meanwhile veteran players like Carragher… Read more »
Although there was an ‘upside’ to losing yesterday I believe it’s NEVER ok to root against your team. Supporting your team and your manager are two very seperate things. To actually wish for a loss of 3 points in a league as tight as this one is unfathomable to me. The fans at the ground yesterday certainly didn’t WANT to lose. Although they were being vocal to the management, they were also supporting thier team as best they could. The first song I heard after the Wolves goal was Fields Of Anfield Road. Although don’t get me wrong, I’m glad… Read more »
Last year under Rafa was probably the most frustrating year for me as a Liverpool fan, simply because I knew we could do better and that Rafa was not getting the support from the owners and we were simply getting caught by the teams behind us. Hell, we were not simply getting caught, we were rather going backwards! I always had faith in Rafa though because we know what he is capable of, but every great manager needs support from the owners. Alex, Mourinho etc got it and they won. Rafa didn’t get it, as much as these idiot media… Read more »
I was in the same mind as you before we kicked off. Once the match started I was thinking we would win, they scored and I felt deflated, as if it was a good thing, Woy would be fired and all would be well in the world. But then my thousand years of supporting the reds kicked in and I was in fact expecting that Stevie G wonder goal followed by a Torres strike from the edge of the box. None of this happened because we no longer have a real manager to motivate the players. The lose hurt, but… Read more »
I felt exactly the same. I’ve seen quite a few games where Liverpool have managed to scrape an equaliser/winner against the run of play, and win games we didn’t deserve to and I’ve always been over the moon. Last night I hoped we got the loss we deserved. I almost cheered when the goal was ruled out. For the first time I’m glad that I’m at work when Liverpool’s next game is on. I’m glad I won’t have to sit through another tedious 90 minutes of long ball football. I’m hoping Bolton are in good form so that it highlights… Read more »
I think you’re a cheating adulterous skank! being a competitive athlete and person, there is no way I would ever play to lose, coach to lose—so I can”t root for my team to lose! Keep up the good work, skank!
The important thing to remember here is that soccer is terrible.
I keed, I keed. I think it’s OK to root against your team if it means a bad coach will be fired or if losing will bring about added winning down the road. Such as securing last place to get the first pick in the draft. As long as you’re prepared to pledge your support to the team for all of eternity, then you’re well within your rights as a “good fan.”