“I’m going to break the pass” was a frequent threat among Valencia CF fans – and all teams, I suppose – when things were not going well. That breaking the pass, in reality, is like the tantrum of the little child who kicks the door when his cell phone is taken away. I saw that threat carried out by an older man in one of the Numbered Cover doors in the 80s. With bloodied eyes and a demonic voice, he tore the cardboard compost from top to bottom while directing his deranged man’s gaze at the employee guarding that access, as if he were to blame for something. I don’t know if the man returned to the offices the next day to fix the problem, but I do know that I saw that fan again with a cap and a pad under his arm several games later entering with his head down through the same door.
In the seasons of worst Valencia CF in history, this one that we have had to live through thanks to the grace of a man from Singapore with many millions and no words, breaking the pass is not in the fans’ plans. ‘These Valencians are crazy’, many sports journalists and fans of other teams whisper in the digital circles, every time the image of the Mestalla stands full, noisy, as if Valencia CF were competing to win the League, or the Champions. Never before, that I remember, had so much and so well been said about the majesty of Mestalla. While Meriton and the politicians discuss and spin the issue of the new stadium, the voices of saving the old stadium, our home, to stay there forever are multiplying.
The point is that we are witnessing a sociological phenomenon that we knew, but that had never manifested itself with such force as until now. The precedent is that of the 86-87 season, the one we played in the Second Division. Then we filled the stadium, we cheered like never before, we responded to the challenge with honor and the dignity of an exemplary fan, sublime in good times and bad.
But many did not see the latter coming. It is not a transition season, neither an accident, nor a stroke of bad luck, nor a specific economic crisis. Valencia CF has been at the bottom of a chasm for years, pierced and kidnapped, and the old Mestalla is filling up and pushing like never before. More than in that season in Second. Listen to the sound of the old Mestalla on video with Valencia CF’s second goal against Atlético de Madrid (you will find it on the League’s Twitter account) and you will understand. What happens to us is that, as opposed to breaking the pass, we want to get more and occupy all the seats to show that Valencia CF belongs to its fans and no one else’s.
2023-09-29 05:00:55
#sound #Mestalla #stadium
