This past season will always remain incredibly special to me, years down the road. I loved the 2013/14 team because I was so confident in it. I knew that week in and week out, I was guarantee to see a team play beautiful football, to see players like Markovic, Rodrigo, Cardozo, and Lima play incredible football, scoring what seemed like endless amounts of goals. The season was only slightly tarnished by the loss in the UEFA Europa League final, but even with that, it was hard to not recognize what a fantastic season it had been, especially after the two seasons lost to FC Porto under Vitor Pereira. Then came the summer of 2014 and as player after player left, I found myself wondering where the team would end up. Second? Third? No one was really sure and it became a season of wondering if a loss or a draw would mean the takeover by Porto and seeing once again, the team missing out on the potential campeão. Yet just when it seemed like things weren't working out, with Samaris not quite adapting to his role, Talisca's goal scoring going into a drought, and losing Enzo Perez in January to a much publicized move, the team still did not crumble. Samaris instead turned out to be truly important to the midfield, seeming to keep things together and Pizzi, while having his flaws, was able to slot into Enzo Perez's role well enough to keep the team rolling forward. So when Benfica won on Sunday, I was overwhelmed with how much joy I felt for this team. It wasn't always pretty but they never seemed to let us down, instead always trying to win for the fans, who they knew were standing behind them through it all.
Luisão himself dedicated the win to the fans and I think without the fans being so overwhelmingly behind the team, Benfica would not have been crowned champions. I know that myself, I may have felt the disappointment in games like Rio Ave, Paços, and even Sporting, because it always felt like it wasn't enough and that perhaps they would start to crack. Yet many fans whom I know personally were there every week, voicing support on twitter, traveling from all around the world for games, and continuing to back the players to keep them going. This is a support I feel has been truly unique, at least in my experience as a football fan. I've been watching on and off since I was about twelve, only seriously following around the time of the 2006 World Cup, in which I was fifteen. Benfica was not the first team I supported, it was actually Liverpool. While I still watch Liverpool and definitely would like to see them succeed, I never quite felt the connection the same way I do with Benfica. I met genuine people of course and around that time Twitter was not as relevant in the beginning for football fans, so it made it harder to keep connections. I also had noticed that many fans felt a particular way towards foreign fans that was negative. Many wanted to keep the club a local club, filled with local fans. They lamented a particular section that was most used by foreign fans and often felt they were not the same fans as those born in the city. It is very much just my own experience but it always left me feeling like an outsider, in a way that made it feel as if I did not belong. Yet when I first began to watch Benfica in the 2009-10 season, I met and made genuine friends. When I spoke to many on websites and on twitter, it was the mere fact that I was even interested in the team that made them welcome me, even though I spoke no Portuguese, had never watched a game prior to the season, and that I was an American living so far away. None of that seemed to matter and as the seasons went on, I met more and more people who considered me as true a fan as any, without or not I saw a game in person or watched every single week, I was a part of the Benfica family. Having been so welcomed by my fellow fans has allowed me to fall for this club in ways I don't think I expected.
When I got my tattoo in the summer of 2011, I had a lot of people look at me like I was crazy and some even questioned what would happen if I stopped supporting Benfica, to which I replied, that would not be a possibility. I once knew a Liverpool fan who had become so disillusioned with the club that he simply stopped watching, stopped supporting them. I always wonder from time to time whether or not he ever came around to supporting them again and I know the answer is probably no. Even though the situations are far from similar, in aspects, I always think about the Benfiquistas who have stood by their team, even when the team did not play well, did not win trophies and were always in the shadow of other teams. I aspire to be like them, although I did not hope for anything but success, I know that if something were to happen to Benfica and they were not as successful I would still stand by them. I would do it because this team means so much to mean and without them and their fans, I would not have gotten through some of the hardest moments in my life, having had them keep me sane when times were dark. Not to be sentimental but it is very true that sometimes sports can be a way to help cope. I see myself, many years from now, hopefully still supporting Benfica with my future husband and children. God willing I see many more trophies won and that someday, I will have the privilege of seeing Benfica play at the Luz, a dream many fellow fans also hope to fulfill.
This has probably been a ramble of a post, but I wanted to make my first post sort of introductory as to why I began supporting and why I continue to support Benfica, although it is hard to make such a post after only six seasons, but the point is that I have found a team that I connect with on so many levels. I have also made so many friends, people that I talk to sometimes daily, sometimes only a few times a month, but whether it is a lot or a little, the conversations are always genuine and fantastic, sometimes not always about Benfica either but our lives in general. This is a thank you to them, for staying with me, for dealing with the ridiculous tweets about players and the games. Some of my favorite moments have been during games when I can go back and forth with different people, making me feel as if I am sitting with them watching the game and it is as close as I can get to being at the Luz with thousands of other fans. I can only hope to continue to do this for many years and to also meet many fellow fans for a proper game. I can only be eternally grateful for the many interactions and friendships that have been built over the years and that may they continue.