Mitch (Kevin): The Perfect Fit
The extent of my soccer knowledge growing up was playing in a few pick-up games now and then with a couple of friends that played for my high school team. All of that changed in the summer of 2006 thanks to the World Cup. I watched all of the U.S.’s group stage matches. Unfortunately, we didn’t get out of the group stage, but we did manage to draw with soon to be World Cup winners Italy. After the group stage was over, I found myself watching the knockout rounds and an obsession was born.
The first few years I mainly just kept up with the U.S. Men’s National Team. I found myself wanting to watch more soccer than the spread-out schedule that international games could offer. So, I started looking into the different leagues around the world. I started with the MLS. Even at that point, I could tell a massive difference in the quality of play and with no MLS team anywhere near where I was living to give my allegiance to, I quickly gave up on it and started checking out the European leagues. My best friend, Kris, is a Spurs supporter and I remember talking to him about what leagues or teams I should look into. He told me to check out the Premier League. I didn’t want to pick the same team as him, so I started looking into the rest of the clubs.
After deciding against most teams in the Premier League at the time, I decided to look into Spurs. I instantly knew they were the club for me. The similarities to most of the teams I am a fan of here in the States, the Chicago Cubs being the main one, were uncanny. The rich history, great supporters and lack of winning anything of significance in a long time was a comfortable familiarity. At first, I just kept up with Spurs mostly through news from Kris. We were rarely able to watch any matches, so he’d let me know how they did over the weekend, about transfer news, etc.
I remember my first true introduction to what it truly means to be a Spurs supporter. Many of you already know what I’m talking about. The year was 2012. What happened that year confirmed that this was the club I was meant to support. Chelsea won the Champions League after finishing 6th on the table. That meant that they automatically qualified for the next years Champions League group stage, knocking us down into Europa League. I had the same feeling so many times watching the Cubs that I had on that day. It was a perfect fit. Even now, the Cubs are in the World Series with a bunch of young players and Spurs are on the up and up with a squad full of young stars.
Since then, I haven’t missed a match. I would get up on the weekends and find a stream online and watch by myself. That is, until I moved to Chicago. Finding Chicago Spurs has completely changed the way that I support the club. Instead of sitting at home watching by myself, I get up head to the Atlantic and sing my heart out every weekend surrounded by other Spurs supporters.