I checked another item off my bucket list today:

Watch the most extremely lopsided soccer game of which you can conceive: CHECK!

MY team, the boys I’ve supported since before they ever put on a kit, lost 7-0 at home to the Victoria Highlanders. No, that’s not a typo. Yes, that’s the real score. No, Lane United has not started an amateur gridiron team. I saw each and every goal go in. Those images are burned into my brain.

Contrary to what you might think, I have not tried to drink this memory away and pack it into the deep corners of my brain. I don’t want to forget. For me today is one of those bright memories I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life. Not because it was fun, but because it was humiliating.

More teams and supporters’ groups need a healthy dose of humility. In fact, I recommend every supporter watch their team lose 7-0. In fact, string together 5 losses, capped off by a 7-0 loss.

Go on, try it. It’s a test of your commitment.

What would you do if you were in the stands that day? Do you pout? Do you leave early? Do you keep cheering?

I saw a little bit of each of these today, but thankfully very little of the “pouting and leaving” in the Red Aces section. At halftime, when the scoreline was (only) 2-0, there was still hope in our hearts that we might yet see some brilliance. That hope often will override the doubts coming from that pesky, logical brain of ours. Begone, reality that this was the fourth game for LUFC in eight days. Out with the thought that a number of our key pieces are gone and not coming back. Shoo, table standings. In your heart, you know that soccer is a game of miracles and anything can happen.

By the time the game went 3-0, that hope was starting to lose the battle against logic. A bit of the spark was leaving the supporters’ section. The chants weakened. The drums slowed. Gripes about referees and the Highlanders started to be heard in the section. The only chants came from the best cheerleaders in the section. “Go, Go, REDS!” The entire section joined in. Sometimes the wisest among us are the children.

By 5-0, it seemed that every possession Victoria had in our attacking third lead to a goal. Our legs were gone, we just couldn’t keep up with their runners. The absurdity of the situation lead the section to start cheering for every positive thing LUFC did.

A completed pass. TWO completed passes! A tackle. A SHOT ON GOAL!

“THEY DIDN’T SCORE!” the section chanted.

“We always win 6-to-5!”

“We’ve got this guy!” We chanted about our full red bodysuit guy, as he drank beer through the tight lycra.

By 6-0, and 7-0, we decided that if we’re going down this bad, we’re going to support our boys with everything we had. After the final whistle, several players laid on the field as if they had just lost in the World Cup finals. We set off all the smoke bombs we brought. As the red smoke drifted away to the east, melting a hole in our bucket, we continued to sing and drum after the rest of the fans had left.

“We’re going to win the league. We don’t know how and we don’t know when, but we’re going to win the league”

The players mimicked bowing down to us in respect and apologized to each of us. There was no need.

“We’ll be back, We promise”

That will be great if it’s true, but so what if we suck? What does that change? I was worried when LUFC got off to such a great start this season. The tyranny of high expectations can lead to fairweather fan bases that come and go with team success. Some of us are Timbers fans from way back in USL days. We’re used to humiliating losses. We know how to react to this, with positivity.

We’re getting trolled by opposing supporters’ groups, but what we do is about supporting our team, not about winning every game. We’re new and we need to win at home to build a fanbase, but we also need to keep our expectations in check. It would have been great to win the league in our first season, but the realities of this being our first season may not allow that. We need to develop a scouting infrastructure to develop our depth. We need to do a good job in the preseason during PDL scheduling to avoid stretches with lots of games in a short period of time. Even with a deep lineup, everyone will be worn out after four games in eight days.

Many of us have now seen what rock-bottom really is. We’ve survived this together. There really is nowhere to go but upwards. It will make the winning so much sweeter. Nothing is given to us freely, we have to work for it. Supporters need to miss the USA vs Portugal game to hang banners at the pitch pre-match. We need to dig into our savings to pay for away trips. Our players need to train every day. Our coaches need to take lessons from the season and apply them to the next.

Onward, Lane County.

Lane United plays against the Puget Sound Gunners in Issaquah on Friday, June 27, followed by our match against the Portland Timbers U-23 on July 1st at Willamette University in Salem.