The Joys of European Qualifying

 

Tonight Aberdeen play in the 2nd qualifying round of the Europa League.  Going away from home after a 0-0 draw at home is always difficult, but at this stage it almost feels cruel.  I am a huge Aberdeen fan and last season was quite possibly the greatest I’ve ever experienced as one.  We won a cup, came within a hairs breadth of finishing second in the league and all in all improved on the mediocre nature of our past few seasons.  In half an hour, at least as I write this, we kick off in a game that in many ways, apart from the big shiny trophy, is our reward for doing that well.  We lose and we are out.  We go back to the normal SPL season and have to do it all over again and that is kind of depressing.

You see it doesn’t actually feel as if the season has started yet.  We are in July and most of the world powers of football are only just having their first friendly games, after their players have returned from the World Cup.  Yet those of us who support teams from the smaller leagues, who have fought their way into Europe, could see one of the most exciting things about our season end before it has really began.  It’s a pain that is kind of hard to deal with.

This is actually Aberdeen’s second round of qualifying.  We breezed through the first 8-0 on aggregate, which at least gave us something to cheer, even if it did turn out to be against the rather lacklustre opposition of Daugava Riga.  FC Gronigen obviously provide tougher opposition, I mean I have actually heard of them for a start, and there is a decent chance we will lose tonight.  Elsewhere teams like Motherwell and St Johnstone are in a very similar position.  At least for St Johnstone, much like ourselves, they came out of last season with a trophy.  For Motherwell, who pipped us to that second position, bragging rights aside (and of course the money that comes from finishing higher up the league, but I have yet to find a football fan who bases success on the money their club is making) this is all they have for reward.  They go out tonight and the joy of finishing 2nd is still there, but the heroic campaign into Europe has ended before most people have realised football has started up again.

Obviously I am still delighted to be in Europe.  As an Aberdeen fan we get so few chances to have a crack at competitions like the Europa League.  I also genuinely believe that we do have a decent chance of going through tonight.  We are a good team and McInnes has got us playing good football.  If we do not go through it won’t be because of a sob story of when these games took place etc. but rather because we are not good enough and yet as a fan I cannot help but feel like this is all just going to be over far too soon.  Last seasons cup final was one of the most terrifying and joyous days of my life.  I’ve never attended a football match where the opposition even moving slightly towards your goal filled me with as much dread and I’ve never attended a match where watching a penalty fly into the net filled me with such unparalleled joy and I just can’t help but reflect that at the start of this season, we should have a few more weeks before any potential disappointment can set in again.