FanPost

Tips from a three-time Libertadores Champion to the future CCL champion

So, here we are, ladies and gentlemen, 2019, and Atlanta is about to begin its international career. I remember that in 2017, when I first began talking to you, I got all interested in this continental tournament (because I saw Atlanta as a global team), while you were really all worried if Atlanta would, or would not make the playoffs. I had no idea what playoffs were. But I knew about continental tournaments, oh yes. And I said that this was the creme de la creme, the Coca Cola in the desert, and one day you would get it, and here we are.

It wasn´t always like this. We have one thing in common, you gringos and we, Brazilians. We are really big, and we speak the wrong language. You speak forms of English, we speak Portuguese, while all our neighbors speak Spanish – and hate our guts for being different, and really big, and that can be considered offensive enough for them to want your blood, specially when you go play them in their home fields.

For a long time, we did not bother. We were learning to love national football, instead of regional football. International was a bit too much. I think we, Gremio and Inter, were the first to be hooked into Libertadores. We have borders with Uruguay, and Argentina, and we are pretty connected in many ways. So, we shifted our love from the national championship to Libertadores before the big teams from central Brazil did. For a while, we cared, and they did not as much. Good times.

Now, all that everyone wants is Libertadores, Sudamericana, Recopa. Big powers from Rio, and Sao Paulo, richer, stronger, want their share of glory, and we have to fight, and be better, not being bigger. In addition to them, we have to fight the big teams from Colombia, Chile, Argentina, superpowers on their own. Winning a Libertadores is really, really tough. And yet we both won, Inter twice, and Gremio three times. We then proceed to win the FIFA Club World Cup once each, a considerable achievement for a city of 1.4 million.

And, now, my esteemed friends from Atlanta FC are facing the challenge of international, continental football. Congratulations, you are in for the best.

In North America, the established league is the Mexican one, and this is your chance to test your team against them. They are better than MLS, so you can measure your team against better opposition, and this means knots in your stomach when you play them –feelings you won´t have playing against the already known MLS opponents. As a fan, you want both to win, and to win big, even if it is scarier. Winning big means you can lose big, and nothing compares to this emotion. When a big Mexican team comes to Atlanta, and you listen to your anthem – mark my words –something happens inside. It is just different, and you really, really want to win, like you never wanted before.

They will be tougher than what you are used to. For a number of reasons, I find MLS teams not aggressive. Brace yourselves, because they are coming for you. For one reason, because this is how football is played in competitive leagues, and secondly because you are the big, rich ones, as I mentioned before. Every team you play in CCL will try to prove something. Basically that they can run over the spoiled, arrogant gringos – even if more than half of your team has nothing to do with this, and your club is actually very nice. It makes no difference.

In away games, you need to send as much support as possible, so that your team has a glimmer of human warmth when everyone is making sure they feel miserable. At home games you need a full house, and you need to be REALLY noisy, and make sure they feel miserable, all within the confines of civilization, of sorts. You have to learn to forget some of your American cordiality, and become the CCL monsters for a while - fun loving monsters who respect limits, that is. This really is how this works.

The truth is you never know, and opponents can be nice, and they can be very unice when you come to town. Your Argentinian players are quite used to this, via Libertadores, and I believe your Big Red has played a CCL game in Central America. This experience really, really helps. You need to be mentally strong to deal with everything they can throw at you (literally too).

We know that Liga MX is better than MLS, and worse than the South American teams. We know that because no MLS team has ever won CCL, and no Mexican team has won Libertadores, and they had 16 years to try. So, I assume that Atlanta is at least as good as Liga MX – because Atlanta is better than MLS – but have no clue where Atlanta stands against South America. And – and this is the best part – you are just positioning yourselves to find that out, because winning CCL will give you the biggest prize of all - a ticket to the FIFA Club World Cup, where you can play the Libertadores Champion (as well as the Asian, African, and UEFA champion. This is simply the very crème de la crème in football and it is all there, for you.

Coincidentally, my Gremio will fight for Libertadores this year. We won in 2017, and lost the semifinals to River, and your Pity in 2018. We also lost the final of the FIFA club championship in 1995 to the Ajax where your Dear Leader du Boer played. If all goes right, we could meet in December! I have this feeling that we are destined to. Even if not now, MLS clubs could play Libertadores in 2020. We are destined to meet, and try to beat the crap out of each other. What can be better than that, I ask myself, knowing fully well the answer. Nothing, nothing, nothing at all.

This is a FanPost written by a member of our blog's community. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the feelings or beliefs of the blog itself or the staff.