Atonement

March 21st, 2001 was a Wednesday. Having not found tickets for the game and given there was some kind of TV broadcasting ban, I had no option than to stay at home and listen to it on the radio. My father sat at the other side of the table, smoking unstoppably. Ten minutes after kick-off we were down 0-2 and the hope of securing a soothing victory against Olympiakos was already gone. By that time we had been beaten by them in every possible way. Within a period of five years, we had lost to them four league titles, more than a handful of derbies, including a humiliating Cup Final in which they played with one man down for most of the game. But an astonishing 1-4 defeat in our home ground, with no excuse about a terrifying atmosphere or biased refereeing could only mean one thing. We had reached the bottom.

It's been almost seven years since then. Things between us (Panathinaikos) and them (Olympiakos) have not changed considerably. They still win the league, we still do better in Europe. Over these seven years we have had victories over them, won back a Cup Final in 2004, got the double that same year and have not lost to them in our last 4 encounters. But, in spite of all that, the stain of that distant 1-4 remains.

They say that football is about winning, just like any other sport, that winning is all a matter of consistency and that the best is the one who wins trophies at the end of the season instead of achieving solitary victories in the middle of it. But for a helpless romantic like myself, -even more, one with a painfully good memory-, there are some victories or defeats that somehow are more important than a series of trophies. They mark a before and an after, they set a time-mark in the history of clubs and consequently in the lives of the funs. They become part of a legend, where game results become historical events, wins are now called "triumphs" and losses qualify as "disasters", in the strict footballistic sense. They don't happen very often, therefore the shame can last for years.

Fortunately it's the strict footballistic sense that allows to avenge the shame and regain the pride. There are opportunities in the form of re-matches. Tonight's game is one such. A one-off Cup quarter-final at their ground, with our lads in high moral and the strong belief we can do it. It's no easy task, given that a 0-1 victory will not mean revenge. Most of today's players were not there with me on that Wednesday, some of them were not even aware that tere is a team called Panathinaikos. It's not their job to carry the memory of that game for seven years. They may be unaware of the fact that they have a chance for atonement, a chance to make up for that disgraceful 1-4, seven years ago. And it may be better like this.

All they have to do is play good football tonight. And let me long for the atonement of their predecessors.