Supporting your team even when they fail

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are Fuzion's views and not the views necessarily of the blog or the staff.

Between the many supporters groups for the Houston Dynamo there are numerous fans who call themselves "supporters". But what, truly, does it mean to be a supporter?

Some label a supporter as someone who specifically goes to matches and jumps up and down, goes wild and chants along with other fans. Others might label a supporter as someone who is active for the team outside of game day. After all, game day is only one day of a week (usually), but what about those other 6 days?

I've thought long and hard about what supporting a team or club really means to me. I know plenty of supporters from multiple supporters groups, not just for the Houston Dynamo or Houston Dash, but even for teams as far away as Lansing United. So to me, what makes a supporter is probably vastly different than what most would think.

A supporter is someone who does any number of things to help the team they support. It isn't any one particular act or day of the week. Supporters, in their hearts, would go to the ends of the earth if it meant the success of their team or club. They live and breathe their teams or clubs, and while every day may not be in dedication to the team or club it is still heavy upon their minds.

The whole reason I've had a need to label supporters is because I've watched the struggling Houston Dynamo and the reactions on this blog, on Twitter and Facebook. Deep inside I've wondered whether supporters would respond as we all have, myself included as much as anyone.

We turned immediately upon the Front Office. We've called for Dominic Kinnear and Chris Canetti's resignations. We've demanded changes in player personnel and tactics. But were we wrong to do so?

It is a question that bores into me. I'm really and truly not certain if we possess any right to do so,but then I think on it more and I can't help but believe we have every right to do so. After all, you can support the Houston Texans and Andre Johnson, but you don't have to agree with how either have handled the ongoing situation between them.

We like to believe we have all the answers, but in reality what we know is only that which we've been allowed to see from the outside. Internally, there is far more to things than what meets the eye, and that is why I am extremely surprised by how candid and open Chris Canetti was when he joined Eddie Robinson and Sebastian Salazar on their weekly podcast/youtube show.

The questions were asked and the answers were given as honestly as was possible, and while we didn't get some satisfaction from the answers themselves it was the way in which Canetti laid bare his own personal emotions over the failures of the club at current that drew me in deeper.

This team is run and owned by individuals who honestly, and wholeheartedly to their very cores, bleed the colors. Chris Canetti feels the pain of the fans, he understands their frustrations and does more than acknowledge them he absolves them of any guilt for feeling them. Canetti has given credence to feeling frustrated and angry over the quality of play on the pitch, and there is a certain release in that.

Previously, I was bound by my guilt over wanting to yell and scream not for my team, but at them. I'm not content with the play on the field, and I'm not okay with the way some players have seemingly mentally checked out. And as important as me not being okay with that, neither is Canetti or Dom.

At the end of the day, that is what is important for this next couple of months. Sure, we could still slip into the playoffs with a solid little winning streak, but the end result is still going to be the same. We aren't winning MLS Cup, and there aren't many of you who would offer even a little resistance to that statement.

The team must change, and I inwardly hope it begins now instead of at the end of this season. It doesn't have to be different personnel. The change simply needs to begin with the players. I don't care if you're losing, but at least give a damn outwardly. Show us you're as passionate about the name on the shirt as we are about you.

That...in it's most basic is what being a supporter comes down to.