While the two series share much DNA, two major differences separate Sunderland ‘Til I Die and Welcome to Wrexham.
The most obvious is that Wrexham’s story is just as much, if not more, the story of two very famous actors doing the fish-out-of-water thing in both Wales and soccer ownership as it is the soccer club.
Second, Welcome to Wrexham is a story of triumph, while Sunderland ‘Til I Die – at least the first two seasons – is decidedly not.
A month ago, it was suggested that I, the Roker Report’s
token American, write my own version of Will Patterson’s “An Open Letter to Americans Looking for a Premier League Home.” It hasn’t happened until now because I’ve struggled to come up with something to say that Will hadn’t already said better.
But I’m ready to give it a shot – albeit a shot that probably would have made more sense before the opening game.
My fellow Americans, if you want celebrity and a better-funded-than-its-peers juggernaut cosplaying as an underdog, by all means keep jumping on the Wrexham bandwagon.
If you need silverware to make soccer interesting, enjoy glory-hunting with the Big Five (it’s five, let’s be real): Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and Bayern.
But if you want something real. If you want to support a proper soccer club, pick Sunderland.
The American non-soccer fan loves to complain about there not being enough scoring. But I’ve always felt like that’s one of the things that makes the sport special. Every minute that passes without a goal scored ramps up the tension for fans and players alike. Without the suffering and the waiting, there’s no explosive exultation when a goal is scored.
Likewise, you can’t really enjoy a triumph without pain before it. PSG has won 12 of the last 14 Ligue 1 championships; Bayern has won 13 of the last 14 Bundesliga titles. Do you think those all felt as good as Leicester City’s title run or Leverkusen’s triumph? Did Manchester City’s eighth title in 13 years feel as good as the first in 44 years?
It’s a great time to be a Sunderland supporter. We beat hated rivals Newcastle twice, finished seventh and qualified for the Europa League. And it feels so damn good because of the pain.
Snobbish American football fans love to explain to American soccer fans how incredible promotion and relegation is, despite the vast majority of them having never supported a club that’s been anywhere near a relegation battle, let alone back-to-back actual relegations. Or four years in League One. Or two different losses at Wembley – the second on a 95th-minute goal in the play-off final – in the same year. Or eight years out of the Premier League.
But the pain, the heartache and the yearning are what made this
and this
and this
And this
feel so incredible.
Sunderland isn’t for the bandwagoners. Sunderland isn’t for the dilettantes.
Sunderland is for the steadfast who’ve had their hearts ripped out and keep coming back because that’s just what you do when you’re a Mackem.
If that sounds like something you can do, it’s time to be Sunderland ‘Til You Die.
