How Our Office Turned into a Fan Club

Last April, after a break of nearly a dozen years, Dalian and Shenyang, two rival cities in the Liaoning Province of China, returned to what has come to be known as the “Liaoning Derby,” an intermittent, generational series of bitterly fought soccer games. Soccer fans from both Dalian and Shenyang had been eagerly awaiting this moment. The tension had been building for weeks.

One day before the game, Dr. Wei, a teacher in our research group, asked me, “Winfred, would you like to watch the Liaoning Derby with me?”

“Absolutely,” I responded. “I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.” 

I mentioned the plan to James and Wu, two students in my research group, and they both immediately wanted to join us. “I have never watched a soccer game live at a stadium,” Wu said. 

“I’ve never even watched a soccer game on TV,” James said, “I’d love to go!” 

On game day, more than 40,000 spectators went to the stadium. Because Dr. Wei supported Shenyang and I supported Dalian, I went to sit in the section with the Dalian fans while Dr. Wei, James, and Wu went to sit with the Shenyang fans. 

The match turned out to be extremely close. Dalian didn't score until the final ten minutes, and Shenyang didn’t score at all. When the final score of 1:0 was posted, all of us Dalian fans went crazy. After the game, we met up outside of the stadium. “That was so awesome!” James was still buzzing. 

Wu agreed. “I can’t wait to watch more live games!” he said. Since then, every time there was a live Shenyang soccer game, we all went to the stadium together, and when there was a Dalian game, we watched together online at the office. At first, there were only two real soccer fans in our office, but now almost all of us have caught the bug.