Yesterday evening at Tor di Quinto was not just a football match. It was something deeper, something that those who are not Laziale can hardly understand fully.
We were there. We, together.
We were there, some with their scarf, some with flags and banners clutched in their hands, all with a tight knot in the throat. It wasn't an evening like the others, it wasn't the usual eve or the usual pre-match gathering outside the stadium or at Ponte Milvio. It was one of those evenings in which we stay united even when it hurts, especially when it hurts.
While an important semi-final was being played in Bergamo, we chose to be there in our own way. To be there as a people, even before as fans. Because being Laziali is not just ninety minutes, it's not just the result. It's belonging. It's recognising yourself in the looks of others without needing to explain.
Children on their fathers' shoulders, unbreakable groups of friends, entire families, all united by something that goes beyond football. It's in these moments that you understand how Lazio is not just a team, it's home, and the tear-filled eyes after the penalty kicks told more than a thousand chants.
We sang, and not with the carefreeness of great victories. We sang with broken voices, with the awareness of those who are carrying on a painful protest, born from love and not from distance.
We never truly leave, we stay there. Together, united.
Tor di Quinto last night was a collective embrace. Another opportunity for the Lazio people to show the world that, despite everything, we are always there. That Lazio lives in us, in our daily lives, in our choices, even when they are difficult to understand or to explain, especially to those outside this context.
On nights like this, the difference between presence and essence is underlined. Tor di Quinto last night was the umpteenth confirmation that the essence of Lazio is its people, that Lazio is wherever the Laziali are! A people who suffer, certainly also divided between different ideas and ideologies, but who in the end always find themselves in the same place, for the same colours and for the same love.
It hurts even more to think that in less than a month the Derby will be played and we will not be there, on the terraces, doing what we have always done.
We will be outside, once again. But we will be together as one body and one voice. Being Laziali is a way of life. And no absence will ever erase the essence!
