I lived two streets from Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv, and the first thing I figured out is that you can hear a Hapoel game from inside your apartment. Not the announcer, the fans. And the first time I heard it I genuinely thought something was wrong, because it did not sound like people having fun. It sounded like people who had a point to prove.

Back home in Cleveland/Texas, stadium noise goes up and down with the game. Big play, everyone screams. Nothing happening, everyone’s quiet, on their phone, getting a beer, and that’s normal. The cheering is a reaction to something.

These fans were not reacting to anything. They were just going the entire time. The singing never stopped, not when their team scored, just constantly, like the actual game was background music to it. I found out later they literally have an organized section in the stands, started by a bunch of fans years ago for the sole purpose of leading the songs. So the nonstop noise I kept hearing wasn’t random, it was organized – these people rehearse.

The walk home was when it........

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