In his interview after the FA Cup, Crystal Palace’s Manager, Oliver Glasner, said something that captures a feeling I had not fully realized. He said, “the biggest success we can have is not lifting the trophy, it is giving tens of thousands of South Londoners - our fans - the moment of their lives… Maybe they have problems at home, but we can give them hours and days where they forget those problems.” Watching the fans’ reactions and listening to their perspectives after the FA Cup win - many with tears in their eyes - perfectly illustrated how significant a big win can be for a community. This is something I never felt as a Wisconsin Badger Football and Basketball fan, but finally felt after picking a random, mid-table Premier League club to follow.
This is the story of how I became a Crystal Palace fan at precisely the right time.
My wife and I booked our first overseas vacation for a two-week trip around Ireland, Scotland, and England. Our itenerary included a few days in London, and I made sure to plan that stay during a weekend. I had just learned about the Premier League and understood that matches were played on Saturdays. While my wife is the main planner, I made it my goal to see a match, but the logistics were not simple.
During our weekend in London, there were three home matches being played by London-based clubs: Tottenham, Fulham, and Crystal Palace. I first researched Tottenham’s tickets since they would be playing Arsenal (one of my best friends is an Arsenal fan), but sadly ruled that out since I worried I wouldn’t be able to acquire tickets to what I just discovered was the “North London Derby.” Fulham and Crystal Palace each had facilities with a fraction the capacity of Tottenham’s and lacked the online community for foreigners to find information necessary for confidence in the membership and ticketing processes.
After hyping myself up, I pulled the trigger on a Crystal Palace membership. I ended up missing the initial window to purchase tickets during our stay in London, but luckily found tickets through the club’s secondhand marketplace. This was nothing like the ticket-buying experience for US events and I was worried it wouldn’t work out at multiple stages in the process.
Taking the Tube from central London to Croydon gave me that same feeling I had as a freshman leaving the dorms on the way to Camp Randall to watch the Badger Football team play. The fans on a parade from the station to Selhurst were full of excitement and energy, ready to cheer on Palace against Leicester City.
We found ourselves in the fanzone just before it reached capacity. After buying one of everything in the merch store, the $3 beers and $4 burgers offered our wallets a nice relief. For a professional sports venue, Selhurst had a much more low-key vibe than I expected.
Palace ended up drawing 2-2 with Leicester during that match. Crammed in like sardines on the edge of our 100-year-old seats, my wife and I cheered, sang, high-fived, and loved every minute of it. We were hooked.
Unfortunately, it was not a great time to become a Palace fan. That draw was one of many that marked a brutal stretch of winless matches.
Crystal Palace was falling down the table as I watched them back home in the US. After a brutal season for the Badger Football team, I started to realize what it meant to be a fan of a losing team. It’s not the worst thing.
To be a fan of a losing team is to be invested in every game. If you are always the underdog, any win feels a bit better. Every game is worth watching, because every win is important. It’s not just the wins either, but it’s the progress. Seeing progess is easier when you are watching a losing team.
This was a particularly stressful time in my life. Work was weighing me down and I was deep in the puppy blues. I remember feeling even more beaten down when Palace was in relegation territory at the same time as the Badger football team missed bowl eligibility.
Palace turned things around near the end of 2024 and start of 2025. They started to win matches and were steadily climbing the table. I began to act like a delusional fan, thinking they would make it into a UEFA Champions League spot; it wasn’t all that unreasonable, though. Palace was one of the best-performing teams through the first months of 2025. Unfortunately an injury to their striker caused the team to fall out of form.
The injury came during a non-league match. Many fans wondered why the manager would put his star player in such a position during a less consequential match, but he had bigger plans. The match was a part of the FA Cup tournament, an all-England, single-elimination tournament with a coveted prize. The winner not only lifts the prestiguous cup, but is given a spot in the UEFA Europa League.
Despite struggling in league play, Palace dominated in the quarter and semi finals of the FA Cup. Oliver Glasner, the club’s manager, had promised fans he would bring a trophy to Selhurst, and he now had the opportunity to make good on that by winning the FA Cup Final. They would just have to beat Manchester City, who they had fallen 5-2 against only three weeks prior.
Before I could get too excited, I reminded myself of the losses I witnessed during big games in the past. I had watched the Badger Basketball team lose the National Championship during March Madness. My Badger Football team had lost Big Ten Championships during key moments over and over. I kept those experiences in the back of my mind when I rooted for Crystal Palace at a Chicago pub.
Every minute of the 90 was brutally stressful. Two key moments came in the first half; Eze’s goal and Dean Henderson’s blocked penalty kick. Man City played their press offense which Palace had recently struggled with, but they held their ground this time. Dangerous passes to Haaland were intercepted by the American, Chris Richards, and Adam Wharton fought for his life to win balls in the midfield. Somehow - depsite every sense of my being denying it - Palace hung on. They won the FA Cup 1-0!
I finally understand what it feels like to get that win as the fan of an underdog. Oliver Glasner must know what it feels like, too. Manchester City will have more glory, they will win more big games, have plenty of accolades, but this is Crystal Palace’s year and the fans will never forget it.
Up the Palace!