I've written about what I like to call the 'Dream Factory' a few times here before; it's where, in an attempt to soothe IRL sporting heartache, you can retreat to a video game and relive (or build entirely new) memories of a moment, game or even whole season.
The last time I had to visit the Dream Factory was when, following England's agonising loss in the final of Euro 2024, I went straight to EAFC's officially-licensed tournament expansion to try to set things right:
Just because I'm helpless watching the actual team stumble, though, doesn't mean I can't do anything about it. There's always the Dream Factory. So this week I've been playing the shit out of the Euro 2024 expansion for EA Sports FC 24, giving me a window into an alternate timeline where instead of lumbering around for seven games and winning the most embarrassing Golden Boot of all time, Harry Kane looked sharp as a thistle and scored seven goals leading England through the tournament, culminating in a crushing 3-0 win over Germany in the final in which he scored a brace. The real Harry Kane may have drudged off the field on Sunday night still somehow without a major trophy to his name, but my Harry Kane, the one inside my Dream Factory, lifted the Henri Delaunay Trophy without breaking a sweat.
Did this make me feel better? No. Only the slow passage of time--and maybe some day an actual victory in a major tournament--will achieve that. But for a few moments this week it has made me feel slightly better, in the way that the Dream Factory has always (and hopefully will always) be able to. I know that the victorious Harry Kane, the jubilant captain breaking a 58-year trophy drought, is not real. The fact EA's player models haven't been significantly updated in over a decade sees to that.
But it's something. A temporary indulgence, a flight of fancy that's fun in the same way any other kind of daydream can be. It's not real, it will never be real, but for the moment I allow myself to pretend it is and could be, it's close.
Lately, the Dream Factory has very much been on my mind. My football club, Aston Villa, has spent the better part of my life bouncing between irrelevance and ineptitude, with the exception of a few bright spots: a title in 1981, followed by a European Cup triumph over Bayern Munich in 1982 (and a Super League win over Barcelona right after), and a couple of League Cups in the mid-90s. We’ve won nothing of significance since.
Which means that, as of this month, it had been 30 years since Villa had won a major trophy, and 44 years since we'd won a European trophy. For one of the biggest clubs in England, with one of the strongest historical records, that was a very long time.
This week, however, brought a chance to change that. After surviving a few hiccups along the way, most notably a first-leg semi-final loss to Nottingham Forest, Villa earned a spot in tonight’s final of the Europa League, a trip to neutral Istanbul and a shot at German club Freiburg.
I've been an emotional wreck all week, for understandable reasons. Villa were clear favourites for this game, but also: the last time we won a trophy I was in high school. I now have two kids in high school. The storied European Cup triumph of 1982 is something I don't even remember, because I was two years old at the time, I didn't even know what football was. We'd been to three major finals this millennium, been underdogs in all three and walked away from all three empty-handed. We'd been in the second tier as recently as 2018, and over recent years had developed a nasty habit of bottling the truly big games, particularly last season, including an FA Cup final blowout against Crystal Palace and a final-day capitulation at Manchester United that cost Villa a spot in the Champions League.
Given that 30 years of hurt, I was ready for the Dream Factory. I had EAFC--which had the official licenses for both teams, the stadium and the competition and trophy itself--reinstalled and ready to go. Losing in real life, then making amends inside a video game, was such a common experience for me over the last three decades that it has become muscle memory, something I'm ready to glide to almost subconsciously.
Turns out I didn't need it! Villa won comprehensively, our expensive and star-studded line-up full of experienced internationals proving way too much for a side currently seventh in the Bundesliga to handle. A comfortable 3-0 win featured two all-timers from Youri Tielemans and Emi Buendia (see above!), and as the full-time whistle went Aston Villa, a club that had agonised its fanbase for longer than large parts of its fanbase have been alive, were Europa League winners.
It feels absolutely surreal to me. We actually won something. There's no weeks of agony to follow, no repeat trips to the Dream Factory to try to reverse a controversial decision or a lapse of defensive judgement. We turned up, played well, won comfortably and I got to watch skipper John McGinn lift a trophy in front of his jubilant teammates. Not EA's digital John McGinn. The real thing.
So I'm thrilled to announce that, until further notice, the Dream Factory is closed for business. It's been an important part of my sports-related mental health regime over the years, and I thank it for its service, but for now, this one beautiful moment in time, I'm going to enjoy not needing it, and savour getting to talk about a Villa win that took place outside my living room TV.
For at least the next three weeks, anyway. Then the World Cup starts...
