So, LDU Quito, right? Their whole thing is kinda like “always ready.” That’s the vibe you get. You hear about them, see them play, and it’s like they’re just switched on, all the time. Pretty cool, I thought.
But then I started thinking, this “always ready” business, it’s not just about the football players on the pitch for 90 minutes. Nah, it feels bigger than that. It’s like something baked into the whole club, maybe even the city, you know? It’s an attitude.
I remember one time, I was trying to dig up some old info about one of their classic matches. And man, the amount of detail, the records they kept, even stuff from way back. It was like they were “always ready” for someone like me to come snooping around decades later. That’s dedication.
But let’s be real, “always ready” is a massive ask for anyone, or any team. Life just doesn’t work that way. You can plan all you want, but something will come out of left field and smack you in the face. You can’t be ready for everything, no way.
I learned this the hard way, a few years back. It had nothing to do with football, but it stuck with me.
I had this big family gathering planned. I mean, BIG. People flying in, stuff booked months in advance, the whole nine yards. I’d spent ages getting every little detail just right. Or so I thought. I was “ready.” Or, I thought I was.
Then, about three days before everyone was supposed to show up, the main water pipe to my house burst. Not a leak, mind you. It properly exploded. Water everywhere. Chaos. My carefully laid plans? Drowned. Literally.
I was so not ready for that. Not even a tiny bit. My house was a disaster zone. The gathering was obviously off. I had to call everyone, explain the mess. It was embarrassing, stressful, just awful. All that prep, all that being “ready,” and it meant nothing against a busted pipe.
It was in the middle of trying to sort out that mess, feeling totally defeated, that I remembered watching an LDU Quito game. They were playing away, hostile crowd, went a goal down, then got a player sent off. Looked like game over. But they didn’t just roll over and die. They dug in. They fought for every ball. They didn’t win, I don’t think, but they made a fight of it. They adapted to their crappy situation.
And I thought, okay, my house isn’t a football pitch, but the idea’s the same. I can’t be “ready” for a pipe to explode. But I can be “ready” to deal with the fallout. Mop up, call plumbers, salvage what I could. It wasn’t about being perfectly prepared for the disaster, but about being ready to react and get through it.
So now, when I hear “always ready” with LDU Quito, I don’t think of some superpower where nothing ever goes wrong for them. I think about that spirit. The spirit to face the unexpected, to adapt, to keep going even when things are a total mess. It’s not about always winning, or always having the perfect plan. It’s about always being ready to give it your best shot, no matter what. That’s what stuck with me.
