The Soccer Thread (IV)

Liverpool!
(I won't bother you a third time.)
The notion that I don't get to pick a team from the Prem because I'm not from England is ridiculous. I get to root for whom I choose to root for. Most of my teams (Steelers, Penguins, U.S. men) have a geographic connection, but not all.
I follow England's national team very closely -- I've probably spent more money watching their games than a lot of the English, because it costs $20-25 every time I want to see one of their qualifiers. I'm not from there. My ancestors aren't from there. But I developed an affinity for the team. That's my choice.

 

By "international support," they mean "We've already gouged our domestic supporters for every dime we can with rising season ticket prices, new shirts every year and mandatory ticket bundling, so now we, your beloved club, need your hard-earned cash, dear foreign consumer, to keep up with the Joneses." Fans in other countries are basically free money to them -- they buy merchandise and beef up TV numbers, but you never have to worry about them showing up and demanding to be entertained.

But Twoby is correct -- should you throw your undying, heartfelt support behind Liverpool, you will not lack for company. There are plastic Kopites the world over.

 

"I get to root for whom I choose to root for" is generally an attitude I translate as "Hey man . . . if I wanna jump on a bandwagon, I'm gonna do it!"

Anyway, I disagree. I'm someone who thinks you should support your hometown teams, and unless you grew up near a college, or a close relative attended that college, sorry: you don't get to root for that school. Just a view I follow; certainly don't expect anyone else to agree. I think this attitude has mostly been forged by meeting so many a-holes who support the Miami Hurricanes, none of whom have a connection to the school other than through their television set.

I do think this goes double for national team sports. I chose Italy 20 years ago as my "Other than the U.S." team, because my mother is Italian (though second generation) and I liked the way they play. Nothing wrong with disciplined defense as a style, with superlative attacking players, even if those attackers are too often shackled by the style. (cue the peanut gallery to say "They're DIVERS!!!!!!")

But ultimately, I'm a citizen of the USA. So that's my national team that I truly support. I don't get to form "an affinity" for another. Oh, I like to see Italy, England and Argentina do well, but mostly because the friends who got me into soccer as a wee laddie have parents who are natives of those nations, and they thus bleed with everything those teams do. Which makes me like seeing those friends - who all support the USA first and foremost - happy.

But I digress.

Getting to "choose" means that every U.S. soccer fan who wants to sound smart (and wants to go beyond just regurgitating terms like "Pitch! kit! side! pace! form!") grabs an EPL team. Because, you know, "MLS is an inferior brand of football! The players have no pace! The pitch is never well-manicured! Etc.!"

And inevitably, that EPL team is usually one of the four of Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea (a more recent phenomenon, of course) or Liverpool. They learn the words to "You'll never walk alone," think Sir Alex is a genius, scream phrases that include the word "Gunners!!!" and interrupt their own Yankee-bashing to turn a blind eye to Abramovich's spending.

Then, when they give attention to their own national team, they wonder "WHY isn't Freddy Adu installed as our midfield playmaker?!?!"

(I find that the Freddy Adu question is a great litmus test for the intelligence of U.S. soccer fans. Actual knowledge and ability to pay attention to things besides media hype can be told just in their opinion of Mr. Adu's relative importance to our national team).

So yeah . . . no thanks.

I suppose I could latch onto Roma or Palermo, since my mother's family hails from those places . . . and I admit, I own a Roma jersey.

The best man in my wedding is a guy whose parents are from London, so he briefly had me at least pulling for his beloved West Ham United. And had "Green Street Hooligans" been any good, I might have become a supporter.

But alas, it was not.

 

Over the last few months I've become more of a diehard MLS supporter. I've really upped my intake of live matches and have enjoyed being part of a proper club culture. Watching EPL on TV is no substitute for drinking, singing and sometimes fighting on the terrace.

 

I intend to continue to root for teams that I don't have Piotr's permission to root for.

I enjoyed the hell out of England's Ashes win today. For some reason, that team's always just stuck with me.

 

It's not a matter of "permission".

I expressed an opinion, just as others expressed their views. You disagree, fine. No need to respond with douchebaggery.

 

If you didn't mean it that way, cool, but you might want to consider the tone the average person will read into:

It reads awfully accusatory and d-baggy.

 

Accusatory?

OK . . . ask yourself this question: How many people, with the chance to "choose," end up supporting a non-power team?

"I love those Indiana Pacers! Big supporter of the San Diego Padres! Hell yes, Kansas City Chiefs! West Ham United, up the Hammers!"

Sports bandwagons are always full to the brim. Those who jump on them are usually closer to being "d-baggy" than those who do not. Not quite the "d-baggy" standard of the dudes who wear baseball caps with those 50FIFTY stickers still on the straight brim. But certainly something that can't be disputed. The need to support a winner runs deep in the average sports fan.

 

I managed to jump on the Norwich City bandwagon just in time to ride it to League One.

 

I'm guessing this isn't a scientific poll of people who have chosen to support teams they have no regional hometown for, just a pet peeve that's been triggered.

Especially since we were talking about becoming a fan of a sport where there's no regional team to choose from. I didn't choose the English cricket team because they were the best. They were in the middle of a rather demoralizing stretch, actually, and for whatever reason they just stuck with me.

By the same token, I've been trying to find an EPL team for years, and none of them ever stick. I can't just "decide" to root for a team, I have to feel it.

 

I adopted the GS Warriors at work. So there.

 

A pet peeve that comes from experience.

Just read places like bigsoccer.com. Heck, even this thread. Whenever something about MLS is brought up, it feels like we went off-topic.

It has been discussed here before, the fact that the USA is full of soccer fans who dismiss their own home league, then choose what happen to be top EPL teams to root for. I personally think that's cheap, and much too easy. "Well, I'll just choose a winner!" Again, just an opinion I have. I know it's not a popular one.

And your last point is precisely why I cannot support an EPL team. How can I ever "feel it" for a team that plays across the pond, where I have no ties?

IJAG: you are just a glutton for punishment. Or you liked Baron Davis.