tiki_taka
10 years ago
It may be called soccer where you live, but the whole world call it Football, dont be surprised if you get bantered while calling it soccer.
Welcome to the forum mate, for the club i live in France and my parents used to live in French Cataluna in the south of France, the catalan nation is like the basc country divided between Spain and France, so since i watched Football Barça was the team i support, when Barça was playing there was nobody on my neighbourhood streets, i have many Madrid fans in my family, as Football fanatics and near to Spain there was only Barça and Madrid fans...
As a North American, it can be tough as a soccer fan. First off, calling it soccer. It's a British term, and we already have a football game here, I can't understand why we get so much flack for it. But secondly, I often get nitpicked a lot for choosing to support a big club, (in this case, Manchester United). I get called all the names that bandwagon fans get called, which can be frustrating at times. So the purpose of this thread is for everyone to explain how they came to support the club they support now. International, domestic, whatever.
I'm Canadian, and as the world probably knows, hockey is the dominant sport here. MANY, MANY kids play soccer, but the thought of playing professionally doesn't even cross the mind, whereas in hockey, most Canadians know which 16-year olds will be superstars thanks to a fantastic junior league. There is very little opportunity or awareness of the professional soccer level, and most of that is due to the lacklustre media coverage soccer receives in Canada, and the United States.
When I was a kid, I played soccer but didn't follow it. It wasn't until I was about 8 or 9, (this would've been about 2006), when I had a Portuguese coach, that I was even aware that the entire sports world basically ran on soccer. Now being Portuguese, my coach was obviously a massive Ronaldo fan, and encouraged me to watch the World Cup that year. I was totally hooked. Being a dual-citizen with the United States, which is my birth country, I supported them until they went out in the group stages I think, and then I supported Portugal until they lost in the semi-final. Watching the final as an unbiased third party who didn't really know any of the players involved, I was struck by the sheer beauty of the game. Portugal had a shootout at somepoint during the tournament, so I was familiar with the concept when the final came down to it, and I just wanted to see more.
It may sound weird to you guys, but as a North American, you grow up with Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Football (the American version - still a huge fan of it) and others, all the leagues for which are entirely based in North America. Therefore, the only time I actually saw other nations get involved was at the Olympics, and again, go easy on me, I wasn't aware that there were dozens of large soccer leagues around the world. I operated for almost a full year after the 2006 WC thinking that there wasn't a place for people like Ronaldo to play outside of the WC. When the coach I mentioned previously told me I was wrong, I went out to find where Ronaldo played. At the time, he played for United.
Now, I wasn't a United fan right away, but there was a very large factor that would ultimately make me one, and that was the Champions League in 2008 that United ended up winning. Now the soccer coverage in North America is abysmal, but various stations do show the later rounds of the Champions League. I was watching the semi-final between United and Barca, and I was just sold on United. When the final came, and they beat Chelsea, I was a United fan forever. I'm more lucky now, TSN, which is the major Canadian TV sports provider does show EPL games now, which I'm able to watch in full HD, which is great. But most of my experiences watching soccer involve less-than-optimal streams online.
I wanted to share my story with you guys, because I think that, particularly in Europe and South America, it's very easy to take your "football" for granted. Canadian and American fans have to go to pretty steep heights to simply follow their favourite team. The vast majority of North American fans I do know support the club they do because it was the only one they ever saw play on TV.
Now, I'm also a fan of the Seattle Sounders in the MLS, and I support them fully as well. I don't think it is bad or inconvenient to support a European team and a domestic team, particularly when they have zero chance of playing each other in a competitive game. Although United did travel down for a friendly once, that was fun.
I just found this site, and I'm very impressed with the collection of highlights on here, and this will certainly be my go-to place to find highlights from leagues that receive zero media coverage here, Serie A and Ligue 1 being good examples. Bundesliga has a fantastic English YouTube channel, so I won't focus as much on those, but again, great job with this site.
So, what are the reasons that you support the club that you do? Was it a player? Country? Coach? Local team? Let's hear it!
As a North American, it can be tough as a soccer fan. First off, calling it soccer. It's a British term, and we already have a football game here, I can't understand why we get so much flack for it. But secondly, I often get nitpicked a lot for choosing to support a big club, (in this case, Manchester United). I get called all the names that bandwagon fans get called, which can be frustrating at times. So the purpose of this thread is for everyone to explain how they came to support the club they support now. International, domestic, whatever.
I'm Canadian, and as the world probably knows, hockey is the dominant sport here. MANY, MANY kids play soccer, but the thought of playing professionally doesn't even cross the mind, whereas in hockey, most Canadians know which 16-year olds will be superstars thanks to a fantastic junior league. There is very little opportunity or awareness of the professional soccer level, and most of that is due to the lacklustre media coverage soccer receives in Canada, and the United States.
When I was a kid, I played soccer but didn't follow it. It wasn't until I was about 8 or 9, (this would've been about 2006), when I had a Portuguese coach, that I was even aware that the entire sports world basically ran on soccer. Now being Portuguese, my coach was obviously a massive Ronaldo fan, and encouraged me to watch the World Cup that year. I was totally hooked. Being a dual-citizen with the United States, which is my birth country, I supported them until they went out in the group stages I think, and then I supported Portugal until they lost in the semi-final. Watching the final as an unbiased third party who didn't really know any of the players involved, I was struck by the sheer beauty of the game. Portugal had a shootout at somepoint during the tournament, so I was familiar with the concept when the final came down to it, and I just wanted to see more.
It may sound weird to you guys, but as a North American, you grow up with Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Football (the American version - still a huge fan of it) and others, all the leagues for which are entirely based in North America. Therefore, the only time I actually saw other nations get involved was at the Olympics, and again, go easy on me, I wasn't aware that there were dozens of large soccer leagues around the world. I operated for almost a full year after the 2006 WC thinking that there wasn't a place for people like Ronaldo to play outside of the WC. When the coach I mentioned previously told me I was wrong, I went out to find where Ronaldo played. At the time, he played for United.
Now, I wasn't a United fan right away, but there was a very large factor that would ultimately make me one, and that was the Champions League in 2008 that United ended up winning. Now the soccer coverage in North America is abysmal, but various stations do show the later rounds of the Champions League. I was watching the semi-final between United and Barca, and I was just sold on United. When the final came, and they beat Chelsea, I was a United fan forever. I'm more lucky now, TSN, which is the major Canadian TV sports provider does show EPL games now, which I'm able to watch in full HD, which is great. But most of my experiences watching soccer involve less-than-optimal streams online.
I wanted to share my story with you guys, because I think that, particularly in Europe and South America, it's very easy to take your "football" for granted. Canadian and American fans have to go to pretty steep heights to simply follow their favourite team. The vast majority of North American fans I do know support the club they do because it was the only one they ever saw play on TV.
Now, I'm also a fan of the Seattle Sounders in the MLS, and I support them fully as well. I don't think it is bad or inconvenient to support a European team and a domestic team, particularly when they have zero chance of playing each other in a competitive game. Although United did travel down for a friendly once, that was fun.
I just found this site, and I'm very impressed with the collection of highlights on here, and this will certainly be my go-to place to find highlights from leagues that receive zero media coverage here, Serie A and Ligue 1 being good examples. Bundesliga has a fantastic English YouTube channel, so I won't focus as much on those, but again, great job with this site.
So, what are the reasons that you support the club that you do? Was it a player? Country? Coach? Local team? Let's hear it!