Help me pick a club

[WFU03]

Hi all,

I'd like to pick a German club to follow. Here's my primary criteria:
1. Be able to watch them ocassionally on American TV.
2. Have active internet community in German.
3. Have a fairly intelligent fanbase in that community.

Why, you ask? I'm working on improving my German and I would like to pick up more slang and informal German...like you would get on a message board. I also love soccer and don't currently have Bundesliga team.

Much like Bill Simmons was searching for an EPL team, I'm searching for a Bundesliga team. Hell, I'll even accept an Austrian Bundesliga team if the arguments are persuasive enough.

So, who should I pick?

[LoewenBoy]

Well before the proganda begins from the masses on how great their clubs are, here is some rational, impartial advice:

I'd like to pick a German club to follow. Here's my primary criteria:
1. Be able to watch them ocassionally on American TV.
Pretty much limits you to the 1.BL since 2.BL and below do not get US air time.

2. Have active internet community in German.
Hell, that could be just about ANY club.:D There are many, many fun clubs. My advice is don't just stampede to one of the more successful clubs just because they are the biggest or best. Talk to the people who follow the club. THAT is, IMHO, the best way to figure out which club to follow. Football following in Germany is an art form. The fans are fantastic. Find a club you can relate to and join them. Its not rocket science...its a bit like finding a wife really.:D

3. Have a fairly intelligent fanbase in that community.
Well that rules out a few clubs I know.;)

You talked about improving your German, joining a German-language list is a great start. They are VERY patient with new joiners and would be thrilled to have you.

[russ99]

Hi all,

I'd like to pick a German club to follow. Here's my primary criteria:
1. Be able to watch them ocassionally on American TV.
2. Have active internet community in German.
3. Have a fairly intelligent fanbase in that community.

Why, you ask? I'm working on improving my German and I would like to pick up more slang and informal German...like you would get on a message board. I also love soccer and don't currently have Bundesliga team.

Much like Bill Simmons was searching for an EPL team, I'm searching for a Bundesliga team. Hell, I'll even accept an Austrian Bundesliga team if the arguments are persuasive enough.

So, who should I pick?

Welcome!

I guess my best advice is that if you get GOL.TV via satellite or digital cable, I'd watch some Bundesliga games and pick a team that you like by watching football.

If I were starting to follow German football (if I didn't know of 1860 from Peter Nowak and then went to a game in Munich), I'd watch a lot of games of an exciting successful team. A place to start would be watching top clubs like Hamburger SV or Werder Bremen. Some of the smaller clubs are also lot of fun to watch, like Nürnberg and Hannover. Of course, these would be my choices, you'd likely pick differently. After 6-8 weeks of watching football on TV, you'll come to a club choice fairly quickly. Also, if you plan on visiting Germany or have already, it's really quite easy to associate with a club from where you're going or have been.

The clubs with the most fun and vocal supporters seem to be the so-called tradition teams in lower divisions, like FC St. Pauli.

One word of warning, stay clear of FC Bayern. They're like the N.Y. Yankees or Chelsea of the Bundesliga, buying up all the best players from the smaller German clubs and usually win the title every season. Also, a lot of their support is fickle. I do know some real Bayern fans in Munich and of course, present BigSoccer Bayern-fan company excluded. :p

[LoewenBoy]

One word of warning, stay clear of FC Bayern. They're like the N.Y. Yankees or Chelsea of the Bundesliga, buying up all the best players from the smaller German clubs. Also, a lot of their support is fickle. Of course, I do know some real Bayern fans and present Bayern-fan company excluded. :p
I was trying to stay neutral. Notice I went the whole post without once saying, "Scheiss Bayern" or "Zieht den Bayern die Lederhosen aus". Did not do it once. I was good. Nor did I once post the anti-bayer website link of www.antibayern.de (http://www.antibayern.de). See, I wanted to remain complete and utterly neutral.:D

[russ99]

I was trying to stay neutral. Notice I went the whole post without once saying, "Scheiss Bayern" or "Zieht den Bayern die Lederhosen aus". Did not do it once. I was good. Nor did I once post the anti-bayer website link of www.antibayern.de (http://www.antibayern.de). See, I wanted to remain complete and utterly neutral.:D

I tried to be nice too, I was just warning the new person as politely as possible. I guess they'll find out soon enough. :)

[Holbrook]

I can tell you that you should follow a team based on watching teams and finding one that you really like to watch. But if I can be a bit biased, if I were you I would follow Werder Bremen. They are usually right up near the top, but don't have that big-money mentality to where they can buy up all the talent in Germany. They usually play very attack-minded and creative football and they have some really good players to watch, (Frings, Klose, Klasnic). There is even an article on ESPN about how they have become Germany's new Monchengladbach (team everyone likes to follow from the '70s). Just a suggestion, but to me, they are the most fun team to watch in the Bundesliga.

Here is that ESPN article (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=376618&root=europe&cc=5901)

[sportfriend]

you'll probably be happiest with Bremen...But in the 1st Buli i'd pick...FCN probably

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

One must say though :

Nuernberg will probably not be shown on foreign TV a huge amount as they aren't one of the most "appealing clubs for foreign television" to put it in my most formal words.

Also, for someone trying to learn new basic German, Nuernberg fans may not be the easiest to follow as their accent can be a little hard to understand at times if you're just learning German - as with SC Freiburg or VfB Stuttgart ;)
If learning and improving your German is a high priority, i'd pick a side from North Germany - most international people learning the language find them easiest to understand :)

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Hertha Berlin end of story, whats the point of this thread, we all know who is da best, :p

[BayernWake]

Hi all,

I'd like to pick a German club to follow. Here's my primary criteria:
1. Be able to watch them ocassionally on American TV.
2. Have active internet community in German.
3. Have a fairly intelligent fanbase in that community.

Why, you ask? I'm working on improving my German and I would like to pick up more slang and informal German...like you would get on a message board. I also love soccer and don't currently have Bundesliga team.

Much like Bill Simmons was searching for an EPL team, I'm searching for a Bundesliga team. Hell, I'll even accept an Austrian Bundesliga team if the arguments are persuasive enough.

So, who should I pick?

As a Wake Forest University alumnus, you can trust me when I tell you to support Bayern. Study abroad at the Flow House in Vienna, by the way.

[shinyyy]

To be completely honest, I would pick Stuttgart. If Bremen wasn't where my roots are, I would be following them.
1. You won't get branded as a glory-hunter
2. They've established a place in the Bundesliga, aren't in danger of relegation as long as they get rid of their current coach ASAP, and get a fair amount of airtime on GolTV.
3.They play good soccer.
4.They have a solid lineup with good young players like Gentner, Gomez, Beck, etc.

As far as your original criteria goes, I'm not completely sure if this team will satisfy you, but I think you would be happy following Stuttgart.

[WFU03]

Thanks for all the replies. I should have put that I wasn't going to pick Bayern in my original post.

Got a few good substantive posts (not just anti-Bayern)...but I'd love to here any passionate arguments for supporting a team. If you want to provide links to fansites or crazy webpages (like the anti-Bayern one), all the better. If you want to make an historical argument, that works too.

Not sure if it matters, but the only cities in Germany that I have been to are Berlin and Munich.

PS-BayernWake...already did study at the Flow House...amazing place. I'm actually a grad student at Wake now. Had to come back after the first time around.

[BayernWake]

PS-BayernWake...already did study at the Flow House...amazing place. I'm actually a grad student at Wake now. Had to come back after the first time around.

Nice, wish I could do the same.

[sportfriend]

WELL don't support Bayern, because it's Bayern AND they speak bavarian hahaha, probably more confusing than what the SCF, KSC, and VFBaaaeh fans speak :D

ok my picks......

Werder
Bielefeld (best pick!)
Hamburg
Hannover
Wolfsburg

[HeyaBVB]

As a Wake Forest University alumnus, you can trust me when I tell you to support Bayern. Study abroad at the Flow House in Vienna, by the way.
Lol

SUpporting Bayern is nothing more than being a bandwagon fan ... no true fan takes you serious ...


If you want a german club with a respectable fanbase, take Dortmund, HSV, Bremen ... even Schalke ... but not the FC Arrogance

[Vfbstuttgartfan]

WELL don't support Bayern, because it's Bayern AND they speak bavarian hahaha, probably more confusing than what the SCF, KSC, and VFBaaaeh fans speak :D

ok my picks......

Werder
Bielefeld (best pick!)
Hamburg
Hannover
Wolfsburg

Hannover might be a good pick if the person is American. It's not a small town, definetely got a city atmosphere, it hosted WC games, and with Cherundolo there's that American connection which might appeal to him.

Same goes for Gladbach who have an American captain, a nice big stadium. They are a fairly strong side, probably in the top half of the Bundesliga ability-wise. They are also historically one of the "traditionteams" of the Bundesliga with a big history of success and brilliant players. That may not be the case at the moment, but i think they are slowly on their way back up towards the higher echelons of the Bundesliga. They also have a very large, dedicated fanbase.

[F96]

Hannover might be a good pick if the person is American. It's not a small town, definetely got a city atmosphere, it hosted WC games, and with Cherundolo there's that American connection which might appeal to him.

Plus noone could accuse you of being a bandwagoner right now and it's certainly never boring with 96. *sigh*

Going with Bremen would be the boring choice, if not Hannover then go with
Gladbach:
http://forum.borussia.de/index.php

I had to rule out Frankfurt and Schalke because of point #3. :/

[sportfriend]

yeah just don't be a glory hunter man :D

[Zak1FCK]

Got a few good substantive posts (not just anti-Bayern)...but I'd love to here any passionate arguments for supporting a team. If you want to provide links to fansites or crazy webpages (like the anti-Bayern one), all the better. If you want to make an historical argument, that works too.

http://www.roteteufel.de/

1. One of the best fans in German Soccer.

2. One of the original founders of the Bundesliga. There is a ton of history at this club.

3. Home of half of the 1954 German National Team, including the Captain and hero Fritz Walter.

4. It is hillbilly soccer.

5. This year is an aberration. The only other year not spent in top flight soccer, they won the Bundesliga title the next year.

[Doc_Aeppler]

You might wanna check out Rec Bull Salzburg, I heard they are looking for "fans" that "pick" their team... :D