If a person equates "authenticity" of fandom with whether a person stands, sings, waves a flare or paints a tifo, I would suggest that they themselves don't get what being a "fan" truly is. There's more connection and emotional investment demonstrated by the guy biting his nails, butterflies in his stomach, barely able to watch during a pivotal moment, than by any amount of singing or banner-waving. Though that's not to say the two are mutually exclusive by any means.
You can be quietly invested in a team without making a big show of it at games. Conversely, you can show up to tailgates, get hammered, spend two hours in a supporters group loudly chanting and yelling--and know little if anything about the players, the club, and for that matter have no real interest in anything but the game day experience. EDIT: I should make it clear--BOTH approaches are fine.
Yeah me personally I rather sit and just observe, cheer when a play is made, stuff like that. Personally I'd rather hear the oooh's and aah's when there's action on the field then someone beating drums. If people want to be loud thats fine, just don't criticize the other.
Are you referring to 30 er 40 er 50 years of hurt. Oh, and I'm English, well dual, but becoming more interested in the USA's fortunes than hapless England.
Yeah but with that said, if someone does try to one-up us with "1966", we can just cite the last time the US won the World Cup... oh, that's right...
True, there are only 6 countries that can talk shit at England Re: 1966. Even the mighty Brasil have only won twice in the past 45 years. WCs are tough af to win!
Competive matches 29 Jun 1950 USA v England L 1-0 FIFA World Cup 09 Jun 1993 USA v England L 2-0 US Cup 12 Jun 2010 England v USA D 1-1 FIFA World Cup 1993 teams USA Meola, Agoos, Armstrong, Clavijo, Dooley, Doyle, Lapper, Harkes, Ramos, Wegerle, Wynalda Subs used: Cobi Jones, Lalas, Stewart England: Woods, Dixon, Dorigo, Batty, Clough, Ince, Palmer, Sharpe, Barnes, Ferdinand Subs used: Wright, Walker I've lost faith in England. I'm more interested in the US now, though I'll still support England in Russia.
In fairness, it was harder to qualify back then, which is probably why we struggled to do so, despite our clubs being fairly dominant in Europe during the late 70s and early 80s. Liverpool, Villa and... oh they're on the tip of my tongue...
The European Cup wasn't played in 1979 and 80. At one point Liverpool were putting out a team with only one or two English players, a portent of things to come.
I can't bring myself call it a soccer cleat. The Bobby Charlton bit is a worthy attempt to connect with foreigners too stupid to speak English. "Foreign gobbledygook, double dutch, throat clearing" "Sorry, no speaky. Parlez vous Inglaterra? Do you speak English? I SAID, DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?" "More confusing gobbledygook" "Er...Bobby Charlton" "Ah...Bobby Charlton" "1966" "Ah Coupe del Mondo, tres bono!" "Tres bueno" Silence "But Bobby Charlton" fakes heading the ball "Si, Bobby Charlton" points and fakes kicking the ball "Er........................Pele!" "Si Pele, verrrry good".
the 'hardcore' USMT fans are amongst the dumbest, grossest, holier than thou, morons I've ever met. If they are part of an 'army' or they are singing about how they 'believe' that we're going to win, just turn the cheek and walk away. i'll never forget getting harrassed by some middle aged, overweight, scarf wearing schlub because I was sitting in my lawn chair 1hr before USA Portugal WC2014 Game. He made a comment about how he had "watched ever qualifier for this world cup". USMNT are insufferable
The US finished third in the first WC in 1930. Where was Englands team still trying to play with a square ball
I believe that was when England's stance was "there's no pint in us entering the World Cup, because we'd obviously win it". That's the snarky banter response. The honest answer is the same - the FA truly believed that back at the inception of the World Cup - except I'd tend to deliver it with a mixture of embarrassment and regret. English football has suffered many times and over long periods due to misguided arrogance from the Football Association. Fortunately, that attitude seems to be long gone. Unfortunately, it's been replaced with bumbling ineptitude.
Obviously you were drinking when you made that post that is why you said no pint instead of point I actually feel your national team should have done a lot better you have a lot of great players. In the 1980s Italians in Italy felt that their league had too many foreign born players in it, and if they had more in Serie A they would have done better in tournament play. Maybe the same might be true in your Premier league. Less foreign born and more Brits might make a difference.
England's problems begin at much younger ages. Note that Germany is doing fine even though fewer than half of Bundesliga players are German. There are still a lot of Germans playing starring roles at each of the Bundesliga's big clubs. The same can't really be said for England. The English players in the lineups of England's big clubs are mostly role players. That suggests a youth development problem, not a senior playing time problem.
I will tell you why I thought Germany won the World Cup, and why I thought they would do well before it started. Most of the German player were from two German teams the best two teams. Dortmund and Bayern Munich plus they took the best scores from their league. Plus they had a fantastic sweeper/keeper it was like playing with 12 players instead of 11. Plus they played a complete game short and long they could play in a lot of ways.they had a terrific game plan a Genius game plan.
It's a bit of a catch 22. Prior to the EPL era, England had seriously underperformed internationally and the European club ban just made it worse. The EPL had a coupe of effects: we were finally able to woo players from abroad and the wealth of our clubs now meant that they could demand higher fees for home grown players. Because the value was pushed up by what clubs could afford to turn down and not their actual quality, comparable foreign players were now cheaper. This led to more foreigners and less playing time for English players. So the primary cause for foreign players in the EPL is poor youth development, though their presence also has the knock on effect of limiting minutes for developing players.
Careful guys, with bringing up the last year a rival won it all. I rubbed in 1908 to cub fans forever, but then it backfired. Very true. To be fair, however, trump has made many reevaluate their nationalism since he has shown the world the foolishness of wanton nationalism in America. So some fans have calmed down and grown up. Not enough, tho, unfortunately.
I suspect the above was a complete and utter troll job, but just in case, behold the overwhelming whiteness of the USMNT (Alternative explanation: the poster is completely inarticulate and meant something else entirely):
No one was talking about the team, we were talking about the fans. I articulated it well, you just woefully misunderstood. There are buffoons among your fanbase, are you disputing that