Well i have been looking for a decent site in which to share views and opinions with fellow gunners. Ive been lurking on this site for ages so have decided to take the plunge! I live twenty minutes from the Arsenal ground, been a season ticket holder overthere for the last ten years, but been a fan for twenty five years (im thirty) although only an 'active' fan the last fifteen. Followed the club through spain belguim italy france germany greece holland and denmark, some of those countries more than once. Also i have attended the last nine finals, domestic & european from 1987. Of course i was in cardiff, ive still got the bruises on my legs to prove it! Thats about it... ohh yeah.. played for the juniors..! Anyway.. a question! The members of this site, are they english ex pats, or born and bred in the usa, obviously theres going to be a mix, but im not sure how big "soccer" is in the united states, or indeed our premier league, so how did those born in the usa discover (proper) football, and, indeed, arsenal??
I red Fever Pitch and that sparked my interest. I've been playing the FIFA games on PS and PS2 for years and I always picked Arsenal for some reason. I never was any good at soccer. I played a few years in youth leagues and thats about it. I found this board through someone on a Dave Matthews Band board and decided to start posting.
hmm thanks! i was just curious, ive been to the united sates nine times (ten this oct) when ever i get talking to americans about arsenal, they have got no idea who/what i am talking about! ..then i found this site that seem to be a hive of activity! The only match i watched overthere was the arse vs. juventus. Im planning a seattle/oklahoma/dallas trip. On which channels are the gunners likely to be on?? is football (sorry but i HATE calling it soccer!) that popular in the united states? what is the general opinion of the mls, is it popular, gaining popularity or is it a thing for "losers"??? i watch some of the matches here. Apart from dallas, are there any teams in oklahoma and seattle that are well worth watching?
Glad you found us. I would say this board is 65%-45% US to rest of the world. Most of us Yanks trace our support all the way back to Fever Pitch or Dennis Bergkamp. To be fair, some since the 70s. Soccer, especially European, gets little play here. We follow mostly through the Internet and the cable staion FOX Sports World. I'm the president of Arsenal America, the supporters club here in the US/Canada. If you've seen a copy of the Arsenal magazine, I've had a monthly column in there.
Gunners games most likely be on Fox Sports World. Check this site: www.arsenalamercia.com . On the right side there is a link to US viewing spots. You can search by city and postal code. Soccer is starting to get more popular in the States. With the World Cup last year and MLS getting better, soccer will continue to grow. My best friend as a kid was a very good player and so are his brothers. They've been my connection to all the youth and traveling leagues in the States. Soccer has a lot of other sports to compete against and Americans are very passionate about their teams. I'm not sure about the teams in Oklahoma and Seattle. There might be some A-League teams in those places, because there are no MLS teams.
I for one, trace my fandom back to the World Cup and seeing David Seaman and Dennis Bergkamp for the first time in '94. It was augmented by video games and helped along by seeing highlight shows on Fox Sports Net late Sunday nights in college. Soccer/football here is still sort of a fringe sport still. MLS is accepted but not necessarily revered in the same way as other sports leagues are in the US. I think it's gaining popularity as more kids are playing the sport, but it still is a distant fifth to the big four here (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey). In certain cities, it's pretty big, but most of the country (including Pittsburgh, where I live) is more into American football. But, like with everything else, the whole country suddenly becomes huge fans when the US teams compete in the World Cup.
By all means, rooni, call it football because thats what it is. If we were on the MLS DC United site than you would have to refer to the game as soccer but since we are here to talk the English game its football to us. If you come to this country and are only visiting, it may be hard to watch the Gunners as they are on Foxsportworld which is primarily a satellite channel. Get on Arsenalamerica.com and you can get a pub guide to where you may see a match. 442 is right, the majority on here are Americans born and raised but I think you will find that we know the Gunners as well as most.
Yes, some had no choice as their U-7 coach determined the course of their life long affiliations with Arsenal Football Club back when Disco still lived and walked around wearing bell bottoms and wide collared polyester shirts...
I don't blame ya cos I'm also another fellow Londoner and live near Islington! The Americans do create some funny words sometimes lol j/k
I have played football since age 7 and still play in a couple of adult leagues to this day. It was mentioned that some of the people on this board started supporting (or rooting for..sorry Loon) Arsenal because of Bergkamp. I'm one of those people. I traveled to Orlando to watch Holland play Ireland in a 2nd round match of the 1994 World Cup and started following Bergkamp's career thereafter. I've been hooked on the Gunners ever since he arrived. Kind of random, I realize, but I suppose unless you were born or grew up in North London or have a relative that supports a team, it's no more random than a lot of other reasons. I have not made it to Highbury yet but plan on doing so in October. As others have mentioned, if you're here in the states, your best bet for catching matches is at a pub. Football is slowly gaining in popularity here but it is still primarily viewed as a participatory sport for kids and not so much as a sport worthy of serious television/adverstisers time.
i am from louisiana here in the states. i have been playing soccer since i was 5 (i'm 20 now), and the first select team that i was on when i was 10 was called arsenal. i have been a fan ever since. the irony is that my dad is a fan of the scum. c'est la vie. that's my story
Welcome. I'm a Londoner, born in Clapham, living in NYC. MY dad was a ManUre fan, mainly because of the way they bounced back after the Munich crash. He never put me under any pressure to follow the same team, so I chose a London club. Didn't give my son such freedom, he had his first gunners kit when he was a few months old!