I was at a business conference on IT Security in San Diego CA this weekend. Had to leave at 9 am to get the final score from my laptop on Saturday. That evening I was standing in bar at the hotel, with my LFC jacket and hat on, when a stranger at the bar asked me what the score had been that day. That's not terrribly unusual, in itself, but it's usually an ex-pat Brit or a young kid. This was an american man. We got to talking and guess what, it was zpjohnstone, an irregular contributor to this board, kinda like me. Had to explain Big Soccer and my football mania to my office group, but it was a pleasant surprise to run into another BS'er out of the blue! Just had to share the story, not quite up to some of Kopite's and USScouse's but still there it is.
Really? I'm in my early 20s, and of the LFC supporters I randomly come across, 60 or 70% are ex-pats, and the Americans are nearly all in their 40s or older. I have only run into one or two people my age who follow the club. I wonder if this is a west coast thing? I spend most of my time in the Philly area, the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area in NC, and in Tampa. Is it "cooler" for the young crowd to support European football out west?
Funny, I ran into a Burnley fan born in Rochdale yesterday here in Kansas City. He started telling me about how he was at Turf Moor in the 1950s when Burnley beat us and we were relegated to the old Division Two that day. He must have been about usscouse's age
Re: Re: Small Big Soccer World Could have been but you didn't have to advertise it.. Bad times for the reds and it was just after their Wembley defeat by Arsenal and after a good season.
Re: Re: Re: Small Big Soccer World You're the only one on here older than me, so I have to give someone some stick
Re: Re: Re: Re: Small Big Soccer World Funny, I guess I'm the oldest guy around that can jockey a computer. You should have that tape by now...
I could be second -- I was born in the dead middle of the twentieth century. As to the young one's knowing the Liverpool kit, it must be because I'm around youth football and many of those kids know the various European kit and follow the EPL because it's some of the only non-MLS football in English they can see.
If you old farts are through... I've met two people via the net and LFC. Recently a guy from the LFC site came to hawaii and we met. He came to my house and watched a match and I took him snorkeling. So if any BS regulars ever make the trip over here, give me a shout first, we can hook up.
Re: Re: Small Big Soccer World Yeah, it was quite the random run-in, and quite nice to put a face to a user name. I swear though, I can't go anywhere and not have a somekind of random meeting though- For example, I was at Segrada Familia in Barcelona a while ago and ran into an old neighbor from Kentucky. As for running into Liverpool fans, it's only ex-pats around here, and yeah, all of them have been older than me (28). As you may have guessed, given the sports culture around here (if it ain't basketball, it ain't really a sport), there's not a whole lot of Kentucky born Liverpool fans. Even though I played soccer all the through high school, I probably never would have become a soccer 'fan' had I not spent some time living in England.
Last week I had an LFC jacket on and my Thai waiter at a Thai restaurant said "Oh is that Leverpool? I love Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler" Neither MiniLB nor I had the heart to tell him Robbie is at Man City!.