I've been wondering how many people in the states follow the mnt? i dont neccesarily mean only sam's army, but everyone in general. I know there cant be any factual information but I just want to hear what people think the estimate is. edit: oops, i realized i put this in the wrong thread write as i posted it. can mods move this to usa fans and travel , sorry
Depends greatly on how you define it. In terms of actual hardcore fans we probably have around 100,000 but a lot more than that tune in for the World Cup and support us then
I've got no MLS team to follow locally (regionally though, Galaxy/Chivas), so I throw my weight behind USMNT. Hell even if I did have a club team to follow I'd still be a bigger supporter of the Nats.
Yeah, I'm from Vegas too and have been a US fan since 1994. Country over club guy all the way! (back then, the USMNT was practically a club) Sadly I've never been to a game in person , but I've watched and recorded about 90+% of all of the games since the 1994 WC (mostly on vhs, so I've got a big chore to convert 'em all to digital).
Vegas = support L.A. Galaxy, seriously! Unfortunately, you will find a smaller percentage of U.S. fans in SoCal than elsewhere, but the numbers have been on the rise noticeably since the 1990 World Cup. Local coverage based on a local player's making the national team is a huge boost too. That helped with Donovan in the Inland Empire, and someone from Indiana told me Beasley got the team a lot of attention in Indiana. The effect, at least back then, was really so extreme as to introduce many people to the fact that there even was a national team to follow.
I had this experience back in 1994. I played AYSO soccer when I was younger (back in the early 80's in San Diego). I grew up knowing that I liked soccer, but I had never seen (or even really heard of) soccer played at a higher level than rec leagues. I don't know how to explain it....I had heard of Pele (had seen him in a few movies...Victory!, something else ?....) and in 1992 I remember noticing that we had an Olympic team (never saw any play, just a scoreline during the Olympic coverage) and I had seen by this time that college soccer existed but it never even occurred to me that there was professional soccer. I even knew that soccer was the most popular sport in the world, but my experience had been just with the rec league stuff and that's how I thought of it. It wasn't until 1994 that I realized we had a National team and that the WC existed. I was in a grocery store and picked up a magazine that had a soccer ball on the cover (Newsweek WC special....Tony Meola was on the cover with a soccer ball). I bought it and stated reading through it and discovered the WC existed and would be played in the US. My very first USMNT (and any other level higher than rec league) game I ever watched was USA vs Switzerland. (Eric Wynalda has been my favorite player ever since.....it also helped that a friend of mine had gone to high school and played with Eric and Cobi in Westlake Village....I found that out after I had begun showing the magazine to my friends to see what they thought.) I've been hooked since (and like I said before, have copies of almost every single televised USMNT game from that point).
I'm more of a Country over Club guy too. I attribute it to the fact that I watched and rooted for the US at the '94 World Cup, even though I was very young before the start of MLS. I don't think I've missed a televised US game on since '95. Don't get me wrong, I love watching the Crew as well but there is just something extra and intangible that I feel when I watch the National team play. Only 23 years old and I've been to 17 National Team games, the first being the last sendoff game against Scotland in DC before the '98 World Cup and the last being against Ghana in Nuremberg at the World Cup. Don't know how many times daily I check and read the boards here and my other usual soccer sites. US soccer is constantly on my mind.
I'm more of a US fan than a club fan, though that'll change if Philly ever gets into MLS I suspect. I follow the Revs now, since I live up near Boston, but growing up near Philadelphia that's the only city that I'll ever have a passion for a team in. I try to get to a USMNT game anytime they are close (Gillette, E Hartford) and even made the trip out to Columbus for the US-Mex WCQ back before the last WC.
I love MLS and I love watching the Galaxy , but when i am watching the nats its just something different. I had watched the nats on tv , and when i finally got to go to a game it was just fantastic , and I knew from that point on US soccer was my life. I go to bed thinking about US soccer , and i wake up thinking about us soccer. I'm addicted , but I dont care...
I'm probably club and country. It's hard to just be country when they go long stretches without playing matches. Gotta have something to quench the thirst. It has been nice to see a couple more MNT members transfer into the EPL from more obscure leagues during the last window so that I can watch them on a semi-regular basis.
It's the Beefsteak magic We're wearin' Beefsteak hats Since it's all you can eat We said we'd fancy that We'll cut with our left hand We'll cut with our right And throw in Brooklyn Lager We'll eat all f***ing night! Oh when the steak! Goes marchin' in! Oh when the steak goes marchin' in! Oh I wanna be in that number Oh when the steak goes marchin' in! I'll see you, you caaaaaaant! I'll cut you first, mate!
The scary thing is I've seen you post that song twice in the past 4-5 days on two different completely unrelated message boards.