so true (and well-stated) I watch soccer because it's entertaining. I don't view it as some sort of second job. Some guy called me lazy because I don't force myself to view webcasts of some obscure team every week. WTF It's just fake to up and decide that you are going to follow some little team randomly or because you read about their cutesy little history. It's like you guys are trying to prove something to others or even to yourselves. You don't just up and decide that you are in love with a team. It's just something that happens. You shouldn't have to force yourself. It should not be work. You'll know you're a real soccer fan when you no longer constantly feel the need to prove to others and to yourself that you are a real soccer fan.
Could you big a bigger wanker? I started this thread because I find it more enjoyable to follow a league if their is a team I am paying attention to. I also started because I knew it would be fun to read the responses. People like you are the reason why so many people in America dislike soccer. Get off your high-horse you stuckup jackass.
I see...and deciding to follow ArsenalRealMadridManUACMilanChelsea because they always win everything is totally and utterly genuine and real.
Aren't we all? Just some more successful than others. A win in something like the Trophy will make up for it all.
to be honest you sound like someone who just wants to watch some games. If that's the case then just watch them - don't force yourself to pick a team. Eventually, after watching enough, a certain team may start to appeal to you more than others. For most this does, I'm afraid, tend to be the most successful team, but others may just have a fondness for a team's colours, their stadium, a particular player, the supporters or whatever, and get "a thing" for a team that way. It may never happen, but there really isn't much point deciding out of the blue that you are going to be a die-hard Newcastle supporter, or Grimsby supporter, or whatever. To be honest, for someone over here it's not easy to see the point in "supporting" a team you have no real connection with. No problem with having a favourite team, but you don't have to go the whole hog and declare them your one true love or anything. I have a strange fondness for the Czech team Bohemians Prague, based purely on seeing them on one 30 second clip about 20 years ago, and remembering the ground being so tight that the fans could reach out and shake the goal net when they scored. I have to confess I couldn't name their players, I've never seen them play (although I would have in the summer if they hadn't re-arranged a match with just 5 days' notice) and I never see them on TV - and as the club have just folded I'm not likely too either, but there is (or was) something about them that appealed to me and I'd go to their refreshingly frank web site and check out their score every sunday. I'd never be a fan though and I can't see why somene from another country would want to be a fan of a team in England.
Good points Richard. I just don't understand why people have to "support" a team. When I watch the NBA I like the Timberwolves and the 76ers, but I would never say that i supported either of them. art, I'm afraid you just sound a little bit too worthy. You talk about football and glory hunting, but it is about glory. That is the whole point of the game. Glory and enjoyment. If you enjoy supporting QPR, then good for you, but most people won't enjoy it. My advice to all fans trying to find a team is simple. Keep watching (if you enjoy it) and the team will find you. That way it will last, but if you just scan through the tables and say "these are the boys for me", this time next year you will be scanning the tables again and looking for another mob.
don't I? well i guess its true then. I'm not asking anyone to follow QPR (Ive never said I "support" them, there's a difference there), I do just because I sort of fell into it, QPR frankly chose me as much as I they, having to do with an ex which you'd think was enough of a reason to not follow them anymore. But they're the team ive always followed, such as the Orioles are the baseball team I've followed since I was 7, and the Colts since I was 8, and the Celtics since I was 10. Pick a team, they're yours for life. Otherwise dont call youself a anything other than a casual fan. My point is, in reading the actual TITLE of this thread, picking a club like Arsenal etc etc to "support" from 4,000 miles away is a bit like picking a different NBA team to follow every year based on who you think will do well, or NFL team, or any other, we all know those people that do that. If you're a casual fan, then whatever, be a casual fan, do whatever you want, follow whomever you want. Just dont presume to tell others they cant follow a smaller club that they cant see splashed all over the television every week, and dont presume to consider yourself any more of a 'genuine' fan because you do follow someone whom everyone knows and sees all the time.
Forest - then you could say you were a fan in the dark days before the ship was righted. Even more than Sheffield a sad sad story. Relegation looks possible. Ouch!!
I disagree with the idea that to only be a true fan and supporter that you need to be from the community from which the team originates. Especially when things like BitTorrent enable fans to grab video of most any game and and internet radio feeds allow one to listen otherwise.
Glory and enjoyment?!!? For some perhaps, but football is about more than that - you have to experience the lows to fully appreciate the highs. This is why most football fans look down at what they perceive to be glory hunters. My own team, Wolves, picked up a lot of glory hunters in the 50's when they were unofficially the best team in Europe. Since then, those who have stayed loyal have had to put up with plenty of dross, Division 4 football, losing to non-league teams in the FA Cup, near bankrupcy, but all those factors make any future success taste that bit sweeter. Victory in the playoff final, after years of failed promotion bids, was met with euphoria by most Wolves fans. Not a Premier League title or an FA Cup win perhaps, but it meant so much to us. Rollercoaster rides are so much more fun!! Who'd want to win the Champions League every year anyway?
gospel. rep for that. you can only love winning as much as you hate losing. you wanna know who to support? when a side loses, and you're genuinely gutted - that's who you support. to just say "this is who i'll support, and i'll be happy when they win" is thoroughly contrived. if one hasn't made an investment - and the payment is the grief of losing - his support is just talk.
Obviously, but even United fans hurt. No one wins everything, it just means your expectations are changed.
of course. i'm just saying that being a supporter is not simply a matter of making a reasoned, conscious decision - and the job's done. certianly this can be the initial step in the process - but just deciding isn't what makes one a supporter. so i was just suggesting that he'd know who he supported not when he says "ok. it's QPR". and not when QPR wins a match and he thinks "hey, that's swell". it'll be when QPR loses, and he feels like his dog died - despite the fact that this is a wholly irrational response to the result of men kicking about a ball out on a small patch of land - that he'll know he supports QPR (or whoever).
How do you get SkySports in the states? Didnt realise they broadcast it over there. Go for Plymouth Argyle!! Promoted last season and the season before and now in the championship, although we are havin a crappy season. You said you wanted underdogs!
Go for Argyle..It is never dull..We have some great highs and some incredible lows( like the one we are going through now)..We have had some obscure players and some massive names ie. Peter Shilton /Paul Mariner/Bruce Grobbelar and Hughie Reed. People from Plymouth have ties all around the world.None more so than with the States..1620, pilgrim Fathers etc.. The world is Bright .The world is GREEN
Sheffield F.C. do still exist I think they're in either Unibond one or northern counties east league. If I wasn't to late I'd ask House 18 to support Derby County, check out the history on the web.