With the dawn of a new EPL season upon us on Saturday 8/17, I was curious how many of us actually follow EPL and who is excited by the prospect of being able to watch each and every game? I am also curious about what teams everybody follows / supports and why they came to that choice? My idea for this thread was sparked by @Dills post about how to choose your EPL team by the 700 Level. Myself, I am an Everton fan. I am a relatively new fan of the Toffees (around 2008 or so)and probably started to follow them as a result of the fact that they had a few American players on their team. I am very excited that I will be able to follow them more closely this year. I won't just have to watch Man U, Chelsea and whoever they play that week. I must admit though, it does feel a bit strange to put on an Everton kit and scarf after wearing my Union stuff all year. At least it's blue!
My rooting interests are based solely on geographic ties....so, if im just arbitrarily picking a team, im picking the one with the coolest name.
When I always followed soccer but only had one team USMNT until maybe 4-5 years ago. Jonny Spector was one of my favorite players and I grew to love West Ham United. Jonny was released/didn't want to resign when we were relegated but I grew to like WHU more than Jonny Spector.
I'm an Arsenal fan by default ... two of my closest soccer buddies follow the Gunners, so I kind of fell into step with that. Been to the Emirates to see them play a few (6?) years ago, so I got that going for me, too. NBC Sports' EPL Picker originally told me I'm a Southampton fan after I gave it access to my Twitter account. Could be because that's where I live? Real scientific, that. Now when I go through it without allowing access to my social networks, and just answering the questions, I'm apparently a West Brom fan. Erm, what?
It's always nice to see/meet fellow Evertonians. My wife brought me a scarf when she was doing her student teaching in St. Helens in the mid 90's. Just thankful the family she stayed with weren't Reds. Been to Goodison and Anfield, just never for a match. Someday.
Chelsea fan for a long time. Had Fox Soccer Plus so the new TV deal is no big deal to me, although save now $15 per month after cancelling Fox Soccer Plus. May however get problems with the Champions League since Fox has retained those rights.... Tir Na Nog is where we watch Chelsea games. The Chelsea affiliation was great in getting into the recent U23 game (and getting invited to special sessions (such as the signatures one) when Chelsea was in town for the All-Star game last year)!
EPL is a snoozefest. Overhyped and never been able to hold my attention. Bundesliga started last weekend. Every game I watched was a great back and forth match, from the top teams to the bottom.
College football consumes my Saturdays in the fall. If I had to pick a team...Derby County. I like their colors...and logo...and it makes me imagine some raggedy team from like Carbon County or something.
I watch my college footbal too. Rutgers, WVU, and Florida every weekend. EPL games usually in the morning so you can actually do both!
Casually started following City in the mid to late nineties because I was mad for Oasis. Around 99/00 I became more obsessive with access to NYC "soccer bars" and their improved internet presence. Now they're "ruining football" and I don't mind because it's so much easier to watch them these days.
Ahhh..... @Mr. Warmth and his sunshine have arrived. What brings you to our little corner of Big Soccer? I'm sorry, did I not identify it properly as the BPL?
Have we met? Did you use to be someone else? I dunno. The asinine concept that I or anyone would have an "allegiance" to a sports team w/o no cultural connection to said team, other than it's occasionally on TV from another country. Shit, I might as well be a fan of Barcelona's basketball team. Don't care.
Maybe you could start a team and call it First Peoples FC? Care to play a pickup game of pasuckuakohowog? Hardly occasionally, and it's not like we're picking up some remote microwave transmission from Barnard's Loop.
Seems like every clown that hears OKC is getting a NASL/USL team wants to "honor" me by calling the team "Savage FC" or something. I'm just hopeful that now that the queers can get married and you can't call them mean names anymore, we can really ratchet down on this "R3dsk1ns" bullshit. Sadly, more people have a gay friend than an NDN friend. I'll be playing ishtaboli in a week or so, so I'll have to pass to make sure I have half a day left in my knees. That was more for the generation of us that are longtime England poseurs who've never been out of the state, but have been following Liverpool, Arsenal, Celtic "for life".
Wherever the Americans are playing... otherwise I don't really care what happens.... if no Americans are on the field I'll loosely root for the underdog.
No. And no, I've always been me. It's just that I'm aware of the snark that you spread in other threads. Just wondering why you'd wander into our forum and bring your "warmth" here. Why is it assinine that someone might be a fan of MLS, and also enjoy watching EPL games. Some people who watch also might like to follow a specific team as well. If you don't get it, that is your problem. Then don't put your nose into others conversation.
It'll be nice to be able to watch Everton more often, and also keep tabs on Jozy Altidore at Sunderland. I'm an Everton Fan. Mainly because of Tim Howard, but also due to the fact that they are an underdog, and represent a hardworking blue collar community. I like that they don't spend beyond their means.
Chose Aston Villa a few years ago because of their history and the fact that they've been pretty bad for quite a while now. Also my family has a friend who lives in Birmingham where Villa plays. Having Brad Guzan as the GK helps to