I don’t remember there being a decent football thread on this forum.
The new season has started and a great start to the Premier League - no draws so far.
So, time to declare you allegiances whatever the country or league - limited to football (or soccer as some people call it).
Sunderland for me.
We had a ropey season last year, but a new manager, new money and several new signings mean that we should be looking towards a better time this year.
Oh, did you know Newcastle were relegated last year?
This is because this forum is populated mostly by Americans, who adore a bat-and-ball game that is played elsewhere in the world, if at all, only by pre-pubescent schoolgirls in short skirts and another game in which grown men wearing ludicrous padding spend most of the time beating each other up (when they’re not standing around aimlessly, that is) after someone has thrown a misshapen ball along a line of the padded men. The best bit of the latter game is the raucous nonsense on the touchline perpetrated by oddly-dressed females jumping up and down in rehearsed unison, chanting as they go. At least they have nice legs to distract attention from the farce being played out on the pitch.
So to your question. Until this season, the only team for me was Liverpool FC - the aggressive vitality of Gerrard, the tireless workmanship of Kuyt, the coltish elegance of Torres, Mascherano the midfield general… I can’t help feeling that selling Alonso was a bad idea, but not quite as bad an idea as Man U selling Ronaldo. But this season the team of my boyhood, Burnley, are back in the top flight and they have already humiliated Man U! Who could forget those glory days in the early 60s when Burnley won the League with a team costing £9,000! The magic of the great Jimmy McIlroy - was there ever a player who better graced the beautiful game! That was the era of Matthews, Lofthouse and the “Preston Plumber,” Tom Finney, still regarded by many as the greatest player of all (though personally I think Pele and Maradona should be in the reckoning )
I shall be rooting for Liverpool for the title race and, of course, the Champions League, and just willing Burnley to survive then build…
A bad start for Liverpool in the first game, but they are back on form.
It was great to see Burnley beat Man U, but that was just hiccup for Fergie.
I watched the Wigan match live yesterday and Man U. destroyed them in the second half.
Chelsea and Arsenal have also come out raging.
I am looking forward to watching games between the big four.
Another win for Sunderland yesterday, so we have 6 points from 9.
A decent start, but they still need work in defence.
Oh, there are plenty of Americans who are devoted soccer/football spectators. Bazillions really. It’s just that, in these cases, the players are all <10 years old.
I suppose you’ve never heard of Japan, Taiwan, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba, and the other countries that altogether make up close to half the players in the Major Leagues?
There’s an LA football club that’s packed with top notch players, that can’t seem to get all their shite into one boot (so to speak). Oh yeah, they’re called LA Galaxy. I used to be partial to them.
The hooliganism you’re referring to has long been confined to the dustbin of history. Stadiums are far more civilised places now than the cattle-pens we were subjected to in our youth. The Hillsborough disaster saw to that. Considering the vast numbers who pack out football grounds every week, there is very little trouble these days, but there remains the robust and electric partisan atmosphere to which you allude. Of course, there will always be the odd idiot or two, and I’m sure this post will have you scurrying through newspaper websites for examples, as well as clumsy and neurotic inner-city police forces that can’t distinguish good-humoured larking about by the vast majority from real trouble caused by the tiniest minority, but just remember the millions who go along for the game and go home happy that they have had a great (but expensive ) sporting day out.
Your loss. Baseball is to cricket what the Sex Pistols are to Mozart. Of course, understanding and appreciating greatness takes a little effort. Three out of 300 million is a start I suppose…
I’m a member of the Red Army, though Aberdeen haven’t had the best start to the season. A new manager, hardly any signings, being humped in Europe 8-1 on aggregate then losing the first game of the season 1-3 at home to Celtic hasn’t gone down well.
But we smashed Hamilton yesterday to finally get off the mark so things are looking up again.
Stand Free,
Wherever you may be
We are the famous Aberdeen
We don’t give a ****
Whoever you may be
We are the famous Aberdeen
)
) sporting day out.
