Re: Football Chat Thread : Sun Jul 17, 2011 10:20 pm  

Asim wrote:

Brazil miss all 4 of their shoot-out penalties to go out of the Copa America to Paraguay.

Larissa Riqueleme will be pleased......

Re: Football Chat Thread : Sun Jul 17, 2011 10:53 pm  

Conroy wrote:

Who cares? They're all just glory hunting w@nkers and part of the reason why football is the way it is these days.

There's definitely going to be GHW among them, and it is a difficult thing for the English to accept foreign supporters without suspicion, but there are good reasons to follow English football.

Football is a fairly new sport in many of the expanding countries. But football is an awesome sport, and the Premier League one of the best leagues, if not the best, so obviously someone who is just starting watching the sport in Asia is going to be attracted to the best the sport has to offer.

On the other side, I have chatted with an American who was wearing a Chelsea shirt. He was pretty much just a new soccer fan who chose the shirt just because he liked the colour. It was a choice between a Chelsea shirt or a Liverpool shirt, and the blue won. There's no way that kind of support tallies with a "real" supporter, but it doesn't mean he won't become a real supporter over time.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:01 pm  

Conroy wrote:

Or support teams in their own league.

I was in Morocco a couple of weeks ago and I was actually ranting over breakfast about the fact that about 75% of young men seemed to be wearing foreign football shirts, usually Barcelona or Real Madrid, and I got angry when the bloke working the desk at my hotel turned up in a Madrid shirt, the day after he'd been wearing a Barcelona one! I didn't see any kind of local teams shirt in my whole week there.

My opinion on this somewhat softened later that day however, when I was sat having lunch and a local wearing a Bradford City shirt wandered past!

Re: Football Chat Thread : Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:38 pm  

It was the same when I went to Tunisia in 2005, there was allsorts of football shirts(knock-offs mainly) from all around the world apart from Tunisian ones, then one day a local walked past with the old purple Leeds Rhinos shirt on from the late 90's/early 2000's. Even the Leeds fans didn't bother buying that one so no idea where he got it from

Re: Football Chat Thread : Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:11 am  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

There's definitely going to be GHW among them, and it is a difficult thing for the English to accept foreign supporters without suspicion, but there are good reasons to follow English football.

Football is a fairly new sport in many of the expanding countries. But football is an awesome sport, and the Premier League one of the best leagues, if not the best, so obviously someone who is just starting watching the sport in Asia is going to be attracted to the best the sport has to offer.

On the other side, I have chatted with an American who was wearing a Chelsea shirt. He was pretty much just a new soccer fan who chose the shirt just because he liked the colour. It was a choice between a Chelsea shirt or a Liverpool shirt, and the blue won. There's no way that kind of support tallies with a "real" supporter, but it doesn't mean he won't become a real supporter over time.

I love watching Barcelona play but am not a Barca fan and I don't cheer them and I wouldn't go wild if I ever saw them. Yes I'd wear a Barca shirt, but I wouldn't berate someone for wearing a Madrid one as I have no affiliation to Barca whatsoever. I was born and live in Wigan and so I support Wigan.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:26 am  

Conroy wrote:

I love watching Barcelona play but am not a Barca fan and I don't cheer them and I wouldn't go wild if I ever saw them. Yes I'd wear a Barca shirt, but I wouldn't berate someone for wearing a Madrid one as I have no affiliation to Barca whatsoever. I was born and live in Wigan and so I support Wigan.

I have zero interest in American sports, even though I live in the US. But in this Other Sports forum there are threads about MLB, the NFL and the NBA. Most of the people who like these sports pick teams to support. While their support doesn't seem to come close to the way they support English football and RL teams, it is a similar type of support.

Should these people be making do with the pale English imitations as well?

Even though England is very well served with mature sports and top level clubs, there is still support for sports and teams from other countries. I just don't see anything wrong with foreign countries getting behind the English PL because the game is a great one. Even some American's who I've talked to who like "soccer" say they cannot watch the MLS when they know it is such an inferior product compared to to major European leagues.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:35 am  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

I have zero interest in American sports, even though I live in the US. But in this Other Sports forum there are threads about MLB, the NFL and the NBA. Most of the people who like these sports pick teams to support. While their support doesn't seem to come close to the way they support English football and RL teams, it is a similar type of support.

Should these people be making do with the pale English imitations as well?

Even though England is very well served with mature sports and top level clubs, there is still support for sports and teams from other countries. I just don't see anything wrong with foreign countries getting behind the English PL because the game is a great one. Even some American's who I've talked to who like "soccer" say they cannot watch the MLS when they know it is such an inferior product compared to to major European leagues.

I watch other sports and 'follow' teams in them, but I don't go crazy in the same way as I'm not really a 'supporter'

Re: Football Chat Thread : Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:49 am  

Conroy wrote:

I watch other sports and 'follow' teams in them, but I don't go crazy in the same way as I'm not really a 'supporter'

When I was in England I was 100% following Chelsea and the Rhinos. TBH with the time that they consumed I cannot really see why you'd even bother to even follow other sports.

But it's your choice to follow other sports, even though you have English clubs who you support.

But what if you didn't have English sides. Don't you think that if the British Govt outlawed English sports but allowed access to foreign sports your level of support for teams in other countries would grow?

For me, watching sport is pretty much pointless unless I'm passionately rooting for one side. That's what you want their sporting experience to be like. I'm with them on this. If they're going to support an English side, then they should do so fully.

I have more respect for a genuine Asian football supporter than I do for your following.

I just think that people have vastly different upbringings. As a working class boy, football and RL were a massive part of my life growing up. Those sports are part of me. An English middle class kid might not be brought up to like sports. But that doesn't mean that they should be excluded from the sport because they got interested in the 20's rather than when they were young kids.

I'm all for genuine support, however it comes about. There will be people born in the shadow of Anfield who merely follow Liverpool FC, they won't feel it in their bones. But there will be kids in Mumbai and Shanghai who do feel total support for LFC. I'd much rather watch a game with the passionate supporter from Shanghai than I would be the follower from Liverpool.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:11 am  

Two great posts LGJM. Supporting a club is entirely subjective. In some instances it is neither practical nor possible to attend sporting matches of, say, a baseball team for most UK citizens. I might get a bigger thrill from seeing Saints win but that doesn't mean I don't get similar levels of joy when supporting City or the Cincinnati Reds (more so the latter because after RL, baseball is my favourite sport to watch). When I fell in love with baseball the Reds were the first team I went to see live and whilst I could never claim to be the greatest Reds fan around I have had moments of euphoria watching Reds games on MLB TV.

I enjoy having somebody to cheer for and after making that choice, if I have what I feel is a strong connection for that team, it's relatively easy to get excited or enjoy their games. If you don't get that same feeling it's just how you are. It doesn't mean others can't experience it because many do and often for different reasons.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:30 am  

A sport we don't have over here is a different story though.

If LGJM's friends went watching the MLS then maybe the league would grow and become better rather than watching Chelsea in a pub which ups TV deals, player wages, ticket prices and stops real Chelsea fans from going.

I'm not saying they can't support Liverpool in Asia, (granted I don't understand it) but maybe they should support a side in their league and watch them with the same passion to improve the game in said Country.