The best part about these responses (great prompt CB) is how there are so many different reasons for following a team -- from "I like their kit and i like the beer with the same name" to Colby's rationale. (as an aside I love brown ale as well, apparently unlike most of the US. Brewers need to give this style some love)
I became a Liverpool at close to the same time as you, during the 2006-2007 season. I'd gotten into the World Cup in 1994 and 1998, as a teen, and a lot more in 1999, when the USWNT was such a sensation. I went and saw them play at Soldier Field, which was the first time I'd ever been to a soccer game. I tried to get into MLS after the 2002 WC, but it didn't take at all, I think because despite not knowing much about who all the best players in the world were, I knew they weren't playing in MLS. I watched a ton of the 2006 WC, was much more hooked on the game at that point, and some Premier League games had begun to be televised here, so I started watching whoever happened to be playing.
I also sometimes watching highlight reels on YouTube, which was still pretty new then. One night I was watching a countdown of top goals, and there were a couple from distance by Steven Gerrard. I already knew of him because he'd scored a couple World Cup goals and I'd watched a couple Liverpool games by then too, but his clips in that highlight reel jumped out at me, and I began to seek out Liverpool games and think of him as my favorite player.
Over the next five years or so, I got more and more into soccer, while also having my interest in basketball and football drift. Baseball had always been my favorite, and by 2012 soccer had supplanted the other sports I'd spent 25 years or so following as my second favorite.
This is easily my favorite edition of Kop of Coffee. Nicely done.
I only got into the Premier League because I dislike most of what television and movies have to offer. Sure, I watch the occasional program, but these days it usually features a man with frosted tips and sunglasses behind his head stuffing delicious food into his gaping maw. When I'm in front of the tube, it's usually on a game, match or duel of some kind.
Prior to NBC securing the rights to the PL, I tried follow the league as a whole simply because I didn't have a team to support. That meant tape delayed matches on Fox Sports, the occasional live match in Spanish or highlight shows in the early 2000s. By the time NBC got the rights and was going to start showing live matches, I needed to jump in head first and find a team.
It was a long and grueling process to make this decision. Seriously. I didn't want to just pick at random, but rather wanted to put some thought into it. I didn't want to go with one of the Big 6 clubs because that's cheating and I wanted to support a club from a large city that would be fun to visit some day. It came down to Everton & West Ham and ultimately decided to suffer by becoming a West Ham supporters. It may be one of the best mistakes of my life. Like you, I'm fascinated by the worldwide support of the sport/league/club and even for a club like West Ham, there are fans everywhere. I've become ensconced in all of it and could not love it more than I do.
I still get shit from friends about being an American soccer fan mainly because those friends are ignoramuses', but it's all worth it to be part of a small group of Hammers in the US.
What a truly nice piece of writing, Colby! And a great way to pick a team.
For me, it was way less impressive how I latched onto Spurs. My now 24 year old son was a Spurs supporter in high school and I am not really sure how that came to be. But with all his blathering about Spurs this and Spurs that and watching highlights with him, I just grew accustomed to seeing Spurs. Seven years later, we don't miss a match and he's going to be really pissed off if I don't get to the Spurs/Liverpool match on December 18th when we're visiting his sister in London.
I'm still in the infant stages of my "footy" fandom. Still trying to wrap my head around that term because in my head it sounds like something people do with their feet under the table to show their interest. In the past i'd been a fairly big football (american of course) fan, but with all the revelations about CTE and it's impact on players, how players are treated like disposable pieces by teams unless you are one of the very select few, how the league treated Kaepernick, etc etc....well i grew to dislike the game to the point where i dont care to watch it at all. But i still liked having "events" on the weekends. A sport to look forward to when baseball is over and the days are dark and dreary. Ive tried to get into the premiership for years but it never really stuck. It was difficult without an innate knowledge of the game, a relative lack of resources to learn about the game, and watch teams & games easily.
This year, with Craig over at Cup of Coffee embarking on the same mission, YouTube TV and it's ease of scheduling recordings, and a good slate of games on NBC, NBCSN (Peacock is akin listening to music on tape when everyone else has MP3 players, get your shit together!), and yes, with Kop of Coffee serving as my primer on English football and keeping up on what is going on with the USMNT and it's players (Ive always been a fan of the team, but knew little of the WC qualifying process) it would seem that the stars have aligned.
Sadly though CB, Everton has the lead on claiming my fandom at the moment.
Oh and lets not forget how absolutely refreshing it is to have games that have, more or less, a guaranteed run time; a league where *gasp* ties are OK and there doesnt have to be a WINNER and a loser; and best of all. NO. DAMN. COMMERCIALS.
Watching two matches before lunch and still having the entire afternoon ahead of you is quite a thing! Meanwhile the Dodgers and Giants spent over 4 hours scoring a total of 4 runs last night.
Sorry to hear about your friend. I'm fortunately living in a world where it did work out. My wife's oncologist fired her last week - said she's been cancer free for 5 years and he'd prefer to not see her again. The feeling is mutual.
As for where I came from soccer wise... I've already written those stories.
I became an Arsenal supporter in 1987. I grew up in NYC and played goalie for my HS soccer team. We were about as good as a small private school in NYC could be in the 1980s but when we played schools from outside the city that had actual fields with grass they kicked our asses. The summer before my senior year, our coach had the great idea for us to go to London to play and practice with people who knew what the hell they were doing. So we went over and lived in dorms at the University of London for two weeks. We practiced for a few days and then played a U16 side from Enfield. We lost 13-0 and one of their players asked if I was playing because the "regular goalie" was hurt.
One day the coach said we should go to "real" match. None of us knew about any of the teams but Arsenal was playing that night so we walked to Highbury and bought tickets in the terraces. Arsenal beat Portsmouth 6-0 and I became a fan for life. As CB says, following soccer was tough back then, but the NY Times did list the English league standings most days so I could monitor the Gunners that way. I eventually made it back to a match at the Emirates 30 years later to see another victory, this time over United.
In case you're wondering, as our trip wore on we got better. Turns out you learn a lot from playing against more talented teams. We actually won our last game in London and when we got home, we turned into the ass kickers. Our first game was against one of the fancy Long Island schools with their own field that had beaten us 7-1 the year before. This time we were up 5-0 at halftime. The next game we started the game with the ball and spent several minutes passing it around, feeling out the other team, before it made it's way to me and we built the attack starting from the back. The other coach turned to ours and said, "Uh oh, we're in trouble." We ended the season 12-2, let up seven goals, proving that I was indeed the regular goalie, and the last game ended in the most Hollywood way imaginable which I won't bore you with now.
For our last match we headed about an hour north of the city to another fancy school with its own field (those schools also had glass backboards in their gyms which we coveted whenever we played them). The mood on the bus was tense and a bit somber. 13 of us were seniors and had been together since at least 7th grade and some since kindergarten. This was our last game together and all those senior year of high school emotions were showing. Which for a bunch of 17-18 year old boys meant we stared blankly out the windows at the Hudson River.
We started poorly and I let up two goals early, including one that went right through my legs and which I definitely do nor remember every single freaking detail of to this day. I really want to blame Jimmy, our left back, but it wasn't 100% my fault. As we got to the 75th minute, still down 2-0, none of us could believe it. Our dream season could not end this way. We got one back with about 12 minutes to go when our most talented player, Pizza (he was Italian and this was the 80s so and that's how nicknames worked then), got us on the board. A few minutes later we got another when Mark, who could launch a throw-in into the six yard box, worked his magic and set up a goal.
Momentum was clearly on our side but time was running out. We kept screaming at the ref asking him how much more time we had. With about a minute to go I made one of my best saves of the season and, like Tom Howard would do in the 2010 Would Cup match against Algeria (he doesn't not get enough credit for getting the ball to Donovan), I quickly got the ball upfield, a few passes later we scored on the last kick of the game.
It was bedlam. Screaming, yelling, hugging. Everything we had done together, all the time we spent with each other, came pouring out. The coach of the other team was dumbfounded. Not that we won, but how emotional we were, how connected we were to each other.
Ok, now I'm crying thinking about a meaningless soccer game that probably only 16 people in the world remember happening 34 years ago. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Boxing Day 2007, in an effort to find some common ground with my newish brother-in-law, I sat with him through the day’s fixtures and, to my surprise, found myself growing more and more invested in the drama. Picking a team took some months, but I kept returning to the summer after 7th grade when a family from Birmingham moved in down the street, and one of the stories their son shared was how cool it was when their local soccer team had won the European Championship just a couple years earlier. So… Up the Villa.
So I started using Leicester City because of their logo *hint* it's my son's name and then doubled down and made it legit after subscribing to your blog.
I'll also add that finding out your kid has a dairy allergy is a journey. We gave my son yogurt when he was around 6 months and an hour later he was riding in an ambulance. He looked like he went 12 rounds with Tyson. It sucked but supposedly they can grow out of it.
The best part about these responses (great prompt CB) is how there are so many different reasons for following a team -- from "I like their kit and i like the beer with the same name" to Colby's rationale. (as an aside I love brown ale as well, apparently unlike most of the US. Brewers need to give this style some love)
I became a Liverpool at close to the same time as you, during the 2006-2007 season. I'd gotten into the World Cup in 1994 and 1998, as a teen, and a lot more in 1999, when the USWNT was such a sensation. I went and saw them play at Soldier Field, which was the first time I'd ever been to a soccer game. I tried to get into MLS after the 2002 WC, but it didn't take at all, I think because despite not knowing much about who all the best players in the world were, I knew they weren't playing in MLS. I watched a ton of the 2006 WC, was much more hooked on the game at that point, and some Premier League games had begun to be televised here, so I started watching whoever happened to be playing.
I also sometimes watching highlight reels on YouTube, which was still pretty new then. One night I was watching a countdown of top goals, and there were a couple from distance by Steven Gerrard. I already knew of him because he'd scored a couple World Cup goals and I'd watched a couple Liverpool games by then too, but his clips in that highlight reel jumped out at me, and I began to seek out Liverpool games and think of him as my favorite player.
Over the next five years or so, I got more and more into soccer, while also having my interest in basketball and football drift. Baseball had always been my favorite, and by 2012 soccer had supplanted the other sports I'd spent 25 years or so following as my second favorite.
This is easily my favorite edition of Kop of Coffee. Nicely done.
I only got into the Premier League because I dislike most of what television and movies have to offer. Sure, I watch the occasional program, but these days it usually features a man with frosted tips and sunglasses behind his head stuffing delicious food into his gaping maw. When I'm in front of the tube, it's usually on a game, match or duel of some kind.
Prior to NBC securing the rights to the PL, I tried follow the league as a whole simply because I didn't have a team to support. That meant tape delayed matches on Fox Sports, the occasional live match in Spanish or highlight shows in the early 2000s. By the time NBC got the rights and was going to start showing live matches, I needed to jump in head first and find a team.
It was a long and grueling process to make this decision. Seriously. I didn't want to just pick at random, but rather wanted to put some thought into it. I didn't want to go with one of the Big 6 clubs because that's cheating and I wanted to support a club from a large city that would be fun to visit some day. It came down to Everton & West Ham and ultimately decided to suffer by becoming a West Ham supporters. It may be one of the best mistakes of my life. Like you, I'm fascinated by the worldwide support of the sport/league/club and even for a club like West Ham, there are fans everywhere. I've become ensconced in all of it and could not love it more than I do.
I still get shit from friends about being an American soccer fan mainly because those friends are ignoramuses', but it's all worth it to be part of a small group of Hammers in the US.
What a truly nice piece of writing, Colby! And a great way to pick a team.
For me, it was way less impressive how I latched onto Spurs. My now 24 year old son was a Spurs supporter in high school and I am not really sure how that came to be. But with all his blathering about Spurs this and Spurs that and watching highlights with him, I just grew accustomed to seeing Spurs. Seven years later, we don't miss a match and he's going to be really pissed off if I don't get to the Spurs/Liverpool match on December 18th when we're visiting his sister in London.
I'm still in the infant stages of my "footy" fandom. Still trying to wrap my head around that term because in my head it sounds like something people do with their feet under the table to show their interest. In the past i'd been a fairly big football (american of course) fan, but with all the revelations about CTE and it's impact on players, how players are treated like disposable pieces by teams unless you are one of the very select few, how the league treated Kaepernick, etc etc....well i grew to dislike the game to the point where i dont care to watch it at all. But i still liked having "events" on the weekends. A sport to look forward to when baseball is over and the days are dark and dreary. Ive tried to get into the premiership for years but it never really stuck. It was difficult without an innate knowledge of the game, a relative lack of resources to learn about the game, and watch teams & games easily.
This year, with Craig over at Cup of Coffee embarking on the same mission, YouTube TV and it's ease of scheduling recordings, and a good slate of games on NBC, NBCSN (Peacock is akin listening to music on tape when everyone else has MP3 players, get your shit together!), and yes, with Kop of Coffee serving as my primer on English football and keeping up on what is going on with the USMNT and it's players (Ive always been a fan of the team, but knew little of the WC qualifying process) it would seem that the stars have aligned.
Sadly though CB, Everton has the lead on claiming my fandom at the moment.
Oh and lets not forget how absolutely refreshing it is to have games that have, more or less, a guaranteed run time; a league where *gasp* ties are OK and there doesnt have to be a WINNER and a loser; and best of all. NO. DAMN. COMMERCIALS.
Watching two matches before lunch and still having the entire afternoon ahead of you is quite a thing! Meanwhile the Dodgers and Giants spent over 4 hours scoring a total of 4 runs last night.
Sorry to hear about your friend. I'm fortunately living in a world where it did work out. My wife's oncologist fired her last week - said she's been cancer free for 5 years and he'd prefer to not see her again. The feeling is mutual.
As for where I came from soccer wise... I've already written those stories.
https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/picking-an-english-premier-league-team.html
https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/closing-the-book-on-the-red-sox.html
I became an Arsenal supporter in 1987. I grew up in NYC and played goalie for my HS soccer team. We were about as good as a small private school in NYC could be in the 1980s but when we played schools from outside the city that had actual fields with grass they kicked our asses. The summer before my senior year, our coach had the great idea for us to go to London to play and practice with people who knew what the hell they were doing. So we went over and lived in dorms at the University of London for two weeks. We practiced for a few days and then played a U16 side from Enfield. We lost 13-0 and one of their players asked if I was playing because the "regular goalie" was hurt.
One day the coach said we should go to "real" match. None of us knew about any of the teams but Arsenal was playing that night so we walked to Highbury and bought tickets in the terraces. Arsenal beat Portsmouth 6-0 and I became a fan for life. As CB says, following soccer was tough back then, but the NY Times did list the English league standings most days so I could monitor the Gunners that way. I eventually made it back to a match at the Emirates 30 years later to see another victory, this time over United.
In case you're wondering, as our trip wore on we got better. Turns out you learn a lot from playing against more talented teams. We actually won our last game in London and when we got home, we turned into the ass kickers. Our first game was against one of the fancy Long Island schools with their own field that had beaten us 7-1 the year before. This time we were up 5-0 at halftime. The next game we started the game with the ball and spent several minutes passing it around, feeling out the other team, before it made it's way to me and we built the attack starting from the back. The other coach turned to ours and said, "Uh oh, we're in trouble." We ended the season 12-2, let up seven goals, proving that I was indeed the regular goalie, and the last game ended in the most Hollywood way imaginable which I won't bore you with now.
If you don’t finish the story, the rest of us will be forced to.
Ask and ye shall receive.
For our last match we headed about an hour north of the city to another fancy school with its own field (those schools also had glass backboards in their gyms which we coveted whenever we played them). The mood on the bus was tense and a bit somber. 13 of us were seniors and had been together since at least 7th grade and some since kindergarten. This was our last game together and all those senior year of high school emotions were showing. Which for a bunch of 17-18 year old boys meant we stared blankly out the windows at the Hudson River.
We started poorly and I let up two goals early, including one that went right through my legs and which I definitely do nor remember every single freaking detail of to this day. I really want to blame Jimmy, our left back, but it wasn't 100% my fault. As we got to the 75th minute, still down 2-0, none of us could believe it. Our dream season could not end this way. We got one back with about 12 minutes to go when our most talented player, Pizza (he was Italian and this was the 80s so and that's how nicknames worked then), got us on the board. A few minutes later we got another when Mark, who could launch a throw-in into the six yard box, worked his magic and set up a goal.
Momentum was clearly on our side but time was running out. We kept screaming at the ref asking him how much more time we had. With about a minute to go I made one of my best saves of the season and, like Tom Howard would do in the 2010 Would Cup match against Algeria (he doesn't not get enough credit for getting the ball to Donovan), I quickly got the ball upfield, a few passes later we scored on the last kick of the game.
It was bedlam. Screaming, yelling, hugging. Everything we had done together, all the time we spent with each other, came pouring out. The coach of the other team was dumbfounded. Not that we won, but how emotional we were, how connected we were to each other.
Ok, now I'm crying thinking about a meaningless soccer game that probably only 16 people in the world remember happening 34 years ago. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Better than I thought it could be.
Beautiful tribute to your friend.
Boxing Day 2007, in an effort to find some common ground with my newish brother-in-law, I sat with him through the day’s fixtures and, to my surprise, found myself growing more and more invested in the drama. Picking a team took some months, but I kept returning to the summer after 7th grade when a family from Birmingham moved in down the street, and one of the stories their son shared was how cool it was when their local soccer team had won the European Championship just a couple years earlier. So… Up the Villa.
So I started using Leicester City because of their logo *hint* it's my son's name and then doubled down and made it legit after subscribing to your blog.
I'll also add that finding out your kid has a dairy allergy is a journey. We gave my son yogurt when he was around 6 months and an hour later he was riding in an ambulance. He looked like he went 12 rounds with Tyson. It sucked but supposedly they can grow out of it.