It Could Get A Bit Messi In Here - The Football Thread.

Jonathan Y said:
Oh it's ok!! I would feel the same if I was living over there, it'd be like someone being a Miami and Tampa Bay fan. or liking the Giants and Jets in American football. However I didn't even know West Ham was a London team lmao that shows the extent of my love for them. I've just always viewed them as a sneaky mid tier team waiting for a breakthru and loved to watch them shake things up year after year
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I definitely was thinking this last night with my indecisiveness. But being a long time sports fan of other leagues, I should know better. 😁😂
 
Side note...I have been rooting for Blackburn to return to the premiere league for sometime now....As well as QPR...Looking very promising for Blackburn's return next season after a decade if they can just keep the boring Bournemouth, Fulham, and West Brom at bay!!
 
Joe Mac said:
A second team in the same league

🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

I could perhaps contemplate understanding it if you’re a lifelong supporter of a smaller club who took a shine to a bigger club for tv viewing and all of a sudden found your team in the top flight.

The closest I’ve ever got is hate watching Liverpool and always wanting to see them beaten and so rooting for the other team…
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It’s honestly not that strange if you reframe the concept of “supporting.” In many ways, supporting a team equals willful suffering. It’s hard to embrace that fully if you’re coming into a sport/league as an adult trying to pick a team.

Also growing up in a culture/region where you experience firsthand team rivalries brings a completely different perspective such that it’s basically unimaginable to support certain teams. In contrast, from an outside perspective (e.g. an American fan), there’s no such baggage.

I grew up a huge fan of a team (São Paulo) and to this day I despise its main rivals (Corinthians). At this point I’ve lived in the US and have been following the EPL for longer than I watched the Brazilian league, but I have never been able to pick and stick with a specific English team. I’m partial to Leicester City and Liverpool (Leicester because I loved their Cinderella title run, and Liverpool because São Paulo beat them in the 2005 Club World Cup and also because I’ve enjoyed their gradual rise back to relevancy in the 2010s). So I guess I can say that I support those two teams, but not in same way or with the same fervor that I supported São Paulo when I was growing up.
 
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bettim84 said:
It’s honestly not that strange if you reframe the concept of “supporting.” In many ways, supporting a team equals willful suffering. It’s hard to embrace that fully if you’re coming into a sport/league as an adult trying to pick a team.

Also growing up in a culture/region where you experience firsthand team rivalries brings a completely different perspective such that it’s basically unimaginable to support certain teams. In contrast, from an outside perspective (e.g. an American fan), there’s no such baggage.

I grew up a huge fan of a team (São Paulo) and to this day I despise its main rivals (Corinthians). At this point I’ve lived in the US and have been following the EPL for longer than I watched the Brazilian league, but I have never been able to pick and stick with a specific English team. I’m partial to Leicester City and Liverpool (Leicester because I loved their Cinderella title run, and Liverpool because São Paulo beat them in the 2005 Club World Cup and also because I’ve enjoyed their gradual rise back to relevancy in the 2010s). So I guess I can say that I support those two teams, but not in same way or with the same fervor that I supported São Paulo when I was growing up.
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Oh yeah totally. I grew up in England and I support United. Liverpool and Leeds are just despised. City were always like the annoying little brother but now that they’re successful a real rivialry is growing. It would have been interesting so see how that might have grown further had we both been able to compete against each other for the big honours after Fergie left. Having a Dad from that side of Glasgow and an Irish mother means that I’ll always have more than half an eye on Celtic too.

Beyond that it’s as much, as you say, more of a fondness for teams. Barcelona after a pretty rubbish version of United beat Cryuff’s dream team in the 91 European Cup Winners Cup. Strengthened by the two 3-3 games in our treble year and of course the Pep team. Because of that, and also probably their absurd arrogance, I don’t wish Madrid well but it’s not hatred. I’m a bit partial to Juventus because of just how damn good they were 95-99ish and the great games we had against that team as we were re-establishing ourselves as a force in Europe in the late 90s. Also Ajax. I respect Munich but I just have such a hard time liking German football, maybe that’s another hardwired characteristic of growing up in England.
 
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nolalady said:
Okay so ESPN+ is playing the FA Cup. How is the FA cup different from the Champions? Do these two organizations overlap? How does that work?
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The FA Cup is the oldest knock out cup in football history. It’s 150 this year! It predates professionalism and all the leagues. It starts every august and is open to any adult team registered with the FA of a certain level. There are tonnes of qualifiers leading to the bottom two leagues of professional teams coming in for the first round proper in November and the Championship and Premier League clubs joining in the third round in January. Traditionally the third round is one of the big days in the English football calendar where the big boys can be drawn against much lower level, and even non professional, clubs. It has a disproportionately large number of upsets when compared to other nations knock out cup competition. The final in May is English footballs biggest day and traditionally, and to those of us old enough to remember, winning the cup was as big as winning the league. It’s not as big a deal in the last few years but it still has heaps of prestige and history.
 
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Joe Mac said:
The FA Cup is the oldest knock out cup in football history. It’s 150 this year! It predates professionalism and all the leagues. It starts every august and is open to any adult team registered with the FA of a certain level. There are tonnes of qualifiers leading to the bottom two leagues of professional teams coming in for the first round proper in November and the Championship and Premier League clubs joining in the third round in January. Traditionally the third round is one of the big days in the English football calendar where the big boys can be drawn against much lower level, and even non professional, clubs. It has a disproportionately large number of upsets when compared to other nations knock out cup competition. The final in May is English footballs biggest day and traditionally, and to those of us old enough to remember, winning the cup was as big as winning the league. It’s not as big a deal this year but it still has heaps of prestige and history.
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Ahhh, okay.
We were marveling that Queens Park, Rangers, and Queens Park Rangers were three separate teams, and wondered what was up with all of them. I was just trying to figure out where this fit in professional football, but now that I know it predates all of that, it makes a lot more sense.
 
Joe Mac said:
Traditionally the third round is one of the big days in the English football calendar where the big boys can be drawn against much lower level, and even non professional, clubs. It has a disproportionately large number of upsets when compared to other nations knock out cup competition
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-_- it's been almost a week and i'm still not over the BS that took place last weekend.
 
nolalady said:
Ahhh, okay.
We were marveling that Queens Park, Rangers, and Queens Park Rangers were three separate teams, and wondered what was up with all of them. I was just trying to figure out where this fit in professional football, but now that I know it predates all of that, it makes a lot more sense.
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Hahaha yeah!

Queens Park Rangers are an English professional team based in London, currently at championship level.

Queen Park are based in Glasgow. They were the dominant force in Scottish football in the amateur era. They were opposed to professionalism and so slow to adopt it and got left behind. In the early amateur years of the FA Cup they were invited in to take part a few years. They are currently in the lower tiers of Scottish football. Fun fact. Their ground, Hampden Park is the home of Scottish football. It’s led to the mad spectacle of a lower league team playing their home matches in a huge national stadium!

I can only imagine the Rangers referred to are a now defunct amateur team. The hateful Scottish team of the same name weren’t a big enough force in the amateur era to have been in the FA Cup on an invitational basis.
 
@Joe Mac u think Ronaldo will start tomorrow given his hip issue?...Apparently he was out in Manchester doing the salsa with a whole buncha cougars last week and tweaked it on the dance floor
 
NLD going to get called off because Arsenal only have 1 positive Covid case :rolleyes:

Precedent:

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