Compelling Soccer

When you're a kid picking teams is easy. Being young, dumb and impressionable, you go for who your parents like. Or if your parents aren't into sports, you pick who your friends do. Or failing that, because kids always like happy endings, you pick the winning team. You know, like LeBron James does. And then in theory, you stick with those teams forever. You know, like LeBron James did with the Yankees and Cowboys when he was growing up in the early 90's in Ohio and the Yankees were terrible.

But what happens when you are old enough to make conscious decisions with your teams? What if you actually entered the sports world as a true free agent, the ability to sign up for fandom with any team in a particular sport? What exactly do you do then? Careful how you answer, because much like an athlete when his contract is up, your decision will say more about you than you might care for it to.

For example, say you decide you want to go with the recent champion. Then it's clear who you are, front runner. You picked them because they won. Your connection is hollow, your ties shallow, much like you are as you're already likely to run off with the next pretty thing that comes your way. The die hards are on to you. You'll never get respect at games and you'll always be the unwelcome outsider; a mercenary if you will, to pad the numbers of the owners of the team who will gladly take your money for jerseys you'll stop wearing when the team drops to third.

Or perhaps do you try to buy low and join up with a lower tier team? Here you'll be much more accepted and your motives unlikely to be questioned. Your sanity maybe, but your integrity will remain pure. Enjoy that good feeling; odds are it will be the last thing you get out of that deal for a while. Your team is probably not winning any championships anytime soon and heartbreak will follow, if you are lucky. If you're unlucky, you picked the LA Clippers and are stuck rooting for unrealistic things like the best player in the league suddenly deciding to make the same mistake you did. You'll suffer or burn out. Neither is preferable.



There's always going for a middle of the pack team; someone who has talent but may not be there yet. However, considering there are a glut of those, how does one go about doing that? Players? Style? Color of the jerseys? Mascot name? There are a lot of things to choose from and remember, for a true sports fan, you should be making a real commitment here.

It's with these factors in mind that I've debated who I should pull for in the English Premiership. Soccer is interesting because with the multitudes of leagues out there, your rooting interest could easily be spread out. You could have an MLS team, English squad, French Ligue 1, Spanish La Liga, etc and never have a conflict. That said, my interest on the club level has always been towards England more than anything else, probably because it's the highest quality of game with commentary I can understand, so I've decided to go with that and that alone.

I automatically tossed out Manchester United. I have integrity.

In all fairness, I've never liked Man U. Not sure why, but I just couldn't get into them. Maybe because almost anyone in America who pulled for them was a blatant front runner. It's kind of like being a Cowboys and/or Yankees fan. Or someone who always rooted for Jordan's Bulls. Having met way too many people like that, it wasn't for me.

The French National team, err... I mean Arsenal, was another option. I actually enjoyed the '98 French team as they were my pick to win the World Cup that year. But they were too good as well. Trying to sell the French connection to anyone would be hard. It's like choosing the Red Sox over the Yankees. Really you're just selecting a different Empire to root for.

Scraping the bottom also wasn't what I was going to do. In soccer especially that can get dangerous. Pick the wrong bottom feeder and you end up relegated to the Championship, perhaps never to be seen top flight again. Having suffered enough with my childhood fan contracts, I wasn't going to willingly subject myself to Crystal Palace or Wolverhampton. A man can take only so much pain as a Jets and Mets fan.

Perhaps the option was to root for a player and then go with the team. Being that I've long wanted Americans to do well overseas, there are some candidates there with Fulham and Clint Dempsey, Hull City and Jozy Altidore, Aston Villa with Brad Freidel or Everton with Tim Howard. But the perilous nature of that is simple; what happens if a player lasts one season with a club? That could happen with Altidore for sure, though Dempsey, who recently got an extension, is more likely to stay.

Then again just because I root for Americans doesn't mean they can be the only players I've pulled for.

During the '98 World Cup, the US team put on an awful performance, so I went searching for other players/teams to pay attention to. As it turns out, I saw a highlight of a goal scored by an 18 year old Michael Owen and was intrigued. As my friends can attest to, I always like young, athletic player who achieve any margin of success. Plus I developed a bit of a soft spot for the English national team. Come 2002, I got into another young, athletic player who achieved World Cup success in El Hadji Diouf. After, I learned Diouf had just joined Liverpool FC, who also had Owen. When I got FIFA 2003, the draw of the game was the club scene, not the International one. So when deciding what club to use, Liverpool seemed like a solid choice. They had two speedy players at forward who I knew. So why not?

Playing with them I also found out about a pretty solid midfielder by the name of Steven Gerrard. He was a lot of fun to use actually and I used to piss my friend off by torching him with the trio of Owen, Diouf and Gerrard. Of course my friend would also make fun of Jerzy Dudek and proceed to torch him, so it wasn't all fun and games for me using that squad. It did the trick though; club team wise, I started to keep track of Liverpool. I couldn't really watch them at the time, so I monitored their progress online, straight through to their performance in Turkey in the 2005 Champions League Final against Milan. I couldn't watch that game either, but I followed and received phone updates from a friend. Said friend congratulated me upon the Reds incredible come back and their CL victory. But admittedly, while pleased, it didn't compare to a championship that I'd imagine my teams stateside would win. You know, if they could, considering I tend to have had pretty terrible luck with the squads I root for.

I wasn't pleased when Liverpool lost two years later to Milan in the final, but I wasn't heart broken either. So did that mean it was time to pick someone else to root for? If so, my options seemed to be just as limited as they had been prior.

My desire for non goalie Americans to succeed in Europe also has me wanting good things for Fulham and Hull City. However, it's much less about the team and more about the player in those cases. If Dempsey and Altidore had incredible seasons for teams that get relegated, I'd be pleased about their great seasons. If they had earned it, they'd find their way to a better squad anyway. So in the end, even if I were to buy a Dempsey jersey, it would be about the name on the back of it and not the shield on the front. Could that change? Sure, I suppose, but I don't see it happening anytime soon.

In fact, the only team where I feel that for on the club level is Liverpool. I generally am happier when they win. When they lose, I shake my head, especially if I watched the game. (Like when they lost their Anfield undefeated streak to Aston Villa) From past experiences I can tell you that is generally what being a fan is supposed to be about. And while they did win the Champions League, I was following them before that happened, when they were a good but not great squad under Gerard Houllier, before Rafa. Besides, I like Steven Gerrard more than those guys anyway, and his is one of two sports jersey's I currently own.

Thus through a strange road of World Cup watching, young lust and video gaming, I've arrived at Liverpool as the squad I pull for. Gerrard is awesome, they have a pretty diverse squad and play an exciting brand of soccer. It's quite beautiful to watch actually, and I was amazed by some of the plays they pulled off against Burnley last Saturday morning. It's the game I've been looking for opposed to the game I've previously been able to find.