there are a lot of american soccer fans who are elitists and think that just because the MLS isn't the best league on the planet it isn't worth watching. what they refuse to see is that they're shiatting where they eat, and the longer they keep up this bullshiat the loner it takes for the league to grow.

that being said the league is growing slowly and healthily in a managed fashion. next year there will be 40K seats available for every Sounders home match - we sold out every home match this year with 36k seats available every match. for two regular season matches they opened up the entire stadium just to see how many we got - 45k.

That, or 9pm ET on Sunday night is a really stupid time to hold your championship match.

Kazan: there are a lot of american soccer fans who are elitists and think that just because the MLS isn't the best league on the planet it isn't worth watching. what they refuse to see is that they're shiatting where they eat, and the longer they keep up this bullshiat the loner it takes for the league to grow.

wanting to watch the highest quality competition(s) of a sport you have played and loved for years isn't elitist, it's smart.

socalnewwaver: Kazan: there are a lot of american soccer fans who are elitists and think that just because the MLS isn't the best league on the planet it isn't worth watching. what they refuse to see is that they're shiatting where they eat, and the longer they keep up this bullshiat the loner it takes for the league to grow.

wanting to watch the highest quality competition(s) of a sport you have played and loved for years isn't elitist, it's smart.

i should have made it clear that they refuse to watch MLS (their home league) in favor of foreign leagues because "MLS is boring" (it mos assuredly is not)

RminusQ: That, or 9pm ET on Sunday night is a really stupid time to hold your championship match.

the sunday before thanksgiving no less.

Wittenberg Dropout: I can understand getting all provincial about a team that was filled with players from the area they represent. But when I watch Premier League the sequence of play is usually "Black dude from Africa passes to Mulatto dude from South America, etc.."

If you want to get all bossy about "your" sport, don't allow people from other parts of the world to play it. (and watch your revenues go down the sharthole)

To be fair, if they only allowed Brits to play in the Premier League, it would be far lower quality than MLS.

Foxxinnia: At least, I think we can all agree that people need to stop rooting for teams that are on continents they've never even been to.

"Manchester United is my favorite team. No, I've never been to England."
This needs to stop.

That's completely ridiculous. By that logic, I shouldn't be allowed to like bands from England because I've never been there. Sorry Sex Pistols, Beatles, Rolling Stones, I suppose I can't like your product since I'm not from where you are.

Yeah, I'll pass on your recommendation. Thanks, though.

I always love football threads that have Americans who hate the sport chime in on "how to make it better"...Here's an idea, go fark yourself. The sport is fine the way it is. If you don't like it, don't watch it.

Also, as someone who grew up supporting and watching Man United. I'm very pleased at how the sport, and its supporters, have grown in this country. Yes, I understand a lot of American United supporters are considered "bandwagon jumpers", but the ones I see regularly have stuck through and still come out to the pub at 7:30 in the morning in the middle of winter to support United. I think it's great that we have access to international leagues and that more and more people are getting into them. This is what will grow the sport in the country.

Since the fall of the NASL, Americans, and in particular, American kids, never really had a professional league to look up to. Sure they may have heard of teams in England, Italy, Argentina, etc. but they never had a chance to really watch them on a regular basis. When the MLS came around, people didn't know most of the players other than the ones that were on the US national team and the few Latin players from Central American countries.

I moved here in 1994, I couldn't even watch United unless I went to my mate's place 'cause he had a satellite dish, other than that, I would just read the match reports from online news groups. Now, it's all over the place. Everywhere I go, I see kids wearing United, Chelsea, Barca, Milan shirts. These kids have footballing idols to look up to. They can watch players at the top level play week in, week out.

So yes, yes you can support a team of which you've never been to. However, I highly urge you to plan a trip to that city and try to take a game in live. If you have kids who are interested, take them some time. You'll never regret it.

/sorry for the rant
//csb

Doc Daneeka: Well, for a lot of people, sports fandom has a strong component of civic pride and feeling connected to a local community. "Rooting for the hometown team." It's what causes people to identify with the local team, as part of their community, and create a rooting interest. It's hard to feel a close, personal connection to a city thousands of miles away that you've never been to. Why should I care whether a team from Manchester beats a team from London, if I've never been to either city and have no connection to them? There's no rooting interest.

I donno, I've followed some pretty random teams just because a player I liked was sold off to some shiat Netherlands club.

Also, since we're being told who we can and cannot follow, can I say football? My favorite club says fotbal right there in the title...

TonnageVT: I always love football threads that have Americans who hate the sport chime in on "how to make it better"...Here's an idea, go fark yourself. The sport is fine the way it is. If you don't like it, don't watch it.

I don't hate soccer, I love it. But there's something downright criminal about awarding a championship based on not-soccer. If I were ruler of all, a final game (of anything) would never go to penalties.

That's really the only thing that makes me angry; the other things that I don't like are stylistic things that I don't feel strongly about.

RminusQ: I don't hate soccer, I love it. But there's something downright criminal about awarding a championship based on not-soccer. If I were ruler of all, a final game (of anything) would never go to penalties.

That's really the only thing that makes me angry; the other things that I don't like are stylistic things that I don't feel strongly about.

There are things about all sports that I hate. In hockey, I hate icing. In NFL, way too many things to mention. I hate basketball and baseball, so I won't even start.

Yet, those are the rules of the game. It's been accepted as the rules, and so deal with it.

Doc Daneeka: Well, for a lot of people, sports fandom has a strong component of civic pride and feeling connected to a local community. "Rooting for the hometown team." It's what causes people to identify with the local team, as part of their community, and create a rooting interest. It's hard to feel a close, personal connection to a city thousands of miles away that you've never been to. Why should I care whether a team from Manchester beats a team from London, if I've never been to either city and have no connection to them? There's no rooting interest.

I'll agree that a lot of fandom is related to a sense of civic pride, but I'll disagree completely that it's the only allowable source of choosing a team to follow. The Boston Red Sox and NY Yankees have fans all over the US and the world, and from more than people that grew up in those two cities. The Lakers and Celtics have fans from all over. Los Angeles hasn't had a local NFL team since 1994 (Raiders) and before that, the Rams left LA proper in 1980.

The reality is that people pick teams to follow in sports they like for more reasons than civic pride. I played soccer as a kid and enjoy watching it when it's played well, and the best soccer in the world right now is being played in England and Spain, with the top five richest clubs in the Premier League and La Liga.

There are more states without NFL teams than there are states with NFL teams. Yet NFL is (and should be) quite popular in those other states without civic pride as a source.

Lawnchair: That it has been. Keep LiveStrong at at least 75% of its excitement level this year and I really don't care if the rest of the nation cares or we ever get on SportsCenter.

But, if you're not on SportsCenter, and your choice of sport isn't popular with most of the country, you should feel bad about watching it and having fun!

I live in San Antonio. We're getting a pro soccer team next year. A big chunk (maybe all, can't remember) of the team's profits are going to support Morgan's Wonderland, which is an amusement park for special needs children. I don't particularly care what the media coverage looks like, I'm going to go to matches, yell, chant, sing, and generally enjoy myself. If others don't want to do that... their loss.

MugzyBrown: macadamnut: Probably I just don't understand how the ratings work, but aren't there still households that get FOX and not ESPN?

I would be pretty confident in saying anybody who gets Fox Soccer Channel would also have ESPN.

The game wasn't on Fox Soccer Channel, it was on Fox.

The Envoy: RminusQ: I don't hate soccer, I love it. But there's something downright criminal about awarding a championship based on not-soccer. If I were ruler of all, a final game (of anything) would never go to penalties.

After 90 minutes of normal time and another 30 of extra time, the players are absolutely knackered. That's a long time to be doing what is essentially a series of sprints interspersed with non-stop jogging. Golden goals were trialled and they were worse. I don't like penalties (I'm an England fan, we're terrible at them!) but I can't really see how to replace them without turning all players in to marathon runners which will impact the physical side of the game.

The only argument I've heard for why golden goal was worse was "teams played for penalties". (1) Many teams already play for penalties (lookin' at you, Switzerland). (2) If there's no penalties to play for, teams will know the only way to win the game is to score a goddamn goal. If that's because one team tires out before the other, so be it.