American Soccer Fans

Just wondering what makes you support a team. Do you have any familial connection to the place or is it something else? The squad? The name? The handsome guy in midfield?

This popped into my head after reading Dr Lopez use "we" when talking about Spurs and I thought "Of all the teams in all the world why would you decide to support Spurs?"

I don't mean to criticise anyone for supporting any team for whatever reason (except Tottenham fans obviously)

When I got into Hand Egg in the late 80s I decided to support the Steelers cause I thought they had the coolest kit and the Jets cause I liked the logo on their hard hats.

When I started getting into american football, I decided to support the Packers because they remind me of smaller soccer clubs (they're the only team that belongs to the local community, they're one of the oldest ones in the league, and they can still be competitive despite being from a small market). They remind me of the soccer club I support.

I never cared much for English soccer teams. I've had a dislike for Arsenal, but apart from that I've had no inclinations. When I was living over there I had a friend that worked for Tottenham coaching their womens' youth team, so I sort of had a sympathy for them for a while, but I got over it after I left.

my mother's side are all anglo south african ex pats living in london and my gran has lived in tottenham area for better part of 30 years so there's that. she is also football obsessed. (not jewish tho lol)

my best childhood friend's dad was aussie ex pat from small yiddish community in melbourne grew up watching spurs so it was natural that we'd both support the same club cause we were friends (he is very jewish)

but most of my american friends who love soccer just pick a club i guess. kinda weird.

I'm not american but i'm not English either, i just love the sport and i love watching it. Of the two leagues i follow religiously (German and English) i like more than one team and since i don't have any geographical attachement its more acceptable i guess.

The winner of the first game i remember watching was the Dallas Cowboys, is the team i've always rooted for.

Ehehe OP is having complex questions in his own mind: you just ask it, because maybe you don't have any obvious local team to support, so all the teams you support are not based in irracional things you never thought about.

As for the sport i follow, football, i support Porto because both my parents and grandparents are Porto supporters, so i think it was a natural thing, it's not like i remember turning into a Porto supporter, as far as i know, i've always been one :P.

All the other teams i feel simpathy or animosity are basically bias or prejudice i might have.

Not soccer related but with regards to supporting a "foreign" team in a "foreign" sport, I support the Canucks in Ice Hockey, because this is essines team and he genuinely gave a shit about me and went well out of his way in a serious time of need and tried to help a brother out (as did you). That shit will never be forgot.

I'm not American. But I've been a Arsenal fan since 2000, despite not being english or even have been to London (they are not my 1st team though, that's a danish team). I follow the danish, english and german leagues closely. I've have always had strong affiliation with the english premier league, and "northern" countries football leagues for some reason.

Couldn't care less for a league like the spanish. I just don't feel any affiliation with cities of certain countries. Why I have that for english towns, I don't know, but the spanish and english football might as well be two completely different sports in terms of my interest. I guess a country like Spain is just so far away from me and culturally different. And just clarify, it's not that I hate Spain. Football has always had this like non-violent war between towns appeal to me. So if I don't care for the teams hometowns, that are playing each together (good or bad), I can't watch the match. And I've have always admired London, which is probably why I became an Arsenal fan.

The majority of the fun I get out of football is actually not just the football itself, it's the cities represented by a football club in players, managers, fans, crests, stadiums, kits etc.. I think my geographically curiosity/interest plays a bit part in why I even like football.

I also did follow the NFL a couple of years ago. I supported the Giants, again because of my admiration of a certain city (New York in this chase of course). But I don't really watch it anymore.

Edit: Guess that went slightly off-topic, and didn't make a whole lot of sense.

I'm a naturalised American. I was never that into football while I grew up over there, but vaguely followed it and I suppose I supported Arsenal because I had a friend who did, but I never had any real attachment to them. I moved to Manchester when I was 18 and began supporting City because at the time they sold cheap tickets to Manchester University students. Also City were the natural choice because they were a crap team but still usually in the Premier League. One of my best football memories was paying £5.50 a few years ago (2007?) to watch City beat Portsmouth 6-0 in the Premier League. Suffice to say I can't imagine they're doing the student ticket deals any more (United never did it because they didn't need to in order to sell out Old Trafford).

I grew up in Denver so I follow all Denver teams in American sports. Now I live in Scotland and follow some of the local footy teams around here.

  On 11/2/2012 at 11:20 PM, Velazquez said:

The winner of the first game i remember watching was the Dallas Cowboys, is the team i've always rooted for.

Exactly! I did the same, and it was the Washington Redskins.

I've always preferred proper football to oblong gladiators, lived/worked/went to school in Dublin for 2 years and got hooked on the PL, particularly as there was money to be won in my office's fantasy football league. Rugby on the other hand is some boring-ass shit.

Been back in the States for 3 years now and still haven't really settled on a team - if I had to say I'd probably go with Spurs, lol. They've got ironman brad friedel and they're a decent football team from london other than Arsenal and Chelsea. After that in no particular order I'll usually pull for Everton, Villa, and Fulham - one of my wife's close friends lives right by craven cottage and sent us a fulham kit for our baby girl. Also enjoy rooting for the big boys to lose, especially Chelsea.