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Unruly behavior from fans of a noveau riche club owned by someone with a funny name and which injured a Man United player. That's pretty much the perfect storm. I'm thinking the FA will channel its inner Marcellus Wallace on this one.'El Floppo said:
Which college do you think produced the best talent?Virginia:'El Floppo said:thanks. interesting- turns out there were 3 guys who all-americans while I was there... had no idea. also discovered one guy just prior to me was a 4-time all-american- impressive.
Virginia, without a doubt.Which college do you think produced the best talent?Virginia:'El Floppo said:
Jeff Agoos
Chris Albright
Jeff Causey
Elecko Escandarian
John Harkes
Kyle Martino
Tony Meola
Ben Olsen
Brandon Pollard
Claudio Reyna
UCLA:
Carlos Bocanegra
Paul Caliguiri
Brad Friedel
Frankie Hejduk
Chris Henderson
Cobi Jones
Mike Lapper
Joe Max Moore
Ante Razov
Nick Rimando
Sascha Victorine
Marvel Wynne
Not coincidentally, the two programs also help produce two of the best coaches in US soccer history in fat Sigi and Arena.
Here's the extended versionhttp://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sfrGaTV217g
Interesting. I give the nod to UCLA myself when going position by positionFriedel over Meola at keeperVirginia, without a doubt.Which college do you think produced the best talent?Virginia:'El Floppo said:
Jeff Agoos
Chris Albright
Jeff Causey
Elecko Escandarian
John Harkes
Kyle Martino
Tony Meola
Ben Olsen
Brandon Pollard
Claudio Reyna
UCLA:
Carlos Bocanegra
Paul Caliguiri
Brad Friedel
Frankie Hejduk
Chris Henderson
Cobi Jones
Mike Lapper
Joe Max Moore
Ante Razov
Nick Rimando
Sascha Victorine
Marvel Wynne
Not coincidentally, the two programs also help produce two of the best coaches in US soccer history in fat Sigi and Arena.
That's a great ad for the seven or eight City fans that aren't bandwagon jumpers based upon their very recent success and piles of cash.
I'm a MF.Interesting. I give the nod to UCLA myself when going position by positionFriedel over Meola at keeperVirginia, without a doubt.Which college do you think produced the best talent?Virginia:'El Floppo said:
Jeff Agoos
Chris Albright
Jeff Causey
Elecko Escandarian
John Harkes
Kyle Martino
Tony Meola
Ben Olsen
Brandon Pollard
Claudio Reyna
UCLA:
Carlos Bocanegra
Paul Caliguiri
Brad Friedel
Frankie Hejduk
Chris Henderson
Cobi Jones
Mike Lapper
Joe Max Moore
Ante Razov
Nick Rimando
Sascha Victorine
Marvel Wynne
Not coincidentally, the two programs also help produce two of the best coaches in US soccer history in fat Sigi and Arena.
Boca/Frankie/Cal significantly over Agoos/Pollard at defense
Harkes/Reyna/Martino significantly over Henderson at midfield
Joe Max/Cobi/Razov significantly over Elecko/Albright
... and it's not even close.
OK scouser.
Just making a fair comparison of Reds and Blues.League titles -Liverpool (18)/Everton (9)ManU (19)/Man City (3)But yeah, ESPN is completely on track with those ads. No point in comparing United and Liverpool or Liverpool and Everton when City has such a longstanding history of success.
Is there one with subtitles?
UCLA has the best player (Friedel) and more depth. Don't see how its VA.I'm a MF.Interesting. I give the nod to UCLA myself when going position by positionFriedel over Meola at keeperVirginia, without a doubt.Which college do you think produced the best talent?Virginia:'El Floppo said:
Jeff Agoos
Chris Albright
Jeff Causey
Elecko Escandarian
John Harkes
Kyle Martino
Tony Meola
Ben Olsen
Brandon Pollard
Claudio Reyna
UCLA:
Carlos Bocanegra
Paul Caliguiri
Brad Friedel
Frankie Hejduk
Chris Henderson
Cobi Jones
Mike Lapper
Joe Max Moore
Ante Razov
Nick Rimando
Sascha Victorine
Marvel Wynne
Not coincidentally, the two programs also help produce two of the best coaches in US soccer history in fat Sigi and Arena.
Boca/Frankie/Cal significantly over Agoos/Pollard at defense
Harkes/Reyna/Martino significantly over Henderson at midfield
Joe Max/Cobi/Razov significantly over Elecko/Albright
University of Crumpets, Lorries, and Ascots?
But ESPN's targeting that ad to Americans who don't have long-standing Euro soccer affiliations. American Man U fans and American City fans (I actually do know a guy who's my age and is a City fan since the 90's, but he's also a huge anglophile) are already on board. This ad is selling soccer to the type of person who reads the FBG, but doesn't post in this thread.That there are a lot of bandwagon City fans is somewhat beside the point. Almost all American soccer fans who follow a Euro team could be called bandwagon jumpers. We didn't grow up with it, we picked a team based for any number of reasons. But almost always, one of those reasons is that the team is pretty good to begin with.
Attn: Derek
So the Manchester derby has only been relevant since City got bought.... and of course theyve only had their fans since then too.
Im a formwr MF. And Reyna is the best player in that group.UCLA has the best player (Friedel) and more depth. Don't see how its VA.I'm a MF.Interesting. I give the nod to UCLA myself when going position by positionFriedel over Meola at keeperVirginia, without a doubt.Which college do you think produced the best talent?Virginia:'El Floppo said:
Jeff Agoos
Chris Albright
Jeff Causey
Elecko Escandarian
John Harkes
Kyle Martino
Tony Meola
Ben Olsen
Brandon Pollard
Claudio Reyna
UCLA:
Carlos Bocanegra
Paul Caliguiri
Brad Friedel
Frankie Hejduk
Chris Henderson
Cobi Jones
Mike Lapper
Joe Max Moore
Ante Razov
Nick Rimando
Sascha Victorine
Marvel Wynne
Not coincidentally, the two programs also help produce two of the best coaches in US soccer history in fat Sigi and Arena.
Boca/Frankie/Cal significantly over Agoos/Pollard at defense
Harkes/Reyna/Martino significantly over Henderson at midfield
Joe Max/Cobi/Razov significantly over Elecko/Albright
Peak? Maybe. But you can't just discount durability/longevity. And Friedel has that in spades, even for a goalie.Im a formwr MF. And Reyna is the best player in that group.UCLA has the best player (Friedel) and more depth. Don't see how its VA.I'm a MF.Interesting. I give the nod to UCLA myself when going position by positionFriedel over Meola at keeperVirginia, without a doubt.Which college do you think produced the best talent?Virginia:'El Floppo said:
Jeff Agoos
Chris Albright
Jeff Causey
Elecko Escandarian
John Harkes
Kyle Martino
Tony Meola
Ben Olsen
Brandon Pollard
Claudio Reyna
UCLA:
Carlos Bocanegra
Paul Caliguiri
Brad Friedel
Frankie Hejduk
Chris Henderson
Cobi Jones
Mike Lapper
Joe Max Moore
Ante Razov
Nick Rimando
Sascha Victorine
Marvel Wynne
Not coincidentally, the two programs also help produce two of the best coaches in US soccer history in fat Sigi and Arena.
Boca/Frankie/Cal significantly over Agoos/Pollard at defense
Harkes/Reyna/Martino significantly over Henderson at midfield
Joe Max/Cobi/Razov significantly over Elecko/Albright
Is "irony" the right word here? I never know, but I think that would describe an American Liverpool fan calling out City fans as "bandwagon jumpers".
Cutting it down to the best players on each side... IMO UCLA has more, but UVA has better.Reyna (UVA)
It was a weird critique, as the ad portrayed Mancunian fans anyway. I suppose the ad could have been done with Liverpool and Everton, but I don't understand why ESPN would use two clubs who haven't won a championship since ESPN started carrying the EPL (and in fact have never won a Premiere League championship at all) as opposed to two teams that have won recently.The critique does amuse me because former FFA HOFer Scorchy recently asked me if it was OK for him to adopt Man City as his team without being a bandwagon jumper. He claims it was out of solidarity with the Gallagher boys and Johnny Marr, but I suspect it was just because his son likes saying "Yaya."
You're painting with a mighty wide brush there. I'm assuming that you were a Chelsea fan before they became Chel$ki? Then a) why would you assume that American Liverpool fans would have to be bandwagon jumpers, and b) why would being a Liverpool fan even be jumping on a bandwagon? It's not like they've had great success recently. Are you insinuating that everyone hopped on board after that massive Carling Cup win last year?
The old fashioned way. They play 18 minutes from my house. Local team.
I agree with almost all of this. The only small quibble I have would be to flip Boca and Meola.
I'll limit this to EPL. While I grew up watching German soccer on PBS and following the NASL (my family had Diplomats and "Team America" season tickets), I stopped following soccer other than the World Cup. I went to England shortly before the 1994 World Cup and I decided I wanted to try to follow a team. I narrowed it down to two teams. Newcastle (because I liked the beer) and Tottenham Hotspur (because I like Henry IV Pt. 1). I mostly settled on Newcastle, who at that time were an entertaining team that couldn't quite get over the hump against Man U. I also continued to watch Spurs as Klinsmann had signed with them. But the following was kind of hit or miss, because it was impossible to see games. When I could see games, I was constantly seeing Arsenal as time went on. If I bought a FIFA game, Arsenal was absurdly fun to play with with Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, and Viera. I got back into the sport through Fox Soccer and started following Newcastle. But it was hard because they were pretty drab. Hard to get excited about Charles N'Zogbia. When they were relegated, I embraced sports bigamy and switched allegiances to Arsenal. This was well after Arsenal had stopped winning anything, but they still played an attractive style and were in no danger of being relegated.I think it's silly to wonder why Americans support any European team. I assume people support Barcelona because Barcelona are awesome. People support Man U because it's easy to get to know and love Man U. The same with Man City now.
I'm not calling anyone a bandwagon jumper. That's not at all what I was suggesting. I just think its funny that a fan of one of the most successful, biggest clubs in European football history would take that position. If we were to compile a list of the most successful clubs in world history, Liverpool would be in everyone's top ten, neck/neck with ManU as the biggest club in English history. City would not be anywhere near the discussion, nor would Chelsea.
Okay. That makes more sense.
Lucky /Napoleon
I have a similar story. I grew up in a small town in Tennessee that had no youth soccer. I do remember watching and liking the 84 World Cup, but my exposure to the sport was next to nil. I grew up playing football (American), and was going to play in college, when the summer before my freshman year, I injured a kidney pretty badly and couldn't play anymore.I needed something to channel my competitiveness into, and I started playing soccer with a club team. It was around that time (96) when I started watching the BPL, although the offerings would usually be one game at weird times. Having no knowledge of what players or teams were good, I started watching as a blank slate. I too tried to settle on Newcastle, mainly because of my affinity for their beer, but aside from Alan Shearer, they were a pain to watch.I've also been a close to lifelong Pink Floyd fan, and always thought the soccer fans singing in the background of the song "Fearless" was beautiful. The first time I saw Liverpool play and heard "You'll Never Walk Alone", all the hair on my arms stood up, and I knew I had found my team.ETA - If you've never heard the song "Fearless", it has Liverpool fans singing YNWA piped in throughout the song. Upon rereading my post, I realized I wrote that kinda cryptically. It sounded like I was just saying it had random fans singing a random song. Carry on.
I was in London for a couple weeks late 80s, knew next to nothing about English soccer and ended up at Stamford Bridge because I couldn't afford tickets at the Highbury. I had a great time, but have no idea who I saw playing that day. I lived in Germany at the time and was a Schalke04 fan, but found it next to impossible to follow a (then) 2nd Bundesliga team when I returned to the US, pre-internet. Chelsea was relegated a year later and played one or two seasons in the second division. They had some success in the 90s under Ruud Guillit and were a decent team when Abramovich bought the club in 03. The last time I was at Stamford Bridge was with my wife in 2002. Chelsea beat Sunderland 4-0. Gudjohnsen scored, Claudio Reyna didn't play due to injury.
Did you mean 84 Olympics or 82/86 World Cup?
I should add to this for older farts like Floppo and myself, when we were in our prime "looking for a team to support" years, there were no local teams and not enough on tv to develop a real following for a club team abroad, so we latched on to the US National team as our club team and I think it still remains "our" local team till today. Once the US players started breaking into Europe, we followed those teams with US players on it and still do to today.
Good point. 86 World Cup.
They actually did really well last season. But, the owner is a bit of a moron, and they have fallen back to Earth this season. They'll find a way to stay up, I'm sure, but I foresee at least Ba leaving. Maybe Cisse, as well.
Even though that tournament had little tv coverage it did receive a decent amount of media coverage in the US thanks to Maradona. In fact Diego even got the cover of SI back when that meant a tonhttp://www.thedenimkit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/sports-illustrated.png
Read above, they have been discussing this commercial.
It also made it easier that the beer was no longer the sponsor. I don't know any big Northern Rock fans. And even that is better than Virgin Money (and, next year, Wonga). They might as well be sponsored by the J.J. Wentworth and have the fans sing the "877 CASH NOW" song.EDIT: FWIW, I also think it's criminal that Liverpool is now sponsored by Standard Chartered. I don't mind kit sponsorship, but have some continuity. And choose cool products/companies. No banks.
Ba is still a big injury risk and Cisse is putting up a really crappy year. Those two aren't going anywhere. I actually don't think anyone is going to leave in the next few years, but if someone does come calling it's going to be for Tiote or Cabaye.Newcastle is still a pretty big club. It's going to take a CL club paying a premium price to pry anyone away.
Fair point. I'd take Cabaye in a heartbeat.'jonessed said:
'SmoovySmoov said:
I got into liverpool via Michael Owen. Playing video games early on and i always loved the soccer games. Played a lot of the Fifa WC games and gravitated towards England and then Owen. Then as games began to come out with club teams, I went and found Owen's team. Simple enough, i guess.
