Why do we?
Why do we cheer for our favorite team. What has led you to cheer for Man United or the Gunners. For me it was at the age of six having to choose from a Liverpool cup or a Man United cup at my Uncles house outside of London. I choose United for no other reason that it looked cool. My Uncle then said to me that only real men cheer for the Devils! Before getting too excited that is my Uncle talking not me. Gio put your hands down. What led me to this just looking at my Man United cup from Bananas. How about you what are your reasons?
posted by Mateo @ 4:01 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I'm a relative newcomer to the beautiful game. In roughly 2002/2003 I was looking to learn more about the sport, probably in advance of my travelling to Europe. The exact details are kind of fuzzy. What I do remember is thinking that Arsenal was kind of an odd name for a team. When I found out the team was known as the Arsenal Gunners I was greatly amused and had found a team to support. Of course it also helped that the team was near the top of the league at the time.
At that time about all that I knew of English football was that there was no way I would ever cheer for Manchester United. The reason was simple: they were already associated with the New York Yankees in my mind. Partly because I had heard them referred to as the "Yankees of soccer" and partly because they had recently signed a marketing deal with the Yankees (as if the Yankees needed more money). Finding out later that my brother was a Man U supporter cemented their place as the enemy.
I look forward to hearing the stories that the rest of you have to offer. Thanks for asking the question Mateo.
Great Question!
Bananas had been asking me to skip work for months to watch an afternoon game with him. So one day, he told me that I absolutely HAD to come to see Chelsea play Liverpool. Naturally, those names meant nothing to me...I had heard of Liverpool the city, but the only footie team I 'knew' of was ManU (courtesy of David Beckham). So,I went. They were playing eachother for the Champions League,and again, that meant nothing to me...
When I got to the pub, EVERYONE was cheering for the reds, and me, in my infinit wisdom, decided that the blues must be the underdogs, and since no one else was cheering for them, I would.
Bananas heard me comment on the cutie patooties on the team and he pointed out Joe Cole (his favourite)...and a fan was born. Although I didn't watch any more Chelsea footie that season (2005-2005), I decided to watch their 2005-2006 opener against Wigan (a town I knew of because that's where my childhood friend's family was from), and of course...because Wigan was wearing blue and chelsea was wearing their grey kits...for the first half I cheered for the wrong team! It took a close up of Joe Cole to tell me that. ah...good times.
PS - thanks for the chelsea/joe cole montage... I.LOVE.IT.
It was all for you baby. ;)
my story is in two parts, and part one includes elements of both mateo's and brian's.
back in the late seventies we lived next door to a family from liverpool. my best friend for years was their youngest son, pete. one fateful sunday i was over at the house being babysat and pete and i wandered into the den where his father was watching a football game with really poor reception. the teams: liverpool and boring, boring arsenal. all i knew at that moment was that ian, the dad, and his sons were cheering for liverpool, bad mouthing arsenal, and that the gunners had cool names.
fast forward to 1998. my first wife, michelle, and i were hosting a french foreign exchange student named, jimmy jacques-yves carole connais de la mazure (how's that for a name). it was august in florida and the world cup had just ended. i had heard about it, and i knew france had won, but that was the extent of my interest. enter jimmy. he comes in with a video tape of full of french games and late at night he makes me watch every damn one over and over again, talking non-stop about zidane and vieira and that new kid henry. i loved zidane from then on, but when i discovered the following year that patty and thierry were players on arsenal something clicked. there was a cool little pub, fly's tie, down near atlantic beach, and they showed football on the weekends. so one day after surfing i snuck in for a pint and caught my first arsenal game since i was a kid, and there were patty and thierry -- and a crazy swede with bright red hair (freddie). that was it...i was hooked and the obsession has only grown since that day.
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