Soccer • Football • Voetbal • Futbol • Calcio 2011/2012 - Page 41

Well done for "supporting" a team from a small town like Valladolid. I'm sure you watching them on the TV really spurs them on.

I think Chinese scum or scouse fans would probably stop wearing their shirts if they were to be relegated or had a real relegation scare since they chose their team entirely at random (but also based on how likely they were to be successful). Tbh I wouldn't call the prawn munchers real supporters either on the basis that they don't actually support the team.

I like a few foreign teams to do well for various reasons, it doesn't make me a supporter I'm just a well-wisher.

Actually attending matches is the only way to support the team I'm afraid. If you go to tours in foreign countries as an away fan then yes, you would be supporting the team. Can't say I like teams going on all these far away trips though since the moment they get back they complain about fixture congestion.

I am therefore a direct supporter of:

Real Salt Lake
LA Galaxy
Peñarol
Velez Sarsfield
Atlético de Rafaela

Beyond David Beckham and the now-Inter Ricky Alvarez, I couldn't name you a single player on any of those squads.

On the otherhand, I could name you every starting XI for Real Madrid or Argentina over the last 10 years.

Seriously, how often have you been to see those clubs play? Call yourself a supporter of your local team if you go to their games rather than piggybacking on other team's success. And well done. You have got a book and learnt pretty much irrelevant facts about thousands of matches of a team that you have absolutely fuck all connection to. You sound a lot like a girl I met at Donny away last season, proudly claiming she was "Donny till I die" after her first game.

Dude - are you living in the 1800s? Geographic boundaries do not define the limits of fan-dom. Globalization has completely thrown out the book on that way of thinking.

I totally appreciate your perceptions on true supporting of clubs. But don't go insulting the way I follow my teams, simply because I wasn't born in the "promised land" of Western Europe, in close proximity to a club that regularly reaches the UCL.

Except that I've followed both teams via watching their matches and have witnessed the history for myself...

I suppose my current residence in Las Vegas has just fucked me over for following any sports whatsoever. No local teams here. Damn. Gotta give up that aspect of my life now.
Edited by El Argentino - 9/21/11 at 10:06am

Oh man - almost forgot that RM is playing Santander today!...

This just in, Sir Humphrey is a wanker!

Support a local team, I love football and want more people to enjoy it - what I cannot stand is people who attach themselves to a place which they have no connection to just because the club is likely to do well, then when that club succeeds are happy about it but then they don't care when they lose. You don't want them to win you think they will win.

I feel physically sick today because we lost to the scum last night, I was expecting it but I'm proud to be Leeds and that's how much it means to me. If I'd just picked Leeds as a random team to support then beating the scum at OT would have meant nothing and losing to them last night would have meant nothing, and getting to the semi-final of the European Cup would have meant nothing. Even if a team I want to do well (1860 Munchen, Inter, Ajax or Feyenoord - yes I have a soft spot for both teams for very different reasons) does well it means very little to me, I have no real connection to them or their places. If we won everything all the time or had everything our way I'd get bored, you need the bad times to make you realise just how good the good times are. I know people who were around to see Revies team, have seen us win league titles and European titles and they all say that their favourite moment supporting Leeds was on January 3rd or the Bristol Rovers game when we got out of the Third Division and losing to teams like Cheltenham and Histon. I have nothing but respect for the scum fans from Manchester (ignoring the ones giving stabbing gestures and Turkey chants all game) who have to put up with southerners and foreigners making it hard to get tickets to see their club when they are the ones who will still be there when they stop winning, I know for a fact a lot of them are quite jealous of Leeds for having a hardcore support even if they wouldn't want to be relegated to get back to it. You should have seen them celebrating last night, delighted to be beating a Second Division team because they hate the place that team comes from and are terrified to walk the 30 feet from the bus to the turnstile, hoods up, faces covered, hands in pockets and heads down having all sorts thrown at them - they're scum but they're real supporters. The reason I hate Arsenal is because a lot of their fans think that not finishing in the top four is a bad season - tough shit, most of them have never been to London and its these fairweather fans that have taken the club away from the people of Highbury, the North Bank is gone and now they have a soulless bowl with padded seats and £100 tickets where most people sit in silence.

Supporting your local side is hard but so much more rewarding when good times do come along, try it and see.

Your argument is a tired one, and is invalid when a person not from a team's local area supports said team, yet they aren't a "big" name team (Norwich, Fulham etc).

That definition of "supporter" is stupid.

Reminds me of the dummy who posted on here whenever i'd post Barcelona stuff by asking me if I was physically attending the Champions League final. OH REALLY??? YOU FOLLOW THE NFL?? THEN WHY AREN'T YOU GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL?!? Dumb logic is dumb.

Obviously I wouldn't say you have to go to every game, otherwise you'd have about 500 supporters of Premier League sides. Plus its easy to just pick the big games, Arsenal away last season was good but ruined by the number of daytrippers in the Leeds end - Burnley was the best away day closely followed by Crystal Palace.

Tbf a lot of people like watching Barcelona because they are a good team and they play attractive football, but to say you want them to win is ridiculous unless you have a connection to the city and the Catalan culture. I want them to win in Europe because it means I will be able to watch them in the next round, by the time the final comes I only want them to win if they play scum or Chelsea and that's only because they happen to be the opposition.

If Norwich knocked Ipswich out of the FA Cup Third Round this season all it would mean to the fan with no connection to Norfolk is a bit of media coverage, I wouldn't be surprised if it meant more than staying in the First Division to someone who is actually from Norwich. If it was the other way round then the person who randomly chose Ipswich as their team is happy because they knocked out a Premier League side and would be just as happy if they knocked Fulham out.

It's never easy to defend being a "true" supporter of a team thousands of miles away that just so happens to be quite possibly the greatest side in history, but it is what it is. I started following them in earnest the year Ronaldinho signed (2003) and haven't looked back. I stuck with them through those down years of 06-07 when Real Madrid took the league and they flamed out in the CL.

I've even made it a priority to make the pilgrimage to the Camp Nou next month....I planned the entire trip AROUND watching a match.

After a couple of probing questions, the fakers/bandwagon fans are usually exposed...an in depth knowledge of the sport, the team, and its history is usually what I use to gauge whether someone's a TRUE supporter...not proximity to the stadium and access to tickets.

I went to Lille v. CSKA Moscow last week. I even bought a scarf to complete the touristy occasion. I was in the stadium though, so consider me a Douge, right?

ok back to talk of the game rather than troll-feeding ...

madrid are at it again, their card tricks that is. ozil yellow