NationStates Jolt Archive

Sorry if this is a repeat, I took a (lazy) look back through the threads and couldn't find one on this, so:

Who follows football (in all but the American rugby-for-girls sense), what team, why, how depressed/elated/ambivalent are you feeling about their current form, which team do you want to see crushed etc. Any thoughts about the beautiful game welcome.

I'm a West Ham fan mainly through place of birth and fear of being sold into slavery at a young age if I didn't join the cult. Our season finished as soon as we hit 40 pts. Now I'm starting to get depressed at the lack of imagination we're showing given we have nothing to play for and nothing to lose.

Pretty happy to see Arsenal looking at an empty trophy cabinet though, fingers crossed for Chelsea to share their fate.

New England Patriots WAHOOOOO

Manchester United
Sorry if this is a repeat, I took a (lazy) look back through the threads and couldn't find one on this, so:

Who follows football (in all but the American rugby-for-girls sense), what team, why, how depressed/elated/ambivalent are you feeling about their current form, which team do you want to see crushed etc. Any thoughts about the beautiful game welcome.New England Patriots WAHOOOOO


read much WC?

Manchester United


read much WC?

*shrug*
The OP can be obnoxious, why can't us American Football fans?

*dittos the Pats cheer.*


No, I don't particularly follow soccer. I enjoy watching it, but have never really had the desire to follow it closely. Though, the Revolution are fun to go see.

Scunthorpe United. Yes I know we are being demoted back into Div.1 it's a shame because we started the season so well, we were in a playoff position.

New England Patriots WAHOOOOO

GO PATS!!!!!

What is this American rugby for girls you are talking about, maybe I just always miss it on TV.:confused:

No, I don't particularly follow soccer. I enjoy watching it, but have never really had the desire to follow it closely. Though, the Revolution are fun to go see.

<obnoxiously overreacts to mere mention of rival team>

Fuck New England! Go Fire! Fi-re! Fi-re! Chi-ca-go! WOOOOO!

<return to normalcy>

Ehm. Err. I rather enjoy watching the locals play a game every now and then. What can I say, I enjoy beer and yelling at people and multilingual cheering sections.

Click Stand;13610255']GO PATS!!!!!

What is this American rugby for girls you are talking about, maybe I just always miss it on TV.:confused:

It's a game much like rugby, only the player's mothers have had a word with the coach first, explained how delicate their special little boys are, and insisted that they can't play until they're wrapped head to toe in padding. And as far as I can tell, the game needs to be stopped every 30 seconds or so to give everyone a chance to play, because they're all winners really.

n.b. I am aware that this may not be the real reason for a change every 30 seconds, even so it does make the game very slow and dull.

My apologies to AF fans, I am simply abusing a game I know very little about, but I'm doing it with a loud voice and with total certainty to cover up my ignorance, so that should make it okay.

Scunthorpe United. Yes I know we are being demoted back into Div.1 it's a shame because we started the season so well, we were in a playoff position.

Isn't our Izzy Iriekpen playing there these days? I remember watching him in the '99 youth cup final. If it wasn't for his injuries I'm pretty sure he would be a massive player these days. At least you're getting some joy from him these days.

It's a game much like rugby, only the player's mothers have had a word with the coach first, explained how delicate their special little boys are, and insisted that they can't play until they're wrapped head to toe in padding. And as far as I can tell, the game needs to be stopped every 30 seconds or so to give everyone a chance to play, because they're all winners really.

n.b. I am aware that this may not be the real reason for a change every 30 seconds, even so it does make the game very slow and dull.

My apologies to AF fans, I am simply abusing a game I know very little about, but I'm doing it with a loud voice and with total certainty to cover up my ignorance, so that should make it okay.

That’s exactly right what’s the deal with all the padding I always knew those American footballers and I use that term in the most general sense of the word are little weak pussies.

Isn't our Izzy Iriekpen playing there these days? I remember watching him in the '99 youth cup final. If it wasn't for his injuries I'm pretty sure he would be a massive player these days. At least you're getting some joy from him these days.

Yeah he is, they got him June last year, and he has played about 10 games for the club so far and even managed to get a goal. Not a bad player but he is dirty I remember reading some where he got banned for a few weeks in the reserves after smashing some guy, in any case he is out till the end of the season with you guessed it a knee injury.

That’s exactly right what’s the deal with all the padding I always knew those American footballers and I use that term in the most general sense of the word are little weak pussies.
It's because American Football is a lot more liberal in terms of what sort of tackles are allowed. Given those rules, not wearing protective equipment would lead straight to bad injuries and deaths quite regularly. And even with the gear it's not like people aren't hurting themselves playing.

As for actual football, after I left Germany I stopped following it at club level and just watched international matches (when available). But I've gotten back into it recently with the Champion's League getting interesting. It's just that getting up at 4-5am to watch a match is hard work...

It's because American Football is a lot more liberal in terms of what sort of tackles are allowed. Given those rules, not wearing protective equipment would lead straight to bad injuries and deaths quite regularly. And even with the gear it's not like people aren't hurting themselves playing.

The rules of tackling are certainly more liberal that rugby union, but I thought that there was the same sort of guidelines for rugby league and AF. Is there a great difference between the two?

The rules of tackling are certainly more liberal that rugby union, but I thought that there was the same sort of guidelines for rugby league and AF. Is there a great difference between the two?

Pretty much anything goes in American Football. There are only rules about tackling by the facemask. Aside from that, you get the guy down however you can.

Is there a great difference between the two?
It's probably a better bet to ask someone who plays either or both, but as TSI said, in AF pretty much anything goes. Spear tackles, knocking people's legs back so they flip over and land head first etc.

Rugbly League has plenty of rules on the other hand. Spear tackles, grapple tackles and so on are all illegal (though sometimes it's hard to enforce until the deed is done...)

Anyways, criticising AF is easy, because it is so tactical that the entertainment can't come from anything else. And if you're not into the tactical side of it, all you see is a lot of breaks followed by people running around randomly for about ten seconds. But I wouldn't criticise it for the protective gear they're wearing: that's certainly got its reasons.

I played American Football for 4 years in high school, and I can tell you that there are very few rules when it comes to tackling. There are only 3 that I can think of:

1. Spearing (rare to be called)

2. Facemask (penalty for contact, another penalty for tackling by)

3. Horsecollar (only in the NFL, rare, bad rule)

I was on this site, and was shocked to see this entire thread can pretty much be summed up here (http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/95-rugby/).

Aside from playing the game with white people, there is one other surefire way to use rugby for your own personal gain. If you have determined that the white person you are talking to prefers rugby over soccer, it is strongly advised that you say: “you know, American Football players might be bigger, but rugby players are so much tougher.” Their response will be to tell you about how Football players are weak because they wear pads. This will be followed by a knowing nod or wink in your direction and an invitation to join them for a game on the weekend.

I think I may have made a miscalculation. By excluding AF from the discussion, I have accidentally turned it into a debate about said game. But I have learned some things about AF tackling that I was previously not aware of, so on balance, knowledge being power, I am stronger for the error. Now to take over the world

Exactly. We Americans wouldn't have hijacked your thread if you hadn't mentioned our game. We would have just let you be. We only ask the same in return when we have our Football/Baseball/Dwarf Tossing threads.

*working up courage*

... erm... dwarf tossing? If this is even 5% related to what I am imagining I may have to quit my footie obsession and convert

*working up courage*

... erm... dwarf tossing? If this is even 5% related to what I am imagining I may have to quit my footie obsession and convert

Indeed it is exactly what you were thinking about. Very popular here in America.

If we're talking about Europe, been a Manchester United fan since '02, when I first started following the sport.
If we're talking about here stateside, FC Dallas all the way. Go Hoops!!!

I've found a lot of people from the US tend towards Man U. I can only assume it's down to their fame in comparison to some other teams. Might I take this opportunity to recommend West Ham as an alternative to those across the water who have yet to make up their minds. We don't have the success of the Mancs, but we do offer jellied eels. How could you turn that offer down. And if my soon to be made proposals come to fruition, possible even a dwarf tossing half time show.

Melbourne (http://www.melbournevictory.com.au/default.aspx?s=mvfc_home) Victory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Victory) is the soccer team I follow. It's the off season here. We're in the Asian Champions League, we won our first game, but have lost the next two, so it'll be extremely difficult for us to progress to the next round.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v427/vonbek/_42483737_leeds_203.gif

Been a Crewe Alex fan for as long as I can remember (And we should avoid league one's relegation zone this season! YAAAAY!), and I've been following Man Utd. since I was about five (because everyone I knew hated them, I decided to like them. Turned out to be a good decision!)

The city that had the honour of my birth also takes the honour of my support.

Cambridge United.

It's funny how there's hundreds of clubs with their own history, their own ups and downs and moments of glory. While we're looking well placed to crawl out of the Conference league this year, probably to tumble down again next, we fondly remember the glory years of 89-92 when Dion Dublin, who is generally reckoned to have the largest penis ever seen in the leagues - attested to by none other than Sir Alex Ferguson himself, since Dion played for Man U briefly - Steve Claridge, John Taylor and others took us to the play offs for the inaugural Premier League, beaten by Leicester though I always remember it as Torquay for some reason.

The manager, John Beck, was pretty notorious and possibly mad, certainly a horrendous cheat, he was allegedly - in the spirit of HIGNFY - an utter criminal as well. He was sacked after that season.

From there we dropped like stones.

We hate Peterborough and I've actually just broken a commandment by spelling it that way, they're actually called Peterboring.

Just recently, there was a site - I forget the name - that was going to buy a club, for about GBP15, you could be a shareholder and everyone would vote for team selection, Cambridge was the 2nd most popular vote to buy after Leeds, which is surprising because, as Peeps will attest, the only reason Leeds have a good pitch is because so much shite is seen there every Saturday.

Anyhoo...

I've been a Man U fan all my life, but don't follow it so closely at the moment (My partner is a Liverpool fan, so we pretend football doesn't happen a lot of the time). I lived in London for 10 years, actually not far from West Ham, and the amount of ribbing I got caused me to pay way more attention to the sport. It was good timing really because during those years Man U played some awesome football - Cantona, the triple etc. I still remember being in a very posh Italian restaurant on my knees in front of the TV that they'd brought in especially for the occasion, screaming at those injury time goals... What a celebration :D

The city that had the honour of my birth also takes the honour of my support.

Cambridge United.

It's funny how there's hundreds of clubs with their own history, their own ups and downs and moments of glory. While we're looking well placed to crawl out of the Conference league this year, probably to tumble down again next, we fondly remember the glory years of 89-92 when Dion Dublin, who is generally reckoned to have the largest penis ever seen in the leagues - attested to by none other than Sir Alex Ferguson himself, since Dion played for Man U briefly - Steve Claridge, John Taylor and others took us to the play offs for the inaugural Premier League, beaten by Leicester though I always remember it as Torquay for some reason.

The manager, John Beck, was pretty notorious and possibly mad, certainly a horrendous cheat, he was allegedly - in the spirit of HIGNFY - an utter criminal as well. He was sacked after that season.

From there we dropped like stones.

We hate Peterborough and I've actually just broken a commandment by spelling it that way, they're actually called Peterboring.

Just recently, there was a site - I forget the name - that was going to buy a club, for about GBP15, you could be a shareholder and everyone would vote for team selection, Cambridge was the 2nd most popular vote to buy after Leeds, which is surprising because, as Peeps will attest, the only reason Leeds have a good pitch is because so much shite is seen there every Saturday.

Anyhoo...

Now if it was not for the fact I was actually born in Cambridge I would not point out that Cambridge have won nothing besides the 4th and 3rd divisions.

I would not point out that Leeds have won 6 league titles, 2 Uefa Cups, FA Cup, League Cup and a Charity Shield victory.

I would not tell you to stfu nor would I be shy from also stating that our downfall has been a total nightmare but we are not playing shit football...look at our goal difference...only Swansea is ahead of us...we dipped when Poyet left us and obviously that treacherous little shit Dennis Wise. But I do not think we have been playing shit.

Anyhoo...

/fucking hell...Swansea... :(

Sorry if this is a repeat, I took a (lazy) look back through the threads and couldn't find one on this, so:

Who follows football (in all but the American rugby-for-girls sense), what team, why, how depressed/elated/ambivalent are you feeling about their current form, which team do you want to see crushed etc. Any thoughts about the beautiful game welcome.

I'm a West Ham fan mainly through place of birth and fear of being sold into slavery at a young age if I didn't join the cult. Our season finished as soon as we hit 40 pts. Now I'm starting to get depressed at the lack of imagination we're showing given we have nothing to play for and nothing to lose.

Pretty happy to see Arsenal looking at an empty trophy cabinet though, fingers crossed for Chelsea to share their fate.



Bwahahaha an Iron!

Myself I'm a Leeds Utd supporter, and you know that must be true coz otherwise I would not have admited it.
I'm pretty gutted but it looks like we may retain a play off position so Champions league foootie here we come(please God!)

Now if it was not for the fact I was actually born in Cambridge I would not point out that Cambridge have won nothing besides the 4th and 3rd divisions.

I would not point out that Leeds have won 6 league titles, 2 Uefa Cups, FA Cup, League Cup and a Charity Shield victory.

I would not tell you to stfu nor would I be shy from also stating that our downfall has been a total nightmare but we are not playing shit football...look at our goal difference...only Swansea is ahead of us...we dipped when Poyet left us and obviously that treacherous little shit Dennis Wise. But I do not think we have been playing shit.

Anyhoo...

/fucking hell...Swansea... :(

You should - not - enjoy this but the commentary is golden, especially at the end...your boys took one hell of a beating - that line never fails to amuse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLnPqpYUnk0&feature=related

You should - not - enjoy this but the commentary is golden, especially at the end...your boys took one hell of a beating - that line never fails to amuse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLnPqpYUnk0&feature=related

LOLOL!!!! That was pretty funny and kudos to the Leeds fan in taking it in good humour...

Of course Leicester...like dogs...have their day ;)

Heart of Midlothian, aka The Lithuanian State Circus (http://www.heartsfc.premiumtv.co.uk)

These days I just seem to spend my time looking forward to the end of the season.

I've been a Man U fan all my life, but don't follow it so closely at the moment (My partner is a Liverpool fan, so we pretend football doesn't happen a lot of the time). I lived in London for 10 years, actually not far from West Ham, and the amount of ribbing I got caused me to pay way more attention to the sport. It was good timing really because during those years Man U played some awesome football - Cantona, the triple etc. I still remember being in a very posh Italian restaurant on my knees in front of the TV that they'd brought in especially for the occasion, screaming at those injury time goals... What a celebration :D

Yeah, I'm a united supporter as well. My dad supported them since the time they brought George Best (aomw N.Irish folk adore George Best with a feverency that its actually a little scary) and it's kind of being kept in the familly. I still remember that match not only cause it was the trebble but because staying up past my bedtime to watch united play was always a bit of treat when I was younger. Frankly Munich scoring so early in the match left me distraught but those goals were unbelivable.

Life as a Portsmoth fan has never been so good

2nd in the real premiership behnd Everton,(you can discount the 4 highly overpaid teams who always in the top 4 slots every year).
FA cup final appearance to come and recently beat west ham :p

As for US football, watch their lower leagues when you can... the game is played much faster than the NFL/AFL nonsense and seems to be better too:cool:

Life as a Portsmoth fan has never been so good

2nd in the real premiership behnd Everton,(you can discount the 4 highly overpaid teams who always in the top 4 slots every year).
FA cup final appearance to come and recently beat west ham :p:

Bah! If you look at our recent form pretty much anyone can beat West Ham at the moment. We have Derby at the weekend. I've been watching their highlights of late, and I'm scratching my head as to how we're going to manage to lose this one. I have faith though, we will find a way to hand them them their second victory of the season.

I have quite a soft spot for Portsmouth whilst you've got half of our team from 7 years ago, and " 'ookey 'arry". Decent fella, even if I wouldn't buy a second hand car from him.

Mock the poor iron....tee hee hee...mock his mid-table mediocrity!

I'm a United fan as well, and, despite having lived south of London, and closer to Ipswich Town, all my life, I feel equipped to justify my support;

-my Grandad was an avid fan, and was on their books as an academy player. He was actually at Wembley in 1968.
-my Grandmother, other side, is an avid fan who also remembers Bestie.
-when I was a boy David Beckham and his Brylcreem were too cool for words.

For my sins, I'm a Manchester United fan, and have been since 1989, initially because of the Munich crash, George Best, I liked how they played (in the few matches I was able to see on TV here), and a smidgen of sheer ignorance, which I won't go into. Over time, their play continued to enthrall me, and the growing collection of hardware didn't hurt, either.

In my native North America, however, it has to be the Seattle Sounders -- the first club I supported and saw live many, many years ago. Not exactly Premier League quality, but played with heart.

The city that had the honour of my birth also takes the honour of my support.

Cambridge United.

It's funny how there's hundreds of clubs with their own history, their own ups and downs and moments of glory. While we're looking well placed to crawl out of the Conference league this year, probably to tumble down again next, we fondly remember the glory years of 89-92 when Dion Dublin, who is generally reckoned to have the largest penis ever seen in the leagues - attested to by none other than Sir Alex Ferguson himself, since Dion played for Man U briefly - Steve Claridge, John Taylor and others took us to the play offs for the inaugural Premier League, beaten by Leicester though I always remember it as Torquay for some reason.

The manager, John Beck, was pretty notorious and possibly mad, certainly a horrendous cheat, he was allegedly - in the spirit of HIGNFY - an utter criminal as well. He was sacked after that season.

From there we dropped like stones.

We hate Peterborough and I've actually just broken a commandment by spelling it that way, they're actually called Peterboring.

Just recently, there was a site - I forget the name - that was going to buy a club, for about GBP15, you could be a shareholder and everyone would vote for team selection, Cambridge was the 2nd most popular vote to buy after Leeds, which is surprising because, as Peeps will attest, the only reason Leeds have a good pitch is because so much shite is seen there every Saturday.

Anyhoo...

If memory serves, aren't you lot in the same league as Histon, that little village about 30 minutes cycle away with the wonderful real ale pub whose name escapes me?

I'm a United fan as well, and, despite having lived south of London, and closer to Ipswich Town, all my life, I feel equipped to justify my support;

-my Grandad was an avid fan, and was on their books as an academy player. He was actually at Wembley in 1968.
-my Grandmother, other side, is an avid fan who also remembers Bestie.
-when I was a boy David Beckham and his Brylcreem were too cool for words.

Good enough - only two good reason for supporting a team, either location or family. But as I refuse to accept brylcreem as justification, your first two answers will do.

Good enough - only two good reason for supporting a team, either location or family. But as I refuse to accept brylcreem as justification, your first two answers will do.

In my defence, I was 8.

I followed the World Cup (Ukraine, France) and the MLS (NE Revolution) in 2006. Mostly forgot about it last year...

If memory serves, aren't you lot in the same league as Histon, that little village about 30 minutes cycle away with the wonderful real ale pub whose name escapes me?

Yup, we're in the top-flight alright, it's the Conference Premier if you must know, not just any old conference.

Histon are not far behind us actually.