...I've become more interested with the sport. But I don't know what to watch, the leagues, players, and basically a lot of the simple things. Would you guys be able to teach me?
Sure. I started watching the same way with the 2002 World Cup. I don't know if you're a gamer, but I found that the main way I learned was the FIFA series from EA Sports. It helped with the players and also seeing a more simplified version of the game so I started to understand who did what better. Support MLS. I know others will crap on it, but you have to support your domestic league. The other thing to consider when others speak poorly of it is that the other big leagues of the world started about a century before MLS and an average player salary at the highest levels is equal to a total team salary in MLS. And assuming your location is accurate, the Fire could be a very fun team to watch, depending on which Nery Castillo shows up. European leagues are also good to follow. England is the most accessible in the States and on the board, but I personally am not such a fan of it. There's a lot of punt and run stuff which really isn't interesting to me at all as I can get that in MLS without the pretentiousness of being the self-proclaimed best league in the world. Even the top teams are playing this style and it just doesn't do it for me at all. I prefer the Spanish league where the play is a bit slower but the skill level involved is much better in my opinion. Its a bit harder to get, but ESPN3 has it regularly and GolTV covers it extensively if you can get that channel. ESPN3 also has an English match, a Dutch match, and a Portugese match every week, which can be nice to get some variety. atdhe.net also has a lot of stuff daily, including some really obscure stuff like the Finnish league and the occasional random African league match. I'm hoping to see more of the German Bundesliga, but its somewhat hard to come by as I think its on GolTV. Other than the national leagues, every country has a national cup as well, which is usually just a single elimination tournament that any club can enter, so you'll see some matches that are essentially the same as your local high school JV basketball team taking on the Celtics. The later rounds are usually more what you'd expect as the cream rises, but there's always the random club that plays well beyond itself. There are also continental club competitions. The European Champions League is definitely the best club competition to check out and is a major must watch. Fox Soccer Channel owns the rights to it in the US, so its less accessible than when it was on ESPN, but you can find it on atdhe easily. You can get updates on the South American competitions from one of the posters on here, but I haven't had the time to really get into it myself. And of course, if there are ever any questions, you can post them here and get a variety of opinions.
Thanks, this helps. I have some friends who like soccer, and some play it themselves. The Fire is the team they talk about, if they do talk about soccer. I will probably be watching the MLS All Stars vs Manchester United. I know a bit about Manchester, they are like the Yankees of baseball?
I don't like basketball much. So I went with the Yankees. I'm going to download the FIFA World Cup Demo and play that.
I went Lakers in the sense that Man U develop a lot of their own talent, but make the occasional big deal, where as when you think of the Yankees, its always who they bought, rather than the guys that they developed themselves. A Real Madrid-Yankees comparison makes more sense to me in that regard.
^ You're so right agoo, Real madrid = yankees (even though I root for Real and hate Barca lol), while ManUtd is more like LA.
Also just for the record, I hate making comparisons like that because they usually aren't valid. I think fan situations here would be different if the Boston Red Sox were playing baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer and that shirt and that logo were all we had to root for in Boston, as is the case with FC Barcelona and other franchises abroad.
Oh okay. I just knew they were a big team. They breed their players to make them great, and sign a few here and there. Don't they want Donovan?
I think Manchester City were rumored to be taking a look, as were Chelsea. I'm not sure how reliable those rumors were. Everton would be the most likely landing spot in England for Donovan as he found some success there on loan during the winter.
Yeah kind of like that. Loans are pretty common in soccer. Usually the bigger more successful team loans a young player to a smaller club (usually in a lower division) to get playing time. But in the case of Donovan he went to a bigger club.
So like in the NHL, players can sign two way contracts and also play in the AHL. Thats what you mean?
Just play the games if you want to learn the players and teams. I used to know a lot about the NFL back in the early 2000s when I played the EA games.
