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Football

    • 75 posts
    April 30, 2015 9:25 PM EDT

    Now despite what people think (and know) about me, this discussion will be for any and all types of football, whether it be association (or as I like to call it, proper) football, American football, Australian rules football or any other form of footie that people on here play/know about.

    So talk about what football teams you like, in any of the different types of football in the world, tell us how they're doing in the competitive scene and how long you've supported them/why you support them 

    To start off with, I've been an association football fan since I was a little kid, and while I've followed a number of clubs, namely Chelsea and Barcelona, the one club I'll always stick with is my home-team, Watford. I've been bragging for a few days now, but the Watford football team actually got promoted from the Championship (second highest division in English football) to the Premier League last Saturday after they won and every other result went their way. The last match of the season's happening two days from now, and depending on whether Watford wins or not they'll be getting out of their division as champions or second place. So as you can most likely tell, it's pretty bloody exciting 

    That's all I have to say about what type of football I like etc. I haven't really learnt much about American football, but in terms of American sports in general I'll most likely start supporting whichever team I see play a game, but it'd be interesting to learn about what other people think about some of the biggest sports in the world o3o

    • 966 posts
    April 30, 2015 10:00 PM EDT

    I mainly support PEC Zwolle. A relatively small club. For many years now it had played in the second tier of Dutch football, it is the second incarnation of the club, its predecessor of the same name went bankrupt in 1990. The current club was founded immediately afterwards as FC Zwolle before renaming back to PEC Zwolle in 2012 when they once again entered the Erediviesie by becoming Chamption in the second league. 

    Since 2012 we've achieved the 11th spot twice, easily avoiding relegation. But much more impressively we won the Dutch Cup by rekking Ajax 5-1. Right after that we won the Dutch Supercup by beating Ajax again, though this time 'just' 1-0. 

    Now as the current season comes to a close, we're in the final once again! The final is this sunday. In the Eredivisie we're currently on slot 7 with 47 points. Not bad for a small provincial club, eh? 

    Not a huge amount of history besides that, though we're a club that's on the rise. Our most famous player is Jaap Stam, who any football fan knows.

    I'm also rather partial to PSV.

    • 75 posts
    April 30, 2015 10:25 PM EDT

    5-1, that's a win and a half  I've never focused on the Dutch leagues before, I've obviously heard of Ajax but that's about it. It's nice to hear someone else focuses on a relatively small time club though, I hear too many people saying they support Real Madrid or Chelsea or something when usually they're not even from the area and only support them because they win -3-

    • 966 posts
    April 30, 2015 10:33 PM EDT

    I'm not really a fan of any big club. I'm much more impressed by clubs who don't have budgets of several hundred million but still able to perform very well thanks to proper management and good play.

    I'd suggest watching the Dutch league every once and awhile, the big teams, Ajax and PSV, are not what they once were, and the quality of play isn't always high. But every Dutch team plays offensively, the Eredivisie is also one of the youngest leagues, with players with the potential to be one of the best making their breakthrough here.

    And the difference between clubs is small, even the bigger ones can always lose to a smaller club, making the league quite unpredictable and exciting. 

    • 75 posts
    April 30, 2015 11:06 PM EDT

    I'll have to give the league a try soon then, the Championship is ending this Saturday anyway so maybe I'll look at some of this season's matches from the Dutch league after that o3o

    • 35 posts
    May 1, 2015 3:24 AM EDT
    My favourite teams that I have now been following for 15 years is Manchester United in the English Premier League. I also have a strong connection and liking to Derby County in FL Championship, as this is where my family is from. In Australia I follow Adelaide United in the A-League and Sydney Swans in AFL.

    I enjoy watching Rugby but I have no favourite team and I don't really understand American football...
    • 75 posts
    May 1, 2015 11:41 AM EDT

    Derby's had a good run this season, but seem to of dropped in performance lately, they'll probably still make the play-offs though, but that means they'll probably be up against either Middlesbrough and Norwich, and they won't go down easy o3o 

    As for Man U... Watford's gonna be going against them next season at some point, we'll have to see where that goes  Never watched anything to do with the Australian leagues, are any of the teams at all big?

    • 1483 posts
    May 1, 2015 1:44 PM EDT

    Another Man United fan here. Been a fan of theirs for about 11 years now. We'll see how Watford fares against them  Football in Armenia doesn't even come close to importance it has in England or, say, Holland. Though the situation seems to be turning for the better with players like Henrikh Mkhitaryan serving as example of Armenian players being successful in football.

    • 966 posts
    May 1, 2015 1:52 PM EDT

    Football has basically taken religion's place in this country.

    • 75 posts
    May 1, 2015 4:29 PM EDT

    Well naturally football would be more popular in a country like England or Holland, and especially places like Spain and Latin America. But there has been a rise recently of football-appreciating countries, America being one of them since they've got a lot of European greats going and playing for their teams near the end of their careers.

    • 966 posts
    May 1, 2015 4:47 PM EDT

    The US just replaced Qatar in that aspect. Usually older players would 'go play in the sand pit' for money, now they go to the US. Though I have heard proper football is rising in popularity there. About time, so much wasted potential.

    • 1483 posts
    May 1, 2015 4:57 PM EDT

    US is actually one of the leading countries (if not the leading one) in women's football. US women national team has won the last three Olympic Games, if I'm not mistaken. And men national team performed quite admirably in the last World Cup.

    • 75 posts
    May 1, 2015 8:55 PM EDT

    Yep, the American women's team are extremely good, but I think that American football and other American sports have kind of made football less popular there, it's good that it's a growing sport over there though.

    • 75 posts
    May 2, 2015 9:11 AM EDT

    So the results are in for the final day of the Championship. Watford's game ended in a draw in the very last minute and Bournemouth takes the title ;-; It's disappointing but we're still getting promoted, thank the lord -3-

    • 966 posts
    May 3, 2015 5:16 AM EDT
    On my way to cup final now. Zwolle! Zwolle!