Which genuine football fan hasn't allowed the result of a football match that they had precisely zero influence over to affect their mood in their real life? How many of us spend a sizeable percentage of our days reading, thinking about, watching or playing the sport?
The kinship spreads further however - the Us can be expanded to all football fans and the Them to mean those who just don't get it. My mum, my girlfriend, my housemate (male) amongst others look on bemused when We come back from a bad result, or sulk through an evening after a pathetic showing. They don't understand the adrenaline rush that comes from a last minute goal bringing that result you'd all but given up on. They feel assaulted by that surge of energy spread through total strangers that temporarily turns Us into a symbiotic, single being. They will never understand the close up of the teary eyed youth after a cup final defeat, or a relegation. For them, spending 2 hours in the cold, another hour on a packed train and then another hour watching highlights and analysis of events that you saw live only a few hours earlier is a foreign idea. To watch clips of skills or outrageous/hilarious goals again and again, and then try to recreate them is just a waste of time.
Let's be honest - football is a drug and we're all totally addicted.
It's because of this that I think that we all have soft spots for other teams. As a fan, you support your club. You then have those teams you hate - either through rivalry or just because. That's normal if you accept the Us vs Them theory. There are those you're indifferent to and there are those who you always look out for, for reasons that you may or may not be aware about. Teams from other countries who you'll "support" from afar. The great thing about these teams is that they are personal - you get a mix of life experience and glory hunting that our otherwise homogenous group (ie Arsenal fans) may not have.
I've listed my clubs below, and would be interested to hear about other peoples.
I'm an Arsenal fan. Fan being short for Fanatic, of the Hornby variety. I spend far too much time thinking about Arsenal and they are and always will be my first love (although right now we need to see a counsellor).
In the UK, I like Watford and Barnet as my local teams. I like Nottingham Forest (partly through the Arsenal connection) and Leeds and would love both teams to make it back to the big time.
I've always taken the side of Rangers over Celtic - havn't got a clue why.
In Europe, I route for Olympique Marseille (not sure why), for Ajax ('cos of Bergkamp...the one true God), for Werder Bremen (your guess is as good as mine), for Valencia (I love their orange kits, and the Las Fallas festival) although I have a dirty soft spot for Barcelona (Year 7 school trip to the Nou Camp - the Rivaldo, Figo, Enrique, Cocu, Kluivert etc era).
Portugal never grabbed me, but from childhood football Italia watching (Gooooooooal Accio), I've always loved first AC Milan (Rossi in goal) and then Juventus (my favourite match ever is the 3-1 win in 2002 in the Champions League - that was footballing perfection for me). The rest of Europe sort of gets passed over - probably never saw enough football from the leagues of Greece, Turkey and the Scandi countries.
I've always considered myself a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan (although I've been in the Red end of the Bloomfield on a fair few occasions too) because of Avi Nimni and Baruch Dego and somehow I've ended up with a Corinthians shirt from Brazil. I look forward to picking up a South African team in a few months, and plan to get to as many games in Cape Town as I can!
That's several teams that I have a fondness for and always look out for them, try to see them as much as possible and back in any game, unless they play the Gunners.
Let me know who you have a soft spot for - and a reason if you know why.
4 comments:
bnei yehuda!
like you watford and barnet as they are the local teams, and the whole buxlow kleanthous link enhances my love of barnet.
also have a soft spot for gillingham after 3 glorious seasons spent managing them on football manager
around europe i like ajax, they feel like the most loved team in europe, quite like it when benfica do well, and similarly standard liege for no reason other than decided that i do.
in spain i tend to like any team who is playing against barce, real madrid, real majorca or deportivo, not sure why i dislike majorca or deportivo, most probably a football manager related build up.
italy like you a like for ac and juve, but a strong dislike for roma. could be because totti plays for them and i have a strong dislike for him (something to do with martin keown)
in usa i look out for NY red bulls because of thierry.
argentina river plate are the team i look at results for but always take a special interest in arsenal sarandi. they have arsenal in the name no further reason needed.
i used to have a soft sport for manchester city, this was when paul dickov scored the winner against gillingham in the 2nd division play off final, how times have changed.
probably a few more ive forgotten but that is most of them
Er...Dickov didn't score the winner...it went to pens and Nicky Weaver was the hero!
I've always had soft spots for Forest (local to where I grew up), Liverpool (until recently) and Leeds (I went with a family friend to see Arsenal play there).
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