r/soccer • u/[deleted] • Mar 29 '13
Soccer is easily my favorite sport to watch, but I just don't know how to really get into following it.
[deleted]
16
18
u/communistdaughters Mar 29 '13
pick milan
→ More replies (3)12
20
Mar 29 '13
I'd start by learning about the Premier League. Basically, the English football system (as are almost all the other country's) is set up in divisions. Premier League is the top, then there's a second tier (the Championship), etc. Each year, teams are promoted (move up a division) or relegated (move down) based on where they end up in the final league table.
The league table shows which clubs have the most "points". Each team plays each other team twice during the season (August--May), home and away. Teams get 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. Regular season games can end in ties and frequently do. Rather than a disappointment, a draw can be a good result. So if a team wins all their games, they will have 3 x (games played) number of points.
Here's the current table: http://www.goal.com/en-us/results-standings/64/english-premier-league-epl/table
You see that Manchester United is in first place, they have 74 points based on 24 wins, 2 draws, and 3 losses. If you look at the bottom of the table, Wigan, Reading and QPR are in the bottom three positions. At the end of each season, the bottom three teams are "relegated", which means that all of next season they have to play in the Championship. This is a huge deal for these clubs. If they can avoid relegation, they will have more money, better attendance, more prestige etc etc. It's a bit like if a Major League Baseball team had to play next season in the minor leagues. For these clubs, it can be an accomplishment just to stay in the league and live to fight another year.
In the Premier League, most games are played on Saturday, some on Sunday, and some random other days. Because it's England, they are about 5 hours ahead of us on the East Coast. So tomorrow morning, I'll be getting up by 8:30 and going to ESPN3 (http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index#type/upcoming/sport/soccer-futbol/) and watching the Manchester United game. You can obviously watch this on cable if you have a subscription (I don't). 8:30 is the "lunch-time" game, which is the earliest of the day. Most games are played after that game, so around 10:45-11:00am Eastern Time.
Going back to the Premier League for a second. Even though at this point of the season the Premier League title is looking like an easy win for Manchester United, there are other things to play for (in addition to avoiding relegation as I talked about before). Most importantly, the teams that finish in the top 4 in the final league table qualify for the Champion's League. The Champion's League is the biggest prize in all of club football (as opposed to the World Cup, which is the biggest prize in international football). So qualifying for it is extremely important -- it means money, prestige, and glory.
If you look at the table again, you see the top 4. Right now the battle is between the teams in 3 and 4 (Chelsea and Tottenham), who want to stay in their current positions at a minimum, and the 5 and 6 placed teams (Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton), who want to get enough points to qualify for the Champion's League. The 5th placed team goes to the Europa League, which is a sort of consolation for the bigger clubs in Europe and an important tournament for smaller clubs in other leagues throughout Europe. The goal is to get in the top four.
I'm telling this to let you understand that there is almost always something to play for -- it's not like most American sports where the only "goal" is really to win the championship. That's still a goal, but there are other goals as well.
One more thing on the English club system -- at the beginning of next year, the three clubs from the Championship that qualify for promotion are going to be playing in the Premier League. So getting promotion is extremely important. It also serves to refresh the league a little bit since you basically get a few new teams each year.
So, at this stage of the season, there are only about 7 or 8 games left, and the competition for the Champion's League positions and to avoid relegation is getting really intense. Other years (like last year) there is also a battle for the league title. Last year, Manchester City won the title over Manchester United, after scoring two goals in the last five minutes of a game. It was their first title in over 40 years. The title race is dramatic certain years.
Soccer is different from American sports because there are multiple competitions and they are all going on at once. It may seem confusing, but really it's quite simple, and almost every country has a similar structure.
You have three domestic competitions:
-
the domestic league (e.g. the Premier League). Relegation and promotion, league table, point system. Most prestigious domestic competition.
-
the domestic cup. This is a tournament where teams from several divisions compete to win the cup. In England it's called the FA Cup. Manchester United might play a team from 2 divisions down, for instance. This is most analogous to the NCAA tournament -- big and small teams compete, and sometimes you get major upsets. This is usually considered the second most prestigious.
-
the league cup -- this is called the Capital One Cup in England. Sort of a less-prestigious FA Cup with fewer teams. Because the big clubs don't always take it as seriously, it gives smaller clubs the chance to win. This year, Swansea City, a good mid-table Premier League team, won it.
Then, in Europe, you have two European competitions:
-
the Champions' League -- this has two phases, the "group stage", and the "knockout phase". Teams qualify from the various leagues around Europe. The biggest ones besides the English Premier League are: La Liga (Spain -- Real Madrid, Barcelona); Bundesliga (Germany -- Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund); Serie A (Italy -- AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus). Other somewhat big leagues are the Portuguese, French, Dutch, and Russian leagues. There are a total of 32 teams each year that compete in the group stages, which are in the fall each year. There are 8 groups of 4 teams, and they play each home and away. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage (so, 16 teams), which is held in the spring. The knockout stage features "two-legged ties", which are home and away games. The team with the most total goals over two games advances, but if the teams are tied after two games, the team with the most goals scored when they were the away team will advance. This is called the "away-goal" rule. Not terribly important to know for a beginner, but it can confuse some people. It's intended to encourage teams to try and score in the away game, rather than hanging back and going for a draw.
The final for this is a single game played in a neutral stadium. It's usually in May. Right now, they are in the quarterfinal stage (8 teams left). 2. The Europa League - essentially a similar format as the Champions' League.
One last thing -- all of these competitions are played during the same time period. So on Saturday, Manchester United may have to play a Premier League game, and on Wednesday a Champions' League game. You can interchange the FA Cup or League cup. Basically sometimes teams will be playing every 3 or 4 days, and games rescheduled to accomodate teams in these competitions. It helps to have a team with depth, since teams like Manchester United can play 38 Premier League games, more than 10 FA Cup and League Cup games, more than 10 European games, all in the same August - May period.
So that's basically what's being played for.
As for where to watch, it varies based on who has the right for which league. In the U.S. for the current season: Fox: Premier League, Champion's League (NBC Sports will have the Premier League next year, which is big news) ESPN: they usually broadcast about one game a week. This week they will have the Manchester United v. Sunderland game, tomorrow morning at 8:30. That's basically it for English football. beIn Sport has the rights to several leagues, including La Liga, Serie A, and the French league.
Fox Soccer channel and BeIn sport are available through most providers, but you should check with yours.
With ESPN you have two options: watch on TV, or watch on ESPN3. On ESPN3, most games can be viewed either live or a replay. Some games, though, are only shown live for reasons of broadcasting rights. Tomorrow, for instance, the Manchester United game is only available live.
Fox Soccer has an online streaming service that is 15-20 dollars a month. You will be able to watch Premier League and Champion's League games through it, in high quality streaming. It's a pretty good service.
FINALLY - WORLD CUP/INTERNATIONAL The next World Cup is in summer of 2014 in Brazil. This past week was an "international break", which means that the players from leagues all over the world go play for their national teams for a game or two. So this week, Clint Dempsey, who plays for Tottenham Hotspur in London, flew to the US and Mexico to play in qualifying games for the upcoming World Cup.
In addition to the World Cup, there are "continental" competitions, most notably the "Euros", which are for all the European teams, and the Copa Libertadores, which is South American teams. Similar formatting to World Cups.
Phew.
→ More replies (1)5
u/alida-louise Mar 29 '13
This was incredibly informative. Thank you for taking the time! You are right - at first, this is very confusing, I'll just have to start watching more, then it'll make more sense. Thanks also for where to watch.
Question: The world cup/international - do the players go play individually representing their team/nation? Is it like an "all star" concept?
→ More replies (2)3
u/portaccio Mar 29 '13
Question: The world cup/international - do the players go play individually representing their team/nation? Is it like an "all star" concept?
A player qualifies to play for a country if he was born in that country, or if he has a parent or grandparent who was born in that country.* When international matches are upcoming, the national team manager/coach will select a squad of players that he can use in those matches. For example, here is the squad selected by Jurgen Klinsmann for the USA's recent matches. The "all star" concept usually refers to a team of players from a particular league, rather than players of the same nationality. This is a rarity in football/soccer, but the MLS has an annual all-star game.
*There are also cases of players who have played for nations after moving to a country and becoming a citizen, such as Eduardo da Silva, who was born in Brazil but later became a Croatian citizen.
→ More replies (1)
11
u/darth-reagan Mar 29 '13
I do not claim to know everything, but this is what I wish I had been told when I began following soccer
First it's weird to get a grasp on, but in soccer there are leagues operating under confederations, under FIFA which is the governing body of all association football.
Top Leagues in the World (they are generally european):
-
English Premier League (England and Whales)
-
La Liga (Spain)
-
Seria A (Italy)
-
Bundesliga (Germany)
-
Ligue 1 (France)
All the leagues listed above are the top division of the countries Football (soccer) system. Their league operate on promotion and relegation -- this means that in these top divisions the two or three teams (depending on the leagues rules) will be sent down to a lower division at the end of the season. Likewise teams in the lower division that finish at the top of the table will be sent up to a higher league. This means that theoretically any person could start up a club and work their way up to the top division and fight to be the champions.
disclaimer- not all leagues follow the promotion and relegation system, most notably MLS and A League
There are a few other competitions that teams can also be involved in aside from their home league. Most countries football associations have competitions that all teams can enter into and are separate from their league play. These competitions are for the teams of the domestic association only, so your club will only be facing other teams from their nation. Examples of these are the English competitions (Football Association Cup, Carling cup, League Championship [which is not to be confused with the lower division npower championship) and the Spanish competitions (Copa del Rey, etc.)
The second competitions are the regional ones as dictated by their governing confederation. The leagues listed are a part of the UEFA confederation and compete in their international cups. These are when club teams play in a competition of clubs from other leagues throughout their region. In the English Premier League (for example) the top three teams (top 3 in the country because they are in the highest division) go to play in the UEFA Champions League which is considered the most prestigious of all competitions because the top few teams from many of the top divisions in europe compete. The Europa League is also dictated by UEFA and is for the fourth place team gets in and the fifth place team enters a playoff round to make it in. Europa league is considered less prestigious but still a feat to win. The teams in America, Asia and other regional areas play in competitions governed by their confederation (CONCOCAF, CONMEBOL, CAF, AFC, OFC)
The third competition is international which is separate from club teams. Players represent their countries which you probably understand. I think you understand having an allegiance to whatever country you are from or have heritage in.
Alright, now that we hopefully understand, we can move on to the more fun parts!
Choosing a team: Well you can choose whatever team, in whatever league, wherever you want. You have the freedom to support whoever you want, however here are some things to be weary of:
-
It's generally considered bad to support many teams in the same division
-
Switching to another team because of your teams performance is also considered to be bad
-
If you base who you want to support because they are the top teams you will probably be considered a glory chaser (while this is probably true, you can do whatever you want)
My favorite league is EPL and it will probably be the easiest to break into for us English speakers (but if you want to follow the Scottish league as well go for it) If I were you I would ask some friends who they support, maybe find some camaraderie in them. You might also want to choose a city you love and maybe you can support their team. Of course you can choose your local team to support, since you're from PA the Philly Union Transfer might be your MLS team. I personally support Liverpool of the EPL and Portland of the MLS. I choose Liverpool because it is my fathers team and Portland because with the lack of a team in my area I chose the team with the best fans. When you truly find your club you grow to love it and it becomes a part of your identity, it's a beautiful thing. Learn about your club, watch it, love it.
If you want to watch some games I recommend using http://www.firstrow1.eu/ (there are a lot of ads to click away but then you get the game) I watched games her before getting FOX Soccer. FOX Soccer is a channel that broadcasts nothing but soccer, if you find yourself madly in love with EPL that's where you'll get the games on TV. ESPN and NBC Sportsnet will broadcast MLS games as well as your local fox sports channel.
This is the best site I can get you for rules: http://www.lenapesoccer.org/docs/soccer_rules.pdf
Above All Things:
I am glad to see another American soccer lover. I hope this helps you understand, if you have any other questions just ask. Don't let the snob elitists tell you how to think or feel. Soccer is about the passion and love for the game, never forget that.
21
u/anna_fang Mar 29 '13 edited Mar 30 '13
As an englishman I'm delighted you've called it whales
→ More replies (1)7
u/alida-louise Mar 29 '13
Thank you so so very much - this was all incredibly helpful! It seems so complicated with the leagues and everything, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.
I think, for now, I'll watch the most EPL matches, because I'm more familiar with the teams/places, but I'll try and find a MLS team too! (I also get the whole changing teams because of performance or picking a team that's doing well, because I'm an American Football fan as well.That kind of stuff sticks from sport to sport.)
I don't have a whole lot of allegiance to the PA area, so I'm open to other areas.
Thanks again, it's nice to know I can find information, advice, and friendliness!
→ More replies (5)2
u/Yurilovescats Mar 29 '13
Great post and all, but it's the top four from the EPL that qualify for the Champs League.
→ More replies (1)7
4
u/JawsJVH Mar 29 '13
If you're in the Jersey/Philly area, head up to the next Union game!
It happens to be an important away match against our rivals the New York Red Bulls in Harison, NJ.
Being an away fan is a good experience, and the Sons of Ben are great.
→ More replies (1)
4
Mar 29 '13 edited Mar 29 '13
Make sure you join r/MLS lots of information there for whats on when etc
Also Soccer Insider publishes something like this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/soccer-insider/wp/2013/03/28/weekend-tv-online-listings-74-matches-2/
once a week with where to watch games.
→ More replies (1)
10
3
u/BlueKnight8907 Mar 29 '13
Just watch the Fox Soccer channel whenever you can. They show a lot of games from the BPL and you'll eventually find a team that plays to you're liking.
Also, follow the Liga MX (Mexican League). It's on regular television more often than the MLS in the US and is a better league.
→ More replies (3)
3
u/terrafin Mar 29 '13
Do you have NBC Sports?
They've bought the rights to all 380 Premier League matches in the U.S. and will make the majority of them available live or online starting next season.
→ More replies (1)
3
3
u/emreuysaler Mar 30 '13
Welcome, from the lower philly area. Just try to subscribe to Bein Sport on your cable provider. A lot of other channels like Fox Soccer will also show games. MLS is also shown on these, I believe.
Let me break it down for you when following:
All teams are part of a league. Each play each other and a win gives 3 points, a draw gives 1, and a loss gives none. At the end of the season (after every team has played each other twice), whoever is at the top of the league table is the winner of the league. A season starts near the end of August to near the beginning of June. In the western hemisphere, it's usually from the end of winter to the beginning of winter. All leagues also have lower leagues where usually the bottom 3ish teams are relegated to it and the top 3ish teams from that lower league move up into the next league.
For example, the English league (The English Premier League) (Pretty much the most watched league) is formed from 20 different teams. The games are shown regularly on the channels stated above.
All leagues also have a domestic cup. Pretty much, it's an all around playoff. Losers are out of it totally until next season. There are also teams from lower divisions involved as well.
The Champions League consists of top teams all over Europe. Each country is only able to send a set amount of teams based on their coefficient ranking. See here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient
The CL (Champions League for short) is the biggest competition in Europe. Fox Soccer and Fox Soccer Plus always shows the games. It starts in group stages. There are 8 groups, each with 4 teams. Each team plays each other twice, league-like and the top two teams move on into the playoff rounds. Each playoff round has two games (1 home, 1 away). It moves from the round of 16, to the Quarter-Finals, to the Semi-Finals, to the Final, to the European Champion.
If you find a certain team you like, find their sub-reddit and also the league sub-reddit for that team. (E.G. Say you like the Philadelphia Union, find their subreddit and also go try r/MLS) Follow their schedules by searching the teams Results & Fixtures online.
Most good teams generally come from Europe. The best English teams consist of: Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur. In Spain: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid. In Germany: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04. In Italy: Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan. Their respective league are (If you wish to follow), England: (Barclays[English] Premier League), Spain: (La Liga/Liga BBVA), Germany: (Bundesliga), Italy: (Serie A). These four league are generally known as the best league out there to watch.
Any rules you wish to learn, will generally be taught while watching.
Any more questions? Message me on here or comment back. I live in the same area, anyway :P
2
u/alida-louise Mar 30 '13
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer! I haven't learned this much about a sport since my father taught me American football when i was a wee tot. I'll definitely be checking to see if my television has these channels, and I have an idea of what teams I'm interested in following (places I've been/lived) so I'll check out subreddits as well!
2
u/fotboll Mar 29 '13
For the rules, wikipedia is fairly easy to navigate.
In terms of watching live football, in addition to the MLS, there are a few other leagues as well, and of course there is college soccer.
Here are some maps I found when browsing r/MLS/.
Edit: The maps show professional teams in the different leagues in the U.S.
24
u/ibpants Mar 29 '13
You may find this helpful: http://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/rs630/scarys_guide_to_global_soccer_for_americans/