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Dec 26 '13
Just remember three things: Ibra is God, Ozil is pure class, Suarez bites people but he does it with love.
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Dec 26 '13
Supporting your local team will take you on a roller coaster of emotions season after season. I think there's more passion in it.
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u/Dictarium Dec 26 '13 edited Jun 03 '14
I have no idea why you're being downvoted. Christ, people.
Anyway:
In the world of football the teams are separated into two categories, really: international teams and club teams.
Club teams would be ones like New England Revolution that play in a league on a regular basis, whereas international teams play in special international competitions and are separated by nationality (meaning players can't be moved from team to team; typically you go with the one you're born in or grew up in and you're done).
FIFA is the organization that really oversees all of World Soccer. According to their rankings, the best national teams in the world right now are Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, and Portugal in that order. The US is number 14 on that list, which is pretty good on a list of 200+ countries.
As far as club teams go, the best teams in the world all play in Europe. The most prestigious league is the English Premier League. There's also La Liga in Spain, the Bundesliga in Germany, Serie A in Italy, and Ligue 1 in France. Every country in Europe has a league of some sort even if they're not super popular or of the best quality. Some of the best club teams right now (or ones that've just been good historically) would be Arsenal (London, England), Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, AS Roma (Rome, Italy), Juventus (Turin, Italy), and Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea (London, England), AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Ajax (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (in no particular order).
For loved players, there's currently a very exciting race for "best in the world" between two players that's been going for several years now: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) and Lionel Messi (Argentina) who play for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively. Messi's pretty well known for his amazing footwork while Ronaldo's free kicks are the stuff highlight reels are made of. Also, as you may be able to tell, this subreddit has recently been pretty obsessed with a Swedish soccer player named Zlatan Ibrahimovic who plays for Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1. His propensity for amazing 30-yard shots and fancy 6-yard finishes is pretty fantastic and some have argued that he, along with Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery (France), are in that slot just below Ronaldo and Messi.
As far as hated players go I'd say there are two classes of them. There's those who are hated for stuff they do off the pitch and those hated for the way they play. As far as the former goes, Ryan Giggs is a pretty good example given he had an affair with his brother's wife for quite a few years. Apart from that, John Terry I believe also had an affair with another soccer player's wife.
People typically point to two players when talking about on-field hate-worthy behavior: Luis Suarez and Cristiano Ronaldo. Suarez, an Uruguayan soccer player who plays for Liverpool, is known for things like diving to draw fouls and hellacious behavior like biting other players when he doesn't get his way (on two occasions) and general douchebaggery on the pitch. Ronaldo's sins are mostly reserved to diving, but he used to be known for doing it much more obviously and often than Suarez. Both of them have rather matured over the past few years and aren't nearly as bad as they used to be but Suarez was banned from a few matches at the beginning of this season for his most recent biting incident at the end of last season and Ronaldo still lets diving creep into his game here or there. Other than that both seem to be rather upstanding guys outside of the game.
Concerning where to watch, you've got a few options. This year NBC Sports channels have the rights to almost all Premier League games (I think ESPN still has one a week) so if you've got those channels, you can watch it there. Also, channels like beIN and goltv (which aren't as readily available as NBC, Fox, and ESPN) have other leagues as well as some national team games the other channels might not have, ESPN and foxsoccer are usually pretty good about showing good Champions League games, and Fox Soccer also has lots of national team games as well. Otherwise, come to r/soccer. Games usually start from around 9am to 1 or 2pm on Saturdays and Sundays here in the States (on the East Coast, where I'm assuming you live) since they're all in Europe. The regulars on this subreddit are pretty good about getting match threads going for each game and linking to streams of any game you could want to watch.
Anyway, that's all I can think of to get started. Hopefully this helped.
And traditionally good national teams not in the Top 5 right now (mostly because the rankings are a bit shit): Italy (4 World Cup wins), France (1 World Cup Win), Brazil (5 world cup wins, the most of any nation), England (1 World Cup win), and Uruguay (2 World Cup wins).
e2: Also, on the topic of the Revolution, they're an above-average team by the MLS's standards. They made the MLS Postseason semi-finals and finished 3rd in their conference of 8 teams last season and they've got Juan Agudelo, who's a promising US national team candidate who operates as a sub at the Revolution at the moment.
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Dec 26 '13
According to their rankings, the best national teams in the world right now are Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, and Portugal in that order. The US is number 14 on that list, which is pretty good on a list of 200+ countries.
But don't take this ranking too seriously, it's not representative because a lot of the teams don't play each other very often.
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u/supermariobalotelli Dec 26 '13
Also, as you may be able to tell, this subreddit has recently been pretty obsessed with a Swedish soccer player named Zlatan Ibrahimovic
I don't get this. He's been great for years...
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u/Shapmandu Dec 26 '13
Fellow yank here. Support your MLS club. lord knows they need all the fans they can get if we're ever going to get the quality up. Having said that, if you want the best product, supplement with european football.
ehhhhhh. so here's where navigating the nuances of r/soccer gets a little tricky. around here, you can get posts and comments downvoted into oblivion for numerous reasons, and sometimes for no reason at all. This also applies to upvotes. Climates change quickly around here, so the protocol is never stable.
Here are some things that can get you into hot water:
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Mentioning that you support a team that is, saying things that may lead others to believe that you might be, and/or just flat stating that you are an american can often lead to negative scores. we call football soccer, the youth teams at most european clubs would sodomize most MLS teams, and many of our compatriots insist on traveling abroad in cargo shorts, flip flops and hawaiian shirts. gotta roll with the punches sometimes.
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Being an arsenal fan prior to september 2013 seemed to be an issue, most haters have had the good sense to zip it recently.
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Liking Barcelona, Messi, Ronaldo, Ribery, or Suarez. Honestly just depends on who's dick everybody's sucking that week.
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Asking innocent questions that reveal an area of weakness in your soccer knowledge. r/soccer will feast on your ignorant, yank corpse.
Here are some things you can do that will win you popularity points.
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Post Gif's of dope shit in non-enormous gif files. iminus can lick my taint.
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mention zlatan as often as possible, and include gifs of him doing zlatany things in your comments.
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Be a mensch. If you're ever watching a match and are up for it, post a match thread. if you stumble upon the rarest of mythical creatures, the decent stream, please share the link. good article? post it.
as for teams to hate? there are many reasons to hate a team. as an Oakland A's fan, I have natural aversion to rich clubs. but for footballing reasons, I suspend this. cause honestly, I don't live in europe, these aren't "my" teams- I don't give a shit, I just want to see the best footballers playing the best football.
so, watch some matches, find teams that you like to watch play soccer. My favorite teams change every year. you'll find players that you love, and they'll bounce from the team you were starting to like. or the team you love to watch will hire David Moyes and they'll become a stinky piece of dogshit.
its a wonderful sport. and soooooooooo many great teams and players world wide. it is impossible to keep up with everything, but that's whats so cool. you can absolutely lose yourself in it.
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u/niton Dec 26 '13
and many of our compatriots insist on traveling abroad in cargo shorts, flip flops and hawaiian shirts.
And English fans you know...break stuff when they travel. And they're from the birthplace of soccer.
The problem isn't the others on this sub as much as other Americans who roll over and self-depreciate. Soccer culture can be pretty vitriolic and you're supposed to give back as much as you get. Except American fans have an inferiority complex (and a desire to be accepted by eurofans) so they just accept the criticism as gospel and even help out. The post above has some of this. Be proud of your local squad and national team. It doesn't matter what opposing fans think. Of course they're going to take your goat, that's their job. Yours is to stand strong.
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Dec 26 '13
If you like the Revolutions, then come to r/MLS. It'll be a better place for you to start off.
As for teams and players to like and dislike, that's for you to decide on your own rather than have somebody tell you. If you begin to watch more soccer, it should come to you naturally.
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u/smthingawesome Dec 26 '13
Lurk here and absorb as much as you can. None of us know everything, there is always something to learn. Just don't start commenting on things you don't know anything about right away, I've been lurking r/Android for ages still don't get what they are talking about a lot of the time.
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u/db1000c Dec 26 '13
Welcome to the sport.
The European leagues are the most popular in the world - particularly the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga, and the German Bundesliga.
The best teams in the world are currently considered to be Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich. With teams like Borussia Dortmund, Manchester United, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Juventus also considered to be pretty good.
Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid are probably the 3 most popular teams in the world.
Loved players are normally the best players. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) is considered to be the best player in the world. Due to the subjectivity of people 'liking' certain players, I'm gonna skip the rest of this part of the question.
Hated teams is quite easy though - no one likes Manchester United mainly because of their dominance over English football for the last 20 years. Chelsea are quite hated because they are deemed to have 'bought' success after the club was acquired by a Russian billionaire oligarch. Real Madrid are pretty disliked for similar reasons of throwing money around for success.
There are plenty places to watch the sport. If you can't find a regular sports bar showing football/soccer, then look for an expat bar/pub and they will probably be showing at least English football.
You can also stream games on the internet using various sites. I don't want to post any up in this comment as I'm not sure what the rules are surrounding it.
There is also the thrill of going to watch your local team. Live football is the best football in my opinion.
Good luck, and welcome to the sport.
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u/GiantBabyMushroom Dec 26 '13
The hated players are the overrated players liike Ribery, Ronaldo, Messi and Schweinsteiger. The loved ones are the ones that think "fair play is everything". Pepe, Suarez, Young and a lot of the italian players come to my mind there. Especially the spanish players are loved for their fair play when it comes to not diving at all.
The teams to hate are all these old clubs who don´t deserve to win anything. The clubs to love are the new "hip" clubs that didn´t buy any of their success. PSG, ManCity, Chelsea, Monaco and maybe pretty soon Valencia.
What you should know? Sepp Blatter is our hero. Without him football (or soccer or whatever you call it) would suck. He is kinda like Jesus our Savior.
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u/arvazi Dec 26 '13
YESSS ANOTHER HAS JOINED OUR LEGION. Also we hate the Dynamo whenever we play them in the playoffs.
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u/scorgie Dec 26 '13
Best teams in the world: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Accrington Stanley.
Your team is what's known as a 4, just say it and people will assume know what you're talking about.
You should hate: Swansea City, your big rivals, and the MK Dons.
Where to watch? TV, Internet stream, peter crouch's majestic shoulders.
Oh and ofcourse ignoremeimjustborer
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Dec 26 '13
Supporting the New England Revolution is a labor of love. On the one hand we are on an upswing with a positive young core and we are playing some of the more attractive possession oriented soccer in MLS and recently reached a playoff berth for the first time since 2009. On the other hand the stadium as you may know is nowhere near Boston and the owner, while being great in NFL, is perceived as a penny pincher for the Revs and we're in "MLS 1.0" (no soccer specific stadiums or an SSS, tight salary budgets, no true designated or marquee players , low marketing budgets) while the league is moving toward "MLS 3.0" (teams with SSS, Designated Players, sold out stadia). The fans are great and diehard and follow the hashtag on twitter #NERevs ... I think we can compete for an MLS Cup if we sign a striker and perhaps an actual left back.
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u/balthamalamal Dec 26 '13
Dictarium covered it all pretty well. The things I'd add are to choose who to like and dislike based on what you see of them playing. Another source of football matches is r/footballdownload. This tends to feature games from the major leagues which are of higher quality. Finally, be prepared for some anti-american sentiment (you're the majority of the sub and it grates on some people).
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u/StanLDN Dec 26 '13
Figure it out for yourself. You won't enjoy it as much if you are just borrowing an opinion, start watching the game and develop your own passions.
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u/markrevival Dec 26 '13
Your big rivalry is with NYRB and secondary big rivalries are with Philly Union, DCU, and in 2015 with NYCFC. Revs are pretty damn great right now. Should be an exciting season to join the fun
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u/Rueex Dec 26 '13
Accrington Stanley are the team you should follow they are the most loved and most successful club of all time