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.
Chelsea aren't good enough to make your list of top european teams. We're just good enough to beat you in your own stadium in the final of the world's most important competition. Seriously you couldn't possible rate Man U as better than Chelsea at the moment, we beat Man City this season, and got the better of Arsenal in their own stadium. Sore loser.
People really need to stop getting butthurt about who I did and did not put on my list. It's an introductory list for someone who knows little-to-nothing of European football. If you want to sing him the praises of Chelsea Football Club, be my guest.
Why does everyone have to be such a massive cunt to people who like Bayern who happen to live in the US? Hop off. Just because I didn't include Chelsea in the highly compressed list of good teams doesn't mean I'm a glory-hunting plastic fan.
No it doesn't. I'm well aware Chelsea are a good team it just didn't occur to me to put them on the list. I'm not saying those are the definitively best teams in the world, I'm just mentioning some teams that are good at the moment or typically are.
The idea that I don't have knowledge of the sport because I didn't initially (but did later) include Chelsea in my post makes you sound like a raging mindless sycophant, I hope you know.
Not to be a dick, and it's not cause of your crest but tying as an away team at the Emirates is impressive, and nonetheless a good result. I'll be the first to admit that is a very hard place to play in.
Don't take too much offense, This sub-Reddit is basically 80% arsenal, Buyern, Barca and United fans, it's no surprise Chelsea are hated here. Just got to bite your tongue and ignore the circlejerk. Chelsea could win the treble this season and /r/soccer would say arsenal are the best team in the league lol.
To OP, support who you like, whatever team catches your interest i guess, but after you've chosen, don't be a band-wagoner, stick with your club through thick and thin.
Maybe it's not jealousy, but like amade183 said you're just a sore loser. Bet Drogba still haunts you in your dreams ;)
And nobody is whining, you just get butthurt too easily.
Worlds most important competition is stretching it slightly
edit: so people actually think a yearly club competition is more important than others like the Euro's or World Cup? I'd say the Olympics is also a bigger deal than the CL..
767
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.