My One Post In A Busy Week

I just looked at my syllabi and it looks as if this was the only day I will get to catch some games until this weekend as my classes have teamed up against me to keep me busy until late Thursday, and by then there doesn't seem to be anything worth watching. But we will see.

First today I watched Aston Villa vs Stoke. I was excited because Stoke was a team I had seen  before that didn't blow me away, but I was also eager to see them again, as much as that doesn't make sense. After this game I feel the same way again. I'm not extremely attached to them  by any means but I will continue to look out for them and keep trying to see them. For a team I have been led to believe is one of the bottom teams, Aston Villa wasn't all that awful. I think what I am noticing is in the league there is a smaller margin of noticeable  skill difference than there is in American sports such as football. Which just ends up leading to better competition. But at the end of the game I was 100% apathetic towards Aston Villa so I don't think they will end up being a favorite.

Later was Fulham vs. Chelsea, Chelsea again being one of the teams I enjoy seeing so far and it being my first experience with Fulham. Fulham finds itself nestled in the middle of my preference list. Texas pride causes me to automatically have a love affair with Dempsey, doesn't hurt he plays well and is great to watch. The game as a whole was one of my favorite so far. Lots of controversy as far as calls go, so the tension was high. I was a little upset that Mata fellow barely played, I like watching him play.

The controversy in the calls got me thinking about the lack of review that you see in American football. Baseball being my favorite sport to follow and watch, I'm used to that. I tend to take the side of enjoying the "human element" it adds to the game. What I've noticed happening, and wish wouldn't, is if a ref feels like he may have gone the wrong way on a big time call that was iffy, he tends to give small calls that are iffy to the team he thinks should have gotten it the first time to make up for it. I think what they should do if they feel like make a mistake is issue a press apology later and leave it said and done during the game. I think trying to make up for it just adds further bias, when making up for a bad call by being a better ref for the rest of the game is the better route to go, in my humble opinion. Okay, rant over.

Sorry it's short, and sorry it's the last for a few days. I'll be back, don't forget me!

Second Half of Easter Weekend

Unfortunately I forgot about the whole going to church part of Easter morning, so I did not catch the Manchester United game. The elusive, mythical beast will have to be seen some other time. I do however have my comments on Milan vs. Fiorentina and Arsenal vs. Manchester City.

I find myself very excited about the Serie A league, more so than the Champions League. I don't know if that's taboo to say, but that's my disposition towards things as of now. My favorite teams in Serie A are currently in this order: Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina tied, then Napoli. It was a great game. I really liked Ibrahimovic and Amauri. The Italian league has a completely different feel to it than the EPL does, which makes it fun to watch both play back to back, you are definitely going to be watching two different games and play styles. I was home this weekend so I had the FOX Soccer channel if you didn't catch that earlier, but this means I also took the family TV since it is the largest. My parents sat around and watched some games with me and my mother has now decided that Fiorentina is her favorite team. She definitely made her mind up faster than I did. She also told me to let her know when I decide which EPL team is my favorite so she can cheer for them. In a chain of events, I think the reddit crossover has claimed another soccer fan, possibly two, as both my parents said they will now watch some games now that they know about the channel and we are going to our local team's games this summer.

Next up was the Arsenal vs City game. Going into it, I had my eye on Balotelli as my buddies are obsessed with him. One is a huge Inter fan and is excited that they might obtain him. To me though, excuse my language, the guy game off as a douche. You could tell he knew he was talented and was stuck up about it. That being said it didn't seem like he was trying to use his talents very much. Again I liked both teams, but more than a lot of the other EPL teams I've seen. To keep things consistent in my league analyses, my list of favorites for this league would probably be in somewhat this order right now: Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City, Stoke, Newcastle, Swansea, Wolves, Wigan. It was hard to put those first five in an order, Swansea is also just barely outside the top five, but I just can't see myself being for the other two. Which is progress towards the goal of choosing a team.

I would like to take a moment and thank any and everyone that has contacted me or made input. I don't get a chance to thank everyone individually, but I wish I could. I really appreciate the background info, tips, and suggestions I get from everyone, and I would love for you to keep it coming. Tomorrow I'm in class for the first round of EPL games, but I will be watching the following: Aston Villa vs. Stoke and Fulham vs. Chelsea, with a post coming at night. Have a great week, and Happy Easter! He is risen!

First Half of My First Weekend

Sorry this is a little delayed. I had internet troubles on Thursday so the only game I got in was the Bundesliga 2 game, which was good entertainment, but obviously neither team will be a favorite and I have no real commentary. The MLS game I wanted to watch wasn't aired on our cable package so that was a disappointment for me as well.

Two comments about the game in general. I know I've slightly mentioned it before, but seriously soccer players are extremely melodramatic. There is so much faking, acting, whining, unnecessary gesturing, and lying on the ground for far to long. It's my biggest pet peeve of the sport, definitely obnoxious. On a positive note however, I really like being able to hear the crowd during comes, as opposed to American sports who, for the most part, cut out crowd sounds most of the time. It's a great part of the experience for me.

Now to get started on the massive amount of games I have watched this weekend. I was going to wait til Sunday night to get a post up, but it would  have been far too large and I didn't want to deter anyone. I watched Swansea vs Newcastle on Friday, great game! It was my first EPL to watch, and I liked both teams, I can't really cross either off as potential favorites. That's one thing I'm gathering from watching these games, is most of the EPL are a great enjoyment to watch, I can see why it's a favorite league. Also, while Cisse (I think) is no Messi, he also had some incredible plays, loved watching him.

Move to today (Saturday). All the Serie A games save 2 were at 8a.m. my time, and being a college student on break this didn't really suit my fancy, so I decided I would compromise for the EPL games an hour later. I just had no clue which to watch! (If you didn't see my reddit post) Good thing it was decided for me, because FOX Soccer is the only channel I have that was playing games and it was airing Chelsea vs. Wigan. I mentioned earlier I would love to see Chelsea play again, so this was fine by me. It was a great and fiercely competitive game. It should have been a draw in my opinion, both because the first Chelsea goal was clearly offsides and because a draw would accurately reflect the efforts of both teams. Looking forward to seeing both of them again.

Now FOX Soccer starts airing replays, or at least I believe so. They aired Stoke vs. Wolves. I took a liking to Stoke over the Wolves on this one, but both played a great game. I can't remember anything specific that stuck out to me. I'm trying not to be repetitive and just keep saying I enjoyed the game, as that much is obvious or I would stop watching. I'm also frustrated with myself for not disliking more teams! How am I supposed to narrow it down! At least I'm pretty sure I don't like the Wolves...pretty sure...

Next they aired Lazio vs Napoli, my first taste of Serie A. I quickly found myself for Lazio. The highlight of the match for me was seeing my first real, live, legendary BICYCLE KICK GOAL! Yes, they are impressive to people who aren't around soccer much. I may or may not have called my dad in to watch the replay...at the age of 20. I can't wait for more as I get the second taste of AC Milan that I wanted on the replay tonight at seven, which I will talk about in a post tomorrow that will also include the Man City/Arsenal game, and possibly this Man U team that is so hyped.

All in all, this was one of the best Saturdays I have had since college football ended, so hats off to that. I can't wait to do this all the time. I just need to know to watch what sites I get on when I'm online throughout the day since most of my games are replays. I learned this the hard way by seeing the Milan score which I won't mention in case other Americans live off replays. Sorry for the delay in posts, won't happen again as one will be up tomorrow night! Cheers

Day 2, Most Of Another Champions League Game

Howdy from Texas! In the first 24 hours the blog reached over 500 views from over 10 countries! I'd like to thank each and every one of you, that means a lot, as pathetic as that is. As for today, I watched Chelsea v. Benefica. Chelsea is a buddy of mines favorite team so I knew they were EPL...and that's it.

First of all, I would like to apologize. I know it will be disappointing to hear this early in the blog, but I only watched half the game. I had a huge presentation to get to, so I can't speak in as great of depth as I may have been able to and I'm sorry.

Yesterday I mentioned not really being incredibly entertained as the match was largely one sided in Barca's favor. To my joy it did not feel that way today. I quickly caught myself a little biased towards Chelsea, but even from a largely third party view this was an incredibly exciting match to watch. In my new observer opinion it seemed like it could go either way at any time, and I like a good competition in any sport. As I said before, I don't feel like I got to see Milan's full potential, so I won't compare either of these to them, but I'll give my view of how they stand next to Barca. Neither felt like watch as beautiful a craft as the players on Barca made the game seem, being masters of the craft and all. Go one notch below that and that's where I feel these teams belong. But I may be totally wrong on that, my impressment threshold is quite low at this stage.

Two details I noticed about this specific match. The game seemed to be what we would call in lacrosse as "chippy." Both teams were playing very physical and seemed to be trying very hard to get some rough and tumble time in. From my research there is no animosity among these teams though so maybe it's just a play style, I'll have to see if I see that style any more. Secondly, there seemed to be a lot of whiners out there today. In all the sports I watch players argue about iffy calls sometimes and complain about blatantly wrong calls, but today there were tons of calls that definitely were fouls and players would complain and whine for a ridiculously unnecessary amount of time. It seems a pansy thing to do, in my honest opinion.

No specific players stood out to me today. After reading up on the second half, it seems like that is when a lot of players came to life. As Benefica is a Portuguese team I don't think I will see much of them after this, if I'm correct. Which is a shame in that I did enjoy watching them, but there is definitely no shortage of teams to watch. I will have to keep an eye on Chelsea in the future, as I enjoyed them today as well.

I also learned about the aggregate playoff system today. I think it's a great idea, and it makes sense to me. It fits the game of soccer perfectly, though I don't think it could work for other sports. This caused me to look around a bit, and it does seem as if home field advantage plays a part in soccer just as it does most American sports.

It seems the majority of games fall right around the areas I usually have class, I will have to keep that in mind when registering for future semesters, I felt some chest pain today leaving the game. Thanks to Redditor sjk97 for all his help and advice today! Come back tomorrow, I'm going to be giving Bundesliga 2 a shot just for fun because it falls in my free time, so I will be watching either FC Union Berlin vs FC Erzgebirge Aue or Greuther Furth vs Energie Cottbus. Suggestions? Later I will be able to catch most of Hannover 96 vs Atletico Madrid. The post will be coming late at night because I will be watching my hometown of FC Dallas take on the NE Revolution in my first experience with MLS. I live 20 minutes from the stadium so maybe I will go see if anyone is scalping?? We will see!

First Day On The Pitch

As  frequent Redditor, it shocks me that I somehow missed a great April Fool's joke. The mods of /r/soccer and /r/NFL, from what I gathered, essentially switched the two subreddits; the result was mass confusion, enough jokes to still be sorting through the next day, and some who decided to stay and dibble dabble in the other sport thanks to a new peak of interest. Enter me, hankypanky44.

For most of my life, and all of my time on Reddit, the only two sports I have shown an interest in are football and baseball. The only time my life and soccer have crossed paths was a buddy's rec team I agreed to join the summer before I left for university. Having played lacrosse the last 9 years, the season became a yellow-card-ridden trial and error process of figuring out how much contact was allowed, and getting rid of the ball before something bad could happen that would end up resting on my shoulders. The Reddit crossover got me thinking that it wouldn't be hard to be a fan, so after the subreddits switched back I stayed on the eastern side of the pond to begin a journey.

There were already numerous threads started by others in the same position as me, so I figured this an excellent place to start. After hours upon hours of reading, it seemed my course of action was already laid: I would watch tons of games and let the team choose me, much in a Harry Potter's wand sort of way. This seems to induce some kind of extra close bond, which in the case of world class athletes I will say "no homo" but not object. I looked up the next good match to watch, and lucky for me it was tomorrow! Which is now today!!!

The match has just ended, for those of you who don't know it was FC Barcelona vs AC Milan, and ended 3-1 in Barca's (already working on my slang) favor. Going into this game, from my reading, I knew Barcelona was always a top contender in its league, and arguably the best in Spain and the world. I also knew Milan was the best in Italy and its league as well. But it seemed Barcelona always had bandwagon fans due to its success and was a flashy team. This greatly reminded me of our New England Patriots, a team I detest in the states, so I decided Barcelona was not a team I could get behind before the game even started.

During the game, I enjoyed watching it. It was obvious Milan didn't have much of a chance. Although Barcelona was clearly better, they were not extraordinarily interesting by any means. Messi, who I had read before was a great player, obviously fit his hype and it was easy to tell I was watching one of the great athletes of the sport. The few times Milan had the ball for an extended amount of time, they didn't exactly lose my interest. I would love to see this team against someone closer to their own caliber.

All in all, today was a great introduction to the sport. After being bombarded by the cornucopia of leagues and teams Europe has to offer, even crossing just one of my list of potential favorites feels like a good start. I look forward to my journey further into the sport, and will keep this updated as much as I can. I would love feedback, conversation, and discussion. Thanks!