Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 6.2K All Categories
- 3.1K Everything Achaea
- 1.5K North of Thera
- 26 Archives of the Terraformer
- 257 The Matsuhama Arena
- 885 The Golden Dais of Creation
- 299 The Scarlattan Theatre
- 149 The Blank Canvas
- 2K Getting Help
- 412 General Questions
- 258 Quick Class Questions
- 1.3K Tech Support
- 313 Client Help
- 486 Curing Systems and Scripts
- 841 Off-Topic
- 255 The Wander Inn
- 586 The Universal Membrane
- 298 Class Discussions
- 298 Individual Class Sections
- 20 Alchemist
- 9 Apostate
- 30 Blademaster
- 9 Depthswalker
- 14 Druid
- 4 Infernal
- 20 Jester
- 19 Magi
- 34 Monk
- 11 Occultist
- 8 Paladin
- 7 Priest
- 29 Runewarden
- 18 Sentinel
- 26 Serpent
- 20 Shaman
- 9 Sylvan
European Soccerball: Please Donate Information to Needy Americans
Ulrike
Maryland
So, @Saeva and I were talking earlier about how soccer is interesting and rad, but we don't actually have club teams to root for because we don't have connections to the teams or their culture.
In this thread, please talk about why your favorite club team is the very best, the best there ever was (because it has the swaggest kit, the most OP players, the most hilarious drama, the bitterest rivalries, the most storied history, etc.). This will enable Fußball-challenged sorts like yours truly to make more informed decisions.
Hilarious animated soccer .gifs are highly recommended as well, like this one:
ALLEZ CUISINE!
In this thread, please talk about why your favorite club team is the very best, the best there ever was (because it has the swaggest kit, the most OP players, the most hilarious drama, the bitterest rivalries, the most storied history, etc.). This will enable Fußball-challenged sorts like yours truly to make more informed decisions.
Hilarious animated soccer .gifs are highly recommended as well, like this one:
ALLEZ CUISINE!
3
Comments
The club has gone through a series of standout players, and has strong rivalries within the English Premier League.
Arsenal is one of the "top tier" clubs in the Premier League, with one of the higher trophy counts (near 40). Liverpool and Manchester United have more (something in the 60s respectively) and Chelsea is a step below Arsenal with around 30.
Arsenal is like the perennial "placed but didn't win" club. They consistently perform well, they have funding and a ridiculous fanbase, but they have had a huge amount of setbacks over the recent years.
They had a period of rebuilding, and one of the biggest young stars for Arsenal, Eduardo, has his leg broken by a ridiculously dangerous challenge (studs up, full speed):
Arsenal also has had an iconic coach, Arsene Wenger, a Frenchman. He is a stern, controversial figure at times, especially with his distaste for the "experts" in the media and in other coaching camps, but he is a standout coach, by any evaluation:
Finally, Arsenal had one of the most iconic players in European Football playing for them for a number of years, Thierry Henry:
Arsenal also had a period where their side were known as the invincibles because they had a 49-game win streak:
http://www.arsenal.com/history/club-records/the-unbeaten-record
ps lol
Chelsea have an amazing squad at the moment and are predicted to win the league in england but their coach is a tool and their style of play can be annoying to watch because of the win at all costs attitude. (He has been known to just shove 7 defenders on and just sit in front of goal to prevent other people scoring).
Man united, Man city and Liverpool are great to watch usually, very offensive tactics, always something happening, never trying to do anything boring. Man city are probably the best organised after chelsea.
Tottenham, Everton, Southampton are the outsiders from the big clubs in English football mentioned that have the potential to do well as they have some potential great players and great coaches and are fun to watch because the games can be so unpredictable with lots of action. If you like underdogs.
.
I hate spanish football because barcelona and real madrid have a monopoly on media funding so they get all the money, buy all the talent and do well. However Atletico Madrid, a massive underdog, with mediocre playera won their league last year because their coach, Diego Simeone, is amazing. Tries crazy ideas that somehow work out.
That all said, Lionel Messi of Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid are widely considered to be the greatest individual players in the world to their speed, strength and huge array of tricks and also their obscene goal counts (usually 3 times more than anyone else).
German leagues are awesome and full of actual teams and not individuals that carry teams. Germany dont hang onto a lot of stars because german law forbids clubs to spend more money than they have so they focus grafting out god teams. Borussia Dortmund are my fav as their manager is amazing(Jurgen Klopp) and they play amazing attacking football. Bayern Munich contain a lot of great players and tend to win more often in germany though but I hate their coach ( Pep guardiola) and his tiki taka tactics, which involve passing the ball until everyone gets bored then you score.
This is my rough analysis. I support Rotherham united as they are my home town, but they are not in the big leagues yet so no televised games, though they are getting close.
Will prob most more with @Jovolo when i am not in bed on my phone.
If you are awake between midday and 5pm gmt and on achaea, me and merador will link you to games we are watching.
-
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important
-
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important
-
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important
Gianfranco Zola
Drogba
Until Liverpool got trolled by Chelsea, when Mourinho (Chelsea's Manager) put about 8 defenders on the pitch to stop Liverpool's attack and then just scored a shit goal on the break to beat us in the game we only had to get a draw to win the league. That was the most intense game of the season, though. For all top three clubs.
If you want an international team to watch - Greece. Every single game is amazing. They were the best team to watch during the World Cup by far.
That game where they needed a win to get through to the knockout stages. Hnnnngh. They were being dominated for eighty minutes, but managed to pull the game to a 1 - 1 draw, at which point they would have been knocked out of the world cup. They kept pushing and pushing until in the last minute of stoppage time (94th minute) Samaras screamed into the b ox and managed to win a penalty. He steps up, the weight of the world in his shoulders and the eyes of his countrymen upon him, the keeper seems larger than life but HE PUTS IT AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111111! 2 - 1 GREECE GO THROUGH TO THE KNOCKOUT STAGES FIRST TIME EVER I still get tears just thinking about it
that's a summary
COYS!
I could go into numerous details about how awesome we are / were with players like Lineker, Waddle, Hoddle, Blanchflower, Bale, Ginola, Sheringham and Gazza. First team to win the League and Cup Double (Preston doesn't count, it was 1890) and the only club to ever win the FA Cup as a non-league side but I won't, I'll simply say this.
Our club badge is a Cock on a Ball. How awesome is that?
I must start watching the soccerballs so I can finalize a proper decision.
I'm almost thinking Liverpool, just because "team devotedly worshipped by a city of working-class fans who talk funny" maps pretty closely to Pittsburgh.
@Sobriquet, I must agree that Tottenham Hotspur has a bomb-ass logo. But do they win anything these days?
I'm an Everton fan because of Tim Howard, who is not only American, but really damn awesome.
(I thought about Everton. But they, like Tottenham, don't seem to be among the 5 or 6 Premier League teams that win things. Am I perceiving this wrong? Wouldn't do to jump on the bandwagon for the Yankees of soccer (*eye Real Madrid*), but I don't want to root for the equivalent of the Cleveland Browns either.
@Mishgul brought up a useful point about the Bundesliga. I ignore German soccer at my peril.
A friend of mine who lives locally supports Bradford City and last season they got to a major cup final for the first time in decades. He had an amazing season as a supporter as this wasn't something they were expecting, so when it came along he genuinely part a very relevant part of it (They lost the final 5 - 0)
I support Spurs purely because I spent so much time around the Stadium area as a kid and when they got beat, somewhat unexpectedly, in the '87 cup final by Coventry I decided they could do with an extra fan.
Supporting from afar will be different I guess and I'm strangely in the same position with NFL as I've started to get into it more and looking for a team to follow this season, however, I would still look at going for a team which has a -chance- of winning things but doesn't always have to be in the top 3 every year. You'll get far more enjoyment out of it when they DO actually win something. Team in the EPL in that bracket this season I would say are Everton, Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal
Also that Manchester vs Leicester game.
-
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important
-
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important