European Soccerball: Please Donate Information to Needy Americans

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:
image

ALLEZ CUISINE!

Comments

  • edited September 2014
    Been an Arsenal fan for a long time, probably about 10 years now.

    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
  • edited September 2014
    The most fun I've ever had watching football was watching Adebayor and Henry work together. It was fucking magical at times.

    ps lol

  • ONE-NIL TO THE ARSENAL
  • MishgulMishgul Trondheim, Norway
    Arsenal are fun to watch but their attack is shite atm. They need some good centre forwards. And prob a defender too. 

    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

    As drawn by Shayde
    hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae
  • MishgulMishgul Trondheim, Norway

    -

    One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important

    As drawn by Shayde
    hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae
  • Man UNITED. Mostly because alex ferguson was epic and used a few norwegian players. But that's all so long ago. :(
    image
  • MishgulMishgul Trondheim, Norway
    Hangelaand is up at crystal palace if you want to support them.

    -

    One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important

    As drawn by Shayde
    hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae
  • edited September 2014
    Chelsea for one two indisputable players:

    Gianfranco Zola 
    Drogba




  • Don't be part of the prawn sandwich brigade.Manchester United's fans are a bunch of wank stains. 
  • The Liverpool of last season was probably the most fun team to watch that I can think of in recent memory. Every game you expected them to come out and score at least three or four goals. The clincher was that while their offence was arguably the best, most fast-paced in the league, their defence was also by far the worst in the top half of the table. Meaning they wouldn't dominate games - it was a race between them and their opposition to see who could score the most goals in 90 minutes. Although, the entirety of the last season was great in general. It was ridiculously close between the top three, and was anyone's league to win up until the last two weeks.

    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
  • Jovolo said:
    The Liverpool of last season was probably the most fun team to watch that I can think of in recent memory. Every game you expected them to come out and score at least three or four goals. The clincher was that while their offence was arguably the best, most fast-paced in the league, their defence was also by far the worst in the top half of the table. Meaning they wouldn't dominate games - it was a race between them and their opposition to see who could score the most goals in 90 minutes. Although, the entirety of the last season was great in general. It was ridiculously close between the top three, and was anyone's league to win up until the last two weeks.

    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
    The only important piece of information to take from this is Chelsea beat Liverpool.


  • 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? 

    (Party): Mezghar says, "Stop."
  • THIS THREAD PLEASES THE ULRIKE

    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. ;) Though I'm sure there are others fitting the bill for that...

    @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.
  • Ernam said:

    I'm an Everton fan because of Tim Howard, who is not only American, but really damn awesome.
    unf unf tim howard <33
    (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. :)

  • Part of supporting a team isn't about winning things all the time (Seems a very American cliche, imho), if you want to just follow a team so you can count the trophies then go for Chelsea or Man city, if you want to be able to immerse yourself in the team, the support, their players and results, then go for a team which seem to strike a chord with you as you mentioned above about Liverpool.

    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

    (Party): Mezghar says, "Stop."
  • MishgulMishgul Trondheim, Norway
    haha lampard scored against chelsea. 

    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

    As drawn by Shayde
    hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae
  • JozlynJozlyn out of here.
    Soccerball is the best.
     yes, sir.
  • MishgulMishgul Trondheim, Norway

    -

    One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important

    As drawn by Shayde
    hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae
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