, and beyond...

[Terry]

Any association football (soccer) fans here? Anybody follow an overseas club?

I've been a Queens Park Rangers' fan since I was a kid (Football Championship Division) and also a Portsmouth FC supporter (Football League 2).

 

[Om]

Been a fan all my life ... lived in Latin America most of my youth and grew up with the game in my blood. The only team I ever felt any kind of kinship with was Colo Colo in Chile, because a native Chilean friend was as passionate about them as I am about the Redskins. It rubbed off on me. Haven't followed them much in recent years, but do still perk up whenever I catch the name.

Tried to love DC United, and enjoyed the wild early success the club had, but it's been a rough road recently and I've not kept up.

Mostly, I enjoy following the men's national team. Having grown up in Latin America in the 60's and 70's, I can tell you that "American soccer" was something of a joke in the circles I ran in. Never more so than in Argentina when I lived there during the runup to the World Cup in '78. Our utter insignificance on the global football stage was a source of much mirth and derision, and I had no answers.

Watching our slow and methodical rise to relevance has been a prideful thing, and I revel in simply being part of the international conversation.

I have this page bookmarked and visit it often...particularly in and around World Cup years.

 

[Terry]

Yeah, I got to know some of the SA clubs because of Univision and Telemundo when they first showed up on cable. I could catch La Liga games and get to see some of the other clubs down there. They would also show a lot of the international games that our networks weren't covering.

But overall it was a hard slog back in the day, broken only by the NASL and CBS (as I recall) coverage of it. I'm also a DC United fan and they have become the most difficult team to watch and root for lately. But I'm trying, Ringo. I'm trying real hard...

 

[Lanky Livingston]

I've got some good friends in DC who are huge Arsenal fans, so I half-heartedly follow them. I like Tottenham b/c Dempsey plays over there, but mostly when it comes to soccer, I follow only the USMNT & USWNT. Its a lot of fun watching them, hoping one day they'll have their breakthrough moment.

 

[Terry]

My dad was a Gunners fan, and they are the closest club to where I was born. But for some reason, perhaps filial opposition, I went with QPR instead.