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The Birth of a Football (Soccer) Fan

I've always had a passing interesting football, which I've always referred to as soccer (in fact, for the remainder of this piece I shall refer to the sport as soccer). However, that is what it had always remained, a passing interest. In my youth, there were only a couple of neighbors my age with whom to play, so I often found myself inventing one player versions of sports. These play times were dominated by baseball, American football, and basketball, but on occasion I played soccer. Without a soccer ball, though, I used a volleyball.

My recollections of the founding of Major League Soccer in 1996 are murky at best, but I do remember being excited by it. I may have even watched a few games before other interests regained dominance. My first solid memory of watching soccer is the 1999 women's World Cup final when the US beat China in a penalty shootout. I don't remember watching the entire thing, but I do remember watching the final moments with my parents.

My next flirtation with soccer was the 2002 men's World Cup. The US made quite a run that year and I recall setting my alarm for something like 3 a.m. in order to watch it. Even after the US was eliminated, I followed the remainder of the tournament (but I didn't get up so early to watch it).

Then came the 2006 World Cup. Once it started, I wanted to watch as many games as I possibly could. I'm in graduate school at the moment, and several of my lab mates also shared my interest, so a few times we strolled on over to the student Union to join the masses watching the games. It was fun, and although the US had a disappointing showing (except for the game against Italy, which was one of the best games I've ever watched and gives me hope for the future), I continued following and watching the matches. I was aided in this venture by ESPN and their ESPN 360 service, which they offered for free during the World Cup. It allowed me to watch the matches from my office.

During the last week of the World Cup, I decided to rent a soccer video game. It was a lot of fun and gave me a desire to follow the sport more closely. After the World Cup finished, I felt a sense of melancholy at not being able to watch matches.

That is why I have decided that I will find a soccer team or teams to follow for the upcoming season. Going into this, I had a few things I thought I knew were facts. The first was that the best league in the world is the Spanish Primera Division (sometimes simply called La Liga). The second was the Major League Soccer did not offer the quality of play seen in the European leagues. I have since learned that the most highly regarded leagues are the aforementioned Spanish Primera Division, the Italian Serie A, and the English Premier League. There are leagues in virtually every country. So, the task of choosing a team to follow is daunting.

So, I must come up with some criteria in which to narrow the list of suitors. First and foremost will be the ability to follow the team in English. This already puts La Liga at a disadvantage as they have no English version of their website (at least that I've found). However, as long as the team I choose to follow allows me to do so in English then no problems exist. So, what should I do? Should I go for heritage (I'm Irish from my Mom's side and German from my Dad's)? The German league is highly regarded, so perhaps I should choose a team from there. Or, perhaps I should choose multiple teams, one from several leagues? But what happens if my two clubs meet in competition for the UEFA Cup? I should at least choose a "favorite", shouldn't I? At this point is where the I hope the glory of the internet shines through. Anyone out there who happens to stumble upon this little piece, if you have any thoughts or feelings as to who the best team(s) to follow are then drop me a line!

More unknown callers...

Last Friday I received about 5 calls from the number 1-800-903-7478. A Google search on July 17 returned no results. In returning the call, no identifying information was ever given. An automated answer "Please wait while I transfer your call" is the first thing I heard, followed by "Extenstion number 0015 is not available, please leave a message." Does that sound shady or what? A person or company has been calling me, not leaving a message, and when I call back there's nothing to identify who it is.

Today, I received a call from 1-800-720-7706. They did not leave a message and again a Google search today returned no results. When trying to return this call I got a busy tone.

Anyone else out there getting these, what amounts to, harassing calls?