Liverpool FC Forum

by **JoeTerp** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:21 pm

Nobody said it would be easy

who wins Rudy vs. Bojan?

by **Sabre** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:27 pm

Probably Bojan because there are more Barcelona fans than basketball fans in my country.

But if you asked in the Olympiads it would be a hard question! as the basketball Olympics are followed massively.
So are the World Championships.

Nadal hasn't the same attention in a grand slam than when he has a minor tournament, in which a good footballer will get bigger headlines and more talk in the street one Monday in the morning.

In the bus, in the work, in the elevator at home, you talk about football here.

by **JoeTerp** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:30 pm

Sabre wrote:Probably Bojan because there are more Barcelona fans than basketball fans in my country.

But if you asked in the Olympiads it would be a hard question! as the basketball Olympics are followed massively.
So are the World Championships.

Nadal hasn't the same attention in a grand slam than when he has a minor tournament, in which a good footballer will get bigger headlines and more talk in the street one Monday in the morning.

In the bus, in the work, in the elevator at home, you talk about football here.

is Gasol helped because he came from Barca? or because he has been around longer? or he plays for the biggest basketball team in the world?

by **Sabre** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:33 pm

I'd say Gasol's popularity grew massively just for going to the NBA. About 7-8 times ? Not that the NBA is followed that much, if you see what I mean, it's stupid patriotism because an Spaniard is doing well in a world wide known competition in the most powerful country of the world. Still, there's still quite a significant amount of Spanish that know some basketball.

Then the increasing popularity from Grizzlies to Lakers was significant, but not as significant as when he went to the USA.

No particular help from being from Barsa, he's more popular than Rudy quite simply because both are NBA players, but Gasol has more weight in the SPanish national team and he's been around longer. Rudy's popularity this season has boosted, needless to say. That's why I think Ricky's popularity will overtake Rudy's when if he's succesful in the nba.

by **JBG** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:42 pm

Difficult to say in Ireland but to hazard a guess...

Football
GAA
Rugby
Horse racing
Golf

Football is badly attended in Ireland (apart from some international matches) as the domestic league is rubbish but most people follow an English side or Celtic and footbally probably shades GAA.

by **andy_g** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:29 pm

JoeTerp wrote:
Bad Bob wrote:Well, in fairness, the US does have more than 300,000,000 people and a large pool of domestic sporting options so it's little surprise that the vast majority of them focus on their own sports. I'd think that Joe is a bit of anomaly amongst his countrymen in that regard. Which gets me wondering, Joe...how many sports do you follow as closely or more closely than footy? I get the impression that you eat, live and breath sports in all its various forms so how do you find the time? And, have you ever considered following in Dawson's footsteps and becoming a bookie?

My local American football team probably owns the most of my sporting heart, but I don't like to spend much time discussing them especially online. Only with my brother and father.

Next would come my universities football, basketball, and lacrosse teams, and again I don't spend much time online with them but I discuss them a lot with my friends and brother and father. I probably wish I followed recruiting more but that is kind of a big commitment to follow really seriously. I just ask my friends who do for the executive summary of who is coming in.

But college football in general is the sport I follow most closely. I have 3 tvs on at the same time for 12 hours every Saturday from September till December. I have so many schools/players that I both love and hate. I also think that the college football scene is the closest thing to European footie in America (tradition/atmosphere/super clubs/proper league schedules in some cases)

Liverpool probably is the next most important team to me, probably more than college lacrosse even. But it certainly takes up the biggest part of my online time, probably because I have the most to learn and I cannot talk about it to anyone. Sort of my brother, I buy him jerseys and send him clips and he knows a good bit but certainly is not as intense a fan as I am.

I follow the NBA and MLB with casual interest. Rarely do I watch entire games end to end. If my local basketball team was not the worst in the league I would watch them more often, but I don't feel any connection with the team. I just root for the players that I like. I have even less connection with the local baseball team as they only just came here 4 years ago, and I probably follow baseball in general with even less interest.

That being said I still catch highlights of almost every game, every day.

If the local footie side are playing against a Mexican team, sometimes I will go to that, and I follow their season about as closely as the basketball team.

Rarely follow hockey, but I do want to go to some Caps games so I can watch Alexander the Great. I did watch all their playoff games last year.

I will usually watch 3 la liga and 4 prem games each weekend, plus 1 from Brazil, maybe one German if its a good match up and probably a Serie A game if its one of the bigger match ups, same with Argentina

Massive golf fan. Mostly because my dad is, and he claims to have been mates with Fred Funk in college (but he is best mates with his agent)

Use to not watch tennis until I saw the last Wimbledon. Now I think I will watch any final with Nadal.

Gave NASCAR a legit shot, but I don't think its for me. They say once you go to a race you will be hooked, but I did that too and it wasn't anything to write home about.

I am trying to follow rugby union but its just not really doing it for me. Rugby League and 7s I think are more up my alley. But I can only get one or two NRL games a week and I haven't found Superleague on telly yet.

Also starting to watch GAA and AFL and find them both pretty interesting.

Don't bet on the ponies, but I do make it a point to watch all three triple crown races.

Also pretty big into UFC/MMA. Bought a couple of PPVs.

The Olympics is one of my favorites times of the year, both of em, watch as much as I can in every event.

I also watch a fair bit of primetime tv and old movies

Been unemployed since January, thats how I find the time. Although I feel that has mostly allowed me to increase my movie watching time.

that's just astonishing, joe....

by **fivecups** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:29 pm

JoeTerp wrote:
Bad Bob wrote:Well, in fairness, the US does have more than 300,000,000 people and a large pool of domestic sporting options so it's little surprise that the vast majority of them focus on their own sports. I'd think that Joe is a bit of anomaly amongst his countrymen in that regard. Which gets me wondering, Joe...how many sports do you follow as closely or more closely than footy? I get the impression that you eat, live and breath sports in all its various forms so how do you find the time? And, have you ever considered following in Dawson's footsteps and becoming a bookie?

My local American football team probably owns the most of my sporting heart, but I don't like to spend much time discussing them especially online. Only with my brother and father.

Next would come my universities football, basketball, and lacrosse teams, and again I don't spend much time online with them but I discuss them a lot with my friends and brother and father. I probably wish I followed recruiting more but that is kind of a big commitment to follow really seriously. I just ask my friends who do for the executive summary of who is coming in.

But college football in general is the sport I follow most closely. I have 3 tvs on at the same time for 12 hours every Saturday from September till December. I have so many schools/players that I both love and hate. I also think that the college football scene is the closest thing to European footie in America (tradition/atmosphere/super clubs/proper league schedules in some cases)

Liverpool probably is the next most important team to me, probably more than college lacrosse even. But it certainly takes up the biggest part of my online time, probably because I have the most to learn and I cannot talk about it to anyone. Sort of my brother, I buy him jerseys and send him clips and he knows a good bit but certainly is not as intense a fan as I am.

I follow the NBA and MLB with casual interest. Rarely do I watch entire games end to end. If my local basketball team was not the worst in the league I would watch them more often, but I don't feel any connection with the team. I just root for the players that I like. I have even less connection with the local baseball team as they only just came here 4 years ago, and I probably follow baseball in general with even less interest.

That being said I still catch highlights of almost every game, every day.

If the local footie side are playing against a Mexican team, sometimes I will go to that, and I follow their season about as closely as the basketball team.

Rarely follow hockey, but I do want to go to some Caps games so I can watch Alexander the Great. I did watch all their playoff games last year.

I will usually watch 3 la liga and 4 prem games each weekend, plus 1 from Brazil, maybe one German if its a good match up and probably a Serie A game if its one of the bigger match ups, same with Argentina

Massive golf fan. Mostly because my dad is, and he claims to have been mates with Fred Funk in college (but he is best mates with his agent)

Use to not watch tennis until I saw the last Wimbledon. Now I think I will watch any final with Nadal.

Gave NASCAR a legit shot, but I don't think its for me. They say once you go to a race you will be hooked, but I did that too and it wasn't anything to write home about.

I am trying to follow rugby union but its just not really doing it for me. Rugby League and 7s I think are more up my alley. But I can only get one or two NRL games a week and I haven't found Superleague on telly yet.

Also starting to watch GAA and AFL and find them both pretty interesting.

Don't bet on the ponies, but I do make it a point to watch all three triple crown races.

Also pretty big into UFC/MMA. Bought a couple of PPVs.

The Olympics is one of my favorites times of the year, both of em, watch as much as I can in every event.

I also watch a fair bit of primetime tv and old movies

Been unemployed since January, thats how I find the time. Although I feel that has mostly allowed me to increase my movie watching time.

Wow - unbelievable dedication to sport!

Can I ask a few questions Joe?

Why Liverpool and for how long?

What age are you? Are you married and if so how do you get away with it?

Why is college basketball bigger than NBA?

If you don't want to answer any of these then please don't.

by **JoeTerp** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:30 pm

Sabre wrote:I'd say Gasol's popularity grew massively just for going to the NBA. About 7-8 times ? Not that the NBA is followed that much, if you see what I mean, it's stupid patriotism because an Spaniard is doing well in a world wide known competition in the most powerful country of the world. Still, there's still quite a significant amount of Spanish that know some basketball.

Then the increasing popularity from Grizzlies to Lakers was significant, but not as significant as when he went to the USA.

No particular help from being from Barsa, he's more popular than Rudy quite simply because both are NBA players, but Gasol has more weight in the SPanish national team and he's been around longer. Rudy's popularity this season has boosted, needless to say. That's why I think Ricky's popularity will overtake Rudy's when if he's succesful in the nba.

I think you may be right in that Ricky could explode soon, but I think Rudy could shoot up pretty high this year too. I love watching him play especially when Spanish Chocolate is on the court too.

They work very well together

and again

Awseome babe! Awseome :laugh:

by **SupitsJonF** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:59 pm

Lee J wrote:
Dundalk wrote:Im surprised the Ryder Cup didnt draw a bigger audience - and it was in America last year

they aint interested in sports they can't win mate.

simples.

Then why is England interested in footie?

by **Dundalk** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 12:05 am

JoeTerp wrote:I will usually watch 3 la liga and 4 prem games each weekend, plus 1 from Brazil, maybe one German if its a good match up and probably a Serie A game if its one of the bigger match ups, same with Argentina

Thats a lot of football

by **JoeTerp** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 12:14 am

fivecups wrote::buttrock

Wow - unbelievable dedication to sport!

Can I ask a few questions Joe?

Why Liverpool and for how long?

What age are you? Are you married and if so how do you get away with it?

Why is college basketball bigger than NBA?

If you don't want to answer any of these then please don't.

Why LFC?

Well I used to think soccer was for girls and girly men until summer 2006. That summer I lived with my friend from high school who went to university in New York City and had an apartment. At my office, there were lots of internationals or at least more globally aware people than I had normally been around before. These people would just stop working during the world cup and go in the break room for hours without causing much of a fuss, so I decided to join them and find out what it was all about. Certainly seemed more exciting than what I remembered from watching my high school girls team (had a crush on some of the girls on the team) which was :sleep

a snoozefest. Watched Argentina v. Mexico in an Irish bar (actually owned and operated by off the boat Irish, and served me when I was 17) and I saw of the most incredible feats of athletcism and drama in live sport in my life . The night before the WC finals I went to the only other bar that I knew I could get into without being carded, Nevada Smiths, which turns out is a huge soccer bar, probably the biggest in NYC (bit Manc leaning though

) Anyway, it was just a regular night out drinking and stuff but with the semi finals on continuous loop and when I was leaving, there was a flyer on the door saying to show up at least 3 hours before kickoff if you want to get in tomorrow. This made me think that this must be something to be a part of. Showed up, met some Irish guy who was here illegally wearing an Italy jersey drinking Magners out of a glass with ice and me and my friend asked him why he was supporting Italy, he said "cuz I got 500 dollars on 'em." Anyway, the bar was packed and had a great atmosphere, one of the funnest times I have ever had.

Later I asked my friend, Chris who was there with me has two English parents (but lived in Japan for a bit and has Turkish and Saudi grandparents (his dad's name is Hussien Hussien but goes by 'Arry)) about what soccer team he rooted for and what the whole scene was about. I remembered watching the Barca-Arsenal final a bit by accident. Chris was an Arsenal fan and cried for a couple hours that day. Then I started doing a lot of research on all the clubs, mostly through wikipedia. and bought the world cup video game. Gerrard, Owen, Crouch, and Rooney were my favorite players in that game. Somehow I got it down to a final two: Liverpool and Blackburn. Don't really remember how the hell Blackburn got so close, but in the end there was only one team in it. Kind of like how I applied to a bunch of universities, but there was really only one I was ever going to choose.

Read the official and Newkit for a couple weeks, then signed up and started watching as much video as I could. Went back to Nevada Smiths for the Community Shield, saw the Irish guy again in an LFC shirt, he didn't remember me at all. And the rest is history. Chris studied in London the next spring and I went over to visit him, planning on going to Villa away somehow (ended up being a really boring 0-0), but his fecking annoying ex-girlfriend that was still in love with him surprised him and ruined my time over there as he just did whatever she told him to.

I am 22.5 years old.

Don't have a girlfriend, don't want a girlfriend, couldn't fathom getting married right now or even the near future.

College basketball is big because of the cup. "March Madness" is a 64 team cup competition that determines the national champion. It does the full draw at the beginning and seeds the team based on how the schools did during the season. All games are at neutral sites across the country, and everybody and their mother fills out brackets of how they think all 63 games will turn out and something like 4 billion dollars are waged on it. this is what drives the popularity. plus the magic of big cup giant killing upsets.

The NBA has a long season (82 games) so people feel like the players don't give 100% in all of the games or for all of the game. And people think that nobody plays defense in the NBA. But really, IMO its that each team has so many good offensive players, and in basketball good offense beats good defense.

Also the playoffs are somewhat anti-climactic. Each round is determined by a best of 7 game series. This means there is no one grand final unless of course the series reaches game 7.

Also because of student sections, the college basketball atmosphere is superior to the NBA atmosphere

by **JoeTerp** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 12:18 am

Dundalk wrote:
JoeTerp wrote:I will usually watch 3 la liga and 4 prem games each weekend, plus 1 from Brazil, maybe one German if its a good match up and probably a Serie A game if its one of the bigger match ups, same with Argentina

Thats a lot of football

well with DVR i can fast forward through halftime and whenever those latin players are rolling on the ground for 5 minutes.

by **Sabre** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 7:52 am

That was a good read. The Irish with the Italian shirt

It's normal that he didn't remember you. He was your first footie fan to share a footie moment, you were his 904.344th.

As for the time needed to watch footie, I have a little envy, as I don't have the time to watch that much footie today. I watch one game live of Segunda division, one game live of women football and one game live of school football. I watch Liverpool's game complete, and if we win, I watch it twice.

About the Liga, these days with my local club in Segunda I only watch one game per week and the highlights. So you're a better guy to ask about the liga right now mate!

When I was your age I should have watched more footie, I spent too much time in students flats smoking hash and what we call here "saving the world" (talking about politics and stupid things). I would have changed some of the fiesta and alcohol for football, around here the students are some sort of weekend lcoholics, and when you review that part of your life you only remember hangovers, sluts you should have avoided. It was fun yes, but I wish I had practiced more sport, or gone to the mountains with more "healthy" friends, or watched more footie at home.

One of the best moments with friends in a student flat were to watch games of Spain in group, watching footie with friends is something especial. I'm of the school of thought that when you watch footie with friends you have more euphoria, more kneeling down on front of the tv when your team scores and glorious moments like that.

by **SupitsJonF** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 8:09 am

Sabre wrote:I'm of the school of thought that when you watch footie with friends you have more euphoria, more kneeling down on front of the tv when your team scores and glorious moments like that.

I've been supporting Spain for about 8 years now, and during the Euros I was watching with a friend who is a die hard Germany fan. I suppose I was very "rafa like", because even when my favorite player (who i've liked ever since early A. Madrid days) scored the winner I had very little reaction (other then inside joy). While my friend was screaming and going nuts the whole game.

I always wonder why I didn't go crazy.

by **JBG** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 11:21 am

What do you mean, "supporting Spain"? I presume as a second team (I assume you're not Spanish)?

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