Conversion Story

[montgjules]

Never played soccer myself, unless you count my "soccer" time with my 4-yr-old son.

I had a friend who played in high school and a bunch of us went to watch him and cheer him on (mostly embarass him since nobody else was there watching...) I've been watching the world cup since then.

Got the passion renewed a few years back when I met some Egyptian soccer fans online, and around the same time started going to BYU's PDL games. That led to the Blitzz games, which led to RSL games which led to total addiction.

[bordelais7]

I'm not a convert. I tried watching it, but soccer sucks. There's not enough scoring.

[Deuce]

I remember looking at a picture in a library book of Pele doing a bicycle kick. I think I was 10 years old and I wondered why he only had one name! But I was impressed anyway.


In 1994 I was on an Aircraft Carrier in the Mediterranean when the rest of the world was in the US playing soccer. I met my most recent ex-wife while watching a world cup match in Corfu, Greece. I don’t even remember who was playing but I do remember that the place was going crazy.

I had never seen people react to watching a televised sport in that way before. I was hooked.

The English Girl I spent all of my time with in Corfu became my wife in 1995 and introduced me to Nottingham Forest. We loosely followed MLS, she was a Revolution fan (go figure) and I was a DC United fan…

I moved to England in 1999 and my first match in England was that year at the City Ground in Nottingham against Derby County.

While living in the England I watched Nottingham Forest and Mansfield Town matches, too many to count. I became an England National Team fan after I started watching Michael Owen at Liverpool.
David Beckham was the footy player you loved to hate.

In 2004 I went to a few Blitzz matches at RES. The Highlight of the year was when I drove from Salt Lake to Washington DC to see Nottingham Forest play DC United at RFK… the date of that match was July 14th, 2004 That was an awesome day.

The rest is history.

[Czar Jake]

Mine is similar to Loyal1's. I didn't know anything about the beautiful game before my LDS mission. I mean nothing at all, I didn't know MLS existed, I didn't even know the World Cup had been in the US in '94! In Rome, Italy I started paying attention to how Roma was doing... pretty soon I was looking for any excuse to watch the Roma games. One of my companions was really into soccer (He was a Columbus Crew fan) and told me about MLS.

I watched almost every match of the 2002 World Cup....

And you know the rest; Saw some Blitzz, ESPN2 Soccer Saturday, Bigsoccer, Dave Checketts, The Utah Boom, Check that: Real Salt Lake, etc.

I still passionately follow Roma for the few who haven't noticed - and of course RSL, USA, and Italia are my teams of choice. I am also partial to Sampdoria, Croatia, and teams with Yanks Abroad.

[SoccerPrime]

Not really a convert either, my family has always been pro-soccer.

My father played soccer in high school and a private college in Philadelphia in the 60s/70s. When our family was young, in 1980, we moved to a small town where the local high school had no American football program, so my parents signed my older brothers up for soccer instead. I followed their example and played throughout school.

I watched all the WC 94 games I could during my first summer session at college (learned how to successfully miss class and watch soccer, quite the accomplishment).
Of course, after living fairly far from any MLS team in college (Penn State) I moved to Florida just when MLS killed the Tampa Bay Mutiny and the Miami Fusion. 🙁

I still live in the state of un-MLS but we do have some good PDL teams and 1 USL 1st Division team now. I don't get much time to actually play, besides with my kids. My almost 4 year old daughter starts micro-soccer in August! I am so excited...thus the cycle continues...

[AreliusIV]

Originally Posted by Czar Jake

I still passionately follow Roma for the few who haven't noticed - and of course RSL, USA, and Italia are my teams of choice.

So, when the US and Italy meet in the World Cup, who will you be supporting?

[Dadof3]

No true conversion, except for my parents...they signed me and my brother up for little kids soccer when I was 6 and he was 5. They watched, decided they liked it, and began playing, reffing and coaching. Luckily we lived in the Seattle area where the game developed early and we got to see the Sounders throught their fun run through the NASL. Pele's first game at the Kingdome was unbelievable.

All the siblings played through the college level, one still coaches at the college level, all have coached through the ODP level.

Like was said earlier, it is in the blood...once it's there, it just doesn't go away.

Now I am working with my oldest (girl 6) and her little group of friends and their wonderful parents...different level, same love of the game.

[Burninator]

I played 5 years of bunch ball as a kid, but never practiced enough to be really good. After quitting bunch ball when my team pretty much disappeared, my soccer life went into it's cocoon. I really didn't touch a ball for the next 8 years.

When I started going to school at the University of Florida, I had a few friends that liked to play soccer in the late/early hours on any semi-lit field we could find, making all sorts of silly Fight Club references along the way (what is the first rule of Soccer?). I got some new gear, and even joined "The Stormin' Mormons" intramural team, a team comprised mostly of kids from my institute class. The beast in the cocoon was only awakening, however.

I left for Argentina in late 2001 to serve my mission, and I bought my first Boca jersey after being there for about a month. It was then that the beast in the cocoon began to come out. I played way too much soccer down there, and spent way too much money on jerseys, starting a collection rivaled only by my Star Wars Legos. At one point in my life, I have had jerseys from Boca (4 total), San Lorenzo (2), Rosario Central, Racing Club (2), Newell's Old Boys, Independiente, Belgrano, Club Leandro Alem (2nd div, based in Pringles, Argentina), the Argentine Nats (3), US Nats (2), Ajax, and even an AFA referee jersey. A modest collection compared to some, I guess 🙂 I also currently own a River Plate jersey, but only because it has a big BUDWEISER on the front 😉 Then of course I have all three RSL jerseys from last year, and I may be getting a new one for my birthday next month :D My wife also has the home jersey from last year.

Well, the beast left the cocoon and now we try to coexist peacefully. There are times when the wife and the beast don't see eye to eye, and sometimes the beast doesn't like the budget either, but we're making do. Anyone who knows me knows I love soccer, to play it (if you're free on Saturday mornings near Provo, PM me!!!), to watch it (I will watch just about any soccer I can), to make sure people know I love it.

Life before RSL: the occasional Boca/River game on TV, the 2004 Olympics on TV, and Saturday morning soccer in south Provo.

I was super excited when I found out that MLS was coming to Salt Lake and I went to about 1 game a month last year, including the home opener, both Galaxy games, and the Chivas friendly in October. My wife was at every game with me, except the second Galaxy game, which was my bachelor's party (we listened to the Fire game that same weekend on the radio as we traveled to our honeymoon destination). We introduced both my father and my sister to RSL last year and they are big fans. I'm excited to watch the world cup with them this year, and look forward to owning season tickets at the new stadium.

I feel for those of you that have significant others that don't "get" soccer. I constantly try to get people to join me in the faith, the futbol faith, and luckily, my wife caught on pretty early when we started dating. She's from Peru and has seen some of the uglier sides of futbol during her life (after every Alianza/Sporting Cristal game, all the windows in her house would be broken...she lived very near Alianza's stadium for a time I believe), but she has embraced my love for the game and has her own love for RSL, watching each away game with me and hardly ever letting me go to Rice-Eccles without her. She even watched the Gold Cup with me last summer. She even defended me at the USA/Costa Rica game when a Costa Rican woman asked her to shut me up (I was being a little vulgar in my castellano/spanish towards the Costa Rican team).

We're about ready to have our first child, a little boy, and even though I keep saying that he will participate in whatever sports he wants to, I get the feeling he might be a little biased towards soccer, at least in the early stages of his life. I hope so, anyway. We need more soccer fans here in the U.S. 🙂

In summary, GO RSL! GO USA! AGUANTE BOCA!

⚽ Geoff
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REGULATORS! Mount up!
Soccer: My Fix, My Addiction

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by AreliusIV

So, when the US and Italy meet in the World Cup, who will you be supporting?

I'm starting to scare myself: every time I see someone wearing an "Italy" or "Italia" shirt I get this urge to ridicule them and say "Italy SUCKS!" Up until now, I have been able to bite my tongue. 🙁 What's happening to me?!?!?! hehehe

How much longer do we have to suffer until the World Cup finally starts?!?!

⚽ Geoff
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REGULATORS! Mount up!
"Knowing Italy isn't hard. It's playing Italy that's hard." --Bruce Arena

[BroncsBomber]

No convert here. I'm a first generation Soccer fan. My Dad was stationed in England until I was in second grade so European Football was on the T.V. all the time and at the park that is what we played.

My confusion arose when my Dad and Uncle told me they were taking me to a football game when I was six on th Air Base. I was all excited but when we got there the lads were out there wearing stuff on their head and they were flinging something pointy. I asked my Dad what this was all about and he said it was football. I said it wasn't and he seemed perplexed that he had gotten to me too late and I was a soccer fan.

The second generation is already under way. When my wife and I found out at the ultra-sound that we were having a little girl I told here we had to go out and buy something pink. My first gift for my daughter was a Pink Disney princess soccer ball. She is now being coached by her dork of an old man on a U-6 girls team. My 3 year old boy does Parents and Kids soccer next year. My wife is a convert by marriage.