Conversion Story

[dysko]

I started playing at age 4... my older borther and I both began at that age. I also started playing Baseball (t-ball actually) at that age. I played both untill I was 11. I was really doing well at baseball and my mom said that between all-star baseball, soccer tourney's and such I needed to cut something out. I dropped baseball. For some reason, despite being considerably better at that sport, it bored me. Soccer was just that much more fun to play.

I really began watching the sport with WC 94 because you couldn't find soccer on TV before then. After the WC, I started buying and reading books and magazines to stay as up to date as possible on wolrd soccer.

When MLS launched, I supported Columbus because I thought that their logo, uniforms, ect were the least hideous in the league. Although my favorite player was Carlos Valderama (how can you not love that hair).

I guess I am like IBIK. I am a junky. I can't seem to leave soccer behind no matter how hard I try (well, I admitt I haven't really tried that hard).

[rabble-rabble]

I grew up a little too early and never got to play youth soccer. AYSO had a big boom in the 70s that I missed by just a few years. I played a lot of Little League baseball and had a lot of fun, but always will wish that I had the opportunity to play organized soccer when I was little.

My first real memories of watching the beautiful game were watching “Soccer Made in Germany” on PBS channels in the early 70s. What I found very attractive was watching and listening to crowds that chanted and sang throughout the whole match, even when the home team was behind, unlike the sports I was familiar with where a crowd would often be relatively quiet for long periods of the event. I also appreciated and started to understand the excitement of watching teams develop attacks, build up pressure, and finally knock the ball into the back of the net as the crowd erupted in celebration. Fans of other sports where scores happen every few minutes (or even every few seconds in some cases) just can’t understand why a 2-1 result can be so absorbing. (Hey we just have to keep on recruiting and educating new fans!)

We had a team called the Golden Spikers play in the Salt Lake area for a single season. (I think in 1975). I remember getting my dad to take me to the opener which was the first live soccer game I had attended. We lost 1-0 to Los Angeles on a late first half corner kick, but it was lots of fun nevertheless. That team sadly only lasted that first year. As an off topic question, with the talk of Real Madrid possibly visiting this summer and Coventry scheduled to play the BYU PDL team, I seem to remember the Golden Spikers were set to play 2 games against European teams that season. Does anyone out there remember at all who those teams were? I can’t even rememer if they ever played those games.

It was a long drought for soccer fans in this area for a while. I’d tune in whenever an NASL game was on in the late 70s-early 80s. I watched what I could when the World Cup came around every 4 years. Back in 1982 PBS showed games late at night, most of them were a day or two delayed, and just the final was shown live (NBC or CBS I believe). In 1986 we had maybe a dozen games on ESPN/NBC, and had about a dozen games on TNT in 1990. Fortunately starting in 1994, we have enjoyed the entire tournament on ESPN/ABC the last few times. In that time, I’ve seen the US team go from a sqaud in the 70s and 80s that couldn’t get the qualifying rounds against teams like Haiti and Costa Rica, to a team that made it into the 1990 WC when Paul Caligiuri hit a shot from mid field (well it was more like 30 yards actually) in Port of Spain against Trinidad&Tobago to get us into the World Cup for the first time in 40 years, only to get bounced out with 3 straight losses, to a team that in 2002, beat highly-regarded Portugal 3-2 and Mexico 2-0 on their way to the quarterfinals where they outplayed but lost to Germany 1-0.

In 1990 and 1991, we had the Salt Lake Sting with George Pastor, Truc Tran, Dominic Milatello (sp?) and others play down at the old Derks Field baseball field and I made most of the games. I used to marvel at “Crazy George” down there single handedly raising a ruckus, and found out later he is a professional cheerleader/motivational speaker. I used to post game reports about the Sting on the rec.sports.soccer board (back in the day when USENET was the only way to find out about international soccer results and hadn’t become a spam garbage dump).

In 2000, the Utah Blitzz brought pro soccer back to the area, struggled to build their own stadium, and bounced around a lot playing home matches at Rice-Eccles stadium, BYU South Field, Skyline High School, Cottonwood High School, Park City, Wendover Nevada, and Franklin-Covey field. Along with a few of the more rapid fans, many of who are now Loyalists, (including “Arriba el Blitzz” aka Jose Luis Luivano, Forest Fan (where ARE you Forest?), Loyal1 (Glenn), Montgjules and others) we would show up, yelling and singing, with most of the crowd seeming to enjoy or at least tolerate us but wondering what the hell we were doing.

I was right behind the north goal in 2001 in 100 degree heat when Jorge Estrada headed in the late goal to give us a 1-0 championship win over Greenville. (The true fans that day were down there in the blazing sun while the less passionate fans were at the far end of the stadium in the shade.) I’ve always thought it was fitting that those of us in the sun got the best view of the climatic moment of the match. Thanks largely to tireless efforts of Del Nichols (in the early years anyway), Chris Agnello and Stacy McNichol (if you don’t know of these fine people, believe me when I say that RSL would very probably not be around without the seed they helped plant 6 years ago), the Blitzz had a successful 5 years, adding another title in 2004, only closing shop when RSL came to town.

I should mention the Salt Ratz who played a few years out at Juan Diego High School and won their league in 2004. Being committed to the Blitzz, I never had the opportunity to watch them. They also folded after RSL was formed.

Now we are fortunate that Dave Checketts has brought an even higher level of soccer to our area. The team right now is going through struggles common with expansion teams, but is fortunate to have a very supportive fan base who seems to have the patience and wisdom to support the team through the early difficult years in hopes of better winning years in the future. We have a couple of well organized support groups creating noise and atmosphere at both ends of the stadium. Hopefully we will soon see the ground broken for a beautiful stadium specifically designed for soccer with real grass, great sight lines, no pointy-ball lines, and a much more intimate setting, and will in a few years have those stands filled with loud passionate fans cheering us on to a championship.

[praxis]

I was in Rome in 2001 and i was out on the town that night. The streets were slow, but every time i walked past a trattoria (a small restaurant) the places were packed to the gills with people watching Roma play. I went in to a gellato shop and started talking with the people working there. I asked if Rome was going to win. The guy looked up in the sky and kissed his knuckles. Later on i was walking and Roma must have won because all of a sudden the streets were packed with people shouting and having fun. Scooters with huge flags were driving down the streets and i knew that the Italians were on to something. I started following Roma (Forza Roma!) on the internet and once i went to the first RSL game i was truly hooked.

[Czar Jake]

Originally Posted by AreliusIV

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

This question was hard for me for a while, but I've settled on cheering for USA - they are my home country after all, and I won't be able to not cheer for them.

Of course I want both teams to make it to the knock-out stages.

[xlyte]

a little off topic but the first post reminded me that Drew Carey is doing a show about/from the world cup on one of the sport channels, forgot when it starts though, butkeep an eye out for it.