[Football] Criteria for choosing the other teams you follow

[Goldstone1976]

Football: only the Albion.

NFL: Oakland Raiders. Now they’ve moved the franchise, they can feck right off
MLB: Giants
NHL: Sharks

All from living out there.

Any female beach volleyball team - for obvious reasons.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Burgess Hill Town.

Went to my first game when junior was about 4 and showing an interest in football as we live 2-3 mins walk from the ground. Predictable non-league stuff......scrappy game, lots of bad language, a red card for a punch and the Hillians ‘barmy army’ (at the time led I believe by a former North Stand nutcase but not seen him there for ages now) singing all the way through. Been regular attendees since.

Another side I followed during my fa cup journey, Croydon, Fleet, Sutton and Dartford games

 

[Invicta]

Dundee Utd through family connections. We have had a few player connections at the Albion. Always hoped we would sign a few, Andy Robertson and Stuart Armstrong would have been decent signings a few years back.

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Liverpool - Team Father, Brother, Uncles, Grandad and basically paternal non-Sussex half of family supported and Grandad worked and lived as good as down the road from back in the day. Was easy to do when we were in 3rd/4th tier but now don’t really ‘follow’ them at all as a result of Brighton’s fortune leading to direct competition.

Hastings - Town grew up in since age 3 and again easy to do as very different ‘level’ of football.

Foreign teams -
Parma - Huge team when I was a young kid with likeable, exciting young players and Italian football was on Channel 4. Not one of the ‘big teams’ but temporarily had the quality to be. Good on Sensible World of Soccer.
FK Viktoria Žižkov - fun trips to Prague and even more fun lady friend there. A niche team from a cool neighbourhood. Subsequently FM game.
Vitória - Brazilian team from the vibrant northern city instead of southern area where 95% of teams are located. Yoyo team (just about) with one slightly bigger rival. Mostly down to Football Manager initially but expanded upon since.

 

[BadFish]

My greatest love in sporting life, the Carlton FC.

Any chance of them giving you some love back this year. It seems to have been a long time.

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk

 

[BrianWade4]

If they’re from Sussex
I’ve paid to watch Saltdean, Whitehawk and Crawley as well

Had the most fun at Whitehawk

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

I keep an eye on FC Köln’s results after watching them play Wölfsburg at the RheinEnergie Stadion a few years ago, great fans with really passionate support.

In the NFL I’m a big fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars, I chose them because I have family who live in Florida, they plan a game annually in London and they are absolutely terrible so nobody could ever accuse me of being a glory hunter or jumping on the bandwagon. Pats fans, you know who you are.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Having been lucky enough to start supporting the Albion in the early/mid 70’s and the subsequent rise to the top, and the following demise, I suppose I became a JCL from an earlier age?

When we became Div 2/3/4 regulars I longed for the big match experience occasionally. So my best mate (RIP) and I looked at the possibilities that were within easy travelling distance.

Pompey - Too much rivalry (They were Prem/Div 1 at the time)

Soton - As above

Palace - Whatever

Chelsea - Too many slaps taken in 83

West Ham - Attractive but not quite big enough

Tottenham - Soton/promotion and all that in 78

Arsenal - No great history with them, far enough away but only London, big ground, winning football at the time (George Graham) etc etc.

Enjoyed it at the time, but no split loyalties whatsoever. When the Gooners came to the Goldstone for an FA Cup game I was more than happy to attempt to offer a hostile welcome to the hordes from the capital. Remember leaving Highbury after drawing 0-0 with Coventry in 89 with their fans questioning ‘when was the last time an away side won at Anfield’? My mate replied ‘when was the last time an away side won by 2 clear goals at Anfield’? The rest is history as they say.

UTA.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

One of my best mates is assistant manager at national league north side. So obviously support them. It has been great.

I do look at the lower leagues and am surprised I have seen BHA play at 6 of the teams in that league now, amazing the distance we are now above them!

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Spurs...my second team when I was VERY young..I even went to WHL a few times

Ps....I don’t follow them that closely...honest

Same here. When I first got into football at the start of the 60s Spurs were THE team. I remember bubble gum cards of Bobby Smith, Greaves and Blanchflower. However, by the time Smith signed for us I was already persuaded by Shankly that his team was the one to follow and I have stuck to them as my second team ever since. I have only seen them live on a dozen or so occasions over the years, first at The Dell with much of their 1965 cup winning team playing, but a few cup finals and charity shield matches, as well as Albion League and cup matches, and an odd invite to see them at Fulham. My lad was picked as mascot for the away Liverpool cup game in 1991 enabling me to get behind the scenes and touch the Shield where the players come out. A kid again for the day.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Football is only about Brighton. My son, though also Brighton through and through had a Barca thing going on for a while (basically siding with Messi against Ronaldo in banter with his mates) and we both went to a game out there. Barcelona is a brilliant city, the stadium is incredible and I watched Messi and Iniesta take apart the opposition in third gear, so it was a great weekend, but that was it. I keep half an eye on El Classico and that's about it. Now the boy is bigger he wants to go to Germany for a game when everything is (hopefully) back to normal so we'll try and do a Leverkusen game I guess. But that's only out of affiliation with Brighton.

Other sports are different. Used to regularly watch the Sydney Swans in AFL when I lived there so they are my AFL team. And the Bears for NFL. Back in the mid 80s when Channel 4 first started showing NFL one of my best mates at school really got into it. He was a big lad and very good at rugby but he got in with the local B52s American Football club and proved himself good enough to play in the states for a high school (is now in Denmark coaching a team over there I believe). I used to watch C4 and the B52s regularly.

Anyway, that meant picking a team and the Bears were the most high profile around. They had Walter Payton, a great man and superb running back. They had a quarterback called Jim McMahon who looked and acted like a Beastie Boy. And they had a player called THE FRIDGE. It was a glory pick at the time as they were doing well, including a Superbowl win but I've stuck with them and they've been reassuringly shit for donkey's years.

 

[Ludensian Gull]

Deveronvale in the Highland league as used to live nearby, also still take an interest in how Grimsby are doing as they were my local club growing up

 

[AmexRuislip]

Take an interest in Borussia Mönchengladbach and Wealdstone.

 

[8049]

I do not pretend to understand these sports, but if they are the only teams you have seen live, where they playing against themselves?

Ha ha. No they were playing at home so I supported them. I guess my other options there would be the Minnesota Twins and Utah Jazz.

 

[Berty23]

One of my best mates is assistant manager at national league north side. So obviously support them. It has been great.

I do look at the lower leagues and am surprised I have seen BHA play at 6 of the teams in that league now, amazing the distance we are now above them!

My son and I went to Hereford away last season. That could have been us. Amazing.

Lots of big teams in that league - Stockport had a couple of seasons. Others you must be talking about I assume are York, Chester, Darlington and maybe kiddie. It is an incredibly competitive league. Seems a higher standard than the south with much bigger clubs. I don’t think south has any we would have ever played league against.

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

Take an interest in Borussia Mönchengladbach and Wealdstone.

Give us a 'B'

 

[Worried Man Blues]

My son and I went to Hereford away last season. That could have been us. Amazing.

Lots of big teams in that league - Stockport had a couple of seasons. Others you must be talking about I assume are York, Chester, Darlington and maybe kiddie. It is an incredibly competitive league. Seems a higher standard than the south with much bigger clubs. I don’t think south has any we would have ever played league against.

None in South but Rushden and Diam. are even lower and Scarborough have gone!

 

[McTavish]

Chicago White Sox - first (and currently only) MLB team I've seen live
Phoenix Suns - first (and currently only) NBA team I've seen live

Who were these two playing if not another MLB/NBA team?

 

[Doonhamer7]

I’m a JCL and the seagulls are due to locality and trying to make D7 jr support his local team

Scotland and obviously whoever us playing England
Queen of the South - local league team and first big games I went to
St Cuthbert Wanderers - South of Scotland League, I actually wrote, produced and sold the programme for a season
Liverpool - as when I grew up nearly everyone supported Rangers or Celtic depending on religion and probably more people travelled from my home town to ibrox/Celtic park than Palmerston so 5 of us decided to break the mould (such rebels aged 8-9) and have an English team, I and one of my pals decided on Liverpool because Scotland’s best player was there Kenny Dalglish, to think if I was 6 or 7 years older I’d have chosen Man Utd (Denis Law) or Leeds (billy Bremner)

 

[atfc village]

I keep an eye on FC Köln’s results after watching them play Wölfsburg at the RheinEnergie Stadion a few years ago, great fans with really passionate support.

In the NFL I’m a big fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars, I chose them because I have family who live in Florida, they plan a game annually in London and they are absolutely terrible so nobody could ever accuse me of being a glory hunter or jumping on the bandwagon. Pats fans, you know who you are.

Would the Koln game in 2009? 1 1 the year Wolfsburg won the league.