I know, no one has a blog anymore. Blogs are out. So why am I doing this? Well, I'll start this out the way one of my favorite books (House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski) starts out: This is not for you.
In other words, this is for me. I'm doing it completely on a whim and it may be very short-lived. To explain why, I'm going to start at the beginning. While my love of soccer, the "beautiful game," really began at a very young age (I played from about age 5-16), I'm going to skip ahead to 2010, which is when I started following both American and international soccer. In the summer of 2010, I had just completed my Master's in Genetic Counseling and I was unemployed. This was not my plan, but as it turned out, there was a silver lining to my otherwise miserable period of unemployment: it occurred during the 2010 World Cup. And seeing as I didn't have much else to do (I could only spend so many hours job-hunting without losing my mind), one day I decided to turn on a World Cup match. I had never really watched soccer before, I had always preferred to play. But I was hooked instantly. I couldn't get enough. I watched every game I could, and when the World Cup was over, I wanted more. The prospect of waiting four years for the next World Cup was unacceptable to me. I decided to replace my World Cup addiction with Major League Soccer (MLS) and international soccer (mostly English Premier League (EPL), but also Spanish La Liga and German Bundesliga when I can catch them on TV, as well as some other international competitions like Champions League or Euros).
In short, that's how I became a soccer fan. Soccer is probably as close to a real addiction as I will ever come. Because of soccer, I willingly (and eagerly) wake up at 7am on Saturdays to watch EPL games (admittedly, this was a lot easier and more enjoyable when I was unemployed, but I still do it). Because of soccer, I make regular trips to Chester, PA between the months of March and October (if you're not familiar with Chester, count yourself lucky). I have yet to plan any crazy trips in the name of soccer, but I'm beginning to feel that it's only a matter of time (and saving enough money for said trips).
Finally, I'm getting to the point. I really like my day job, but I have begun to daydream about how amazing it would be to combine two things I love (soccer and traveling) and get paid for it. I understand that this is dream is fairly unrealistic: I've taken the bare minimum of writing classes, no experience in journalism, and I've only been watching soccer for a little over two years. But I figure I'll never really know if I don't try. So this is my experiment to see if I can write something that I would ever considering submitting for publication. I honestly don't think it will ever to come to that, but if nothing else comes of it I still think it will be fun.
So what can you expect from future posts? The fun part of this is, I really don't even know yet. I plan to write about the things I already love about soccer as well as the things I'm continuing to learn. I will probably include things like what beer to drink when watching a given soccer game, the best and worst haircuts and facial hair in soccer, my dream soccer trips, maybe even my fashion dos and don'ts of soccer.
To end my first post, here's some basic information that will likely come up in future posts:
My favorite MLS team: Philadelphia Union (hence the regular trips to Chester, PA). They're my local team, and they may be far from the best team in MLS, but they show a lot of heart and they can be really exciting to watch. I always say that the Union can make something out of nothing and they can also make nothing out of something.
My favorite European club team: Two-way tie between Barcelona and Manchester City. I love Barcelona because they're basically the club version of the Spanish national team (see below for that explanation). On the other hand, I love Manchester City because you never really know what you're going to get when you watch them. Are you going to get Mario Balotelli doing something crazy? something amazing? Something crazy AND something amazing? Carlos Tevez getting carded for diving when he should have been awarded a penalty kick? Two goals in extra time to beat a team that they should have buried at least 3-0? It's exciting. It's dramatic. It's fun. What more can you ask for when you turn on a soccer game?
My favorite national team: I'm American, so I'm kind of obligated to say the U.S. Men's National Team (USMNT), but to me, the way Spain plays is the epitome of the "beautiful game".
My least favorite MLS team: Colorado Rapids. This is probably all about the timing of when I got into MLS - near the end of the 2010 season. When the playoffs came around, I really got behind FC Dallas after watching them cream the LA Galaxy, only to watch them fall to Colorado Rapids in the most unceremonious fashion: an own goal. They also just play a bit too physical and aggressive for my liking, and I feel that they have a very unfair homefield advantage compared to other teams because of the elevation.
My least favorite national team: Netherlands. Similar to Colorado, after watching them in the 2010 World Cup my impression of them is that they play dirty. They made the World Cup final ugly to watch by committing fouls when they couldn't compete with Spain's beautiful game.
