Today marks the start of the football season over here in the UK with the beginning of the Championship this past weekend and the annual Community Shield curtain raiser on earlier today. I thought I would knock up a little blog on the teams I support and follow and why I follow them.
English Premier League
Liverpool
Liverpool are my team, they have been my team for as long as I can remember in the days when the likes of Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman were considered ‘young guns’. I have seen them play a few times at both Anfield and Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium for the 2006 FA Cup final. My abiding memory for Liverpool is THAT COMEBACK in the 2005 Champions League Final against AC Milan in the Ataturk Stadium, Istanbul.
Yes, Manchester United’s comeback in the dying minutes against Bayern Munich was impressive and a memorable football moment but Liverpool’s comeback was more impressive. Considering they were 3-0 down at half time and nobody envisaged them getting anything from the game. It was 15 minutes of pure magic and inspiration. Never in my life will I see a comeback like that again. That moment cemented my love for The Reds. It also finally gave me bragging rights in the school yard for an entire year!
Honourable mention: Swansea City. Being Welsh I have to have a spot for the Swans in their return to the top flight. I’m expecting them to go right back down but hey, it’s football – anything can happen and it usually does.
La Liga
FC Barcelona
Again this is a team I have had an allegiance to almost all my life, one of my first ever football shirts was a Barcelona home top, about five sizes too big at the time but it is one I have kept and will forever cherish. I love everything about the club, the mantra ‘more than a football club’, the style of football that they play, the characters in the team and the fans. It is a fantastic place to watch a match in the cauldron that is the Nou Camp. I have been lucky enough to see an El Clasico and it is a memory I will hold forever. A spectacle that every football fan should experience once in their life.
Serie A
Juventus
I have always liked Juventus as a club mainly because when I first took an interest in football they had Edgar Davids in the team who woe special glasses and I always thougjt he was cool lol. They have a rich history in soccer with numerous scudetto’s (Serie A titles) and European achievements.
Palermo
I mainly follow these because of a computer game called Football Manager, I used to always sign a player who played for them called Andrea Gasbarroni, he was a decent winger and would play nicely for my Liverpool squad. So since then I have always kept an eye out for their results.
Outside of those teams I only like a few from Brazil and Argentina. I like Santos and Cruzeiro from Brazil and Boca Juniors from Argentina. If it is on I may watch other leagues and games but mainly from a neutral viewpoint. I just enjoy a good game played by world class athletes. I can appreciate good football even if it’s at the expense of my favourite teams. Football isn’t called ‘The Beautiful Game’ for nothing.
