Quick education for an aspiring fan

[cgf]

bundesliga might be fun if it didn't turn into bayern vs. washington generals.

Yeah Bayern's rise and the increasing attention are a little poorly timed, these past two seasons being the best Bayern we've seen this century, and realistically the best bayern we've seen since the 70s when they and Gladbach alternated three-peats. But since the start of the century the BuLi has seen Dortmund, Bayern, Wolfsburg, Werder and Stuttgart take the salad bowl, for comparison in Spain that list ends after Barca, Real, Valencia and now Athletico, for the EPL it goes Arsenal, United, Chelsea and Citeh.

[cgf]

Wow, I didn't expect so much discussion to quickly. Thank you all for the information. I have a good starting point to build on now.

Also I notice there are a bunch of different titles to win. Obviously the World Cup is the greatest prize, but how would you rank the prestige of the other big ones?

That's a little tough to say since it changes form club to club and from season to season. Like in germany I know that a lot of clubs place a lot more value on the Bundesliga title than they do on success in the Champions League or Europa League, Bayern being the one exception who place similar value on the BuLi and CL. While a club like Real stopped caring about La Liga when the idea of La Decima (winning their 10th european crown) became a thing.

In general it goes CL or domestic crown, then the domestic cup, then the europa league. I'll let our EPL fans explain why they have more than one domestic cup and whether anyone cares about those.

For national teams, you have the World Cup which is by far the biggest honour in football, then the continental championships (with Euro for Europe being the most famous).

For clubs, it usually goes Champions League > domestic league > Europa > domestic cup

If you have time, do take a look at this thread, viewtopic.php?f=266&t=1280514

I actually place more value on winning the Euros because it's a tougher tournament to win the WC, although I'm probably in the minority on that opinion since the WC is more prestigious globally.

Wow, I didn't expect so much discussion to quickly. Thank you all for the information. I have a good starting point to build on now.

Also I notice there are a bunch of different titles to win. Obviously the World Cup is the greatest prize, but how would you rank the prestige of the other big ones?

This man is baiting us!

I'm not sure what you mean. I looked up "UEFA Champions League" thinking it was the end goal, but I saw the winners qualified for a "UEFA Super Cup" and "FIFA Cup World Cup." I don't know what all there is to win each year or how significant those accomplishments are.

The Super Cup is a friendly game played at the start of the next season between the CL winner and the EL winner, it's below the CL, Domestic league, domestic cup and europa league. The Fifa club world cup is even below that for european teams, although I've heard some brazilians talk about it as though they consider it very prestigious so maybe that's different for south american clubs?

[MaliBrah]

club world cup is cool because you can say your team are world champs if you win lool

[edfmx86]

Watch MLS

Its a young league, but it's rapidly growing in both popularity and quality. I think it's easier to follow a new sport when you get a home team to root for. ATL will get their MLS team in 2017. Thats pretty far from now, but you can get to know the people who follow Atlanta soccer at Atlanta Slverbacks games in the NASL (which is basically US Second Division, without promotion/relegation) The US Open Cup 3rd round is around the corner and this cup will give the Silverbacks a chance to play MLS teams in the fourth round.

A great game to catch next week in MLS will be Seattle Sounders vs Real Salt Lake. I think it'll be nationally televised. The leagues top two team going at it.

[White+Purple]

Two things to belatedly add:

1. Find out what leagues and teams you have easy access to before choosing. Don't follow a lower team like West Brom or Tottenham because they won't be televised regularly. Same goes for the French or Portugese leagues because (I assume) they aren't televised in Atlanta. The level of coverage in the english language is also much much higher for the (English) Premier League.

2. Go to a few MLS games even if you have no intention of following them regularly. Football (soccer ) is best seen and understood live, plus you will see first hand how passionate the fans are about the sport. Forums help with that as well, the investment people have in their teams is very contagious.

[Ted Lasso]

yeah take your time watch the world cup. An easy way to get attached to a team is finding a player you like and following that club team. You have a ton of options!

My sincere advice would be to ignore the players and focus on figuring out which club you're sympathetic to. The kit, the crest, the city, you know name it. I think that approach is likelier to yield a permanent commitment.

[Ted Lasso]

Don't follow a lower team like West Brom or Tottenham because they won't be televised regularly.

Oh it's on, bitch.

Let the record show that they fired the first shot.

[MaliBrah]

yeah take your time watch the world cup. An easy way to get attached to a team is finding a player you like and following that club team. You have a ton of options!

My sincere advice would be to ignore the players and focus on figuring out which club you're sympathetic to. The kit, the crest, the city, you know name it. I think that approach is likelier to yield a permanent commitment.

I should elaborate on what I was trying to say. If you like a player then watch his team and maybe he'll like them. Just using a player to take notice of a team and then he can decide if he likes team or not.

[White+Purple]

yeah take your time watch the world cup. An easy way to get attached to a team is finding a player you like and following that club team. You have a ton of options!

My sincere advice would be to ignore the players and focus on figuring out which club you're sympathetic to. The kit, the crest, the city, you know name it. I think that approach is likelier to yield a permanent commitment.

Yep.

[Ted Lasso]

yeah take your time watch the world cup. An easy way to get attached to a team is finding a player you like and following that club team. You have a ton of options!

My sincere advice would be to ignore the players and focus on figuring out which club you're sympathetic to. The kit, the crest, the city, you know name it. I think that approach is likelier to yield a permanent commitment.

I should elaborate on what I was trying to say. If you like a player then watch his team and maybe he'll like them. Just using a player to take notice of a team and then he can decide if he likes team or not.

That's how you go from being a Colts fan to a Broncos fan. More importantly, i don't care. You are all dead to me. I hope you get herpes during Caribana.

[MaliBrah]

That's how you go from being a Colts fan to a Broncos fan. More importantly, i don't care. You are all dead to me. I hope you get herpes during Caribana.

, wow bro I thought I was a friend. Wasn't me that fired the bullet!

[cgf]

What you really need to do is find yourself in Berlin during the season and go to a union match. If you're not hooked after two hours with twenty+ thousand standing/singing fans, then there's something broken inside of you.

[Ted Lasso]

That's how you go from being a Colts fan to a Broncos fan. More importantly, i don't care. You are all dead to me. I hope you get herpes during Caribana.

, wow bro I thought I was a friend. Wasn't me that fired the bullet!

[Next Coming]

They play very entertaining football and there's a lot of interesting teams you can watch. Some of the best young talent play in the BuLi and they're doing a fantastic job of getting new viewers. Their online presence is the best of the big leagues. They don't price out their fans. They invest in homegrown players. There's a lot to like there.

I tried to catch two BuLi games every week this year and I was disappointed. Gladbach, Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim, Leverkusen & Schalke are worth the investment.

Is Leverkusen really fun to watch? I find them very bland and heartless with a style that's pretty boring since it's a little archaic in their focus on minimizing goals rather than maximizing their own creativity like many other teams in the league. Admittedly my dislike of the plastics and Leverkusen's frustrating habit of playing like scared-children against any team that's bigger than them in europe taint my opinion of them.

Julian Brandt was the one guy on that team who I really would recommend watching, he was the one who gave them a spark and courage and is the single biggest reason they got back on track to hold onto a CL spot. And since he's just 17 watching him evolve into a world class player will be interesting. But otherwise the team is just so...generic?

I mainly concentrate on the young players they have like Can, Brandt, HMS and to support Big Sami(that didn't go well.) Lol

[5DOM]

Yeah, every time I watched Leverkusen this season, it was basically their front players trying to do something by themselves but failing. Kiesling was the only one willing to pass the ball.