Searching For An MLS Team To Root For
It's time to launch another exciting new feature...
I’m gonna be honest with you right off the bat here…
I’m not a soccer fan.
Actually, to be more precise, I would say I don’t like soccer at all and it isn’t really a sport that flashes across my radar.
I haven’t watched the last couple of World Cups, I couldn’t tell you who does what in the Premier League and, if I was faced between a choice of watching soccer or no sports, I’d go with the latter and re-watch old episodes of The Sopranos instead.
Before anyone comes after me, you can’t really blame me for going with The Sopranos there. It is the greatest show EVER MADE.
End of discussion.
So, to put a bow on that shocking confession, yeah, I am the furthest thing from a soccer fan you could find. Me and the sport are non simpatico.
Peanut butter and jelly we are not.
How’s that for a jumping off point for you?
That would seem to be a strange admission from a guy just about to write an entire article about wanting to find a MLS franchise to root for. Even stranger coming from someone born and raised in England - the home of the ‘Beautiful Game’. And downright confusing given that this same guy also worked in professional soccer for a substantial amount of time.
Yep, I am a whole ocean of contradictions.
But, just hear me out for a second.
I was having a conversation with a very good friend of mine from back home and he’s a huge Arsenal fan. We used to work together and he’s one of the biggest soccer fans you can find.
He’s always been keen to pick my brain when it comes to American Sports, and he’s always been willing to broaden his horizons on that front.
I’ve always told him it is about time he finds a decent sport to follow. Like Hockey. Or Baseball.
Anyway, we were talking on the phone one day and he mentioned a desire to start getting into the MLS and he had already done a ton of research by shifting through the individual team previews on Apple TV. If there’s one thing to know about my friend, by the way, it’s that he doesn’t do anything by halves. He’s gonna be military-style prepared before he makes a final call.
We were discussing different options for him - my guess is he’ll ultimately go with Austin FC - and while talking about this subject matter, it planted a rather large seed in my head.
Why don’t I conduct a little experiment and attempt to find the perfect MLS team for me?
So, with that, I am officially in the market for a brand new Major League Soccer franchise to root for.
I’m pumped.
Okay, I hear those of you in the back-row shouting ‘but you don't like soccer!’ I hear y’all loud and clear but to those people I say the following: I’m nothing if not open to trying new things.
I’m a firm believer in trying everything at least once and I’m actually really looking forward to this journey. After all, I’ve been to a few MLS games, mainly New York City FC at Yankee Stadium, and I’ve really enjoyed them. There is just a different feel to soccer games in the US so I think I’ll be okay in that respect. I won’t be going against my principles in a massive way.
I also really enjoy the atmosphere at MLS games and I remember being blown away by how passionate soccer fans are in the United States. I attended a New York City FC game with my brother in June 2017 and that was a lot of fun. The Spanish international David Villa played that day if I remember correctly.
There was also another time a year later when I literally flew into the city, threw my suitcase into the room and jumped on the subway to try to make it to Opening Day between New York City FC and the LA Galaxy. Yankee Stadium was absolutely rocking that day and the queues to get into the stadium were insane.
So I do have a certain amount of history with Major League Soccer.
Oh, and I promise I had this feature in the tank way before news broke that a certain Argentinian superstar was taking his talents to Miami.
I’m not just jumping on the bandwagon now soccer fever is about to really hit America. I promise.
Anyway. I digress ever so slightly.
There’s no real criteria for this feature. I’m gonna watch a boatload of games and see which team or teams catch my attention based on gut feel, certain players I feel a random affinity towards, fanbases, how good the uniforms are (there’s a lot of fresh uniforms in the MLS) and any other factors I feel that may be important when it comes to making my final choice.
Now, I do follow New York teams in other sports but I’m not going to follow that path when it comes to picking a Major League Soccer team because, well, then this feature would be over already.
Instead, I’m going to make a real commitment to this search and strive to watch every single team in the league at least three or four times each to make this a fair competition.
The plan will be to provide an update on my search once or twice a week before drawing up a final shortlist of five teams. I’ll then look to do some fun stuff with the final five before announcing which franchise has been lucky enough to win me as a new fan.
Hey, I’ll even keep an eye on the new franchise in San Diego and the plan will be to try and make it out to a few different games too.
Keep an eye out for my first update over the next few days. I might even try to squeeze two in this weekend given the rather substantial piece of news that broke about a certain Lionel Messi…
Anyway, I’m really excited about this new feature, as I am about the slew of new features we’re in the process of launching here at Blogs Of Steele.
Hopefully you are just as excited too and I’m hoping you will join me on this journey of trying to carefully select an MLS franchise to root for!
Let’s get the hunt underway…
