As the son of an Englishman, I’ve been exposed to English football my entire life. My interest peaked during World Cups — especially the 2002 tournament when my dad and I traveled to Japan to follow England around during the Group Stage. The trips to Saitama, Sapporo, and Osaka cemented my allegiance to the Three Lions, an allegiance that held firm despite being drawn alongside the United States in the 2010 World Cup.

Before we go any further, don’t question my patriotism. The jokes and slants at my rooting for England got old in a hurry. I always considered myself a spiritual dual-citizen, and the Japan trip sealed my English fandom. I will watch the United States men’s national team and root for them in any other circumstance, but fandom is determined by which team will cause the greatest excitement by winning and the greatest devastation by losing. For me, that’s England. They’ve given me too many good memories, including Germany 1-England 5 (Even Heskey scored!) and Beckham’s free kick to level Greece and send England to Japan, and too many painful losses, the loss on penalties to Argentina in 1998 and Portugal in 2006.

Despite all this, soccer remained a peripheral sport, with baseball and football in the foreground, due to my lack of a constant team to follow. My dad’s hometown team, Wolverhampton Wanderers, had spent most of my life in the second division of English Football, and thus difficult to keep up with apart from minute-by-minute text commentary. However during my last year in high school, Wolves had a wonderful season and automatically qualified for the Premier League again, in a time where Fox Soccer began showing more top flight football.
This is the first thing football gets right: promotion and relegation. Owners and managers who run their clubs the right way, no matter the size, have a chance at glory in every season. Clubs who play frugal and just try to earn a profit off fans face the dangers of losing status and losing money. Teams at the bottom half of the table can’t just tank games in hopes of a high draft pick like American teams. Imagine if the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Cleveland Browns entered the final week of the season needing a win to stay in the Major League or NFL. You don’t think the owners will invest more money if there was a chance of dropping down to semi-pro status?

I guess this point leads into a second thing football got right: no collective bargaining, especially no amateur drafts. Out of all the things I’d love to see transition to American sports, this is the least likely, because it seems the most contradictory to our sporting beliefs. In England, young soccer players play in academies that are funded by professional clubs. These academies are the lifeblood for most clubs, either adding new players every year or adding funds by selling players to other clubs. The best players get a chance to play for the best clubs or make best club level money, just like in the working world. Teams don’t care if players are 16, if they’re good enough, they can play and get paid.

This point is also the hardest to make because it would ruin college athletics, the only American sporting medium that can rival European football, because it creates a genuine bond between team and fans. My interest in football rose above casual observer when I finally got to be more than a casual observer. When my Dad and I went to England for my freshman Spring Break, Wolves were sadly playing away both weekends, but we were lucky enough to go to the Emirates Stadium to see Arsenal play West Ham United. When Denilson’s early shot beat Rob Green, the sound created by the Gunners could only compare to a Clemson touchdown. Arsenal won 2-nil and I had a new secondary team to root for when they played in Europe and domestically when they weren’t playing Wolves.

My third thing is probably the most trivial, but it’s one of the things I love the most about football: the chants sung at matches. If you aren’t fully aware of what I’m talking about, go on YouTube and type in “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and listen to a crowd shot of Liverpool supporters belt out their anthem. As a Wolves fan, I hummed “We Shall Not Be Moved” for days after it was belted out at Molineux on the final day of the season. I think it’s the only thing that could be added to the atmosphere of a Death Valley Saturday: better organized chants than the chaos of the cadence count. Sadly, the only one I could think of played off the English standard “Que Sera Sera” that ends in “We’re going to Wem-ber-ley”, the site of the FA Cup Final. “Que se-ra, se-ra/What-ev-er will be, will be/We’re go-ing to Mi-am-i!/que sera, sera!”

Maybe growing up a fan of the Atlanta Braves made me a sucker for organized crowd noise. I still love listening to an AM station in Braves Country and hearing the chant of the Tomahawk Chop in the background. Maybe it’s because when all those voices blend together it shows how similar fans of a team are, all of the fans contributing to a common sound that become the voice of their team. It’s why I’m such a sucker for the Clemson Alma Mater. There’s something about singing the same song with 80,000 other people that makes you feel at home with sports.

My final thing that football gets right is that it is the perfect length of time: year round. The season starts in July and August with the ending of the transfer window and the beginning of friendlies up until the opener in mid-August. Games are every weekend with the exception of international breaks, which just means different games. League cup games start in September and run until the end of February. FA Cup starts for real around Christmas and ends in May. Champions League gets us through midweek from September ’til December then February ’til late May. The domestic season ends in May, but there are summer tournaments every other year to fill the gap until it’s time for the next season.

For the hopelessly addicted, there really is no other sport as far as volume of games and media coverage that comes close. No matter how hard ESPN and Brett Favre try, the NFL is not a year round news story. It gets old in a hurry. Football never gets old because it always seems new. Every goal is different, every game is different, every season is different. And yet, it’s familiar enough to keep us around. Every crowd reacts the same to a goal (hands in the air) and the same to a miss — hands on the back of the head).

I wish with all my heart that more people in America cared about soccer, but scenes like the Gold Cup Final only solidified my doubts in seeing that happen. The only thing that could give soccer a serious foothold would be the continued success of the US Men’s National Team. Otherwise, people will continue to dismiss soccer as a irrelevant sport. Right after the match, a user on a sports message board thanked Mexico so that “now everyone here can quit pretending to give a f**k about soccer for another few years.”. No matter how incendiary that comment is, deep down, you know people who only care about the national team switch off their soccer interest as soon as the Yanks’ performances fail to impress.

All we can hope for is that the interest level continues to rise, slowly but surely, as the younger generation is exposed to its beauty more and more and the stigma of an inferior sport fades slowly into the distance.

Until then, let’s just enjoy our little secret: the beautiful game.

Photo by _ankor

Love him or loathe him, there’s no getting away from the fact that Mario Balotelli is one of those characters who divides opinion in the footballing world.

The Manchester City striker, once dubbed “unmanageable” by his boss Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan, has had a turbulent start to life in the Premier League. But it was certainly entertaining.

Mario was born in Sicily to Ghanaian parents and was adopted by the age of three. He started his footballing career at Lumezzane and signed for Internazionale at 15 years of age after unsuccessful trials at Barcelona.

His time in Milan was far from plain sailing; including many public altercations with manager Jose Mourinho and fellow players. On top of that, he enraged Inter followers when he appeared on Italian television sporting an AC Milan jersey (see video below):

‘Super Mario’ signed for The Blues on August 12th 2010 for a fee of around £24 million, and again he captured headlines for the wrong reasons.

Within weeks of arriving in Manchester, Balotelli graced us with one of the quotes of the season. After crashing his Audi A8, police arrived at the scene to conduct their routinely duties. But that generally doesn’t include finding the driver with £5,000 in his pocket. When quizzed on why he had the wad of cash, Mario replied simply “Because I am rich.”

That was shortly followed by well publicised training ground bust-ups with Jerome Boateng, Carlos Tevez, Vincent Kompany and manager Roberto Mancini.

While at home in Italy, curiosity got the better of Mario when he and his brother decided to drive through the gates of a women’s prison just to see what it looks like. In March, the Italian had to be withdrawn during City’s Europa League defeat to Dynamo Kiev due to an allergic reaction to the grass. Honestly, you couldn’t write it! And then of course there was the incident with the bib.

It would appear that the young striker is also good with his arms. In March it was reported that he threw darts at members of City’s youth team because he was “bored” and later threw water balloons at journalists attending a meeting of Serie A club chiefs in Milan.

But the ‘Golden Boy’ winner also displayed a softer side. After winning £25,000 in a Manchester casino one night, he offloaded £1,000 to a homeless man. Again he showed a more pleasant persona when he discovered a little boy had ditched school for the City training ground as he was being bullied. Mario promptly drove the boy and his mother to the school where he confronted the bully and talked to the school principal.

Balotelli wound up Manchester United fans when he celebrated in front of them after City’s FA Cup win over their rivals. He also saved a special wink for Rio Ferdinand, who was less than appreciative.

Although he is still working on his English, the 20 year old even managed to mess up on live television. After receiving the ‘Man of the Match’ award for his performance in the FA Cup final against Stoke, one reporter asked Mario was that the best he has played for Manchester City, to which he replied “All my season was sh*t, can I say that?…” Erm, no Mario you can’t.

His no show at the club’s open-top parade through Manchester angered many fans. He was also not present to pick up his ‘Young Player of the Season’ award at the club’s end of term party.

Whilst at home in Milan due to ‘family reasons’, Mario was reportedly involved in a nightclub spat after eyeing up some guy’s girlfriend, who allegedly proceeded to slap him in the face twice. Add that to the many parking and speeding offences and Mario has been a busy boy.

Balotelli has most recently had to play down links with the mafia after being taken on a tour of Scampia in Naples by Biagio Esposito and Salvatore Silvestri – two alleged godfathers of the criminal organisation Camorra.

Of course I should say in-between all this excitement there was some great football displays from Mario – when he looked interested. City fans will be hoping he can improve on his 10 goals next season and keeps his escapades to a minimum, or they may be forced to add another verse to the ‘Ooooh Balotelli’ song.

I for one am a huge Super Mario fan – give me exciting volatile characters over boring predictable good boys like Ryan Giggs any day. Oh wait…

Want to know how to divide a city? Then ask Alex McLeish. The Scotsman has been unveiled as the new boss at Aston Villa, moving from arch nemesis Birmingham City.

The 52 year old left St Andrews last weekend, allegedly resigning via e-mail. And despite much anger from Villa fans, he has been named as Gerard Houllier’s successor.

McLeish took charge of Birmingham on 28^th November 2007. In his first season he was unable to see his side avoid relegation. He did however guide them back to the top flight the following season. In his 168 games at St Andrews, he recorded 62 wins, 55 defeats and 51 draws. Arguably his greatest moment was seeing Birmingham crowned League Cup champions, after a surprise 2-1 victory over Arsenal. Birmingham were relegated from the Premier League on the final day of the season, and although he was assured his job was safe, McLeish decided to jump ship for fierce rivals Villa.

McLeish told the official Aston Villa website: “I am honoured to have this opportunity to manage a club with such a fantastic history as Aston Villa’s. The heritage, the history of success and the tradition of Aston Villa are compelling and irresistible. The challenge for me is to try to add my own chapter.

“Since first becoming a manager at Motherwell, my desire to succeed and my energy and drive have never waned. My objective is to impart that drive and will to win to the players and fans of Aston Villa.

“I know that some of our fans have voiced concerns and I can understand why. It will be up to me to convince you that I am the right man to drive the Club forward and I intend to give absolutely everything to prove that I can be a success at the Club.”

Meanwhile Birmingham City have vowed to ‘vigorously pursue’ their legal fight against McLeish, believing they are owed considerable compensation following his resignation. This could get messy!

Coach Marco van Basten has yet to name a replacement but will do so as soon as Babel’s injury is confirmed by a UEFA doctor.

Holland faces Italy on June 9th in their opening match of the tournament.

Group A: Winner – Portugal; Runner-up – Switzerland

Group B: Winner – Germany; Runner- up – Croatia

Group C: Winner – Netherlands; Runner-up – Italy

Group D: Winner – Spain; Runner-up – Russia

Final Four: Portugal v. Germany;  Netherlands v. Spain

Final: Germany v. Netherlands

Winner: Netherlands

I really have no rhyme or reason for these predictions – these are simply just hunches.  I know everyone loves predictions so I’m putting them out here more or less to get them out of the way.  I’m sure that within the first round of games, I’ll be hopelessly off the mark.  I know that other pundits have Spain as a winner because of the impressive collection of talent but something about Spain as well as Portugal has always failed to impress me in big tournaments.  Thoughts?

 On a much more serious note, we are 30 days away from the opening game between Switzerland and the Czech Republic in Basel.  I’ll be blogging about the tournament this summer and I hope to be as informative and entertaining as possible.

 As I mentioned earlier, I spent several hours on the tournament’s website – which is quite possible as it’s packed with all kinds of info.  The site is very visually appealing and can definitely keep you interested.  You can even look at the design of every team bus as well as their fan-selected slogan.  For example, Turkey’s bus reads “Would the passion of Turkey fit into this bus?”  Interesting question. 

BTW – a huge thanks to The Gaffer for the opportunity to write on this great site – I hope I do it justice.  Please send me any tips or suggestions.