Hey guys, after reading sidereal's post about picking him a Bundesliga team a while back, I thought it would be cool to find out what teams (if any) you support/follow other then our Seattle Sounders.

I will start off, I follow four teams other then Seattle in the footy world right now.

First, I follow what can only be described as my "hometown" team:

FK Vardar

via macedoniaonline.eu

I fell in love with footy, and the "supporters culture" in general while growing up in Skopje, Macedonia and watching FC Vardar play. Vardar compete in the top flight of Macedonian football "Prva Liga", or "First League"

Vardar used to compete in the much more prestigious Yugoslav First League, regularly meeting teams like FK Partizan, Red Star Belgrade, Dinamo Zagreb, and Hajduk split. Since the age of 12 I have been an active member of Komiti, the Vardar supporters. Komiti, along with Vardar have had some woes recently, finding themselves banned from away matches and at the bottom of the table respectively.

Living in America recently has made my efforts to keep up with my first love difficult, but I look forward to catching some matches when I visit in January.

The next team I follow is

SC Freiburg

via media.ostsee-zeitung.de

I started following SC Freiburg during highschool, when I attended a boarding school near Freiburg. My weekends in highschool consisted of  either taking the train over to Dreisamstadion (Badenova Stadium) to watch home games, or crowding the local pub to catch the game on TV. They were demoted to the 2nd Bundesliga while I was in Germany, but recently have been promoted once again to the German top flight, and now find themselves 6th on the table. Something I am very happy about.

Next,

I follow Swansea City AFC

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

During my last year of highschool, and in the year directly after it, I had the opportunity to spend some time in Swansea, Wales for a total of 7 months (two separate occasions). During my time there, I naturally got into the mix with Swansea, and its fans. If Swansea keep its current form, they will be promoted to the Premier League next year, or at least participate in the playoff....which will make things difficult for me with the final club on my list.

Arsenal FC

via weijiblog.com

Arsenal is last on my list for a reason, not because I am any less passionate about the team, but because it is the only team I follow that I have no "connection" with.

What I mean to say is, every other team I follow, in all sports have one thing in common, I have lived in, or near the city where the team is based, I have attended matches for all the teams except Arsenal.

Unlike the other teams, I "chose" to follow Arsenal, and I am not ashamed to say that I do so in the middle of their unbeaten season during 2003-2004. I felt a little out of the mix as most weekends when it did not conflict with Vardar matches, most of my buddies would go watch English football, all growing up watching these teams along with their home teams. Having been born in North America, I did not share this in this ritual. So, I decided to pick someone out of the English table, and happened upon Arsenal. So for the past seven, almost eight years I have followed Arsenal, and what was once a simple "choice" is now a very intense passion. I live and die by the Gunners, and one day I hope to visit the Emirates and see Arsenal play in person.

So, that is who I support and why, I have tried to recreate "choosing" to follow other teams, like someone in Serie A, La Liga, or the Eredivise, but so far I havent been able to get excited about any other teams.

Sorry for including all that extra stuff, I guess it would have been just as easy to say

Vardar, freiburg, swansea, arsenal.

Cheers fellow Sounder at Heart faithful, have a very happy Thanksgiving.

Hey all,

Ever since the Olympics, and all the botched broadcasting by NBC, and the subsequent outrage from the hockey community, I have been considering a couple aspects about hockey, and its popularity in the US.

There have been many observations by hockey bloggers, writers, and fans about the discrepancy of coverage between hockey and the other big name sports (Football, baseball, and basketball).

From frustration that the McNabb trade garnered more media interested then the Capitals domination of the Pens on April 6, to the confusion as to why some mundane off season Redskins practice gets more attention then Ovechkin.

My question is though, do we, as hockey fans really want negative aspects that come with nationwide popularity and coverage?

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