Hello, I'm pretty new to this site. I'm English so this whole Fulham USA thing is a bit foreign to me. How did it all start? Have you lot always been Fulham supporters? If so, what was it that you liked about Fulham? Or did you start supporting when McBride and Bocanegra came over? Just curious. - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - - - -- Moderator note: See, also How FulhamUSA started...
Tom and Mike could answer the your first questions the best. I started watching and liking Fulham when the team still had Saha and the lot (the Tigana years), but when the yanks came over they cemented themselves as my team. Before then I had a couple of teams I followed for different reasons. One was Man City because I golfed with a fellow that was from Mancester and was an avid Blues supporter. And Tottenham Hotspur, Because they were my father's team when we lived in England--I found them to be too dull for my liking. I still have little soft spots for them though. Also, I think there are a few folks who lived in London and adopted them as their team, so not all FulhamUSA members support Fulham just because of McBride and Boca.
Re: RE: General wondering I realise now that it sounds like I'm suggesting that McBride and Boca are the only reasons that any Americans support Fulham. This is not what I meant. I just thought this may have attracted a lot of Americans.
RE: Re: RE: General wondering It's THE COTTAGE! And then the Yanks, and then the kits, and then the fact that they are in London (and apparently not a bad part of London), and of course, THE FANS (Brit and Yank alike).
RE: Re: RE: General wondering Yeah, those two definitely attract a lot of American attention to the team, like I said Boca and McBride cemented my allegiance to the team. I'm still going to follow the team after they leave though, I love Fulham.
RE: Re: RE: General wondering Like Heather said I can't really answer the first question. I am a pretty new Fulham supporter. I went on holiday in London last November and caught the Fulham vs Bolton match. I was hooked to say the least. There is something about the atmosphere and the fans that really got me going. Needless to say I will be back this year for a game. I'm probably going to catch the Fulham vs Reading game in November.
RE: Re: RE: General wondering I have told my story about 'how I became a Fulham fan' atleast a thousand times but lets just say it was the courtesy and extreme kindness of a Fulham fan whilst I was in London that made me promise a lifetime of allegiance to Fulham FC. Outside of that one fan, my first match was at loftus road which, as you know, lacks character but the fans were awsome. Their attitude towards the game is unique because many of them followed the team when they were in division three thus having a convesation with one, they go and tell you when Craven Cottage could only turn the lights on a half hour before kick off because they didn't have the money to pay the electric bill!!! How many fans of a premiership club could tell a similar story?! I will never, ever forget my first trip to the Cottage though. The place is magical and over 100 years ago it looked almost exactly the same.
RE: Re: RE: General wondering The reason I became a Fulham supporter is because I wanted to support a London team first and foremost for traveling purposes. However, I did not want to pick one of the bigger clubs, Arsenal or Chelsea. Chelsea, pre-Abramovich, was still a large club despite the fact that they did not win much. After watching some matches on the television in around 2002-2003, I started picking teams I liked. I liked Manchester United somewhat, but a little team in black and white uniforms named Fulham caught my attention. I do not have any good stories about a random visit to the Cottage and such, but after seeing Fulham play a few times on television, I decided to jump into supporting this club 100%. Since then, I met people like AmericanMike and JohnnyCash on BigSoccer.com and while there were a few stragglers, the three of us posted Fulham related news, opinions on that messageboard for a while. After that, Mike had an idea to start FulhamUSA.com and with me looking for an avenue to write articles about Fulham and such, it was a great combination. Mike, as we can all see, if a great web designer and leader, while I like to do a majority of the writing for the site. You would have to ask other members why they keep coming back and why the site keeps growing, that is anyone's guess. I would like to think it is because we have a wide variety of people that give good insight and opinions to Fulham-related things and other topics that come up on the messageboard. I do not think there is any bad-mouthing like on other messageboards and the FUSA message board gets some really interesting and heated topics that people discuss. Regardless, FUSA has been a really cool experience for me and it is nice to see others enjoying it as well.
RE: Re: RE: General wondering I've spent nearly 40 years supporting another English team that are in the CCC right now. When I stumbled on Yanks-Abroad, I started following the adventures of all the Americans in Europe, Mexico, and South America [Jonny Walker] on that site and on espn's soccernet. I was also watching MLS and became besotted with Brian McBride. He was the perfect English centre-forward; I couldn't believe we'd finally developed a striker of that skill. When Brian went to Everton, I broke a long grudge against them to root for them, but when he came to Fulham as did Boca, I started checking FFC's scores before my own Luton. One day, on Yanks-Abroad, I saw a reference to FUSA. I checked out the site, was welcomed by Mike, Tom, and Cleveland Simon, and I've been here ever since. The last time I was in the Cottage was years ago, and I'm sure that FFC were either in the old Div II or Div III. I'm with Fulham for good now, even long after Brian and Boca are gone. It's an addiction, and a good one. I'm hoping to scrape together enough money and time to visit the cottage again and meet some of the folks I spar with on this site. [Sorry for the essay]
Followin' Fulham fru fick and fin I'm sort of lazy; I'm sort of old; I'm sort of tired and emotional (mildly drunk to most Celts). As a result, I can't be bothered to think up a new line of reasoning as to why we follow such a hard ot follow team as Fulham. So, here is a copy of the explanation I sent to the FFC Messageboard earlier this year: "How did we become Fulham supporters? Against my better instincts, I find myself being sucked inexorably into this messageboard. I chuckle at some of the ribald humour. I admire some articulate posts; I fail to comprehend others. And I have no idea why I’m always being told to think on. But I try. I sometimes wonder how we all found ourselves under the same roof, so to speak. So, at the risk of setting myself up for a severe bollocking from some of the less welcoming members of the community, I thought I would bore you to death with the story of how I came to love Fulham. In 1976, I moved into a leafy West London lane called Doneraile Street. One Saturday afternoon, I found four large men picking up my Mini and dropping it 1” short of the car in front in order to park their Ford Zephyr in the new space they had created. Some time later I could hear lots of ooohs, aaahs, polite clapping followed by sharp bursts of frenzied cheering. Without knowing it, I had taken a bedsit within spitting distance – well, a prodigious gob - of Craven Cottage. I had no interest in football, but I decided to investigate the next home game. Somehow, I chose the Stevenage Road Stand and stood right by the half way line in front of a very tall, acerbic man with a beard, the loudest voice in Christendom and a viciously malevolent sense of humour (where’s Osama?). On the pitch were Bobby Moore, George Best, Rodney Marsh and a few other waifs and strays of lower league standard from the old Division 1. I was immediately hooked, lined and sinkered. I went to every game I could just to see the useless Marsh trip over his own toes. Fat, drunk and wasted, Best was still as fine a footballer as you could ever wish to see – watching him show the ball to Ray Lewington (Chelsea) and making him fall over in utter confusion just through mysterious hip and foot movements without even touching the ball was priceless. Moore was even better. He made the art of defending and passing the ball from the back look so easy. He was slow, but opponents rarely got past him. Moore was years ahead of his time. Zat should be made to watch every tape of his game (and even Boca when it comes to marking tight and not standing off his man). There followed many years of happy times at the Cottage. I eventually tired of the bloke with the loud voice and the other negative fans in the Stevenage Road stand. I found their close-up assassinations of our team’s players too negative for my taste, so I emigrated to the Hammersmith stand where there was space enough to wander at will. I moved to New York sixteen years ago, but the internet age drew me back to the club in time for the Al Fayed era, although my support has only been from a distance. So, why am I writing such drivel to people whom I have never met? What are we all doing wasting time in a glorified teenage online chat-room? In my case, I don’t really know, but I can say with a fair degree of certainty that the people who support Fulham don’t do it because they want an easy life. They obviously don’t follow the crowd. They haven’t taken the easy route of supporting a big winning team. I don’t particularly understand this “Fulhamish” thing, but following Fulham is definitely for stalwart individuals who like to stand up for the underdog with style, self-deprecating humour and unabashed loyalty. This shines through on the messageboard. It’s a great, egalitarian slice of life – a credit to London, to the club and to its participants. That’s my reason and my excuse – and I’m sticking to it." And there you have it.
RE: Followin Boca, McBride at first... Similarity of Fulham to my Crew second... Similarity of Fulham Fans to Crew fans third.. well, maybe not; I think the Crew fans that post on MB's (not those in seats) are generally more footy-smart, but I cant expain it further. Summary: Slice o' Life!
RE: Followin My reasons are similar to some of the other writers here, but I will add a couple additional "takes". I cannot f###ing stand Chelsea, Man, Liverpool, Man City, Wigan, Newcastle U, Middlesborough, Spurs! Arsenal at least play aggressive and entertaining football, but I don't want to be the latest Yank to jump on that Arse bandwagon (despite my love of the book Fever Pitch). I don't care for the rest of the teams and few of the rest play much on Fox Sports. But I do like underdogs Fulham, who play in a "Wrigley-esque" stadium full of character, and are owned by an ambitious "gambler" type guy who has more than a little touch of the tragedy about him.
RE: Followin While reading the last few postings, it occurred to me why I have the natural affinity for Fulham after several decades of following LTFC. 1. Black and White color scheme, although I preferred the Hatters in their orange/blue/white strip days. 2. Luton's greatest goalscorer after Joe Payne, was an ex-Cottager -- Malcolm MacDonald. I never got to see him play for the Hatters; they bought him from FFC right after I left for the states and sold him to Newcastle just before I returned from Vietnam, but I did see him pot the only goal against the Hatters on their return to the old 1st division, and I saw him nail FIVE in an England shirt in my only trip to Wembley. 3. Every match means everything. Every Hatter's game I saw was during a season in which we were either chasing promotion or fighting to avoid relegation. Even the cup matches were important, because there was money at stake to buy better players and stay up/go up. I eventually bought two match day programs, one to bring home and save and the other to twist into sweaty mulch. Watching fitba is always fun; watching it when your gut is involved is exhausting and exhilarating. I've had two years of this with FFC, and I don't see any reason why it won't continue. Essay part deux fini
RE: Followin Some of us are ex-Pats. Although being born in Ireland and growing up in London and now living in New Jersey, I see myself as more of a global citizen.
RE: Followin Yeah... a mark of true discerning fandom. Picture an English guy or gal discovering NFL or Baseball, then picking the Cowboys or Yankees to follow (depending on years past). THAT's what I think of yanks following Chelsea or ManUre. Great Example: Wadey??? on the offal is a Miami Dolphins fan! Cant get more Fulhamish than that.
For me it was being born in a family that supported Fulham through thick and thin in the burbs of London in a small place called Upper Halliford. My brother is the 100% die-hard fan and goes to as many games as he can. I moved Stateside almost 12 years ago now and first found the Fulham Exiles. Then I stumbled across BigSoccer and found out about Tom and Mikes plans for this site which has grown into the best Fulham website there is (and that includes the official one!).
I was reading NogoodBoyo's post and when I was reading the bit near the end about supporting the underdog I really wanted to shout "Yeah!". Excellent.
