Another newbie from St. Louis

I just registered. I am a newcomer to both Fulham and to soccer in general. I have 3 sons, ages 10, 11 and 15, and I've become a fan because of them. They have all been enthusiastic soccer players since their pre-school years. Ever since the World Cup coverage in 2006, they've been avid fans as well. After the World Cup, we began watching the limited coverage of the UEFA Champions League on ESPN. Then, last year, as a birthday present for all of them, they decided that they wanted a year's subscription to Fox Soccer Channel. I began watching with them, and now I'm hooked.

Over the past ten years or so I had mostly lost interest in watching sports (except my sons soccer games). I used to watch some baseball and (American) football games, but I got frustrated with them. An NFL game has more commercials than sports action. For every play, you have to sit through a half dozen commercials for trucks and viagra. Baseball games seem to last forever these days as well, with specialty pitchers brought in for one or two batters, and then replaced with yet-another-pitcher who has to have his warm-up time.

But I found I enjoyed watching soccer. Like a lot of us yanks, I wish there were more scoring. But even a 1-0 snoozer in the English Premier League is more exciting than most MLB or NFL games I've watched in the past 10 years.

My oldest son adopted Man U as his team. The younger two are Barca fans, but their favorite EPL team is Chelsea. I decided I needed to adopt a team as well. I watched Brian McBride play his college soccer here in St. Louis. Since Fulham has a few other Americans, I've adopted them. I confess I have been a tentative supporter for the past couple of months since I feared they would be relegated, and then I'd be stuck with no team...FSC doesn't carry many second-division games. But after last weekend's win, they are only 3 points shy of safety, and they have most of their remaining games against middle-of-the-table teams, so I'm climbing on board the bandwagon and cheering them into the safety zone.

I'd love to meet up with any St. Louisans at a local watering hole to watch a game. I live on "The Hill" (the Italian immigrant neighborhood, known in the less-politically-correct days as "Dago Hill"), and sometimes catch games at Milo's, our neighborhood tavern.

 

Welcome JP, always room for a new fan. Do your boys realize that Fulham and Chelsea aka The Undead, Chelski, The Blue Poo (among the many nicknames FFC have for nearby neighbors) are bitter rivals?

 

They are vaguely aware of the rivalry. That's another reason I've adopted FFC as my club. I thought it would be fun to have a bit of back-and-forth with the boys. Now that I've made the decision and adopted Fulham as my club, I plan to make them VERY aware of the rivalry. We'll have some fun next year during the derby games.

 

Welcome, and tell your boys to enjoy the team they root for now, but one day they will see the light and move away from Spartak London. They won't be the only ones to have moved away from a big four team,
<-----------
and they'll be better for the experience.

 

Hi JP and welcome to the boards from another Fulham fan that was introduced to soccer by his kids.

Rooting for Fulham is kind of like having a child. One moment you'll find yourself shaking your head wondering when the next bit of Fulhamish will strike your beloved team and then there are days like Sunday when you find yourself beaming like a proud papa at the performance of the squad.

Welcome to all things Fulham.

 

JP- Cheers!!
Feel free to jump on the bandwagon, but hold on tight.
And tell your lads, anybody can root for a front-runner, with Fulham you will bleed Black & White.
COYW!!
MK

 

Welcome JP, your story surrounding the World Cup then moving on to Champions League then buying FSC sounds very similar to mine...look forward to your posts...

Are you a Cardinals fan??? Wait, wait I don't wanna know, I'm a Cubs Fan...

But as Cubs and Sox fans say...in winter we're all Bears fans,

so in winter we're all Fulham fans...

COYW!

 

Bearzfan, I used to be quite a big Cardinals fan...even had season tickets for a while in the late 80's and early 90s (before having 5 kids, which left me too poor to afford luxuries like baseball games.). But I haven't paid much attention to baseball over the past 10 years.

In my neighborhood, when the kids are racing to something, they don't yell out "last one there is a rotten egg" or "last one there eat boogers" like we used to. Here, they yell "last one there is a Cubs fan!" It is considered the ultimate insult.

 

Hi JP, welcome to Fulham, I keep on swapping between the assured knowledge of relegation with the optimistic hope of survival (the later co-incideds with beer) but I am glad to see that you have Chelsea relegate this season also! Enjoy FUSA.

Stu