Your favourite team - why, how, when,what?!

[Nate]

Stayed up for the 2005 Champions League Final as a 16 year old, and was captivated. We had our school athletics carnival the next day, and on basically no sleep, I ran the 100m in 11.49, placing 1st. It was a great day.

Lost interest in cricket, and gained interest in football around 2007/08, and have been an avid football fan since. Never really fussed who is playing, and while I enjoy the competition/banter between clubs, I think it is taken way too far. I just enjoy the game.

Had a soft spot for Everton once upon a time.

Member of Adelaide United in the A-League also.

 

[harsh.ag]

I follow players and styles more than teams for a while now, I guess. Initial love for Liverpool and the great Barcelona revival of mid noughties and for some strange reason, Southampton. Followed Zidane and Scholes and R9. Messi is god, so will follow whichever team he plays for. Internationally, Brazil. Nothing to add.

In F1, loved Renault for a while. Alonso is probably my favorite now. Used to like Montoya as well.

South Africa, New Zealand and India in cricket.

 

[Ikki]

I'd always followed football as my family has a bit of a history in the game where I'm from but didn't really commit to support a club team until around the time Kewell went to Liverpool. That's where it started, then of course caught a glimpse of Gerrard and learned more about the club and then there was no turning back. Still remember Istanbul; my dad (United fan) was going nuts himself, couldn't believe what was happening, and after spending half-time just ribbing me about how many more goals we'd concede he spent the rest of the game just repeating "that Gerrard is like having two world class players on the pitch". Woke up my whole family and pretty sure the neighbours when we'd won in the shoot-out.

 

[sledger]

One day I was standing around in the cloakroom whilst in year two at primary school (so I think this would have been 1992/1993), and my best friend at the time told me he supported Arsenal. I knew nothing of football at the time, but decided to pick Arsenal for myself anyway, and Arsenal it has been ever since.

I also have affiliations with Rotherham (Sledger Snr's team) and Brentford (Pothas connection - and over the years I've probably been to more of their games than I have any other side).

I'd also prefer for Reading and Southampton to do well more often than not, as they have always been my two most local sides, and I have spent considerable time living in both towns.

 

[Pratters]

Nowadays, I prefer watching cricket to most other sports. My favourite team has to be the Indian test team. I also follow FC Barcelona and the Bengal domestic team when I can. I wish I could follow the NBA much more but the timing sucks and I don't like recording the morning games all the time. Generally, I have always preferred cricket to other sports but the inclination is increasing compared to before. I would much rather watch any cricket game on tv rather than a big game from another sport more often than not.

 

[ripper868]

Rugby Leauge - Brisbane Broncos...even though i go for nsw at SOO time. reason i go for them...i use to go for whoever was winning when i was bout 6 then old man said pick a team and so i said whoever wins this year will be it and it was brisbane so i followed them ever since....not with any great passion, im a union man.

Union - Brumbies....do more for country rugby in nsw then the nsw team actually does.

Cricket - NSW - self explanatory

SOCCER - Man United and Sydney FC....man united because everyone goes for them. sydney fc cuz there....sydney fc.

Hockey - Redwings...won stanley cup with them on NHL 2003

Basbeall....Cubs...why not?

Oh boy has this changed.

League - Broncos, yes but couldn't care less really.
Union - Reds man through and through now.
Cricket - meh. I guess NSW still but support (kind of) the Heat in BBL
Soccer - again, meh. It's not United though - probably go with the Bournemouth boys for next season. No real A-League allegiances.
NHL - New York Rangers - since attending MSG these are my boys, and in truth probably the team I follow the most at the moment (outside of the Reds/Wallabies)
Baseball - Yankees - again after attending a game in the Bronx. Derek Jeter.

 

[Furball]

Nowadays, I prefer watching cricket to most other sports. My favourite team has to be the Indian test team. I also follow FC Barcelona and the Bengal domestic team when I can. I wish I could follow the NBA much more but the timing sucks and I don't like recording the morning games all the time. Generally, I have always preferred cricket to other sports but the inclination is increasing compared to before. I would much rather watch any cricket game on tv rather than a big game from another sport more often than not.

I thought you were a passionate, hardcore fan of Miami and Barcelona?

 

[vic_orthdox]

Geelong (AFL) - father. As a three year old I wanted to go for Fitzroy, because I liked Lions. Dad waited a week, told me they'd been kicked out of the league and that I'd have to find a new team. So I chose Geelong; saw the ladder a week later and Fitzroy were in there - Dad had lied, but they were near the bottom of the ladder so I stayed with Geelong.

Find myself teamless in basketball, used to casually follow the Heat from the Timmy Hardaway/Alonzo Mourning era. But then when LeBron went there, couldn't be a casual fan of that side, seems too much like a glory hunter. Same thing happened with Chelsea in the Premier League.

Huddersfield Town because I was there for six months.
Melbourne Storm because I live in Melbourne.
Melbourne City because everyone else goes for Victory.
NSW in SOO because I was born in Sydney.

 

[Ikki]

GIMH, any interesting story re your dad and his Istanbul night?

 

[GIMH]

GIMH, any interesting story re your dad and his Istanbul night?

He was there. He was an LFC steward at the time so they got offered the chance to steward the flights/coaches. Once they arrived it was job done

He got married a few months after it and said in his speech 'I would say this is the greatest day of my life but that was the 25th of May'

Apparently his mate who was there with him (fellow steward) suggested getting off to beat the crowds ahead of penalties, and again before they lifted the trophy. You can imagine the response

 

[Ikki]

Anyone who was there...lucky bastards. My cousins were at the game; middle of the middle, great seats. One of them was so tired from getting there (it was a mission to get to the Ataturk stadium apparently) that he passed out and missed the goals

 

[wpdavid]

Crystal Palace because my dad bought us season tickets for 2 or 3 years in my early teens on the basis of them being our nearest club. For some reason I never liked most of the other London clubs and favoured pretty much anyone against them, but that's changed.

In cricket, Surrey because I've nearly always lived there. As a youngster I also liked Lancashire but no idea why.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

As a youngster I also liked Lancashire but no idea why.

It sounds a bit like Man Utd syndrome. They were on the TV a lot winning trophies.

 

[Spikey]

Cricket - AUS/NSW. Duh.

AFL - Father supported Essendon. Although I recently thought about this and wondered if this was really true. I don't have any memory of not being an Essendon fan though. Tony Lockett's 1300th hundred goal is my first AFL memory that I can recall in total, although there's some vague stuff before that. I was probably a bigger league fan growing up but (as I talk about below) as coverage got better/internets i was able to actually follow Essendon. At which point they turned into absolute rubbish and Alleged Drug Cheats who won ****ing nothing at all.

NRL - Mother supports Parramatta. I dropped off as the AFL coverage into Sydney got better and better though. Live Friday night AFL games into Sydney and the 1pm game on 9 changing to the 3pm game on 7 assured I don't watch any NRL games anymore. So then it was SOO. But with Hayne gone now, I've barely got a reason to care about SOO. I don't know these players and I don't really want to learn about them coz the game mostly bores me nowadays. 2005 was probably the peak of my fandom. Parra won the minor premiership, and then got smashed in the PF in truly embarrassing fashion. 2001 was a heartbreaker of course too.

EPL - Manchester City. Father supported Man City. I don't really know why he did. I believe his father was a Tottenham supporter. My father missed the period of success in the 60s-early 70s too. So I don't know how it happened, but my bro and I support City. Somewhat oddly, the season where I followed City the most was when Elano and we had the crooked Thai as owner. Being in Sydney and not having Foxtel, it was kinda hard to follow and I relied on forums, and when the new owners took over, Bluemoon, which was my forum, turned into a cesspool, with complaints after every slightly disappointing game, filled with calls to sack Hughes and buy these wizzkids I've never heard of, and I faded away. I keep on meaning to really get back into it. Find the right people to follow on twitter, the right blogs. Follow it beyond City and the EPL. Learn about formations and all that crap. Maybe I'll do it next season.

NHL - Vancouver. Family friend had Vancouver links. So whenever I played NHL (x) on (y),Vancouver was my team. So when I moved into following the NHL in real life, it was a logical step. Plus Vancouver had a real good team at the time. So that helped. They've still got the The Sedin Twins, but christ the current GM is the biggest idiot going around. We'll be in no man's land real soon

NCAA - hahahahhahahha **** off. #paytheplayers. You too CHL. You might actually be worse coz at least the NCAA isn't playing 16yos

 

[Spikey]

oh yeah i follow Somerset in County too. Cricket 2004 is the reason. They had Ponting, Jamie Cox, GSmith, Tres and Andy Caddick on their squad, so when I was looking to play as a County team, they won out.

 

[Jono]

One day I was standing around in the cloakroom whilst in year two at primary school (so I think this would have been 1992/1993), and my best friend at the time told me he supported Arsenal. I knew nothing of football at the time, but decided to pick Arsenal for myself anyway, and Arsenal it has been ever since.

This is such a lame story. Was waiting for something interesting or funny and got bubkis.

 

[GIMH]

That's how I've felt 58,208 times on CW tbf

 

[sledger]

It's not as good as the story about a guy called Paul squashing a guy called Booker tbf.

 

[Jono]

That's how I've felt 58,208 times on CW tbf

Jeez you two are joined at the hip. Let the bloke defend himself for once.

 

[sledger]

Yeah let me defend myself like Booker defended himself at WM19.