In my first season playing soccer, I only got the ball once. Somehow I ended up with the ball, and dribbled it for a few glorious moments...until it was taken away from me by one of the boys on my team. In my last season playing soccer, eleven years later, I could typically be found in line with the last opposing defenders, but rarely marked, because the other teams made the (generally) correct assumption that nobody was going to pass the ball to the girl. Boys will be boys, right?
Those eleven years of soccer weren't filled with glory and championships (every trophy or medal I have was based on participation), but they instilled in me a love for the sport itself that has grown even stronger since I've stopped playing. Unfortunately for me, I live in Georgia, so opportunities to share my love of the game with others are limited. That lack of opportunity led to the creation of this blog. I've grown accustomed to sharing articles and USMNT/MLS info with the rest of my family whenever I get a chance, but although they may start off paying attention, I usually go into far more detail than they care about, and I really hate to be bother them all the time. So this blog will give me an outlet to ramble about the latest USMNT roster or how our Yanks Abroad are doing or whatever happens to be going on in MLS.
tl;dr, who I support and why
In terms of support, my number one team is and always will be the US national teams. I couldn't have picked a better time to grow up as a girls soccer player. My earliest non-documented memory is watching the 1999 Women's World Cup final between the US and China. I would put that game as the main reason that I love US Soccer as much as I do today- for the first time I was just so inexplicably proud of my country, and I loved it. The WNT players of the late 90s, early 2000s weren't just a team for me- they were idols. I was within 10 yards of Mia Hamm after an Atlanta Beat game once and it's still one of the greatest moments of my life. I don't remember exactly when I started following the men's team, but it was at some point during qualification for the 2006 World Cup because I knew who everyone was when I watched the Send-Off Series. After the 06 World Cup, my focus shifted more to the MNT than the WNT, but I still have tons of love for the women, especially now that the Atlanta Beat are coming back next season!
The 2006 World Cup opened up a ton of doors for me because after my parents saw how mesmerized my sister and I were by televised soccer (somewhat of a rarity on cable), they added the sports tier to our cable package, and suddenly, between Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV, I was watching 4 to 5 games per weekend, across the EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga, and some MLS. I was hooked. I would schedule plans around games I wanted to watch live, I'd watch one game on my laptop while watching another on TV...I remember one time during an international break, I had the US vs. Poland game on the TV, the England game on my laptop, and either a Spain or Germany game on the desktop. It was madness, but in the best way possible. As for support, I'd classify myself as a Fulham fan- six months ago I would have added Arsenal to that, but I found myself caring less and less about their results and more and more about Fulham's results, and the whole big-4-dominance is getting pretty old. In the other leagues, I'll watch pretty much anything just to see a good game.
As for the MLS, I don't really have a local team to support. Up until the 2008 season, I was just a casual fan, watching games when I happened to be home to watch them, then engrossing myself in the playoffs. At the start of the 2008 season, I decided that I was actually going to get into the league and pick a team or two to follow. I'd always kinda liked FC Dallas after playing with them one season on FIFA, so I picked them in the west, but it took a few games for me to eventually choose Columbus in the east. Besides the fact that they wore my favorite color of yellow, they were playing the same attractive soccer that Arsenal were playing, which pretty much sold me. I ended up becoming far more invested in them than I thought, especially since they ended up being both Supporters Shield and MLS Cup champions.
Some basic background stuff...I'm from Augusta, Georgia, and I go to Georgia Tech, where I major in Nuclear and Radiological Engineering. Other than a couple of Atlanta Beat games back in the day, I've never been to a professional soccer game, although that will change after I see AC Milan play Club America in the Georgia Dome in 8 days. This can mostly be attributed to the fact that teams never play within reasonable driving range.
My claim(s) to fame in the soccersphere? 2 years ago Jimmy Conrad answered my question about Landon's pre-penalty kick ritual at around the 9-minute mark. Also, I was the first person to have their 6-in-60 questions asked during FSC's MLS broadcasts (which was made even better by the fact that my questions were answered by Danny O'Rourke, a Crew player, and Brad Evans, a former Crew player), and I have some pretty sweet FSC swag to prove it.
Tl;dr? In summary, I'm pretty legit. For a girl.
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