Why Melbourne Victory?

As promised, an update to my list of teams that I follow. I've done previous posts about the Colorado Rapids, Queen of the South, Blackburn Rovers, and CD Tenerife. As well as the now defunct Kildare County and my brief following of My FC team Ebbsfleet United. This time we're heading to the land Down Under for the Melbourne Victory of the Australian A-League.

I had a passing interest in the Australian league for its first 3 seasons, mainly due to its similarities with MLS. Its a new league in a country that's been dominated by sports other than soccer. Its fighting a number of the same issues MLS did early in its life, like small crowds in large stadiums, possible over expansion, and trying to get respect on the sporting landscape. Since Rupert Murdoch seems to own all the TV rights to the league we get a game or so a week on Fox Soccer Channel here in the States so it made it easy to peek in on the league and see what was happening.

It wasn't until right before the 2008 MLS season that I really picked a team to follow. One of my other hobbies is strategic board gaming. If anyone has played Settlers of Catan you'll know what kind of games I'm talking about, along with what people think of when they think of wargames. The largest community for that hobby on-line is at BoardGameGeek. As with any large community discussion tends to spread beyond the original reason for the gathering and a forum for soccer fans was created. At one point the moderator of that forum, an Aussie, asked for suggestions of which MLS team he should follow. I suggested the Rapids of course, and my arguments were apparently convincing as he has taken up the burgundy & blue! I would assume he's the lone member of the Australian Rapids Supporters Group. ;)

After he decided to follow the Rapids I decided to follow his A-League team, the Melbourne Victory. They tend to show up on FSC every couple of months (more often than Blackburn lately) so I've gotten to see a handful of games the last couple of seasons. Their level of play is about equal to MLS, though I think the best MLS teams could handle the top of the A-League (which would include the Victory). Over the short 4 year history of the A-League the Victory have won the title twice, and won their version of the Supporter's Shield those same two years. Currently Melbourne are in 2nd place, 3 points behind hated rivals Sydney FC with a game in hand. There are 7 games left for the Victory before the playoffs and it looks like Melbourne will have a shot at being the first repeat champions.

Queen of the South

The group who invested in Queen of the South under the name Colorado Rapids Supporters go our stock certificate recently. I thought some readers might be interested in the scan I took of it.

Relegated

The second leg of Kildare County's promotion/relegation playoff against Mervue just ended, and not in the Thoroughbred's favor. On Tuesday they played to a 2-2 draw at Mervue and the expectation was that Kildare would have the advantage playing the second leg at home needing only a win to survive. Well things didn't turn out that way as County crashed to a 3-0 defeat and a home in the 'A' Championship next season. I'm not sure if I will continue to follow Kildare next season. Finding news on them was difficult enough when they were in the first division, and given the lack of information out their about the "A" Championship I'm not sure if I'll even be able to continue to track them. We'll have to see what next season brings.

My team is now MY team

A while back I talked about having bought a membership in MyFC and how I was not impressed with how it worked out. I decided not to renew my membership but I was still interested in being an "owner" of a European side. I remembered that Queen of the South, before its website update, listed information about purchasing shares in the club. After many emails back and forth I found out that they sold them in groups of 10.

Not having 150 pounds (About $221 at today's exchange rate) to spend on a block of shares I talked to other Colorado rapids fans about investing. There were others who had invested in MyFC and were similarly disillusioned. Eventually we got a group of 7 people who were interested in a total of 10 shares, or 1 block. This morning I called the club in Dumfries and purchased one block of shares under the name Colorado Rapids Supporters. Queen of the South is now really MY team, as much as 2 shares makes it my team at least.

So don't be surprised if you start seeing more talk about Queen of the South here at View From the Couch. The Rapids will always be the main topic, but this gives me something to talk about during the offseason.

Why Kildare County?

Another, and for now the last, in my occasional series of posts about why I follow the teams I do. I've done previous posts about the Colorado Rapids, Queen of the South, Blackburn Rovers, Ebbsfleet United, and CD Tenerife. This time around we'll look at Kildare County FC of the Irish First Division.

So a random team from the second-tier of Irish football located in south-central Ireland is probably an odd choice for an American living in Denver. In this case though its the closest thing I have to rooting for a "local" European team.

My family tree, through the Maxwell name, stretches back from Seattle (where I was born) to the Dakotas, Midwestern Canada, and finally back to Port Laoise, Ireland. My great, great, great, great grandfather, Col. John Maxwell, was born there to Dr. John and Penelope Maxwell in 1775 or 1776. He joined the British Marines and served in the Caribbean before emigrating to Canada after leaving the service. Our genealogy research on the Maxwell line stops with Dr. John Maxwell.

Once I determined where in Europe I came from I naturally started looking for the closest professional football team and I found Kildare County. Station Road is about 45 kilometers from Port Laoise and is the closest club in either the Irish Premier or First Divisions. Thus they became another one of the teams I follow.

Honestly in my list of teams they are the squad I'm least passionate about. That's mainly because the Irish First Division is barely a full-time league and the coverage reflects that. That makes it hard to really get excited about the team. I'm still rooting for them to avoid relegation, not only because I root for them to do well, but also because if they drop down into the lower levels of Irish football following them from here will be pretty much impossible.

Why CD Tenerife?

Another in my occasional series of posts about why I follow the teams I do. I've done previous posts about the Colorado Rapids, Queen of the South, Blackburn Rovers, and Ebbsfleet United. This time around we'll look at CD Tenerife of the Spanish Segunda (Second Division).

I'm sure most people are wondering why a random team from the second division of Spanish soccer has popped up on my radar. I don't speak Spanish, no Americans have played there, and I don't have any Spanish heritage. The one thing that separates Tenerife from every other European team is that I've seen them play live in Europe.

In May of 2007 I was able to take a Transatlantic cruise on the Disney Cruise Line's Disney Magic because my mother-in-law works for the Mouse and they offered a special deal to their employees and families. This trip is also where the picture of me and the monkey on the sidebar comes from, that's one of the Barbary Apes of Gibraltar. Our first stop after crossing the Atlantic was in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, home of CD Tenerife, and it happened to be a Sunday which was game day.


View of Santa Cruz from the ship



Image of the ship from the waterfront


Before we left I can contacted members of Armada Sur, the English-speaking supporters club of CDT and arranged to meet them before the game. After spending the morning looking at the local flea market/garage sale I headed up the hill to the Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez Stadium while my wife and her parents went on a excursion to Mount Teide.


Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez Stadium from down the hill



A closer view of the stadium


I stopped by the vendors outside the stadium and picked up a scarf and jersey then wandered to Armada Sur's bar of choice to meet up with the group and watch the game with them. After some pre-game drinks we headed inside.


Armada Sur's pre-game festivities



A look from the supporter's seats


Tenerife's opponent was Malaga CF from the mainland, coincidentally enough the favorite Spanish team of another Rapids fan, so I was hoping for a victory in order to rub it in. Tenerife got off to a good start, with a goal from a corner kick to take an early lead.


Corner kick that results in a goal



Armada Sur and Frente Blanquiazul (among others) celebrating


It was all downhill after that though, as CDT's star keeper had an off day, spilling a shot he should have held which led to a rebound goal, and not covering a ball he should have stopped which resulted in the winning goal. Still the fans weren't too hard on him, apparently he was responsible for keeping them in many games that season and everyone has an occasional off day.

Afterwards I had to race back to the ship, getting on board only about 30 minutes before the final boarding call, so I wasn't able to partake in the post-game misery drowning. It was a great day though, and I'd love to be able to visit again.
Since then I've followed CD Tenerife through the Armada Sur forum, Colin Kirby's game writeups, and Andy Woolley's Internet fanzine. We've started out well this season, maybe this is the year we return to La Liga?

And just to prove I'm not making it up ;), here's a picture of Armada Sur shot from another part of the stadium. You can see yours truly in the blue shirt and sunglasses in the center

Why (and why not) Ebbsfleet United?

Another in my occasional series of posts about why I follow the teams I do. I've done previous posts about the Colorado Rapids, Queen of the South, and Blackburn Rovers. This post is a little different however because I was following Ebbsfleet United FC but I've lost interest.

About a year ago Class VI Grand Poobah Mark Bodmer sent out an email about the My Football Club (MyFC) project. Simply it was an idea to give fans the ability to buy a vote in a professional soccer team and have a say in everything from sponsorship deals to picking the starting 11 for the team. It was founded by a group in England that was tired with seeing the big money in soccer take the game away from the fans. They set up a organization that would allow the average fan to pay 35 pounds to buy in, and with the combined money they would buy a professional team in England. In return for supporting the project each person that bought in would get an equal say on decisions. This would include sponsorships, player contracts, transfers, and yes, picking the starting lineup.

I thought it was an interesting idea and decided to sign up. After a few weeks the group announced that they had enough interest to start the process of buying a team, and by December they announced that MyFC would purchase a controlling interest in Ebbsfleet United FC. Immediately I started following the Fleet, and added them to my list of teams I kept regular track of.

The problem was that what brought me to Ebbsfleet is also what drew me away from them. Since I had no real attachment to the Fleet, other than through MyFC, when I started losing interest in MyFC I also lost interest in Ebbsfleet. Reading the website about MyFC before buying in and all the talk leading up to the team was how we would know everything and make all the decisions. What actually happened was very different.

Instead of having a say in sponsorships the membership was presented a vote that amounted to "Vote for Nike providing the kits, or we won't have a kit sponsor next season". No financial details, no competing offer, just Nike or nothing. The organizers told us that due to confidentiality agreements that Nike required, we couldn't have that information. This would continue through all the early votes, from transfer fess to player contracts. Many times the votes would be presented as "this choice or no choice". As opposed to actually being asked to make a decision we were being asked to rubber stamp the decisions of a few leaders. not only that, but we were being asked to rubber stamp them without having all the information we needed. When asked to decide the weekly player budget we were given 5 numbers and asked to choose one for a weekly budget. It wasn't until months after that we found out that the number we voted on would have to be increased by about 35% to cover player bonuses and other occasional expenses, so when we voted for 10K a week we were really saying 12.5K a week.

While this was going on, the long-promised "Pick the Team: wasn't happening. The tag line for the project is "Own the Club, Pick the Team" but it was decided, again by the leadership, that adding voting for the starting 11 in the middle of the season, especially while Ebbsfleet was in a Cup run, would be "too disruptive". My frustration culminated with a vote near the end of the season where the membership was essentially told that due to confidentiality agreements we were not able to be involved in transfer decisions, and instead we would vote on what procedure the board would follow in their choices for transfers. At this point I felt like any idea that the membership would control the club was gone, and we were now just an extended silent partner in the club.

Given all of that, I just stopped being interested in Ebbsfleet United FC. I didn't find myself looking for match reports, player signings, etc. like I do for my other clubs. Rather than continue to try to stay interested I wrote the 35 pounds off as an interesting experience and decided to move on. to be fair to the MyFC team, I know they have gotten better in the last month or so. They've now hired a Chairman who is communicating directly with the members, and they set up "Pick the Team" for this new season. Still for me it was too little too late.

I think I'll take the 35 pounds I was planning to use for another year of membership and put it towards buying some shares in Queen of the South. Its a team I've been dedicated to for 10 years, and buying a share is a one time cost instead of a yearly membership like it is with MyFC.

Not to leave you with less to read though, I've added a new team to my list of teams. I'll now include the results for Kildare County FC, in the Irish First Division. I know everyone is probably going "Why a team at the second level of a third level European league?", but explaining that will have to be another post. ;)

Why Blackburn Rovers?

Another in my occasional series where I explain why I've picked the teams I have.

So why Blackburn Rovers? They aren't one of the "big" names of English football, ManU, Liverpool, etc. Well that was part of it. I don't like to pick the big team, I like rooting for the underdog. The main reason though is Big Bad Brad Friedel.

I'll be honest. The first EPL side I rooted for was Leicester City. When I started following soccer 10 years ago Kasey Keller was (and still is) one of my favorite players. He grew up in the Puget Sound region, like me, and I've always enjoyed watching good goalkeeping. He was playing for Leicester at the time, so I picked them. Eventually though Keller moved on to Spain and Leicester found the relegation zone. until the last couple of years it was difficult, at best, to follow a non EPL side in the States, so I decided I needed another EPL team to root for. I went with my pattern of picking an American keeper, and that was Brad Friedel.

Unlike my following of Leicester though, I've grown to be a fan of Rovers for more than just the keeper. Rovers have added more players that I like, like former DC United back Ryan Nelsen and young striker Matt Derbyshire. They also added former Leicester midfielder Robbie Savage for a while, who was always one of my favorites at LCFC.

More than just the players though, the team has had a good philosophy about their goals. They've made strong economic choices that have allowed them to be competitive in the EPL. They haven't over extended themselves, and yet have been in the running for Europe for the last few seasons, just barely missing getting a slot for the 08/09 season. They will probably never challenge for the EPL title again while the big money of Arsenal and Chelsea is still available, but they're in the next group pf strong teams. Of course much of that is due to manager Mark Hughes, who has just been stolen away by Manchester City. The choice of the next manager will be critical to continue this style of play.

Eventually Brad will retire, and maybe Blackburn will end up relegated. With the advances in soccer coverage in the U.S. and availability of news on the Internet I doubt you'll see me giving up Blackburn like I gave up Leicester.

Why Queen of the South?

Another in the ongoing series of posts in which I explain my loyalties.

So why Queen of the South? They're a 1st Division Scottish club that play in Dumfries in the SW of Scotland. There's nothing there that immediately explains the attraction.

The attraction is the fact that its there though. I happened to ctach both the geneology and soccer bug at the same time in 1998. The Maxwell name is Scottish, and Lord Maxwell was granted the title of Ward of the West March and their family seat was located near Dumfries. Naturally when I started following British soccer I looked for a team in or aound Dumfries to follow, and found Queen of the South.

At that point they were in the Scottish 2nd division, and pretty much impossible to follow. The only details I could get were the weekly website updates and sites like Live Score to get results. Outside of goal clips on YouTube I've never seen them play a real game. I did see them play in A Shot At Glory a British movie starring Robert Duvall and Michael Keaton as the manager and owner of a small Scottish football side that makes a Cinderella run to the Scottish Cup Final. They face Queen of the South in the semi-final, and the movie was filmed at Queen's home of Palmerston Park and most of the Queens squad in the movie were played by Queen of the South's actual players.

Despite all of this, a picture of me has actually appeared in the Queen of the South matchday program. In 2002, when Queens won both the Second Division and the Scottish Challenge Cup, the club sold jersies commemerating the "double" and I picked one up. During the summer the website sponsors "QoS On Tour" and encourages the fans to send in pictures of themselves on holiday with their QoS gear. I took a picture of myself at Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners and sent it in. It was chosen for publication in the matchday program, and the club was nice enough to send me a copy, along with a few others from that season. The caption that went along with it stated that the editors didn't know how they had a fan in the Seattle area, but given my surname maybe I had connections to the Dumfries area. ;)

Now Queen of the South is a solid 1st Division squad, and have advanced to the semi-final of this year's Scottish Cup. With some luck Sentana will pick up the Scottish games, I'll actually find a bar that will be showing it, and finally get to see my team play a real game.

Why Colorado?

So I've been asked a number of times why a guy from Seattle supports Colorado or Queen of the South or Tenerife. Every so often (usually when the Rapids news is quiet for a few days) I'll pick one of my teams and tell you why I support them.

Naturally I thought I should start with the Colorado Rapids, since they are the primary subject of View From The Couch. I started following the Rapids in 1998 in the run up to the World Cup in France. In fact, my whole soccer interest restarted at that time. I played in city leagues growing up, and my sister was getting ready to try out for her high school team in the summer of 1994 so the two of us followed the World Cup here in the U.S. but it wasn't until I got out of college and the 1998 World Cup came around that I really got into the game.

I was working with a number of soccer fans at the time and as I started looking at MLS teams I looked for Chris Henderson. At the time he and Kasey Keller were probably the best known Seattle-area soccer players, having been involved in the National Team for years. Henderson led me to Colorado and as I started looking at the roster Marcus Hahnemann was pointed out to me by one of my coworkers as the son of one of the managers in my division. The combination of the two were enough to get me to start following the team.

Since that time I've ridden the highs and lows but I've never been tempted to change teams. Hopefully the introduction of Seattle into MLS next year won't prove too much to resist. ;)