Soccer/Football

I've a complicated international background with relatives in (reading from left to right), the US, Iceland, the UK, Holland, Germany, & Italy and grow up and lived in different countries (military family) myself, though I've now lived in the US for well over 30 years now.

I actually only became a football fan late in life while living in Holland in the seventies and getting caught up in the fever of the '74 World Cup. I had season tickets for the local club, FC Twente of Enschede from '74 through '79. Incredibly cheap at the time because if was for the terracing (standing section) in a corner of the stadium. At that time, Twente were a decent side but by no means a great one. Still, they usually played in the UEFA every year and I saw some great European sides play there.

I suppose you could say the Dutch national team and Twente were my first teams, though my feelings have cooled somewhat since. After moving to the US, I almost got out of football altogether because it was almost impossible to keep up with it at that time, though I managed to never miss a World Cup.

I was able to get access to English first division games through an Arsenal-supporting mate who worked in the audio-visual department at my workplace, and who had access to international satellites. We'd support them together and I continued supporting them after he died. This was when Arsenal played terrible, dull unimaginative football under George Graham, but hey, when they won the league with that final kick of the ball against Liverpool at Anfield... Well... That was magic...

As with love, you can't pick your club, your club picks you

Other than that, I have number of clubs I like and dislike to various degrees in the EPL as with international sides.