explaining the lcfc story to Americans

[Rincewind]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36028733

[Guest safetosurfthisbeach]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester,_Massachusetts

[LCFCSOULBOY]

I live in California and completely and utterly given up. It's like trying to describe sex to a 50 year old virgin. Sodding clueless. The best part is when they try to tell you something about Leicester they have seen in print or save on the PC. Sudden experts. For the past 36 years living here and being asked what Soccer Hooligans do you like. When I would just reply Leicester I would just get that look that they give you when they don't know something. That look like it must be irrelevant because they are not American and win a sport to make them World Champs in a sport that they only play. Must be some foreign garbage. Tw"ts.

[LCFCSOULBOY]

Oh and forgot how it could never compare to when the US hockey team beat the Soviets in some 1980's Olympics. Greastest sports upset in history. USA USA USA. Morons

[Munshi]

Surely MLS fans with some footballing knowledge would be able to recognise how utterly amazing this could be?

[americanfox]

Oh and forgot how it could never compare to when the US hockey team beat the Soviets in some 1980's Olympics. Greastest sports upset in history. USA USA USA. Morons

 

Relax, mate.

[Kitchandro]

Stopped reading after a few sentences. Completely misrepresents us as some tinpot nobodies.

 

We're hardly 'small'. We average better attendances that a lot of clubs in the Champions League. We're a medium sized club whose success is extraordinary because of the gulf between the very few top teams and everyone else.

 

The fact we've never won a title or an FA Cup is a blot on a solid and consistent history we're proud of.

 

If we're going to be 'explained' to Americans like that, I'd rather they not bother.

[FireFox]

Oh and forgot how it could never compare to when the US hockey team beat the Soviets in some 1980's Olympics. Greastest sports upset in history. USA USA USA. Morons

That was 1000-1

In the US, on NBCSN They are running promos for Leicester's games stating that and other odds to sporting upsets, saying how we were 5000-1, and "with odds like that, you can't afford to miss it."

[stevelcfc]

You can't explain anything to Americans. Too stupid.

[Detroit Blues]

Oh and forgot how it could never compare to when the US hockey team beat the Soviets in some 1980's Olympics. Greastest sports upset in history. USA USA USA. Morons

 

 

You can't explain anything to Americans. Too stupid.

 

 

[promised land]

Surely MLS fans with some footballing knowledge would be able to recognise how utterly amazing this could be?

I doubt it, they don't have promotion, relegation for a start, they just invent a team and in the league for that area it goes.

What really gets me about American sports, the big ones, they call them 'world series', exactly how when only one country takes part?

[Detroit Blues]

I doubt it, they don't have promotion, relegation for a start, they just invent a team and in the league for that area it goes.

What really gets me about American sports, the big ones, they call them 'world series', exactly how when only one country takes part?

 

Does Toronto not count? 

 

But to your point, the argument is that in baseball the best players around the world play in the MLB. All of the best japanese, cuban, venezulan, etc. players from around the world aspire to play in the MLB because of the pay and the prestige. Similar to how the best players around the world want to play for champions league teams. Sure there may be good players playing for clubs in their home country, but it's more likely that the champions league winner is the best team in the world.

[LCFCSOULBOY]

Watched the NBC sports special. Surprising how many MLS fans have also. You would think they would have a better idea, but sorry no. If it is not a USA win then it is just news from over there. Think it is just down to having a football heritage versus those who never have had.

[limeydale]

Watched the NBC sports special. Surprising how many MLS fans have also. You would think they would have a better idea, but sorry no. If it is not a USA win then it is just news from over there. Think it is just down to having a football heritage versus those who never have had.

Maybe this will help you explain it to them, and they were only 500-1 'The Miracle On Grass'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4ESTvxyqsI

[Jordan]

I live in California and completely and utterly given up. It's like trying to describe sex to a 50 year old virgin. Sodding clueless. The best part is when they try to tell you something about Leicester they have seen in print or save on the PC. Sudden experts. For the past 36 years living here and being asked what Soccer Hooligans do you like. When I would just reply Leicester I would just get that look that they give you when they don't know something. That look like it must be irrelevant because they are not American and win a sport to make them World Champs in a sport that they only play. Must be some foreign garbage. Tw"ts.

If you hate it so much, why don't you just move back home?

[Sharpe's Foxes]

Surely MLS fans with some footballing knowledge would be able to recognise how utterly amazing this could be?

There's no relegation in MLS.

[Sleepy Fox]

I know plenty of folks who are engaged in the Leicester story, several are not big football fans.  

[The_77]

I'm glad I live in New York.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[foxes_rule1978]

You just say what the odds were at the start of the season, and that it is the equivalent to finding Elvis alive and they will get it then.

[Jordan]

There's no relegation in MLS.

This might be an unusual concept to fans of the "big four" North American sports, but this is something soccer fans here are familiar with. There are more fans of other teams all around the world than there are fans of MLS (and there's also overlap between the two--me, for example).

[leicesterseddon]

Stopped reading after a few sentences. Completely misrepresents us as some tinpot nobodies.

 

We're hardly 'small'. We average better attendances that a lot of clubs in the Champions League. We're a medium sized club whose success is extraordinary because of the gulf between the very few top teams and everyone else.

 

The fact we've never won a title or an FA Cup is a blot on a solid and consistent history we're proud of.

 

If we're going to be 'explained' to Americans like that, I'd rather they not bother.

 

 

I totally agree.

 

Most media coverage in sport relies on repeating a fairly limited stock of well-known clichés - and this season, we've been depicted as the plucky David challenging a small group of Goliaths, with a hint of 'the Ugly Duckling' thrown in.

 

There is some truth to this, but it's been wildly exaggerated.

 

Most part-time football observers buy into this idea that there are 3/4 clubs at any one time who can be classified as 'big', with everyone else in the Football League system therefore defined (implicitly and sometime explicitly) as 'small'. It just doesn't make sense.

 

There's also a hint of snobbery about it to be honest. In this country, the only cities that are thought of as having any kind of discernible identity are the national capitals, ports, university towns and places that are defined by a single dominant industry.

 

Leicester doesn't really fit into any of those categories, so it's therefore become acceptable to describe the place as 'unfashionable'.

[americanfox]

This might be an unusual concept to fans of the "big four" North American sports, but this is something soccer fans here are familiar with. There are more fans of other teams all around the world than there are fans of MLS (and there's also overlap between the two--me, for example).

 

Fans, or glory hunters?

 

Ask any Spurs fans if they know about that club's Jewish heritage, and most all draw blanks.

 

Just a thought.

[St. Louis Fox]

In partial defence (defense!) of America and "soccer:" St.Louis, where I've lived for the past six years, is a pretty big soccer town. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soccer_in_St._Louis. Five of the US team who (infamously) beat England 1:0 in the 1950 world cup in Brazil (see above, "Miracle on Grass,") came from St. Louis. Saint Louis University, in common  with a surprising number of American universities outside the big state universities, doesn't have a "football" (gridiron) team, but plays "soccer" instead (10 national championships to date). Having a large Italian-American and (now) Bosnian population, probably helps. Plus there's a small hard core of LCFC fans (most of us ex-pat Leicestrians) who meet up to watch games at a local pub (drinking beer at 7.30AM is a bit of a bind... but somebody has to do it). But the hugely successful local baseball team (St.Louis Cardinals, aka The cards) tends, nevertheless, to dominate things here. On which point someone on this thread mentioned the oft-quoted observation that calling it the World Series is a bit odd when only one country (plus Canada!) takes part. One explanation I've heard is that the series was, in its earlier days, sponsored by the New York World newspaper, which is why pedants sometimes call it the World's (rather than world) series. But this is disputed. Baseball, basketball, and American football obviously dominate professional sports here, but the irony is that huge numbers of Americans now grow up playing "soccer" which is seen as far less brutalizing than football.

 

One thing I've noticed over the past couple of years here: there's been a surprising "uptick" (sorry!) in name recognition for Leicester arising not only out of the Foxes' past two seasons, but the whole Richard III thing, which was massive news here. Mention Nottingham or Derby and you're likely to encounter puzzlement. But Leicester... So try to be nice to wandering Americans who you may encounter --they may know (and understand) more about "soccer" than you might think!

 

I'm rambling... fingers crossed for tomorrow v. Swansea!

[UPinCarolina]

We're a difficult lot, aren't we?

[Jordan]

Fans, or glory hunters?

Ask any Spurs fans if they know about that club's Jewish heritage, and most all draw blanks.

Just a thought.

Spurs' Jewish heritage may be embellished, but I know several Spurs fans around here that follow the team specifically because of the Jewish link. NY Spurs were even selling "The Chosen Team" t-shirts a couple of years ago.

Who really cares about that, anyway?

Also, we're a nation of immigrants. Liga MX is probably the most-watched international league here, would you agree? Check out a Copa America game in the US this summer and see how few "glory hunters" you'll find. All 16 countries will enjoy massive support from people living within our borders. There's a lot more to the support for the sport here than the people that buy tickets for BlazerCon.

Things aren't like they were 30 years ago, when people plainly couldn't give a shit about soccer. Today, it's popular enough. It's not as if people don't like it, it's just that there's so much shit going on that even lots of people don't care about events that could be considered really big deals. NFL might be the king of sports leagues, but on a typical Sunday (well, besides in Green Bay), there are so many people out doing other things... Or at least that's how I see things from over here.