Another letter from America

Greetings again from the Tennessee section of our huge international following. Since taking up temporary residence over here the Poppies showed how much they were missing my support by going unbeaten for a month and a half. I was beginning to think there was a link, and if I could only avoid returning to the UK until next summer, we’d be celebrating an unlikely Trophy-promotion double. Well scratch one of those now.

“Soccer” is taken much more seriously in America these days compared to when it was regarded as a game played by kids until they grew a pair. Now it’s on the major channels and I can watch the Premier League as easily as at home. It’s the Sky commentary but with a studio panel led by Robbie Earle, making sure he doesn’t confuse viewers by describing the Arsenal DE-fence and imagining what the “coach” will be saying in the “locker room”.        

People sometimes ask what EPL side I support. Generally it only takes around 15 minutes, sometimes 30, to explain my actual allegiance and where it features in the bizarre and quite frankly un-American concept of a pyramid system. “So… you’re like a Little League club?”  But faced with incomprehension I have two cards up my sleeve.  The first is to ask if they have heard of the FA Cup, and if yes hit them with the leading goalscorers thing. American sports fans love a stat and that usually impresses. If I have to go further I casually mention that we were formed in 1872. There are states that were barely settled back then. To follow a team that can trace its roots back to the 1870s is mind boggling here, where anything half that old is revered (saw a sign in Nashville the other day: Historic neighborhood – established 1997).     

A couple of weekends ago, looking for something to do I found a bar that was screening a game at 9am. Turned out it was the HQ of the local Liverpool supporters club. They were a friendly bunch and unlike an actual game at Anfield I was able to walk away from my car without paying protection money. I’d guess that few of them were Liverpool fans 10 years ago or maybe even 5. Sport here is something you acquire not inherit. The Oakland Raiders are about to become the Las Vegas Raiders. No one seems to regard that as odd, and the fans left behind will find someone else to support. I tried explaining how badly the MK Dons thing went down, but sensed this was another blind alley. To fit in maybe I need to get myself up to South Bend FC and just go with the flow. Having seen more than one ‘last ever’ Poppies game, how about going to the other extreme?