I talk soccer a lot online. On forums, through facebook, through twitter, via email. Heck, I do it at work, on my cell, on the streets of LA at a music festival
Recently I was talking to Jason D. over at MatchFitUSA.com about how some soccer fans like to promote themselves as exclusive and even better than the "normal" sports fan. They abhor American sports even.
He captured those statements as well as I have ever said them
An intelligent friend of mine recently commented that sometimes American soccer fans work too hard to force their "differentness" on others. He meant the statement in a myriad of ways, but most pointedly about the innate need of some to separate the game from the big American sports through deference to mode of competition used in places like England and Spain. He's passionate about his soccer, but advocates for things "traditional" fans usually don't, like conferences, unbalanced schedules, and evaluation of players through statistics; for many, those things are anathema, "American" ideas that have no place in the sport.
But each of his views are equally as valid as anyone's, and unlike some fans, he makes it a point to back them up with reason and logic. Give him a few minutes, and he just may have you convinced that MLS needs a conference system with an unbalanced scheduled to accentuate regional rivalries. He rejects the notion that soccer fans are "special" and therefore need to push for our leagues to operate differently from the tried and true methods of other domestic sports; we're just fans who happen to like a game that has yet to catch on with the masses.
He deserves the full read. As part of your daily return even.