I never played or anything and just randomly started watching EPL about a decade ago just by catching it on TV. Now it's pretty much the only sport I watch regularly.

NBCsports is going away at some point so more games will probably be on Peacock.

can be hard to get tickets to many of the EPL games, but if you have visited the bridge you probably know that already. Need to plan ahead and become a member to get a chance to buy tickets because most don't make it to general sale. We tried to get tickets to a chelsea game when we were in the UK a couple of year ago but it didn't work out. Ended up at West Ham v Burnley at the olympic stadium on Bobby Moore appreciation day. The day Mark Noble rugby tackled a fan who ran on the pitch. A great and relatively inexpensive day out.

My friend who is a Spurs supporter seems to always be able to get tickets when he is back. I'll have to see how he manages to get them. He had tickets last season to take his Dad (an Arsenal supporter) to an Arsenal match. He had to cancel the trip due to Covid, I don't think he ever got his money back.

I can only imagine how great the atmosphere must be at any EPL match.

As a kid, I followed Derby County. They've since dropped waaaaaaaay into lower divisions and if it weren't for Rooney getting involved recently I doubt there would be any news beyond local interest.

Once in awhile I also look up the standings across all divisions just to see if I recognize any teams that have had a few relegations since when I followed soccer closer back in the day..... Coventry, Nottingham Forest are a couple of other teams that I remember.

The EPL probably has the highest level of play these days, where any pairing can be a good game.... ;

If it's not Barcelona or Real Madrid, there's not much to La Liga.... (this year, Suarez makes Atletico worth watching).

Hard to find enough Serie A games regularly.

Mexican league and South American league games can be fun to watch for the drama, fights, and cards if you're into that sort of thing.

Derby got to the play-off final in 2019 when Lampard was the manager (beating Leeds on the way to the final) - so only had to beat Villa to get into the EPL. Not going to happen this year but they are a relatively big club for the second tier so could be back soon.

i remember their 2 league titles in 72 and 75.

... you must be as old as I feel :-)

  



Not quite, about 2/3 of the good matches are on NBCSN/NBC, the rest are on Peacock. Peacock is NBC’s way to squeeze a few extra bucks a month from fans.





All Serie A matches and all Bundesliga matches are on Espn+ ($6/ month)

Serie A had been a one-horse race for the past 8 years, but this year, the Zlatan has propelled them up the table (aka standings), and there’s an actual title race.

As others have said the EPL, I'll add in the Bundesliga as well, but that is secondary.

Great ready to be hooked, it is set up much better than the NFL and especially that crap MLS in the US.

Avoid picking a top-6 team and follow a teams path that is mid-tier as they maneuver around relegation/promotion. My personal team is the Wolverhampton Wolves.

Got one for you, Peter Crouch was once asked what he would be if he weren't a footballer? And his response was........?

A virgin, iirc

That man has a good sense of humor, and he can do it on a cold, rainy night in Stoke, too

Very good, it does take a good sense of humor to come up with that on the fly.

A friend of mine did this when he was living in London for work in the early-mid 2000’s and latched onto Crystal Palace. When they moved up to the Premier League a few years back he was like a kid on Christmas morning.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

His podcast is pretty good, if you haven't heard it.

I bet it’s a riot (in a good way). Def seem more likable than some of the other guests they have a Match of the Day on BBC, the latter of whom continue to take things too seriously after retirement. Also, speaking of MotD, if anyone wants to know the origin of the nom de plume of poster Alan Shearer, you’ll find out all about it on MotD



[half trolling]
Does either Tottenham or Leicester count?
[/half trolling]

The former will likely finish outside of top-6; the latter has a good chance of making it after years of misery (the one very special year aside)

Jest aside, Villa and dirty Leeds under Bielsa are perhaps the more likable sides, especially Leeds. That said, i only started watching footie five years ago and am not as familiar with some of the antics that earned the club the “Dirt Leeds” moniker

Also, whatever one picks, it would be best if it were not Burnley. The club was the target of a leveraged buy-out and has gone from having ~35m £ in the bank to being ~60m £ in debt.

Not going to rehash what others above have said. Lots of good advice above.

Me, I follow Liverpool and have for most of my life. Family still in England and grandparents lived in the Wirral so picked them up as a young lad.

If you are close to an MLS team, go to a match. The stadiums are smaller and intimate and really hardly have a bad seat in them. And the prices are pretty darn good even if the level of play isn't yet up to those of other international leagues.....yet.

And if you want to follow a team that is "up and coming" in Germany, check out FC Union Berlin. I was lucky enough to go to a match there while on a work trip in 2016 when they were still in Bundesliga 2 and got to see Bobby Wood (plays on US Mens National Team) and score 2 goals against FSV Frankfurt. They are a smaller club but have a FANTASTIC story.

Either way, welcome to the club. Wife and I are sports junkies but there isn't another sport that can get me from the depth of depression to the pinnacle of ecstasy in a matter of seconds. See Landon Donovan's goal versus Algeria at the 2010 World Cup. I was hyperventilating and shaking after he scored. To me it is a fantastic sport.

Do most people follow a club? Or just watch the game of the week?

I feel at this point a club would get me most invested and easiest to follow.

I am thinking of following crystal palace.

Do you realise when Notts Forest play Derby it's the Derby derby ? (A darby darby
😁)

I have no connection to England (or Britain) and started by watching Match of the Day (BBC's wrap-up of a matchday's action, one show for Saturday's matches, and one for Sunday's). The more advanced fan may scoff at the show, but I found it helpful in at least providing guidance on what other than goals to pay attention to. The next year, I was basically watching whatever large-ish match was on NBC and supplementing those matches with MotD. There are the obvious ones: any match between the current "big six" of Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd., Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham. Due to my personal worldview, there are a few teams I would never root for, so I'd often sneak a peak when a mid-table or bottom-table team is running the likes of Chelsea or Man City close. I'm not sure if there's an U.S. equivalent of MotD, but I felt that show really helped with my appreciation of the game.

Palace is a good mid-table team with a fighting spirit, although one could say that it's main star is a bit mercurial. Its head coach is a tad old fashioned, but he has a no-nonsense attitude, and the team can play in a style that is pleasing-to-the-eyes (unlike the teams that almost always play hoof ball). A few years ago, the team was even competing in the final match of the FA Cup (whose knock-out format is much more familiar to American sports fans).

The only caveat for following a mid-table team is that without some other meaningful connection to the team (parents/ spouse/ kids lived/lives there, etc.), a lot of stuff might be quite hard to stomach. Some mid-table teams may languish for matches without scoring, never mind winning, although the same was also true of Liverpool very recently. Managers come and go, and a team's playing style follows. What was once a prosperous mid-table team might see a sudden decline in form and get relegated, etc. It's not pretty much of the time, and just when you think your team is safely mid-table, the next year the team goes down (see Stoke City, West Brom, and Bournemouth).

Is there a league where they don’t look like they got shot when they stub their toe?

I try to watch soccer and normally last 5 minutes before someone is on the ground acting like they’re dying and I can’t watch it anymore.

I like to watch my 18 year old son play.

No one, on any of the teams, pulls any of that flopping shit.

I played up until high school and then switched to hockey. I do like watching soccer, but the fake injuries and flopping baloney make it unwatchable for me. Maybe it’s from playing hockey but you’d get benched and then punched in the face if you did that crap.

Not sure how anyone lands on a club or team to follow without some formative moment(s), but I would say that the Eagles is a decent one to follow. Good history and a real quality player in Zaha (out injured now, but...) And, if there is only one reason to follow them, it would be for their anthem that they belt out from the Holmesdale end at the start of each home match, and also after ... when they win, of course. One of my best friend's family is from Croydon, and we went there to visit once. We got to walk the pitch. Like a lot of clubs in England, there's a very close knit connection between the club and the community, and I got to feel it while there.

Enjoy!!

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Gnothi Seauton.

Might be showing my age here but I remember when Palace were billed as the "Team of the 80s" - managed by Terry Venables, who went on to become England manager.

They never did quite make it....

No, because it works too often.