The International Football Page

My favorite sport happens to be the world's favorite sport: soccer (which I will henceforth refer to as football, like the rest of the world does).

Only ice hockey can come close to matching the beauty and grace of football. And another thing about soccer, you don't have to be 7 foot (2.13 m) tall or weigh 250 lbs. (114 kg) to play the sport and be good at it.

The two leagues I follow most closely are the England's Premier League and the Italian Serie A. Followed by the French Division I and Major League Soccer (US 1st Division). I do not like the huge teams that try to buy championships rather than build them. The clubs most guilty of this in Europe are AC Milan, Barcelona and Manchester United, although they are not the only ones. Sides like Ajax have teams built by a large degree by their youth systems.

As for Major League Soccer (MLS), the quality of its play is certainly not to the same level of the Serie A or Spain's Liga Primera, but what do you expect? I think the level of play is not bad for a league in only its seventh season. Now as for some of MLS' ridiculous rules and television schedule... that's another question.

I became a fan of "the beautiful game" as a direct result of World Cup USA '94. I, like a good number of people my age, played soccer quite a bit as a young kid, but, also like most of my peers, I stopped playing around age 13 or 14. WC94 revived my interest in the sport, and with a passion.

I can play defense but my preferred position is goalkeeping. Goalkeeping is truly a science and an art form, and it's too bad that, in many games, people play goal because they drew the short straw (ie:because *someone* had to).

Not surprisingly, I like nearly any good goalkeeper (who's not too much of a showoff). Particularly, Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller and Francesco Toldo.

I follow closely 3 national teams. The United States, of course, because they're my country. Italy, since that's where my family's roots are from. And Le Syli national of Guinea, since I spent 2 years there and feel part Guinean. Of course for this 2002 World Cup, I'll be following Senegal, because I lived there for a few months too.

The two main European clubs I follow are Italy's AS Roma and England's Leicester City. I also have a mild interest in the French club FC Metz. My favorite MLS side is New England Revolution.

(Recently added pages listed in bold)

Women's World Cup '99
African football

The United States' national team
Italy's national team
Guinea's national team

MLS' New England Revolution
Leicester City FC
FC Metz