The football side of me.
I decided I needed to post another bio post, only this time entirely football-centric. There are probably things even people on my friends list don't know about me football-wise, so here goes. (This is will be linked in my profile for everyone who stumbles upon it.)
First off, I would like to welcome you all to my LJ. I don't bite, and if I do, it's not too hard. ;) I like to think I'm easy to get along with, and hope you feel the same way.
I'm going to assume if you've clicked the cut you're interested in my opinions and likes/dislikes of the football-related sort. Due to recent events, I've decided it's pretty important that I do this so that people don't get the wrong idea of me right off the bat. And if I still get trash-talked, so be it.
Well, as you may (or may not) know, I consider myself from Spain. I wasn't born there, I'm not a Spanish citizen, so I'm not technically Spanish. I did, however, grow up there. In Spain I was introduced to football for the first time, and loved it until about 2000, when my family came back to the US, where I'm originally from, and kind of fell out. I never actually DIDN'T like the sport, I just wasn't all "OMG YAY!" over it. If that makes any sense. I barely followed the 2002 World Cup and the 2004 Eurocup, and the 2006 World Cup basically consisted of watching the US play Italy in a hotel because it was the only place we could get cable. In October of 2007 I was reintroduced to the glory of football once again, and from an entirely different level. The fangirl level. The "OMG HE'S SO HOT" level. I think that first day, I was up until 2 in the morning downloading pictures.
Lest you all think I'm just another "fangirl", I really do understand the game. All of my siblings (I have three) have played or still do play football. My youngest brother was named All-European in the DoDDS (US Department of Defense Schools) league, meaning he's one of the best players in Europe, as far as international schools are concerned. He scored 8 goals in tournament, which lasted about four days. So the sport kind of runs in the family. So I kind of know what I'm talking about. I'm not huge on strategy and so try to avoid discussing strategy at all costs, because really, I'm not familiar with it yet. I'm working on it, but at the moment, I'm still pretty clueless.
I am one of those people who likes more than one team in the same league. However, one of those teams is a club no one talks about (or rarely talks about), so I figure I'm justified. XD I've been a die-hard rojiblanca since 1997, and support my Athletic Club Bilbao boys through everything they go through. The good and the bad. I remember back in 1999 when those boys worked with everything they had inside them to qualify for the Champions League the year of their centenary. I remember going to downtown Bilbao (because we lived there!) for the Aste Nagusia and being filled with joy when they'd sing the anthem from the town hall and wave the Basque flag and the Athletic flag with all the pride in the world. That is MY TEAM and always will be. I also remember having a huge crush on Julen Guerrero like every other Basque girl. XD And being insanely jealous when a friend gave my brother and sister personally autographed pictures of him, because I wanted one too. I feel like this club's in my blood, and I don't have a drop of Basque blood in me.
I'm also a culé. This one's fairly more recent, but just as legit. My other brother (the elder one) has been a Barça fan for as long as my OTHER brother and I have been Athletic fans and for a birthday gift in 2000 was given the opening ceremony of that season on tape, as it was the celebration for their own centenary. I became a full-fledged Barça fan earlier this year (2008) because let's face it, Athletic is a VERY controversial team inside (and maybe outside) Spain, and it's much smaller. Besides, everyone in Spain supports either Real Madrid or Barça in some way, shape or form, and I've usually leaned more towards the Barça persuasion. When I was in Spain earlier this year (for 6 months on a study-abroad program) I took a trip to Barcelona with some friends and went to a match at Camp Nou. It was quite possibly one of the best experiences of my life. :)
I also loathe Real Madrid. More for their management than their players, but I'm not a fan of all the players either, for that matter. In the years I've known Real Madrid, I've seen them go to a respectable Spanish club that played good football and took the wins with the losses to a team which cared more about money and having the world's best players more than anything else. What happened to you, Real? I used to like you. I really, really did. Basically, I liked Real before it was cool to like Real (i.e. before Zidane and Beckham), and stopped liking them when it became cool to like them, because I didn't want to like a team like that. I have no specific complaints about most of the Spaniards on the squad, but in general, Real is to me, a team with the world's best players who fail to be seen as a team to me. I see players who know they're hot stuff and to me, they just don't work well as a team. I have nothing against clubs with money, but it all depends on how that money is used. Basically, when Zidane was bought for the highest purchasing price ever paid by a club for a player until that time, I lost all the respect I ever had for the club. Those are my reasons for not being a Real Madrid fan.
Basically, I really only follow Spanish football; La Liga. I don't pretend to be on expert on the league as a whole, but it's what I follow. It's what I grew up on, what was influenced on me while growing up in Spain, and it's what has stuck. My knowledge of Premiership football is minimal at best, and so I'm pretty apprehensive about calling a certain Prem club my favorite. At thist point, I see myself as an Arsenal supporter and possibly Liverpool, but that's about as far as I go. I don't want to make myself known as a staunch supporter of either club (mostly Arsenal, because right now they're my favorite) due to how little I know of them. My Prem league following is VERY recent and based on the few matches I was able to watch while I was in Spain and a few other players, namely the Spaniards, whom I've seen playing outside of their English clubs. I am truly a La Liga girl, through and through. :)
I don't do slash. At all. If you like slash, that's totally fine. I just won't read it. :) I do have a soft spot for the whole rhetoriclove thing, which is/was pretty hilarious. But anything more serious than that and it makes me uncomfortable. I don't even do STRAIGHT porn. It's just not my thing. I haven't even been able to get into the whole "Sernando" deal, but part of that is because I just don't like Sergio Ramos.
Since I'm on the topic of "The Ram", I'm one of those who just doesn't understand his appeal. I don't find him attractive, AT ALL, and I just don't like him. I think he's stuck-up, obnoxious, and gives people from Seville a bad name (He's actually from a town ten miles away from where my parents live. We're practically neighbors.) to those who don't know a lot of people from Seville. Although I guess if you think he's OMG AMAZING, then no worries there. XD Either way, in my mind, he's the Spanish version of Cristiano Ronaldo, only without all the talent (not saying he's not...he's just...not Ronaldo). Granted, I don't know him in person, but considering what I do know about him and have heard about him, I don't think he's one of those who's really just a teddy bear at heart.
On a lighter note, my football love is Xavi Hernández, that short little guy who plays for Barcelona, has the adorable smile and is BFFs with Puyol and Iniesta (and Iker Casillas, but that's little publicized and little known). I remember his debut season when he was just a young 'un at 18 and thought he was the cutest thing ever (when I was...er...14...). I was a little shocked when I found out he was still playing...until I realized what age he was when he started. XD It didn't become a full-blown "obsession" until June of 2008, when I was talking with an LJ friend about random football crushes we had, and I mentioned Xavi, who I was CONVINCED was married, and it snowballed from there. So, I am officially a Xavi fangirl, can never have enough pictures of him, am learning Catalan just for him, and overall think he's one of the most underrated players on the Spanish National Team. Little Xavi is just that awesome, and I'm tempted to create a player community for him on LJ if they weren't so unpopular. Ah well. :) and I created a community dedicated to him at xavi_hernandez. But Xavi's the man. My man. ;) Taken or single [TAKEN], I don't care. I ♥ him.
I started out my football fandom being a HUGE Fàbregas and Torres fan. And it's not that I'm not anymore, it's just I've begun to focus more on the skill than the face. That's not to say Fàbregas and Torres AREN'T talented and don't have the skill, but now I just like to watch the game. I still think Fàbregas is one of the hottest (skill-wise) players in the world and is well on his way to being the Next Big Thing, and Torres could be the next Cristiano Ronaldo. Without the ego. I pray that he will never get the ego. But as we all know now, I'm a shameless Xavi fangirl, and even if Xavi weren't as hot as I think he is, I'd still think he was an amazing player. Looks don't matter THAT much to me, though of course I do love a good picspam...and a good squee. XD
One thing I can't stand is when every single time a friendly or other international match comes up and the Spanish National Team squad is released and neither Raúl or Guti (or even Joaquín for that matter) people start b*tching and moaning about how and why they're not on. This is recent (obviously), but it bothers me. First of all, the coach ("míster" in Spain) knows what he's doing. That was my explanation before the Eurocup. Now if people complain, I want to use the argument that Aragonés used once while at a press conference, only updated. How many championships has Raúl been in? How many had Spain won? They've won one. They are the current European champions and currently undefeated for the past year and a half, almost two years. But most importantly, we were undefeated all through the Eurocup. And Raúl was not on the squad. Therefore, we do not need him to win matches. We don't need him to become European champions, or any kind of champions. We can do it without him, and we can do it WELL. I don't hate Raúl. I realize most Real fans think he's some sort of god, and I will admit he's an amazing player with lots of natural talent. However, his time on the Selección is over. It's time to move on. It's time for him, and the fans, to move on.
I think that's it for the football bio. :)
One thing I would like to say in closing is that I really AM fluent in Spanish, Castillian Spanish for that matter (the accent and dialect spoken by most of the Spanish National Team, and understood perfectly by the rest), and it's not just a front I put on to make myself seem cool. When I post translations of things I translate them myself. I only use an external language source such as a dictionary when I ABSOLUTELY need to, and when I do, it's a Spanish dictionary, the way most of us would use an English one. I'm not just pretending to speak Spanish, I really do. I'm not the world's leading expert on Spanish, but then again, how many native English speakers are leading experts on English? :)
I am also currently teaching myself Catalan, the language of Xavi, Cesc and Puyol, and getting quite good at it. Anytime I post a translation from Catalan that's all me too, and even if I do use an external source for help, the wordage and word choice is always me. I'm working on my Basque, which I studied for two years in public school in the Basque Country, but it's a much harder language to learn. However, I'm more familiar with the language than most people here, so while I may not be fluent, I DO know what I'm talking about if I do ever mention the language of Xabi Alonso. :)
I hope this has explained everything about where my football allegiances lie (and don't lie) and where I come from in terms of football. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them. And if you have some complaint or other grievance against me, be an intelligent, rational human being and tell me directly. Thank you.
One other thing. If you still feel you'd like to be my LJ friend, feel free to add me. I'd just appreciate it if you'd let me know, simply because this LJ is friends-only and while I add everyone who asks (I haven't said no to anyone yet!), it's nice to keep things private. I won't know you added me if you don't let me know, so just let me know! :)
First off, I would like to welcome you all to my LJ. I don't bite, and if I do, it's not too hard. ;) I like to think I'm easy to get along with, and hope you feel the same way.
I'm going to assume if you've clicked the cut you're interested in my opinions and likes/dislikes of the football-related sort. Due to recent events, I've decided it's pretty important that I do this so that people don't get the wrong idea of me right off the bat. And if I still get trash-talked, so be it.
Well, as you may (or may not) know, I consider myself from Spain. I wasn't born there, I'm not a Spanish citizen, so I'm not technically Spanish. I did, however, grow up there. In Spain I was introduced to football for the first time, and loved it until about 2000, when my family came back to the US, where I'm originally from, and kind of fell out. I never actually DIDN'T like the sport, I just wasn't all "OMG YAY!" over it. If that makes any sense. I barely followed the 2002 World Cup and the 2004 Eurocup, and the 2006 World Cup basically consisted of watching the US play Italy in a hotel because it was the only place we could get cable. In October of 2007 I was reintroduced to the glory of football once again, and from an entirely different level. The fangirl level. The "OMG HE'S SO HOT" level. I think that first day, I was up until 2 in the morning downloading pictures.
Lest you all think I'm just another "fangirl", I really do understand the game. All of my siblings (I have three) have played or still do play football. My youngest brother was named All-European in the DoDDS (US Department of Defense Schools) league, meaning he's one of the best players in Europe, as far as international schools are concerned. He scored 8 goals in tournament, which lasted about four days. So the sport kind of runs in the family. So I kind of know what I'm talking about. I'm not huge on strategy and so try to avoid discussing strategy at all costs, because really, I'm not familiar with it yet. I'm working on it, but at the moment, I'm still pretty clueless.
I am one of those people who likes more than one team in the same league. However, one of those teams is a club no one talks about (or rarely talks about), so I figure I'm justified. XD I've been a die-hard rojiblanca since 1997, and support my Athletic Club Bilbao boys through everything they go through. The good and the bad. I remember back in 1999 when those boys worked with everything they had inside them to qualify for the Champions League the year of their centenary. I remember going to downtown Bilbao (because we lived there!) for the Aste Nagusia and being filled with joy when they'd sing the anthem from the town hall and wave the Basque flag and the Athletic flag with all the pride in the world. That is MY TEAM and always will be. I also remember having a huge crush on Julen Guerrero like every other Basque girl. XD And being insanely jealous when a friend gave my brother and sister personally autographed pictures of him, because I wanted one too. I feel like this club's in my blood, and I don't have a drop of Basque blood in me.
I'm also a culé. This one's fairly more recent, but just as legit. My other brother (the elder one) has been a Barça fan for as long as my OTHER brother and I have been Athletic fans and for a birthday gift in 2000 was given the opening ceremony of that season on tape, as it was the celebration for their own centenary. I became a full-fledged Barça fan earlier this year (2008) because let's face it, Athletic is a VERY controversial team inside (and maybe outside) Spain, and it's much smaller. Besides, everyone in Spain supports either Real Madrid or Barça in some way, shape or form, and I've usually leaned more towards the Barça persuasion. When I was in Spain earlier this year (for 6 months on a study-abroad program) I took a trip to Barcelona with some friends and went to a match at Camp Nou. It was quite possibly one of the best experiences of my life. :)
I also loathe Real Madrid. More for their management than their players, but I'm not a fan of all the players either, for that matter. In the years I've known Real Madrid, I've seen them go to a respectable Spanish club that played good football and took the wins with the losses to a team which cared more about money and having the world's best players more than anything else. What happened to you, Real? I used to like you. I really, really did. Basically, I liked Real before it was cool to like Real (i.e. before Zidane and Beckham), and stopped liking them when it became cool to like them, because I didn't want to like a team like that. I have no specific complaints about most of the Spaniards on the squad, but in general, Real is to me, a team with the world's best players who fail to be seen as a team to me. I see players who know they're hot stuff and to me, they just don't work well as a team. I have nothing against clubs with money, but it all depends on how that money is used. Basically, when Zidane was bought for the highest purchasing price ever paid by a club for a player until that time, I lost all the respect I ever had for the club. Those are my reasons for not being a Real Madrid fan.
Basically, I really only follow Spanish football; La Liga. I don't pretend to be on expert on the league as a whole, but it's what I follow. It's what I grew up on, what was influenced on me while growing up in Spain, and it's what has stuck. My knowledge of Premiership football is minimal at best, and so I'm pretty apprehensive about calling a certain Prem club my favorite. At thist point, I see myself as an Arsenal supporter and possibly Liverpool, but that's about as far as I go. I don't want to make myself known as a staunch supporter of either club (mostly Arsenal, because right now they're my favorite) due to how little I know of them. My Prem league following is VERY recent and based on the few matches I was able to watch while I was in Spain and a few other players, namely the Spaniards, whom I've seen playing outside of their English clubs. I am truly a La Liga girl, through and through. :)
I don't do slash. At all. If you like slash, that's totally fine. I just won't read it. :) I do have a soft spot for the whole rhetoriclove thing, which is/was pretty hilarious. But anything more serious than that and it makes me uncomfortable. I don't even do STRAIGHT porn. It's just not my thing. I haven't even been able to get into the whole "Sernando" deal, but part of that is because I just don't like Sergio Ramos.
Since I'm on the topic of "The Ram", I'm one of those who just doesn't understand his appeal. I don't find him attractive, AT ALL, and I just don't like him. I think he's stuck-up, obnoxious, and gives people from Seville a bad name (He's actually from a town ten miles away from where my parents live. We're practically neighbors.) to those who don't know a lot of people from Seville. Although I guess if you think he's OMG AMAZING, then no worries there. XD Either way, in my mind, he's the Spanish version of Cristiano Ronaldo, only without all the talent (not saying he's not...he's just...not Ronaldo). Granted, I don't know him in person, but considering what I do know about him and have heard about him, I don't think he's one of those who's really just a teddy bear at heart.
On a lighter note, my football love is Xavi Hernández, that short little guy who plays for Barcelona, has the adorable smile and is BFFs with Puyol and Iniesta (and Iker Casillas, but that's little publicized and little known). I remember his debut season when he was just a young 'un at 18 and thought he was the cutest thing ever (when I was...er...14...). I was a little shocked when I found out he was still playing...until I realized what age he was when he started. XD It didn't become a full-blown "obsession" until June of 2008, when I was talking with an LJ friend about random football crushes we had, and I mentioned Xavi, who I was CONVINCED was married, and it snowballed from there. So, I am officially a Xavi fangirl, can never have enough pictures of him, am learning Catalan just for him, and overall think he's one of the most underrated players on the Spanish National Team. Little Xavi is just that awesome, and I'm tempted to create a player community for him on LJ if they weren't so unpopular. Ah well. :) and I created a community dedicated to him at xavi_hernandez. But Xavi's the man. My man. ;) Taken or single [TAKEN], I don't care. I ♥ him.
I started out my football fandom being a HUGE Fàbregas and Torres fan. And it's not that I'm not anymore, it's just I've begun to focus more on the skill than the face. That's not to say Fàbregas and Torres AREN'T talented and don't have the skill, but now I just like to watch the game. I still think Fàbregas is one of the hottest (skill-wise) players in the world and is well on his way to being the Next Big Thing, and Torres could be the next Cristiano Ronaldo. Without the ego. I pray that he will never get the ego. But as we all know now, I'm a shameless Xavi fangirl, and even if Xavi weren't as hot as I think he is, I'd still think he was an amazing player. Looks don't matter THAT much to me, though of course I do love a good picspam...and a good squee. XD
One thing I can't stand is when every single time a friendly or other international match comes up and the Spanish National Team squad is released and neither Raúl or Guti (or even Joaquín for that matter) people start b*tching and moaning about how and why they're not on. This is recent (obviously), but it bothers me. First of all, the coach ("míster" in Spain) knows what he's doing. That was my explanation before the Eurocup. Now if people complain, I want to use the argument that Aragonés used once while at a press conference, only updated. How many championships has Raúl been in? How many had Spain won? They've won one. They are the current European champions and currently undefeated for the past year and a half, almost two years. But most importantly, we were undefeated all through the Eurocup. And Raúl was not on the squad. Therefore, we do not need him to win matches. We don't need him to become European champions, or any kind of champions. We can do it without him, and we can do it WELL. I don't hate Raúl. I realize most Real fans think he's some sort of god, and I will admit he's an amazing player with lots of natural talent. However, his time on the Selección is over. It's time to move on. It's time for him, and the fans, to move on.
I think that's it for the football bio. :)
One thing I would like to say in closing is that I really AM fluent in Spanish, Castillian Spanish for that matter (the accent and dialect spoken by most of the Spanish National Team, and understood perfectly by the rest), and it's not just a front I put on to make myself seem cool. When I post translations of things I translate them myself. I only use an external language source such as a dictionary when I ABSOLUTELY need to, and when I do, it's a Spanish dictionary, the way most of us would use an English one. I'm not just pretending to speak Spanish, I really do. I'm not the world's leading expert on Spanish, but then again, how many native English speakers are leading experts on English? :)
I am also currently teaching myself Catalan, the language of Xavi, Cesc and Puyol, and getting quite good at it. Anytime I post a translation from Catalan that's all me too, and even if I do use an external source for help, the wordage and word choice is always me. I'm working on my Basque, which I studied for two years in public school in the Basque Country, but it's a much harder language to learn. However, I'm more familiar with the language than most people here, so while I may not be fluent, I DO know what I'm talking about if I do ever mention the language of Xabi Alonso. :)
I hope this has explained everything about where my football allegiances lie (and don't lie) and where I come from in terms of football. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them. And if you have some complaint or other grievance against me, be an intelligent, rational human being and tell me directly. Thank you.
One other thing. If you still feel you'd like to be my LJ friend, feel free to add me. I'd just appreciate it if you'd let me know, simply because this LJ is friends-only and while I add everyone who asks (I haven't said no to anyone yet!), it's nice to keep things private. I won't know you added me if you don't let me know, so just let me know! :)