As I said in my previous post, an extremely busy stretch at work kept me from posting things. There were about two weeks at Revlon that I was practically twiddling my thumbs, then the dam burst with projects. On top of that, I picked up three REALLY big freelance projects, keeping my busy not only nights but weekends, which kept me from watching matches.
Thing is, my weekends were not THAT busy. I could have stepped away for bit and watched some footie. I’ve also got a DVR which allows me to time-shift a boatload of games…I just never seemed to do that. For a minute, I though that my time as a soccer fanatic was over.
Then I started to recap the last few weeks in my head. While it may have seemed that I wasn’t watching recorded games, it turns out that I was wrong there. I watched a TON of games, particularly in La Liga. I watched a seemingly beaten-down Real Madrid go through a phenomenal rebirth of winds while simultaneously watching a fatigued Barcelona club go on a ridiculous string of draws and losses. Real Madrid may not win the league this year, but they DEFINITELY have a chance to take three points from Barcelona at the May 3rd superclassico.
I witnessed Liverpool’s annihilation of Manchester United in the best match of the year. Many believed that Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, couldn’t pick his best team of eleven players but it seems that team is gelling right now. Doubt that they’ll win the EPL trophy this year though.
Of course, there was the Champions League, where the round of 16 has come and gone. Inter Milan’s out. Real Madrid’s REALLY out. And we’re all hoping for a Barcelona – Man United match in the final, which seems possible.
But best of all, GolTV is now carrying Brazilian club level football from the Sao Paulo state…and I LOVE it!!! Jumping back to rebirths for a second, I have been born-again thanks to Sao Paulo football, especially since I have access to Corinthian club games, which I can watch the great Ronaldo. But while Corinthians are great, I’ve decided to support the the Palmeiras club after watching them play. These games, I’m not missing.
So I watched a decent amount of football, just not a lot of English Premier League football. And this brings up an interesting point.
See, the EPL promotes itself on a scale much grander than any other football league in the world. Said promotion has created a strong customer demand for access to as many televised games as possible, particularly in America. The American cable and satellite operators know all this so they try to sell as many sports packages with EPL access as they can to customers. All of this means that whenever an American begins to get into football, they are most likely to be exposed to EPL football first.
This happened to me. When I first got in to footie, all I knew was the Premier League. Thanks to the Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV, I watched at least two EPL games over the weekend along with the Barcelona and Real Madrid matches in Spain. Then we brought a condo and got satellite subscription with Setanta, meaning that I now had access to all games played by the EPL’s big four teams every weekend. And since the condo increased our monthly expenses, we had no problem substituting football for our weeklong entertainment in lieu of going out as much.
Now after two years of being a football nut, I’ve realized the the English game is just not that exciting as the game in Spain and Brazil and Italy and France and many other regions. Don’t get me wrong, I love Chelsea and am curious about how Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool and Hull are doing, but not enough to give all five of these teams all of my weekend time. And now that I’m getting into the Brazilian game, the Italian game and (sorta kinda) the French game, I just cannot get into the EPL as much as I did in the past. As a result, I will budget my time around the really good games from ALL leagues, while using the internet to keep up with standings and fixtures of others. This means that whenever Man U plays Arsenal, I’ll be in front of my TV. But I’ll be somewhere else when Man U play Stoke City.
Don’t misunderstand me here. I absolutely do NOT hate the British game. It’s just that with the three soccer channels that I have, I have access to so much more football now. And when you watch all types of football from all types of leagues you start to notice the difference in styles of play, and the British style football is just not as exciting right now. It’s as if I’d been listing to my parents record collection all my life and have now discovered punk rock and rap music.
