Comments on: Offside Unleashed: Reflections on Kit Bonding, Global Brands, and Loving Your Home Team

By: Juliet

Juliet — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:08:17 +0000

Same problem here. I see guys on the street all the time wearing Germany shirts; they have little to no clue who’s on the team. I think I scare them by getting a little too excited.

I wear my jerseys/scarves primarily to signal to others that I’m in on the seekrit club, too. I *want* people to engage me in conversation. Let’s talk Schweinsteiger! Let’s talk Kuranyi and Gomez! Yeah!

By: Johonna

Johonna — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:31:23 +0000

I do sort of pity the person who comes up to me and asks about my Inter scarf or hoodie or somthing. They may be trapped in the conversation for much longer than they intended.

Fair warning!

By: Johonna

Johonna — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:28:30 +0000

Well, it may be time to trot this out again:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/03/80-the-idea-of-soccer/

Remember, this is satire so dont come to me about being racist.

For my part, I am going to give supporting the home team a shot. I have bought season tickets for the upcoming Sounders season.

My Significant Other buys a jersey from almost every game we go to. He picked up a Mexico National Team jersey when they were in town and he wears it regularly even though I am pretty sure he cannot name a single player on the team.

Does that make him part of the problem or part of the solution?

By: Hawk

Hawk — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:55:14 +0000

Where I live (Armenia) people usually support a player rather then a team. A few of my friends have been supporting Ronaldinho for a long time and their support followed him to Milan. I often see Bayern Munich jerseys with Ballack on the back (old Bayern jerseys, not 2006).

By: Hawk

Hawk — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:51:48 +0000

I hate it when you are mistaken for a bandwagon fan when you support one of the big teams. I have been Barca my whole life because I was born in Barcelona. I had a choice at age 5. Barca or Madrid. I chose Barca and have been loyal ever since. Even if Barca were relegated one day, I would still support them through and through.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:12:14 +0000

My disappointment knew no bounds the day I decided to argue with an Inter-kit-sporting guy at a football game about why he was supporting the wrong team in Italy, only to find out he “liked blue teams”. It could have been worse though, if he had been wearing a Milan jersey and was that ignorant, I would have lost it.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:28:45 +0000

Haha I know what you mean alessio…whenever I see someone wearing any jersey of a team that I know I get excited and start speaking to them…90% of the time they don’t even know the most famous player on the team.

I saw a girl wearing a Portuguese Federation jacket…not the country but the team warmup track jacket. She didn’t know who Eusebio, Rui Costa, Figo, etc were…only that C. Ronaldo was “gorgeous”

terribly disappointing

By: dave stopher

dave stopher — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:40:54 +0000

I love the Article!!! Funny as!!

By: alessio

alessio — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:04:13 +0000

It was amazingly disappointing. The night before the Rome derby, I saw a girl wearing a Roma jacket. Red-and-yellow, kappa logos, this wasn’t a Rome-the-city-jacket but Rome-the-team. I attempted to engage said girl in conversation about the derby……she had never heard of Francesco Totti.

Not a few weeks later, I had to attend a screening of an Italian movie. One of the students there from another class was wearing an Inter-Nike sweatshirt. It was two days before the Derby d’Italia! (Juve-Inter) He knew the team a bit, but had no idea what was going on.

I’m not sure if I was more disappointed these people were clueless or I was excited to talk calcio….I figured they were wearing said clothes in support of the upcoming derby, but both were coincidences.

By: Abby

Abby — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:44:18 +0000

I always get kind of excited when I see a football jersey here in Seattle on the street, no matter whose jersey it is. It’s like we’re all in some kind of secret club.