saved by 21lva

ok this is gonna be really long i'm sorry

the answer to who to support is L I V E R P O O L

ok so here goes the big primer (i am gonna talk mostly about european football first and then go to mls):

each country has their own league (ok yeah that's pretty obvious but ok just getting it out of the way), the biggest of which are the english league, the spanish league, the german league, the italian league, and to a lesser extent the french league. in all but the german league (which has 18), there are 20 teams in the top divisions. these teams play each other twice a year, once at home and once away, for a total of 38 games (or 34). teams receive 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss (just like the group stages of the wc). at the end of the season the team with the most points wins the league.

HOWEVER. there is other stuff going on too. in football there is the concept of promotion and relegation. you know how in baseball there's the mlb but then there's like AAA, AA, etc? well imagine if the best teams in AAA were promoted to the mlb each year while the worst teams in the mlb were demoted to the AAA. it's like that. relegation/promotion is different for each country but usually three teams from each division get promoted to the higher division and three teams get relegated to the lower division. another thing that happens is that in the top division for each country (england - premier league, germany - bundesliga, spain - la primera division/also known as la liga, italy - serie a, france - ligue 1, i should also mention the portuguese league, the russian league, there are lots of leagues obvs), teams try to qualify for the champions league, which is a big competition that involves the best teams in europe - whoever wins it is crowned the champion of europe. a step below that is the europa league, which, from now on, gives the winner an automatic spot in next year's champions league. depending on the "strength" of each country's league (how well the teams from that country do in european competition) the league is awarded a certain number of champions league spots - england, spain, and germany have the most with 4. this means that the top 4 teams in the league get to compete in the champions league the next year. this is where the best teams and players play so everyone wants to get in on it.

each country also holds its own special cup competition in which teams from lower leagues can also enter - in england this is the fa cup, spain the copa del rey, etc. it is also a pretty big deal

now, liverpool: basically we are awesome but in more detail we are the most successful english club in european competition, having won the champions league 5 times (including the most amazing game you will ever watch aka istanbul champions league final 2005). we were the kings of europe and england for ages in the 70s and 80s. however, since the advent of the premier league in 1991, liverpool have not won the title. (we came soooo close this year) despite that, liverpool have the best fans in the world bar none, a captain in steven gerrard who has given everything and then some for his boyhood club, a (relatively newish) manager who has completely brought the team together to play amazing attacking football, some (again relatively newish) owners (the same people that own the red sox) who are providing financial stability that we lacked for a long time, and we are back in the champions league this season after a little absence for a few years so basically we're gonna rock it. our players are amazing and our fans are a family and when you love liverpool you'll never walk alone and ugh ok you will learn more if you start supporting them but it is 12:30 am and i am having trouble containing how much i love them and deciding what is relevant ok

i personally really like la liga and the premier league but i am not going to tell you who to support in the spanish league just bc i want you to decide that one for yourself if you decide to watch it! real madrid are the current champions league title holders (they became the first club to win it 10 times, la décima as they refer to their new trophy!), atletico madrid are the current spanish champions, barcelona are the most successful club in recent history - those are the big three but there are lots of great spanish clubs to like so if you decide to get into it just watch games and you'll figure it out

mls is similar to european football except there is no relegation/promotion and there are conferences and then playoffs for the title so it is a lot like hockey i guess in terms of how it works. i would say support your local team on this one bc you can go to games if you wanted to! (i don't have any teams near me hahaahah :-( )

i don't personally watch the bundesliga bc it kind of bores me bc bayern munich always wins but i've heard it can be fun

there are lots of amazing teams in italy but i do not watch it regularly enough to have a real favorite, same with ligue 1 although i am going to try and watch it more bc of sm caen getting promoted, the portuguese league is getting stronger and stronger and they have some very good teams