Two reasons I chose Chelsea

[Samsung]

I have no connection to football so I used my random criteria to select a home team.

I chose Chelsea because:

1. I like the logo

2. I am Korean and I support Samsung

I was also considering Tottenham Hotspur because one of the rare times I've heard a EPL team referenced was when Steve Nash said he was a Spurs fan.

I'm an American and new to the EPL and football in general. I registered last year but kind of forgot about it and the World Cup rekindled my interest.

I was unfamiliar with the formations and other intricacies of the game but I downloaded and played FIFA 10 on my iPhone recently so I think I have the basics down.

Edited July 28, 2010 by Samsung

[loz]

2. I am Korean and I support Samsung

Do they still play that bizarre 3-4-3 formation?

[Jawan]

I have no connection to football so I used my random criteria to select a home team.

I chose Chelsea because:

1. I like the logo

2. I am Korean and I support Samsung

Gr8 to know that Samsung and Logo are also playing their part in increasing number of Blue Followers :D

[Valerie]

You "chose" Chelsea after considering Spuds? Oh dear....

Welcome though, I suppose :)

[PloKoon13]

I was also considering Tottenham Hotspur

You'll come to learn that rejecting Tottenham was the best decision you ever made.

Welcome.

[Mikstaw]

Hello mate! Welcome to The Shed End!

[Hutch]

a Korean American who almost supported Tottenham but preferred our badge (and let's face it anything is better than that damned cockerel)? i suppose it's possible. but a Korean American (basketball fan?) who doesn't call football soccer - now that's amazing.

[Barry Bridges]

I was also considering Tottenham Hotspur because one of the rare times I've heard a EPL team referenced was when Steve Nash said he was a Spurs fan.

Oddly enough Mr Nash is a part owner of my local club......although that helps to explain why Paul Barber was recently hired to be our CEO(aside from his qualifications)......he was previously a top Exec with the Spurs!

[bluegraham]

I have no connection to football so I used my random criteria to select a home team.

I chose Chelsea because:

1. I like the logo

2. I am Korean and I support Samsung

I was also considering Tottenham Hotspur because one of the rare times I've heard a EPL team referenced was when Steve Nash said he was a Spurs fan.

I'm an American and new to the EPL and football in general. I registered last year but kind of forgot about it and the World Cup rekindled my interest.

I was unfamiliar with the formations and other intricacies of the game but I downloaded and played FIFA 10 on my iPhone recently so I think I have the basics down.

i hope this is a joke.

[BlueNose]

Welcome mate,although a bizarre way to choose your team,i believe you have made the right decision :)

[Phillip]

Welcome, Samsung. I need to ask you an important question about team selection. Since ManUre has S. Korean's captain, Jin-Sung Park, why didn't you consider them? Thankfully, you did not, but I am just curious. He is a hideous runt, but I must admit that his better-styled haircut makes him look a bit better.

[Samsung]

Welcome, Samsung. I need to ask you an important question about team selection. Since ManUre has S. Korean's captain, Jin-Sung Park, why didn't you consider them? Thankfully, you did not, but I am just curious. He is a hideous runt, but I must admit that his better-styled haircut makes him look a bit better.

Hi Phillip, sorry for the late response.

Obviously I'm aware of Park Ji-Sung and root for him but I didn't want to get on the Man U bandwagon. I know a lot of koreans root for them and I tend to go in the opposite direction the crowd goes.

PloKoon13

You'll come to learn that rejecting Tottenham was the best decision you ever made.

Welcome.

Haha, nice.

Edited September 6, 2010 by Samsung

[Phillip]

Thank you, Samsung. I like a contrarian.

[MHL_blue]

Welcome to the Shed End Samsung. It so happens I have south Korean roots myself. I was adopted at the age of 6 months to Norway of all places.

Good to have you on board:-)

Edited September 6, 2010 by MHL_blue

[DannyD]

Welcome, you will be glad you ditched the spuds. I assure you.

[Samsung]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys, very much appreciate it.

Couple of footnotes I'd like to add.

-I saw that ESPN columnist Bill Simmons (also with no roots to EPL) chose Hotspur to be his team. So I really dodged a bullet picking Chelsea instead of the Spurs. Because me rooting for the same team as Bill Simmons, that would be like accidentally marrying my sister.

I'd like to share with you the inspiration for me getting into "soccer". Marc Stein is a NBA columnist (NBA is my first sport) whom I have huge respect for.

http://unprofessionalfoul.blogspot.com/2008/08/interview-with-marc-stein-part-i.html

STEIN: Apologies, again, to anyone who has already been subjected to this sad, geeky, long-winded story.

My brother and I are the first generation in our family born in the States, so footy is the sport my father grew up with in Romania and shared with us. I was first exposed to English football when I was 11. We made frequent trips to Israel to see family in my youth and the only sports publication in English that you could find in the Holy Land in those pre-internet, pre-cable times was SHOOT! For those that don’t know, SHOOT! was a famed kiddie soccer mag that had heavy involvement from all the big England stars of the day and was published mostly on a weekly basis for a good 40 years before meeting its tragic demise in June as yet another victim of the unforgiving world of modern publishing. I will always hold it dear because SHOOT! immediately became my bible to get through the summer. I milked every word out of every issue.

Knowing nothing about the geography or the history of the English game, I was going to have to pick a team some other way from all the names and clubs I was suddenly trying to learn on the fly. On the back cover of my first issue, pictured in stunning sky blue, was City defender Tommy Caton doing a Q&A. City's kit had a strong resemblance to the shirt worn by my AYSO team back in Southern California -- except ours was one of those cheapo light blue mesh shirts with all the little holes and a white v-neck – so that’s the glamorous story of how this City fan was born.

The choice obviously stuck. And in what I consider to be a true sign from above, I made this call without even knowing that City had won the FA Cup in 1969 one day after I was born. Once I eventually discovered that bit of trivia, I realized that me and City were meant to be.

But it was pretty tough to follow English football back here in the States, in my experience, until the early 1990s . . . even though my dear Uncle Josef in Israel arranged for me to receive SHOOT! by mail in California through my teens at a ridiculous cost. As a kid, Toby Charles’ unforgettable broadcasts on Soccer Made In Germany and games in Spanish (starting for me with the 1982 World Cup) were the standout international footy programs I remember watching, overshadowing some sporadic coverage from England on similar UHF stations in SoCal. I more clearly remember subscribing to Sports Channel America (which I think is now basically Fox Sports Net) around 1991 or 1992 (for about $10-12 extra monthly on the cable bill) because they had an English footy highlights show every week. Then the Internet arrived and the world amazingly and mercifully started shrinking. Every season it wonderfully gets a little bit smaller, too. Example: Just in the last month I’ve watched both legs of City’s first UEFA Cup qualifying tie against a tiny team from the Faroe Islands and a preseason friendly against AC Milan on internet feeds that come from I don’t know where. I don’t know that you could have done that as recently as two years ago. I love this game!

In adulthood I'm your basic Premiership snob/geek who can't find much time for the MLS, but I also have an equally deep (and disturbing) love for England's lower divisions. I'd rather watch club football than international football any day of the week and I'd rather watch a League Two or Carling Cup match on Setanta than a La Liga game. Don't ask me to rationalize any of this because I know I'm a freak. I guess I just grew up reading so much about English football -- without actually being able to watch what I was reading about -- that even clubs in England's lower leagues have mystical qualities in my twisted world. City also spent three long seasons in England’s second and third tiers in the late '90s before the club started to rebound, which took me to some remote outposts that only cemented my Football League fetish. Sixfields Stadium in Northampton, for example. I've indeed been there to see City in what is now known as League One; it's one of the roughly 40 or so professional football grounds in England that I've been to in the past decade-plus. Like I said . . . total geek.

How closely do I follow the Premiership now? Closer than I want anyone to know. Closer than my family can stand. Let's just say that no one in the United States finds a way to watch more of the three daily helpings of Sky Sports News that we get over here than me.

Edited September 14, 2010 by Samsung