Soccer on the radio

Saturday night I did something that I never, in a million years, thought I would do. I listened to a soccer game on the radio.

Now I've listened to baseball, basketball and of course football, but if you would have asked me a year ago if I'd ever listen to a soccer game, I'd have said, "Heck no!"

But between then and now, here's what changed. Seattle got a team. It gave me a reason to start caring about soccer.

Brandon and I were talking about this a few weeks back, as he never cared about it either until now. I care about it now, because I have a team to root for and cheer for.

The best comparison that I can have for this is NASCAR. All growing up I thought that this was the dumbest sport ever. But then Kasey Kahne got into it. Kahne is from Enumclaw, Washington (the neighbor town to Buckley, Washington where I'm from) so I started to root for the local kid. Then I started watching races. I started learning how the scoring is done. I started learning about different aspects of the race, airflow, pit crews and racing strategy. Slowly I started caring about NASCAR.

The reason for this was that I had something to really root for. Before Kahne I didn't care and I didn't want to take the time to learn. So it was just easier for me to say the sport was dumb then to open my eyes to it.

The same result happened with soccer. I always thought the sport was alright, but sure wasn't going to care about it. Expessially not listen to a game on the radio.

But since the Sounders FC has come around, I have a team to root for. I'm starting to learn the players. I've learned how offsides works. I've learned a lot about the game, and am still learning. It took Seattle getting a team to open my eyes to the sport.

Brandon and I were also talking about the NHL. If Seattle had a team, I'd care about it a whole lot more. Hockey is alright. But I don't have any team that I root for, so I often just forget about the sport.

In order to care about any sport, you have to have a team that you really care about. Ask anyone that likes football. They'll have a favorite team. You don't just like a sport simply for liking it.

I love football and will watch any type (college, pro or high school. I love high school football, it's so basic) and yet, I have my favorite teams (UW, Seattle and good ol' White River High School). This holds true for any fan of any sport.

What sports teams do you root for?

Oh, and check out Scarf Seattle for some good photos, like the one above, of Sounders FC fans showing their scarves around the city.