Teams in other leagues you watch out for

The Backwards Man

I'm sitting here watching Chapecoense in the Recopa when I should be working in the morning, would have had a soft spot for them before the crash that was massively intensified afterwards, and maybe I'm a big romantic at heart, but they're not the only club whose results I look out for, beyond Newcastle and Finn Harps.

Others include;

Tromso: Most northerly top flight club in the world, must be a nightmare to attract players there.

Luch Vladivostok: Every away game must require a Herculean logistical endeavour

Hamburg: Only German side never to be relegated, although they try their best every season

Wellington Phoenix: same as Vladivostok

Seattle Sounders: Have the fanbase to be a world leader if they played in a different country

Colo Colo: Just something about the Native American engraved in the stand

Faeroe national team: Always punch way above their weight

Who do you look out for?

Phoenix Wright

Yeovil Town. I remember it well, though it really shows how much easier it is to follow football nowadays. Sorry in advance for the length of this. I wonder if anyone else has a story like it.

It was when I first started watching football and Liverpool were drawn with Yeovil in the FA cup. They were a conference team and I was nine, so of course I had predicted we would beat them 10-0. I was pretty excited about the match, but I knew I had to go to my grandmother's and that I wouldn't be able to watch it. Instead, I set it to record on our vcr at home. I got one of those custom vcr covers you could get back then and drew out a custom cover and hastily titled it "The Thrashing".

I followed the match throughout on P. 316 of ceefax teletext and was fully convinced that there were glitches when there were no goals at seventy minutes. Heskey and Danny Murphy ended up scoring before the end, though needless to say I tore up the cover pretty quick when I got home.

Ever since then, I've always kept an eye out for Yeovil when watching Soccer Saturday. They got promoted two seasons in a row, stayed in League 1 for about seven or eight years. Then they made it to the championship for a season, before suffering two consecutive relegations. They are now languishing close to the relegation places in League Two, and so have nearly gone full circle since I started following them!

Arghus

Ajax. One of the first great teams I remember watching on tv - in fits and starts of course! - was the that 1995 team they had. Jari Litmanen was the coolest. So I've always had a soft spot in my heart for them ever since.

Cake Man

Usually any club with a few Irish players, at the moment that's Preston amongst a few others (Burnley - Ward, Hendrick, Brady). Before it used to be Sunderland when Keane was involved there, Ipswich recently, Reading when Doyle, Long and Hunts x2 were there, Norwich when Brady and Hoolahan were both there.

dfx-

European teams who Rovers have played or those played in Tallaght recently usually to varying extents or grounds I've been to for whatever reason...

SK Brann
Rubin Kazan
PAOK
1860 Munich, I went to their home games when I lived in Munich for a bit.

Athletico Madrid regulary for the last few years (Alot of that because of quality that is Greizmann)
Celtic a fair bit as couple of my m8s are hardcore fans so I watch alot of the games
Aston Villa^ Same as the Celtic Reason
Besiktas ^Again same as the Celtic Reason

helimachoptor

I'd follow the sounder''s mainly because I was in settle a couple of times and a friend moved over and he's a big fan

You're right on their fan Base they're a fantastic bunch

Tom Mann Centuria

Lovely cuddly (said no one ever) Portadown, worked there for 2 years, used to go to Shamrock Park most home games, including the glorious failures in European games.

Hayes and Yeading in English Non-League football, brother follows them home and away.

Portland Timbers because they have a lumberjack cutting slices of tree during the game.

Cowdenbeath, Scottish Division 2 strugglers, because my other brother goes to see them (very occasionally) and is friendly with a good few of their fans. And they're the Blue Brasil ffs!

dan1895

A couple of teams mainly because I've gone to a game while on holiday and liked the fans or the way the team played.

FC Utrecht - Van Wolfswinkel came on as a half time sub to change the game against NEC Nijgemen. There was a lot of noise about him at the time and think he scored a hatrick against Celtic in the Europa soon after. Went to Norwich, scored on his debut and got injured.

HSV as mentioned above. Saw them beat then champions Borrussua Dortmund 3-2 in their first win of the season. Lots of beer drank during that game.

Toronto FC. Went to a game over there because of the novelty of going to a game in a place that doesn't have a strong soccer culture. Had a blast at the game. Lots of beer drank despite the beer being bud and the temperature being below zero.

Lovely Bloke

Was a regular at Sydney FC for the first season of the A League, so try to watch out for them and the A League is covered on BT Sport now, so that's nice.

Other clubs I "watch out for" would be clubs I've actually been to see play - Hertha Berlin, Stenhousemuir, Carmarthen Town, Manchester United.

eagle eye

I'd consider myself a bit of a fan of Athletic Club who are one of three clubs never relegated from La Liga along with Barca and Real Madrid. I like the policy of only signing players who have been in the Basque region before their 18th birthday. I got interested in them because of my interest in the Basque region and the genetic similarities between them and Irish people.

I like Independiente of Argentina. This club has been through a rough time over the past decade. They have won more Copa Libertadores than anybody else and while people always talk about River Plate and Boca Juniors I just have a real liking for Independiente. I love the sound of the roar from the stands when they score a goal.

keano_afc

Preston are my second love after Arsenal. We played them in the cup back in 98 and I've watched out for them ever since. Even better now that there's a big Irish contingent at Deepdale. Late playoff push this season hopefully.

Fr Tod Umptious

Barnet.

Lived in the area when were trying to get into the league in the early 90s.

Have the 1992 home shirt, somewhere.

Captain Havoc

Outside of Ireland, I follow West Ham in England because my brother moved to Upton Park when I was 11. I moved around a bit when I was in my twenties and I still look out for the clubs I used to go and watch: Lausanne Sports in Switzerland, PSG and Birmingham City.

Omackeral

helimachoptor wrote: »

I'd follow the sounder''s mainly because I was in settle a couple of times and a friend moved over and he's a big fan

You're right on their fan Base they're a fantastic bunch

Except for this absolute plonker. Watch the video below if you've never seen, utter cringe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG-jMjvnua8

major bill

Few teams I'd watch out for

Nottingham Forest - been over a few times, was there when they won promotion against Yeovil in 2008 to get back into the Championship, some city for the Football and a great night out.

Hibernian - Know a few people that support them from Scotland, good club with possibly one of the best football anthems in ''sunshine on Leith''

Soft spot for Barnet and Burton as been to see them in the Conference a couple of times.

Mars Bar

Preston. My sister has been living there for 4 years so I've been keeping an eye in them. Even more interested now with the two Galway lads there.

Watford. Lived there for a short while as an infant.

Reggina in Italy. My greatest ever football manager save was with them. Unfortunately they are way down and struggling now.

EDIT: Forgot L.A Galaxy. Saw them play three times when I spent seven weeks in Southern California.

Hammer Archer

Main ones are F91 Dudelange (after UCD met them in the Europa League a couple of years ago), Bristol Rovers (OH's family are all fans) and VfB Stuttgart (visited the city a few times and went to games).

Jelle1880

I kinda have a team I look out for or go to their games in a few countries.

Italy: Lazio. Went to the derby once when they were the home team and I was sold. Such a fantastic experience totally different from what I was used to

Germany: I kinda of look out for HSV's results, but because I lived in Berlin my main team there would be Union.

England: West Ham

Scotland: Rangers

Then there's a few other clubs I want to do well, but won't really be bothered if they lose.

pablomakaveli

I like to keep an eye on Plymouth since their my girlfriends team. Her brother supports Portsmouth who are in the same division which makes things interesting.

Oat23

Arminia Bielefeld (fan friendship), Offenbacher Kickers (football manager), VfL Bochum & Union Berlin in Germany. Not sure what attracted me to the latter two. Just like the clubs and it's really easy to keep up with them watching the 2.Bundesliga simulcast.

Portsmouth - Ex-Sligo Rovers manager is in charge there.

Real Oviedo because I bought a share a few years ago to help out. Then that rich Mexican fella invested and made my investment meaningless!

Gamba Osaka as I was a regular at their old ground for a short time and fell in love with Endo. Still going strong at 37.

Sao Paulo - Uncle lives in the state and sent me a jersey when I was a kid.

Zamalek - Played for them as a kid.

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Hamburg: Only German side never to be relegated, although they try their best every season

dan1895 wrote: »

HSV as mentioned above. Saw them beat then champions Borrussua Dortmund 3-2 in their first win of the season. Lots of beer drank during that game.

Jelle1880 wrote: »

Germany: I kinda of look out for HSV's results

A few more and we can start a Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread :pac:

Harry Palmr

Used to be Dortmund and then we got their manager and my interest ceased.

Lovely Bloke

Oat23 wrote: »

Zamalek - Played for them as a kid.

Ha, I do a lot of dealings with Egyptians and most of them are Al Ahly, so to wind them up I started saying I followed Zamalek in Egypt, just for the laugh, turned out one guy is Zamalek, and our on-site person from Ireland lives in the area too.

The next time I'm over, and if fans are allowed, and if there's a match on he's going to take me to a game.

I never knew you were from Cairo (are you?). Lovely city, and really warm lovely people.

I love that place.

Ulysses Gaze

Napoli - Because of Maradona.

Betis - Watched the great team they had in the 1990's with Alfonso, Robert Jarni, Oli, Finidi George and Denilson. Great team to watch back then - not so much now. But I'll watch them if they are on Sky Sports and also keep an eye on their results. Have been out to Seville to see them a few times as well but that was 10/15 years ago now. Seville derby was the best game I've been to in terms of atmosphere.

Las Palmas - When I was on holidays, went to see them play a friendly at their old Estadio Insular stadium. A bomb-site of a ground, but a fantastic atmosphere.

Oat23

Lovely Bloke wrote: »

Ha, I do a lot of dealings with Egyptians and most of them are Al Ahly, so to wind them up I started saying I followed Zamalek in Egypt, just for the laugh, turned out one guy is Zamalek, and our on-site person from Ireland lives in the area too.

The next time I'm over, and if fans are allowed, and if there's a match on he's going to take me to a game.

I never knew you were from Cairo (are you?). Lovely city, and really warm lovely people.

I love that place.

Half Egyptian but I was born here. We moved to Egypt for my dad's work when I was young and my first memories are of living in Giza. Love Cairo and it's sad it took such a huge hit tourist-wise after the revolution as it's beautiful. My family & friends are still struggling because of the lack of tourism (think it's around 30% of what it was pre-2011). The people are great though and my relatives are jealous at how well I get treated when we are out. People think I'm a foreign guest since I don't look Egyptian. :cool:

Of course the downside to being mistaken for a tourist is people are always trying to sell me watches and king tut sh*te wherever I go.

Lovely Bloke

What happened to the currency in the last while is shocking, people took a huge hit on real wages and stuff (great for my company, we save 200k+ a month on the back of it).

I stayed in Mena House, out beside the Pyramids, the last time I was over, got upgraded into a Suite too, unbelievable hotel.

That same Zamalek fan took a couple of us out into proper Cairo for a night, I was beyond shocked to find myself in a pub, with a guy walking around with cold beers, clanging them with a bottle opener and asking who wanted more - and it was mostly locals in there.

the best part of the trip was when, on the Friday morning after Mosque, the lads arrived into work with a huge amount of food they'd gotten from a street vendor, all kinds of falafal, hummus and other dips and flat breads, that was the best meal I had over there, proper sitting around a table with everyone just grabbing what they want.

Anyway.

'Mon Zamalek!!

Bridge93

Newcastle and UCD would be my two clubs but I always look out for:

AC Milan
Sporting Lisbon
LA Galaxy
Ajax
Dortmund
Chester
Sydney FC

irishguitarlad

Aston villa
I lived in Brum and I went to see them a few times.

Real Betis
Have been living in Seville the last two years now and have seen them olay a few times. Fantastic/fans stadium, they're definitely a sleeping giant of Spanish Football.

Fiorentina
I remember when I was a young lad watching batistuta and edmundo destroy defences.

padd b1975

Crewe Alexandra.

I would often be weekended in the truck stop close to their ground.
Over the last three years I've witnessed some unbelievable rubbish on the pitch and top class gallows humour from the home support off it.

They're currently towards the bottom end of League 2 having been relegated last season.
The standard in that division would be noticeably worse than league of Ireland, even the better teams are pretty limited.

HalloweenJack

Wanderers are my first team, got into them through a passionate fan who turned me into one. I had always had a passing interest in the LOI so it was natural enough to start following my local side.

Chelsea because when I was in primary noone followed the LOI, everyone followed English teams. I was fairly undecided about picking a team til I saw Zola playing and that was the team for me.

Atletico Madrid because I lived fairly close to the stadium for a while and loved the atmosphere of the games. It was also around the time of the beginning of their recent resurgence so it was easy to hop on the bandwagon.

Zbrojovka Brno because I lived there for a bit and went to a few of their matches, same for Cordoba.

Because of friend and family connections, I also keep an eye out for the scores of Aberdeen, Fluminense, VPS in Finland, Rayo Vallecano.

Then just random clubs that I picked up on: Porto, Schalke, Inter, Marseille, think blue is the common denominator.

There's also dozens more random teams that I played with on FM and FIFA and it gives me a warm feeling if I ever see their name pop up.

Salmon Leap

Outside of the Republic:

Glentoran

Cercle Bruges

Celtic
Montrose

Leeds United

LA Galaxy

St Etienne

Panathainikos

Ardennes1944

Living in Basel, Basel (to see how many points they are ahead this season)

Cobh Ramblers cos I used to go to a lot of their games

Hamburg for reasons mentioned before, to see if they're still just about surviving.

Freiburg cos they are our "local" German team

SuperTortoise

Inter Milan because i had a soft spot for them in the late 90's, used to keep an eye on Halifax and Barnet as well in the past solely because of an epic championship manager run i had with both teams!

paulie21

Some strange ones

Donegal Celtic: Use think it was weird as a kid that a team from the Republic was playing in the Northern Ireland league. They're actually from Belfast

Forest Green: They always seemed to be battling relegation from the conference but always just about stayed up.

Then few bigger clubs like Dortmund and Inter. Brother has friends from Rotterdam and he goes Feyenoord games regularly so watch out for them too

Mushy

Atletico, based solely on championship Manager!

razorblunt

Hibs, I live in Edinburgh so I often go along with friends who are fans.
In the interest of balance I went to see Hearts a few times too but the football was absolute garbage each time (this was about 8 years ago).

Leeds - their my Dad's team. Though I know they do well as he'll text me, no text on a Saturday means they lost!

v3ttel

Sheffield Wednesday (always like their name & jerseys when I was a child)

Oldham Athletic (good childhood memories of them being in the Premier League)

Sporting Lisbon (always produce exciting players)

Atletico Madrid (started to watch them a lot when Diego Forlan went there)

AC Milan (historic club, sad to see how far they have fallen)

Roma (Not sure why, but always had a soft spot for them)

Toobz

Hyde FC due to their twitter during their awful 2014/2015 season!

https://www.fabric.co.uk/blog/hyde-fc-the-conference-side-with-a-premier-league-twitter-account

grumpymunster

Chelsea & Brentford as I lived near both and seen them play so many times

Eintracht Trier first Bundesliga ground I ever went to

Nuremberg first Bundesliga 1 ground I went to

Guingamp saw them play PSG in Paris a few years back and just liked them

Salzburg & Brugges because I just love to visit them

ShamoBuc

First match in England I went to was at Ashton Gate in the Bristol Derby. Cracking atmosphere with a riot between the fans post match, left an impression! Especially as it was a pre season friendly. Went into the away end by accident, raw 17 yr old in the late eighties, so I have always kept an eye on Bristol Rovers .

billyhead

Preston NE are my second team after Man United. Have followed them for years. Its great they have the Irish contingent their now aswell and they may get into a play off game this season. Only problem is I would always follow United if both teams played each other.

LeeJM

Sheffield Wednesday - Will forever be my "2nd team" behind MUFC. Memories of their early to mid 90s team with Chris Woods, Roland Nilsson, John Sheridan, Chris Waddle, David Hirst etc. just make me smile. Always have fantastic kits too.

AC Milan - Again its memories of the early 90s and watching that legendary Milan team. The 1994 European Cup final will be a game I never forget and then getting to see them nearly every other Sunday on C4. Great time to be growing up as a football fan.

Others that I wouldnt have as much of an attachment to but still raise a smile when I see them doing well ; Shels, Real Mallorca, Auxerre and Ajax.