The idea of a soccer "derby" eluded me when I was younger. Not only because I heard it as a "dArby", but also because American announcers would always make a point to distance it from our petty little rivalries in the US. Derbies are a rivalry, but fueled by years of bad blood and proximity - where immense soccer fervor allowed multiple teams to pop up within a few miles of each other.

Have you ever converted a soccer hater to a soccer lover? Or how about converting a disinterested sports fan into a soccer nut? If you have, share your story in the comments section below. It took me 10 years but ...
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For the first time in franchise history, the Houston Texans have made it to the NFL Playoffs. On Saturday January 7, 2012, the Texans hosted their first ever Playoff game at Reliant Stadium, and prior to that game there was an indication that the Texans' front office had paid attention to the tifo displays that have occurred down the road at Robertson Stadium, former home of the Houston Dynamo, because, as evidenced by the above picture, they managed to orchestrate a tifo display worthy of any major football club in Europe.

We've got a good friend who's a big sports fan, but mostly of the traditional American variety: primarily basketball and football, both college and pro.

MARIO BALOTELLI!!!

We asked him if he'd ever thought about watching some soccer, and he said what it would take would be a compelling player for him to follow.

Is it necessary to have 70,000 seat stadiums? Can 50-55,000 do the trick?
It's common knowledge that people aren't always in the mood to rush out to the stadium fighting traffic, paying parking and high ticket prices.

He may not have any role. He may not be asked to participate.
There is, though, a possibility that Bob Costas will have something to say for MLS broadcasts on NBC in 2012.
He'd probably look forward to the challenge.

We're a fan of Deadspin. Really, name a sports fan who isn't. With that in mind, it's certainly notable that Deadspin Editor-in-Chief has been promoted to the Editor-in-Chief of all of Gawker. To replace AJ Daulerio on Deadspin, the company pegged Tommy Craggs.

AJ Daulerio has pushed Deadspin into being arguably the largest and most important sports blog in the world.

Fandom in the Houston sports scene is a terrifying thing. In my brief...yet painful...22 years as a Houston sports fan, I have developed a devotion as intense as it is self-destructive. Crack addicts have an easier time dealing with their addictions. And while my housemates have yet to find me curled in a dark corner, I must admit that I've audibly offered favors to referees for a little "bump".

MLS is good enough, talent-wise, to be more popular with sports fans in the U.S. than the English Premier League and other world leagues.
Even though these other leagues may have superstar players and better overall play from top tier teams, sports fans should be able to have a deeper appreciation for MLS due to the history of outstanding relationships built by American sports teams.

Aggregate scoring are foreign words to U.S. sports fans. Generally speaking, they have no idea what it means and its existence is one more distance marker between them and Soccer.
A win in the first game has no bearing on the outcome of which team moves forward to the next round of the playoffs.

Now, with the cat out of the bag, strategy becomes the tallest of orders. FOX Sports has won the World Cup broadcasts for 2018 and 2022 and now must figure out how to engage sports fans to ensure they tune in.

Excitement for sports fans ran deep Thursday night as two thrilling events were unfolding at the same time.
The St. Louis Cardinals and LA Galaxy both took a 1-0 lead in their respective contests. But, the teams went separate ways soon after their scores. The Cardinals lost their slim lead and the game, 2-1 in the ninth, and now have their series even at one game a piece.

In The Fan In You (TFIY) series, TSG explores how a fan became fanatical about their favorite team. This piece about the sport itself.

Arguably Benfica's greatest....Eusebio...

By: RJ DeMello

The beautiful game enveloped me completely in the summer of 2006.

It is a pretty common theme, at least in the American soccer press, that a team is only as good as the talismanic superstar forward it may or may not have. With regards to the national team, we have heard quite a bit about how the key to the USMNT becoming a global power is that they need a "Lionel Messi" (a notion that is utterly preposterous, quite frankly).

As part of an ongoing effort to share the stories of more soccer fans out there, Kristen Gehrke shares her tale of becoming a Timber's fan. If you have a story that you'd like to share, head over to the "Contribute" page.
I was asked recently, probably after an especially raucous Timbers-related rant, how I came to soccer.

The Need For Advanced Football Stats - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

As a sports fan living in America, you're bombarded with statistics of increasing complexity across every sport except football (or soccer, as the US calls it). Media analysis of football still relies on the same statistics we've seen for years, which are generally cumulative totals.

Post by Pedro Gomes- Most of us remember the after school PSA commercial about drugs that ended with one kid asking another, "What are you chicken?" and the other replying with "I'm not a chicken, you're a Turkey." Then turns away from the peer-pressuring dope dealer and walks off triumphantly.

Holidays are not really holidays in Major League Soccer. Or, holidays are truly treated as holidays in MLS. Depends on one's outlook. A sports fan might think the latter, but wishes it weren't true.
There is one match scheduled for Labor Day. It's a good one, with Donovan and Beckham leading the charge against the upstart Sporting KC squad in its newest, state-of-the-art Soccer specific stadium.

This design could best accommodate the sporting public's thirst for more consistent drama and contemporary strategies in Soccer.
New American-style Rules compliment the field's look and extract as much common sense as possible.

Imagine, if you will, a meticulously tended field of grass carved into the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains in the northeast of Mexico. It is home to the champions in the sport of soccer for all the lands from the far tundra of Nunavut to the sweltering jungles of Guyana - a team of millionaires and superstars who each bear a household name in a land where their sport is king.

Call them showboats or call them fluff, call them arrogant or call them hype. It doesn't matter because these athletes produced. Andre Agassi, Dennis Rodman and Deion Sanders gave the sporting public some of the best drama of all time.

#26, 2nd Baseman for the Atlanta Braves, Dan UgglaDan Uggla, a journeyman second baseman for the Atlanta Braves, is in the midst of a quality hit streak. He reached 33 games on Saturday. The streak is allowing him to become a household name among sports fans.
The hit streak was made famous by Joe DiMaggio, who was able to hit safely in 56 games.

When Freddy Adu joined DC United at 14 years old, both he and Peter Nowak were under a tremendous amount of pressure. The teenaged sensation took multiple trips around the television talk show circuit, he participated in several 'next big thing' marketing campaigns including a soft drink commercial with Pele, and somehow found time to play professional soccer against men twice his age (and size).

On one hand, it's great some of the best club teams in the world come to the U.S. to play MLS teams as warm-ups for their own leagues. These teams are in their early-season practices getting ready for their respective seasons and U.S. Soccer fans are treated to seeing some of the world's best Soccer players.

On the face of it, Mario Balotelli is exactly the type of player I, as a thoroughbred American sports fan, should hate: an aloof, cold, joyless sourpuss who even at twenty years old possesses the trappings of a career mercenary. When Super Mario...
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Poetic Justice. After a grueling and dramatic race against Brazil, referees, and time, the USA Women's National Team made unforgettable history. If you missed the match and your a sports fan in even the smallest measure, then you missed the essence of sport. You better watch the replay, for this will forever be one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the game.

MLS is in a constant psychological battle for relevance with and against the 'big four' (basket, football, base and hockey), and must consider all angles to growing the sport's popularity with the masses. Without question, all the sports must battle each other for the sports fan's attention because without relevance among sports fans, the bottom line is at risk.

The 2011 NBA Draft will be remembered as a sluggish event with unrecognizable athletes being celebrated and then ushered into a league headed towards a lockout. This draft was filled with fanfare, but not anybody worthy of it.
Was this the beginning of something bigger and scarier for the NBA?

Before we begin, let's all shake our righteous heads at hockey hooligans. Although I can understand Vancouver fans being upset - I didn't even know UCLA had a hockey team.
Back to Gold Cup coverage. We have a special guest here on the blog - sports fan and dictator, Fidel Sarcastro. Nice to have you with us, Fidel!

On a daily basis, it seems like there's something new to learn about the world order of Soccer. Even ardent fans to the sport can agree, the depth and intricacy of it all, takes time to learn and digest. There may be a handy Dummy's or Idiot's guide to professional and world soccer available, but what if a sports fan doesn't have the time to read all the details, who can explain it all to them?

The next 'Chosen One', Javier Hernandez (Chicharito)It's a great feeling to be a Soccer fan. It gives the U.S. sports fan that many more options. I'm able to watch an intriguing, unpredictable NBA Finals and check in on Gold Cup matches during time-outs.
As a recent Soccer convert, I haven't been able to watch too many Gold Cups in my life, so there aren't many memories to build on.

Sports fandom is a peculiar portion of our existence. Being a sports fan is going to leave you heartbroken more often than not. No matter what league you follow or team you root for, odds are you may go your entire life without seeing your team win...
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In July of 2009, one of my good friends from Philly came with me to Foxboro for a Gold Cup/MLS tripleheader. I relayed his thoughts about that Saturday afternoon here. His experience drew a fair amount of comments. With the Gold Cup now drawing crowds to stadiums around the country, we thought it worth revisiting what he thought then and thinking about what is happening now.

Do we have Benjamin Massey on suicide watch? His Eighty-Six Forever blog hasn't been updated since before the USMNT played Canada in the Gold Cup.

You could understand him being a little down, along with every other sports fan in Vansterdam. In the finals of the Official Sport of Canada™, the Canucks were crushed by the Boston Bruins 8-1 to make it a series and threaten to continue a streak that hasn't seen a Stanley Cup champion from the country that invented the game since 1993.

Zac Wassink of Yahoo Sports writes of what's wrong with the Fox Soccer Channel's Soccer Night in America.

There's an old Boy Meets World episode where Cory surprises Topanga while the latter is babysitting. The young boy being babysat eventually introduces himself to Cory, and explains that he would like to stay up until 9:30 to watch his favorite show.

Roof goes here.Ask Toronto FC supporters what is wrong with the failing, and seemingly flailing, club right now and many will give an arms-length list of problems dressed in red kits or holding clipboards. In a season where on-field successes have been few and far between, it is hard to fault the average member of BMO Field's faithful for pointing at the pitch and screaming in exasperated frustration.

My fellow American soccer fans....
There comes a time in every soccer fan's life when they must ask him or herself, "Have I done enough to further the sport in my country?" For millions if not billions of people around the world the answer is a resounding "yes" and the task is done. Soccer has established itself as a cultural bulwark and the passion of a people in dozens of countries.

As MLS continues its battles for American mainstream status, it must always look to stay relative in the sports fan's consciousness. Scheduling games on Memorial Day is a no-brainer. It is a day of reflection, a day of remembrance and a day off from work. It is the perfect day to create new memories.

On Saturday, we indulge in the pleasures of the beautiful game. On Sunday, we wake up with a global headache.
A collective romance with fair play grounds the entertainment value of sporting events. We love the idea of a level playing field, stories in which the best competitor wins, or in which the well-played match is its own reward.

Do you consider yourself a sports fan? Yes, I do.
Do you consider yourself a U.S. sports fan? Yes.
Do you like sports from other parts of the world? Yes, but I'm more inclined to watch if its played locally or if its something I can catch all the time so I can stay in front of it.