September 1st, 2008

Hey all. I'm Ally, a senior majoring in Journalism and Studio Art at Iowa. I'm a small-town girl from Wisconsin and I grew up loving everything sports related.

I played all different kinds sports from an early age, however the one I found I loved the most was soccer. For 17 years I played on all sorts of club and school teams, learning just about everything there is to know about soccer from a whole slew of world-class coaches.

In my blog, I will merge my love for the game with my knowledge of the sport to talk about the happenings of the European soccer leagues (mostly in Spain, England and Italy). Along with talking about current events in the league, I will also include my opinions about matches, players and the leagues in general.

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For my first blog entry I figured I'd briefly explain why I picked to talk about the European leagues over MLS (the US soccer league).

Although it's hard to believe, soccer is the most popular sport in the world. I only say it's hard to believe because of the domination of other sports in the US like baseball, basketball and football.

This dominance has caused the spread of soccer to be kept at a minimum in the US, with many kids only playing until they're to big to fit into the YMCA uniforms. Some of the lucky kids keep going, but only if they're rich or good enough to get onto the club teams. When you grow up in the US you don't see Landon Donovan and Damarcus Beasley playing one via one on the field, you see the mainstream sports. Only the one's that are televised. Kids don't want to grow up to be Michael Owen, they want to be Michael Jordan. This lack of appreciation and knowledge for the sport of soccer in the US is one of the main reasons why I chose to talk about the European leagues.

Europe is the believed to be the birth place of soccer. Take people in the US' excitement about the Chicago Cubs or Los Angeles Lakers and multiply that by 1000. That equals the fan's hype about soccer in Europe and even South and Central America.

But the hype isn't for nothing. The world's top players all play in Europe (with the exception of the overrated David Beckham). Ronaldinho on AC Milan. Robinho on Manchester City (previously on Real Madrid). Robin Van Persie and Eduardo on Arsenal. The list goes on and on.

Put any club team in Europe against any MLS team and 99.9% of the time you're going to see the European team run away with a victory.

With the premiere soccer teams, coaches and fans in Europe, it was an easy decision to make.

The US just doesn't compare.