Aficionado extraordinario

Really I'm not a "true" life-long fan, but getting moreso. Last summer I wrote several entries on my growing enthusiasm for the World Cup, and my more recent experiences have led me to more closely follow 'el juego bonito'. I just upped for the 'SportsPak' on the dish, so now we have Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV and FSE. While I harbor no illusions that futbol is any cleaner than cycling, football or baseball, because we're less immersed in the "intrigue" here in the States than in other places, I can watch a feel a bit more innocently. Fact is for you cycling fans, what is there to root for? Disco? er, nothing there. Phloyd? er, no. Levi? please. Basso is obviously a no go. Gimme some favorites. Valverde? can anyone say "Puerto"? Vino? See the articles about the "men in black"? Is there any chance Vino is cleaner than, say, Jan or Basso? This guy's a Tour champion? Pereiro? Last summer I was done b/c I was disappointed; now I'm done b/c there isn't anything to really root for. The pundits have been saying that Cycling is driving itself into irrelevance and at first I thought it was just pro-American, jingoist "this stuff don't happen in football", but I'm thinking it's pretty irrelevant at the moment.

And that's why I've become more interested in Futbol. and the boys have too, so it's fun.

And I decided to add this map b/c Me gustan los mapas.

This is apparently a map of the G-14, the 14 big historical clubs in Euro futbol. I don't know how many I can name without looking them up, but I'm going to try:

Spain- I can get these!: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia
Portugal: either Benfica, or Porto .
England: Man U, Arsenal, and either Liverpool or Chelsea
France: Olympique Lyon, Marsellaise, one in Paris, no clue- St. Germain
Italy: Juventus, AC Milan, Inter (perhaps)
Germany: Bayern Munich and Bayern Leverkusen- Borussia Dortmund
Nederlands: PSV Eindhoven, Ajax

I'm out after that. I've now looked them up and I'm going to redmark the wrong ones and blue mark the changes. Not bad. had to add 3 and take away 2, of which now they're as or stronger than the "G-14". I'll go find something more constructive to do now.