American Supporters: How Did You Choose Villa?

I’m always interested in finding out how other Americans have chosen the Premier League teams they follow. Actually, let me qualify that: I’m always interested in finding out how American fans have chosen to follow teams other than Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, and Liverpool.

When the team in question is Aston Villa, I want the full story: the first year I blogged here, I interviewed a lot of U.S.-based Villans, some who were born into claret and blue, others who were called to it. (You can find my own personal origin story here.)

In The Howler, Kevin Alexander (Southampton fan since 1999) writes about “American Premier League Fans, and the Surprisingly Nuanced Art of Choosing a Club.” He asked 25 American EPL fans who they support and why. I wish he’d asked me—you can’t get much more nuanced than following Villa. But it’s worth a read, for this response if nothing else:

“Stoke. Because I’m a masochist and enjoyed watching Glenn Whelan foul people. But seriously, it was because I felt like they played American soccer. In that it wasn’t very pretty, but they were going to get the ball in the air and use their athleticism and brute force to make life very tough. Holy shit, am I a Republican?”

How did you start following Villa? Were you born into it, or were you called to it? And if you’re a B6-born Brummie who’s bled claret and blue since the first time you were pricked with a safety pin, how do you feel about Johnny-come-latelies? Are you glad they share your suffering, or do you wish they’d fuck off to let you suffer in peace?

POLL: Would You Sack Tim Sherwood?

Da-da-da-da-da-da. Should he stay or should he go?

Liverpool 3 – Aston Villa 2: Going from Bad to Worse

When you steal two goals at Anfield, you expect to bring a little something home with you

Definitely Not Panicking

I’ll be brief: that was horrible.

Yes, I could be glib and say that we were bound to play poorly at Anfield one of these days, but strangely, it’s getting to be as hard to be funny about Villa as it is to find something new to say about losing yet again.

We were comprehensively outplayed and yet still could have come away with a desperately needed point—had we not let ourselves down with some truly shocking defending on Liverpool’s third goal. I swear, my AYSO teams are better than AVFC right now. (And they at least got the results. Later that day, the U12s won 6-2 and the U10s won 3-1.)

The drop zone: not just a crap movie starring Wesley Snipes and Gary Busey

Aston Villa 1 – Birmingham City 0: The Globe Pub Is Ours

Ten men on their deathbeds–at least as far as our employers are concerned.

Nik: Enjoy the game!
Brian: You don’t enjoy derbies.

A Game of Two Halves

The 2015–16 edition of Aston Villa clearly has more potential than last year’s model—but while they suffer a historically bad start in league play, a key question is whether they can realize that potential. And with Sherwood’s managerial tactics clearly at fault in a a couple of games, another question is whether he would learn from his mistakes before it was too late.

Fortunately, the old cliche—it’s a game of two halves—is rooted in actual fact. If yesterday’s League Cup game against Birmingham City had consisted only of the first half, I’m not sure extra time and penalties would have been sufficient to determine a result. They might still be playing. In fact, I’m not entirely sure that, due to some ripple in the space-time continuum, there isn’t an alternate universe in which they are still playing an ugly, uninspired game for 18 hours and counting.

Aston Villa 0 – West Brom 1: Great, Now Even Chelsea Are Better Than Us

All Is Darkness

It’s not the end of the world…yet.

An 0-1 loss at home in a game we desperately needed to win. That’s 4 points from 6 games, for those of you who track such arcane statistics. At this rate, we’re on track to finish the season with 25 points and a one-way ticket to the Championship. All that while scoring a whopping 1 goal per game!

You could argue that we’ve faced reasonably stiff opposition. Of the 5 teams that have beaten us, 3 are currently in the top 8. (Manchester United in 2nd place, Crystal Palace in 8th, Leicester City in 4th.) But then picture our draw against last-place Sunderland, and try not to think of all the tough teams we have yet to play.

Leicester City 3 – Aston Villa 2: Two-Nil and We F*cked It Up

Whose Fault Is It This Time?

Tim Sherwood conducts the Symphony of the Damned (click to see)

OK, we all agree that this year’s Villa is more creative, more talented, and more fun to watch than the previous several editions. But when will that translate into actual results? Yesterday’s result was such a gut-punch that I’m tempted to bring back my “how badly does it hurt” poll. But instead, let me offer a different survey.