Welcome to the world of football! Please don't be shy, as most of us don't bite, and will be happy to help you on your road. The good news today is that it is so much easier to watch and get to grips with the game than it ever was here in the US, and between there being a team here in Louisville and it being a Women's World Cup year (it's in Canada and the US are hopeful of winning) and a Gold Cup year (12 Caribbean, North & Central American international teams, the favorites being the Mexican and US Men's National Team), you are in luck!
The best thing to do is to play it, ideally with people who are treating it the same way you are, be that playing socially or competitively. I hope that there may be a few Coopers kick-abouts during the Summer, but there are already some good co-ed games being organised over facebook through the Louisville Soccer group. All you need is space and a ball, and the most rudimentary idea of the rules - that's how I learned to play back in Europe - offside was never a thing when you are 7 years old during a break in school.
Watching the game live and in the flesh is the best way to watch it. TV is helpful, but you can see so much more of the game when you are present, how they line up, who does the leading, where they move - the off the ball stuff is probably more intriguing when you know the game a bit better. If it is a team with supporters, the atmosphere that they create is unparallelable - if not, you can generally hear the players and the coaches roaring, and you can learn a lot from that, if only some new and unusually colourful metaphors (you can be booked for cursing depending on the ref, so linguistic innovation becomes a thing).
A lot of games are on TV - depending on how you get your TV, you can get games almost around the clock. NBCSN have most of the English club games (and NBC proper show one game a week on a Saturday), Gol have many of the Uruguayan ones. Fox 1 and 2 have European Club continental competition, while Fox Deportes have the South American equivalent. Even ESPN has a daily soccer show called ESPN FC (after the English habit of suffixing teams with "Football Club").
The good news is that youtube makes it a lot easier to delve into it all. You know all about games being streamed there, but you can also catch up on things like the history of world cups, player skills, impressive fan displays, great goals, etc. I remember being lent a VHS of the 1982 WC as I was trying to learn more a million years ago - right now you can access that one and more besides on yt. Maybe have a look at the 1994 one, which was in the US -
- it's also an introduction to the International game between the nations.
Podcasts are always a good insight into how people watch it, and what people think is good and bad. Obviously, we are going to promote the Coopers' podcasts. Barrel Proof deals with Louisville City, the US Men's National Team, and the bigger topics of the day: you can get it on iTunes now, or on our webpage
www.louisvillecoopers.com ; Louisville also has a 4th tier team called Derby City Rovers, and the Coopers chapter that supports them (The Boarding Crew) has a podcast called Two Legged Tie, where they talk about DCR topics, and philosophical or historical aspects of the game - you can find that on the Boarding Crew's facebook page. I like the BBC's World Service World Football podcast, and their World Football Phone In. MLS has Extra Time Radio that does interesting interviews, but also has one of the heels of American football journalism too. If you like English football, the Guardian's Football Weekly podcast is good.
There are so many books it is scarey, and they cover every aspect. Right now I am reading Inverting The Pyramid, about how tactics have changed - you probably need to know a bit more first, so maybe try the Soccer For Dummies or David Goldblatt's The Soccer Book - they are both basic and much concentration on the skills, but they should help. Goldblatt wrote what might be the definitive social history of the game in The Ball Is Round.
Player "auto"biographies are sometimes interesting. Mostly it's fairly safe stuff, no one is attacked, etc. If you want gristle and a warts and all type thing, try Zlatan, the recent book by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a Swedish player who has played with many of the great clubs, and if not necessarily the best player in the world (deffo in the top 5), he has the best ego in the world - while Lionel (named for Lionel Richie) Messi of Argentina and Barcelona, and Cristiano Ronaldo (named for Ronald Reagan) of Portugal and Real Madrid may be better and probably more beloved, Zlatan (named for himself, he would tell you) is the only one who's name is now a verb and a noun to football fans and commentators.
The other thing to do is to talk - with fans, with players, with people on the street in scarves or soccer shirts. Everyone has an opinion, and they seldom match: ask 10 people their favourite player or team, and you will get 3-5 different answers. Soccer fans tend to want to talk about it, and everyone has a different are where you can trust their judgement, regardless of gender, experience, background etc.
And that's the great thing - the whole soccer / football thing is so broad that you can literally dive into one aspect and get lost there - some people get obsessed with how the team lines up; others get into the celebrity of certain players; more still live for the supporters culture; the history of the game does it for others. I tend to rumble around in the sociological aspects of the game, and how it can reflect a culture both on the field and in the stands. This is all rather specific stuff, but don't feel like you are weird if you find yourself going down some odd rabbit hole - about 3-4 billion people are regular active watchers or players of the game, and like most things, most have their primary fascination.
So dive in, please ask questions, and don't be shy to join us on Saturday - we'll hopefully be everyone there!
