One Year!!

By: Al | September 16th, 2009

The one year anniversary of Atlético Madrid Offside!

So to begin, a story of how it all started. Not trying to write my life story, but a little background on myself is needed

I wasn’t fortunate like many of you to have been supporting a club since youth, with a family of supporters. I enjoyed watching lots of games, especially the Champions League, but I needed a team badly. I’m a Chicago native, but didn’t really like the Chicago Fire. Plus, I don’t like the MLS. ANYWAY… I was a boomer from the 2006 World Cup, loved seeing big dogs in the Champions League after the World Cup ended, but I realized that I needed an affiliation with a club.

The sad reality of being an American sports fan is that you have to pick a club to support if it hasn’t picked you already. I always had a fascination with Spain, so hey, why not pick a La Liga team? Real Madrid perhaps? Nah, even when I was a footie newb, I associated Real Madrid with evil, so that wasn’t the way to go. FC Barcelona? That was a better option. My first club football match on TV was a replay of the 0-3 over Real Madrid from the previous season (this was still 2006). I tried following Barca, but I also liked seeing teams like Liverpool and Chelsea play. Pretty much, I was a glory hunter. I attended a Barcelona vs Chivas Guadalajara match here in Chicago, and it was cool seeing all the stars play but it just didn’t feel like my team. I felt like a glory hunter cheering on every Barca goal. Would I be a Barca fan if they weren’t such a good team? Hell no. And neither would most of their fanbase.

I always had an interest for Atlético since Gol TV sometimes showed their matches. I knew them as the “team of Fernando Torres”, they would win some and lose some. They were slightly above-average. They had a Mexican coach that I really liked, Javier Aguirre. They were anti-Madridista like Barca but obviously not as popular. So I thought, hey why not start watching this team. They are more low key than other teams, but neither are they a minnow that you can’t find information on. I gave in.

After beginning my Atlético support exodus in the summer of 2008, I learned about the team the boring way: reading stats, watching highlights videos, looking up each player’s Wikipedia profile, and obviously beginning to watch them play. I was still an Atlético newb and kept on referring to Johnny Heitinga (traitor btw) as “John Heitinga” and I couldn’t tell the difference between Pernia and Perea, one was the bald dude and the other was the fast ass black Colombian.

Atlético was playing in the Champions League 3rd round qualification against Schalke 04. I watched them lose the first leg at Gelsenkirchen 1-0, then a week later I saw the amazing 4-0 thumping that sealed their place into the group stages. What I saw was incredible: supporters going wild, solid and flashy football with touches of South American style, and a glorious European night. This Atlético team is pretty awesome, I told myself.

I was liking Atlético more and more, but I felt that I needed to “dedicate” myself in some way to this team. So I went on The Offside, to the Atlético Madrid page, and saw that there wasn’t a post since August of 07. Perfect! Maybe I’ll shoot Daryl an email and hopefully he likes my writing style. I love to write, so why not sharpen my abilities while writing for a team that I’m just getting into! That’s exactly what I did. I wrote a sample post on Atlético players in international week, and next thing you know I’m writing my first post, then first review and preview. It wasn’t easy. I got nervous but as time went on I began loving it. This was perfect.

So where is Al now? I love Atlético, I’ll tell you that much. The next step I have to take is to visit the Vicente Calderon and experience the atmosphere myself. My passion remains with my national team of Mexico, but that’s a completely different matter. I still obsess over Atleti, get pissed off at false transfer rumors, and all that stuff. The Atlético page of Marca and AS are the first tabs on my bookmark tab.

As for this website, it was one of the best decisions I have ever made to write it. It pains me when I’m unable to write posts on time or completely leave out certain news. I wish I had the time to catch every single game and write about every single thing. It can get difficult. It has become a great hobby though. I don’t really like being opinionated but I like how sports blogging works.

If you don’t support or follow a La Liga team, by all means, begin following Atlético. We aren’t a Barca or Madrid, but we have passionate (although sometimes extreme) fans and the team can definitely hold their own. I understand that there is a bigger following of La Liga after all of the huge transfers, so why not follow us? You’re all welcome aboard, and I’ll keep the posts on this page more simple so the neutral fan can follow.

So thanks to everyone that has stopped by or has skimmed through my posts. My goal is definitely not to have a high amount of page views like some other pages *cough* old Barca Offside *cough*. My goal is to spread the word of this club outside of Spain, especially in the football-deprived USA. Most Atlético news is all in Spanish, and thankfully I’m fluent in it so I can always incorporate news into my posts. Any questions will also gladly be answered if you ask in comments/email/etc.

September 16, 2008

The Atlético Madrid Offside is back after a 1.13 year vacation.

But first, let me introduce myself. My name is Al and I’m a college student that loves football and hits F5 every 30 seconds to refresh The Offside’s main page when trying to write a paper. My love for the beautiful game has inspired me to write about it.

I’ve always wondered what happened to this blog ever since it was first up and running. After this blog was officially considered “abandoned”, I contemplated taking it over for a bit and after a few weeks of thinking it over (yeah, quick decision skills for sure) I finally decided to go for it and here I am.

I’ve been watching Atlético matches for not too long and I honestly can’t consider myself a full-fledged “supporter” yet. However, as I write this blog and as I begin watching more matches, I’ll gradually transition from follower to supporter in no time, so the arrogant and hatred-fuel posts are yet to come, so bear with me folks.

I’m here to provide some insight on one of Spain’s biggest clubs and current contenders for La Liga and the Champions League (these guys can go far, you have my word on it). After a solid 2007/08 season, this season looks very exciting and I’m here to experience it with you guys.

I know there’s a lot to write about, such as today’s 0-3 demolishing of PSV, but I’ll end the intro here and write more in later posts.

And also, I’d love to hear your opinions on Atlético Madrid. Whether you’re a long time supporter, a fan of Real Madrid that dreams about our players being thrown in giant blenders, or a person who only knows Kun Aguero and doesn’t know anything else about our club, let me know because I’m interested in hearing from you guys.

Aupa Atleti!

I reiterate that. I’m interested in hearing from you guys. Anything thats on your minds, and suggestions would be great too. If you guys want more news posts, more previews, silly posts (baby photo posts, etc), go ahead and tell me.

Just this once… I’ll throw in my contact info. Twitter: @altalkstoomuch, mail: bread_eggs@yahoo.com, facebook: /wooyeah. Friend request me. Email me. Do it.

Aupa Atleti!