What the blazes is a Manchester United???

I've been absent from my usual LSF perch the last few weeks due to a project I was asked to participate in and help create. As I was riding home this evening on the bus imagine my surprise to see this young gentleman get on the bus in a Red and Black sports club jacket with a 'Manchester United' logo. Hmmm. It was not the Yankees or the Seahawks or even the Raiders so I was intrigued. So being enterprising I 'googled' the name and found out that low and behold its a Soccer team from the UK. They are even a winning team. Yea!!! Much better than the real football teams around this locality. Good for them!
Grin!

Just think of them as the New York Yankees in baseball, or the Los Angeles Lakers in basketball - a team that wins far too often, and whose fans feel entitled to win. A team some people love, and other people love to hate.

I think you will find that David Beckham played for Man Utd and yes, they are very successful in the English Premier League having won 19 Premierships under their manager (Coach) Sir Alex Ferguson. English football has various competitions the teams play in aside from the Premiership League. They play in a competition called the Champions League where they play against teams from Europe. There is also the FA Cup which Man Utd have won.

njnick is correct in saying they have won a lot and they are to an extent disliked by other supporters as other sports teams around the world but they are successful because they spend millions on players and having the cream of players ensures their success as a club. Soccer is my second passion. My first is our own game, Australian Rules.

@twisted

The timing of your post is not great.

A week ago United suffered their worst defeat in years and that was to their greatest rivals Manchester City.

The fact that you had to Google a name with which almost every human being on the planet (outside the USA) is familiar proves to me that Americans are so insular when it comes to sport.

Februs may or may not comment on this post.

Only when it comes to sport?

Some of us find it perfect.....

It is nice to know that those on the other side of the pond are not so insular they haven't heard of Manchester United but have they heard of that other great United team, namely Torquay United I wonder?

I was talking to a Man United fan this week, obviously not in Manchester where they are a bit thin on the ground. He reckoned it was Man United's do or die attitude that was largely responsible for the size of the defeat. When they got the goal back instead of worrying about defence they all poured forward with obviously disastrous results! Anyway nice to see them getting back on track against Aldershot in midweek!!

A stern test indeed!

Isn't that supposed to be Man Chest Hair United? I believe it is a support group for Magnum P I look-alikes.

Another possibility is that perhaps some of us aren't sports fans? Some of us USA'ns barely know the names of our own sports teams (or care to).

I personally resent the corrupting influence that USA professional sports, particularly football, has on our higher education system. I'm not sure that Europe has that same connection. Sports is big money for our universities, who effectively run the "farm teams" for our professional sports industry.

What sports has to do with higher education, I haven't yet figured out. But I do know that hundreds of millions of dollars are involved.