The Real Football Experience

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to get up at the crack of dawn to drive to a pub some 60 miles away to watch a football game.  Nowadays most of the games are on television (well at least on ATT UVerse anyway) so I all need to do is get my morning cuppa and some toast and watch in my pyjamas.  (Because I'm in California the games start at 4:00 a.m. - although it's very rare I ever see those games!  I'm usually just about awake for the 6:00 a.m. ones)

But, whilst watching the footie this past weekend there was an advert for an App so that you can find out where to watch games.  It’s called NBC Sports Matchmaker and I though I would take a look and see what it had to offer.  Apparently, according to the advert and the blurb in the app “Diehard football (soccer) fans know the only thing better than watching football is watching it surrounded by other fans.  But sometimes, finding other fans to watch with can be a challenge…”  [Yes, soccer was in brackets in their description].

That description should have been my firrst warning that this wasn’t for ‘real’ football fans… reading a bit further there is a list about who the app would be helpful for:

• Fans who are new to the game or their neighbourhood and want to know where to watch their team play [If you are new to the game, why would you have a team? – oh wait, it would probably be Man. Utd]
• Fans who are away from home and need to find where other fans are congregating [ok, that makes sense, but ‘congregating” – sounds like there will be trouble]
• Fans who want a way to organize their regular football watching meet up [Umm, wouldn’t you just meet at the pub/bar?] 

Oh and you can meet people through the app and via Facebook.  Something about this sounds pretty pathetic really.  I don't want to be walking into some pub to meet random strangers who may, or may not, possibly, support the same team as me... just so I can have a pint at 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Because no matter where you go or how many people are there, nothing will emulate the feeling of standing on the terraces (if there were still terraces to stand on, that is).

Years ago, when there was little or no football coverage on the telly, occasionally there would be a pay-per-view game on a Saturday morning.  At that time, everyone we knew would come over to our house and have a whip round for the price of the game.  I would then spend the morning making sausage or bacon sarnies and endless pots of tea (and trying to watch the match).  It was a lot of fun and something that I do miss, although now I don’t even have to get out of bed if I don’t want to.  

But to spend the early morning with random football novice s is just something I wouldn’t ever want to do. So no, I am not downloading this app.  Sorry NBC.