They do still have a big cult following. What that article seemed to be saying is that a large % of British NFL fans are stuck in the 80s, which is true.

The fanbase has expanded since then though, so obviously there are more fans into different teams but I'd still expect to see a helluva lot of 40-something Dolphins fans at a London NFL game, even if they aren't actually playing.

—Paul Westerberg, 1991

On the Dolphins thing again, I did some more checking and they apparently have the 2nd biggest fanbase in the UK after the Patriots. Considering how successful the Patriots have been since the 80s compared with the Dolphins that's pretty remarkable. I don't know how popular they are in the US but I'd be amazed if they're anything like the 2nd most popular team there.

"Of NFLUK.com site users who have registered and selected their favorite team, 7.1 percent said that the Dolphins were the favorite team. Only the New England Patriots had more fans on the site with 9.5 percent."

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/he...ngland-6526446

Patriots have only been successful since the early 2000s..

as to Dolphins, even when Dan Marino was balling it up they have never been a nationally popular team. its largely because Marino never won a championship. Dolphins were like the Cleveland Browns, a very successful team that just could never get it done. Same was true of Denver Broncos until Elway finally won in late 90s. the national audience knew of these teams because of their failures not their success

really Lebron was the first guy to finally put Miami on the map as a national team, previously Miami teams had been successful and were known but actual fans across the country were more of a cult following unlike teams like Steelers, 9ers, Cowboys, or Raiders who are definitely teams with significant national fanbase and a certain sense of NFL heritage.

Today Dolphins of the past five or six years have been one of the laughing stock teams, a punchline rather than a team that punches back. Indeed most Americans actually think NFL sends Dolphins to London because they suck since a lot of the teams on London schedule sucked. i used to think that until you explained the Dolphins fanbase in UK

Miami sports in general are usually mediocre because of bad management and a generally shallow sports culture there.. The MLB Marlins are one of the worst teams in baseball.

I remember the laughing stock team when I 1st got into it (we're talking early-mid 80s) was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Those who knew a bit more about it and had been into it a bit longer seemed to like the 49ers and the Redskins but kids like me seemed to be equally split between the Dolphins and the (LA) Raiders. I remember some Bears fans emerging after their Superbowl win but me and my friends wrote them off as newbies (haha). I didn't notice any Patriots fans until much later.

I love remembering those times. My dad (a rugby fan) refused to have it on at our house so every week I'd go to my friend's to watch the highlights and beat up his little brother, who decided he liked the Jets.

I've heard the same thing about Beckham's ongoing attempt to create a MLS franchise there.

sounds about right.

Since American sports don't relegate losing teams out of the top leagues these teams have no incentive to win. even worse they can more or less make $ and survive as a kind of local showcase of the more successful teams that will come to town to play them. so Miami sports for example generally exist and make money by hosting games against otherwise marquee franchises.

these teams literally advertise "come and see (the other team) play"

they changed formations but used the same modality-- possession and short passes

but no, you're right, he brought in coman (fail) and costa (win) to open up the wings a bit. and had to depend on ribery and robben for winning. not sure if those hires were his or the board's though.

but under pep they were never able to win through physicality. maybe he had the tools available (xabi alonso, vidal) but never used them to overwhelm the opponent like heynckes did which is why atletico mowed them down like a bunch of porcelain dolls last year. whereas with heynckes they overpowered barcelona like they were gifted , but ultimately small, children.

that was an edge lost, i swear. the glory and danger of overspecialization. this is why apes took over beautiful beautifule felines at the top of the food chain-- less specialized, a lot more flexible.

haaaaa haaaa yes. the genius of randomness. everyone was expecting that john woo shit and blam. dead on the floor laughing. his diarrhea face probably helped with the acting-- his face really was the funniest thing.

I take your point about them maybe becoming a bit less physical but, in terms of them going out to Atletico, they were hardly mowed down. They went out on an away goal and could've just as easily gone through. The margins at that level are usually far too fine to draw any absolute conclusions. If Heynckes's Bayern could somehow play Pep's Bayern ten times in a row, I imagine the honours would be about even. Beyond that it just comes down to the style of football we prefer to watch. I know lots of people find Pep's style frustrating just as many others love it. It certainly isn't perfect, but then no team or manager ever have been. Again, playing around with history, it'd be fascinating to see how Heynckes would've dealt with a defensive machine like Simeone's Atletico.

bayern-koln had a really fun 2nd half today and ended 1-1

dortmund game about to start!

so, a bit rushed: didn't meant mowed down in goals but physically mowed down every time they wanted to play. i remember complaining of ref calls and pep fielding his tiniest men. this is a year later though so i can't say objectively but i remember my frustration at bayern being overpowered.

chicharito praying on his knees haaa haaaa haaaa. whistle!

catching 2nd half of italy-spain, looks like i didn't miss much on the 1st?
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oh man! buffon! what was that!
as the vikings had it, even the gods are mortal

Ecuador vs Chile in 50 minutes.

oh hell-- in quito! chile is bound to suffer

what a penalty kick by de rossi!

No kidding. Last couple of games were a loss to a mediocre Paraguay in Asunción and a sad incapability to score in Santiago against Bolivia, the Faroe Islands of South América.

no no. bolivia has la paz. the faroe islands are at sea level.

OK, so Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, take your pick...

there's no european capital that matches the altitude of la paz.

and that's the thing-- la paz is almost at 4,000 meters altitude.

bolivia is extremely hard to beat at home for that reason

quito is like 3,000-- a little easier, but still a bitch for those who aren't adapted to playing there

It's just Argentina and Brazil and Uruguay who shit their pants every time they have to go up there. I think it was Passarella who famously whined that in La Paz "the ball doesn't bend". Fuck him! Chile hasn't lost there since the year of the dick.

everybody knows that la paz is hard to beat--not the players

but the 0-0 was in santiago? (i just found out)

http://www.marca.com/eventos/directo...lovivimos.html

haaa haaa haaa haaaaa

oh, fucked up. fucked up indeed.

Yeah, that was wretched.

A royal piece of shit today, Chile. No Putin 2018 for those guys at this rate.

England 2-0 Malta. Decent performance, albeit against rubbish opponents, although I saw nothing from Rooney to make me think there'll be any let up from those calling for him to be dropped. Henderson was our best player.

malta? those are some nice uniforms

interesting weekend at the bundesliga so far-- at least the games i've watched

first, dortmund tied with hertha berlin yesterday 1-1

then, bayern tied today with a 10-man frankfurt squad 2-2

(timothy chandler had a pretty great game, so take note klinsmann)

anyway the table now has bayern still ahead but only by 2 points, koln 2nd place, berlin 3rd, and dortmund 4th

as a season, it's shaping up to be more fun than with last year's runaway leaders

not sure yet how the best german teams will do at the champions league though

OKAY, SO... who is watching what today?

i'll keep an eye on sporting clube vs dortmund

(though leverkusen/spurs was also intriguing)

Spurs v Leverkusen for me. Half time, 0-0. Good game so far. Spurs look the better team.

dortmund is beating sporting 2-0 but it's more about luck in the area than overall team performance. it's been very even and lively so far.

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jeezus, ended up 2-1, sporting deserved better, great second half with 7 minutes injury time. i'm a new sporting fan, really fun team to watch.

Can't wait for Man C v Barcelona tonight

was out of town and missed it today but WILL see replay. that score! OUCH.

Messi will get all the headlines but, without taking anything away from him, Man City made terrible defensive mistakes to let him in, and Pep's decision to strengthen the midfield by drpping Aguero, while I don't think his inclusion would've turned the tie around, will draw criticism. Bottom line seems to be that if you make a mistake against a team without Messi you have a fair chance that you'll get away with it. If you make a mistake against a team with him, you don't.

i read that bravo blamed himself (or was blamed?) and something about man city with 10 men but haven't wanted to read past headlines. as soon as i have schedule space i'll watch the whole thing! had to make room for hillary last night.

The defensive mistakes were individual and can't be levelled at Pep - although Bravo's mistake does fuel doubts about Pep's decision to edge out Hart. The Aguero situation is the big one, though, not just leaving him on the bench but bringing him on when the game was already lost, and that's entirely Pep's decision. Could he even be trying to edge him out, too? If he is that really would be a huge move which could quickly threaten his relationship with fans. (Especially with news that he also left Kompany out of the squad altogether, despite being passed fit.) I only hope for his sake that his decisions are tactical and not just power plays. Hmm.

got back home yesterday at last and havent caught that barca game yet--trying to fit it for tomorrow

but this morning last-place ingolstadt gave dortmund a great run for their money by getting ahead 2-0 by halftime. then 2-1 then 3-1 instantly then 3-2 then 3-3 and dortmund tired to get ahead by the end but no. superfun to watch though.

that of course made me google, and whoa!

it's a 4-0 week, this one

speaking of 4-0 just sitting down to watch pep's destruction as i write this

comments later....

1s comment: the whole first half was played on man city's half!!

2nd comment: i like a good sweeper keeper, but BRAVO IS NO SWEEPER KEEPER. jeezus that whole red card "event" was disgraceful.

not done well wil add more after but right now i'm waiting for the injured to be removed.

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man city a fucking disaster. they were NOWHERE. and another day that i don't see silva do a thing! he and i have bad timing.

but this was a tactical clusterfuck of doom! of course messi is messi but... so much space!

pep blew it. on purpose maybe? ha ha ha. i thought that when he lost vs barcelona in the champions.

I saw it again and yeah, Pep's tactics backfired massively. MC played at the weekend and they were pretty poor then, too. I give him a free pass for now but there are clear issues he's gonna need to address. Problem is some games they blow me away while other times they don't click at all. Exactly what you were saying while he was at Bayern. Altrady noticing a few #pepout hashtags on twitter. Not all of them are serious but enough are to make me think his honeymoon period won't last forever, They were booed off at the weekend. If he sticks to his traditional style he's gonna get found out. Southampton were able to neutralise them simply by stopping them from playing out from the back. And I'd say English fans generally really don't like that way of playing, or are at least suspicious of it. And yes, I can categorically say that for all his faults, Hart is quite simply a much better goalkeeper than Bravo.

Like I say, he has a free pass for now, based on past achievements, but the warning signs are definitely there.