Watch the Throne

Even with a loss in their final game of the 2012 season, Atlanta has bested New England and Houston in the standings to claim their first ever National Football League (NFL) championship!  The fates of Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and Detroit were sealed before they set foot upon the turf this weekend; all three clubs will be relegated to the Xtreme Football League (XFL) in 2013.  Filling the NFL vacancies next year will be XFL success stories Chicago, Cincinnati, and New York City.  Final 2012 NFL and XFL standings can be found in the table below.

Don't panic...or perhaps I should say "keep calm and carry on".  The above scenario was just a re-imagining of the 2012 NFL season as if it had been structured with the same league rules as are used in British soccer.  No one has been booted out of the NFL; your beloved Kansas City and Jacksonville are still free to stink things up next year even after only winning a combined four of their last thirty two games.  It is however the reality of English soccer that if your team doesn't perform, then they could very well get ousted from their league.  Still confused?  Let's break all this craziness down, by starting from the top.

The governing body of all professional and semi-professional soccer in England is called the Football Association (FA).  Under the FA umbrella, there are thousands (yes, thousands) of soccer clubs organized into a pyramid of leagues.  At the very top level of the pyramid is the Premier League (20 clubs).  Immediately beneath the Premier League is the Football League-Championship Division (24 clubs).  Levels three and four of the pyramid are respectively the Football League-League One and League Two Divisions (both having 24 clubs).  Down and down it goes until you reach what are essentially pub leagues.

The sheer number of clubs in the FA is astonishing and should give you some indication of soccer's immense popularity outside of the United States.  But what I find to be the most fascinating aspect of the FA is the promotion and relegation system.  In the FA, there is legitimately a path for the Green Dragon Inn's pub squad (Shire Football Club) to some day end up playing the elite clubs of the Premier League.  And likewise Manchester United, the current Premier League Champions, could in theory someday find themselves facing off against the diminutive but spirited men of the Prancing Pony Inn (Bree Football Club).  If you can claw your way to the top of your league, then you will get promoted to a stronger league.  And if you sink to the bottom of your league, then you will get relegated to a weaker league.

At Dragon and Bluebird, we're not here to talk about weak soccer leagues.  As Ricky Bobby so eloquently stated in Talladega Nights, "If you ain't first, you're last", so let us return now to the top tier of the pyramid...the Premier League.

The Premier League is comprised of twenty clubs that play every other club in the league twice.  That's thirty eight games per club each season; there are no playoffs.  The Premier League champion is determined by points amassed throughout the season.  Clubs are awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss.  In the event of a tie in points, clubs are ranked first by goal differential (goals scored minus goals given up) and then by total goals scored.  Below are the Premier League standings at the close of the 2012/13 season.

As I mentioned earlier, Manchester United were the 2012/13 Premier League champions. And unfortunately for Wigan Athletic, Reading, and Queens Park Rangers, it's down to the Championship League they go.  Their vacancies will be filled in the 2013/14 season by Hull City, Crystal Palace, and of course...Cardiff City.  

It's worth mentioning that Cardiff City and Hull City finished first and second respectively in the Championship League standings and were awarded automatic entry into the Premier League.  To be awarded the third promotion ticket from Championship League to Premier League, you have to win a four-team playoff, which is how Crystal Palace secured the twentieth and final Premier League spot.

On June 19th, the Premier League released the schedule of matches (aka "fixtures") for its 2013/14 season.  Cardiff City's first game is away at West Ham United FC, on August 17th.  The full Cardiff City match schedule can be found on the Barclay's Premier League website (safe for work).  

It will be exciting to track Cardiff City's progress this year.  Will they be a lasting presence in the Premier League?  Or will they find themselves scrapping it out back down in the Championship League in 2014/15?  Keep reading Dragon and Bluebird to follow every moment of this historic season!

Before wrapping things up, I'd like to say thank you to the very kind people at Cardiff Blogs for including Dragon and Bluebird in their Sports blogs section.  On their site you can find blogs on the news, music, and lifestyle of Cardiff.  Take a visit to Cardiff Blogs (safe for work) and their many contributors when you have the chance.

That's it for now.  Feel free to leave comments after each post about your thoughts on this week's entry, the blog in general, or any topics you'd like me to cover during the season. Thank you for reading and we'll meet again next week.

Welcome

Please be seated, gentle reader, for I am about to shock you with a very personal revelation.  Are you seated now?  Good, here goes...deep breath...

I have never watched an entire professional soccer match.  

I have watched hot dog eating contests, spelling bees, singing competitions, roller derby bouts, and Monopoly tournaments...but never an entire professional soccer match.  My feelings towards the "beautiful game" range from bafflement to apathy, but 2013 is the year I try to become enlightened.  It is the year that I either learn to love soccer or solemnly vow never to speak of it again.  It is the year I immerse myself in the English Premier League.  It is the year I become a fan of the Cardiff City Football Club.

Why bother?  Why now?  Why Cardiff City?!  All fair questions, thank you for asking.

If you believe what you read on the Internet, soccer (I still refuse to refer to it as "football") is both the most watched and most played sport on Earth.  Yet it places somewhere between 6th and 597th on the list of sports the average American would watch given a choice.  Admittedly, my survey set was limited to just two other Americans, but one of them did actually place soccer as their 597th most favorite sport (Bridge placed 596th).  Regardless, the rest of the world must know something that I don't which could possibly make sitting through a ninety-plus minute game, only to end in a zero-zero draw, worthwhile.  I have to discover that which I'm missing.

Why now you ask?  The timing actually worked out pretty well for two reasons.  First, watching the 2013/14 soccer season is a nice lead-in to get to know the game and the athletes prior to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.  Second, and on a more practical level, I read recently that NBC had acquired the rights to air Premier League games beginning with the 2013/14 season. So it's easier than ever to actually attempt to be a follower of Premier League in the US.  You can read more on the NBC deal on Sports Illustrated (safe for work).

Ok, if you're still with me you'll want to know why I chose to follow English Premier League (EPL) and why Cardiff City Football Club (FC) of all teams?  Great questions.  EPL was a pretty easy choice since, aside from Major League Soccer (MLS), it's the only league that will have all of its games televised in the US.  I'd watch MLS, but as best i can tell any MLS player who is talented enough gets pulled into the EPL.  Plus, I'm a huge fan of the BBC in all its forms.  

For those who may not know, the EPL is comprised of twenty teams from England and Wales.  The teams change each year (I'll talk more about EPL promotion and relegation in another post).  As soon as I found this out I knew I wanted to follow one of the newly-promoted teams.  That brought my choices down from twenty to three:  Hull City, Crystal Palace, and Cardiff City.

After reading up for a few days, it turns out that Cardiff City has some great storylines worth following in 2013/14:

1. Not only have they just been promoted into the EPL, this is also their first EVER appearance in the EPL.
2. They have a rival Welsh club (Swansea City AFC) that have been in the EPL for a few years and this will be their first two meetings at the highest level of English soccer.
3. There's a lot of tension between the fans and (relatively) new ownership.  For most of the past few decades, Cardiff City was at best a second tier team.  When the new owner came in with a flood of cash and a new vision for the club brand, lifelong fans were wary.  Then in the 2012/13 season, the Cardiff City uniforms were changed from the traditional blue with a prominent bluebird on the logo to mostly red with a diminished bluebird and dominant red dragon.  Fan reaction was less than positive, but considering Cardiff City has made it to the EPL for the first time ever by winning the lower tier league championship, it should be interesting to see if fans warm to the re-branding.

I'm sure Hull City and Crystal Palace are great teams with great storylines of their own, but Doctor Who and Torchwood are both filmed and sometimes set in Cardiff.  I won't lie, that is more than enough to cement my allegiance to Cardiff City.  Plus Crystal Palace sounds like a strip club.  ANYWAYS, here's the team logo for the 2013/2014 season:

This naturally leads us to the name of the blog, "Dragon and Bluebird".  I chose the name not just because it ties to the Cardiff City logo, but also because it highlights the struggle for identity that will be the undercurrent of their 2013/14 season. And frankly, it sounds like a good pub name.  I love me a good pub.

While we wait for the season to begin in August, I'm going to post a series of weekly articles to get myself and other professional soccer novices up to speed on the Premier League and Cardiff City.  

Once the season begins, I plan to provide recaps of each game, major team news, and pieces of  British culture in each blog entry.  If you're interested in food, tv, beer, history, or soccer chants, I think you'll find this entertaining.

Come friends, let's find out together if the "beautiful game" is really attractive, or if it's just the beer talking...and poor lighting.