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.