The dreams of the underdog.

Bit of back round needed so bear with me.

Yesterday in England a team from a very low league played one from the very top of the top league in a competition called The FA cup. (Football Association)

The teams in question were Liverpool Football club (5 times European champions and 7 times FA cup winners) and Havant & Waterlooville.

There is 6 leagues difference (about 25 teams in each league) Liverpool has players that are mostly in their national teams and earn *pop star* wages, H&W's players are part timers, school caretakers, bin-men and teachers etc etc. They play for the love of the game. They have regular crowds of 600 at their ground. Liverpool regularly have over 40'000.

Havant and Waterlooville really took the game to Liverpool and twice held the lead before unfortunately loosing 5 - 2. The memory of this will live in the minds of the players and supporters of Havant and Waterlooville for a very, very long time.

Although the cup is usually won by one of the top sides, there is always a few giant-killings along the way, it's a great competition in which anything can happen. It really does keep the dreams of the underdog alive. I love most sports, but football is the beautiful game.

Now my questions.

Is there anything like this in any sport in the US? (I'm quite sure there isn't.)

Do you think it would be a good thing?

Why is there just one cup/championship game or series in US sports? Wouldn't a league and cup format bring more to the game for the fans?

And please this is a question of formats rather than *My sports better than your sport*

MonKey



A few links from the sports pages for more backround.

Havant boss pays tribute to team

Wiki FA Cup - history and format

OK then sports fans!!

I'll give this one more try, just on the off chance that I missed someone that can answer the questions posed.

Failing that I'll just have the assume that Americans really don't have a clue or opinion about their own sports!!



MonKey

I don't think there's any competition in the US quite like that. We do have a US Cup for soccer which pits Div. 3 teams against MLS teams (potentially) but they are all semi-pro athletes who likely don't have any other jobs.

I wish we had more games like that, but I think teams care so much about money and the health of their players that they don't think it's logical. I always thought the FA Cup was cool like that.

reply to post by Megaton


Cheers Dude.

I missed your reply, for a few days!! Yeah I didn't think there was anything like it in the mainstream US sports. Kinda FA Cupish with the soccer though. (The word soccer - REALLY - pains me!)

Following the Giants - oh so sweet - victory at superbowl xxivivivixxxvvv. And being as they were the underdogs. I shall ask once again.

Sports fans...

Would a league AND cup competition be something you would like to see in the mainstream US sports.

MonKey

Originally posted by ChiKeyMonKey
Is there anything like this in any sport in the US? (I'm quite sure there isn't.)

Absolutely there is! The greatest annual sporting event in the world! (Nothing can really outdo the World Cup...I think we can agree on that.)

The NCAA Basketball Tournament.

64 teams in a big, fat, beautiful bracket.

Your "rock stars" come from the major conferences: Pac-10, ACC, SEC, Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12.

Your "underdogs" qualify from the "mid-majors": MVC, WCC, WAC, and other crazy names I've never heard of.

While it is rare that a "rock star" fails to win the whole tournament, there are upsets GALORE during the first couple weeks of the tournament.

It's awesome...and it starts in about seven weeks.

reply to post by ChiKeyMonKey


Good question Chi ! I think Essedarius answered the big part of your question the way I would have.

US uses college athletics to really get the "giant slaying" out of their system. The NCAA Basketball tourney is a good example.

So is college football... last year we saw a division 2 program Appalachian St. knock off division 1 giant Michigan. This is generally unheard of. In fact usually pitting teams like that against eachother is criticized by the sports world. They say it's demoralizing for the underdog and done only so the smaller school can get some $$.

There's alot of truth to that, yet don't tell that to the Appalachian St. players..... Michigan will send many players to the professional level, while Appalacian St. uhhh... won't. Still on that one day, against all odds, the giant fell.