"Pourquoi?", I hear you ask! Why am I writing about an American soccer team? Because the subject puzzled me, that's why! I couldn't understand why Americans appeared to be so keen on European football and yet didn't attend, in more than piffling numbers, games in their own country. For instance, there are American people on the Parma list, but I doubt that they attend their home games. One person, in particular, I know doesn't! And it was rather through him that I first sought to question this phenomenon, if you could call it that! Through my obsession with autograph collecting, I'd decided to write to a team in Seattle. "Big Foot", I thought they were called - but I had my letter (eventually) "returned to sender, address unknown". I was reliably informed that the soccer team in Seattle was called "Seattle Sounders" and that they "still played on astroturf." I didn't write to the Sounders though, and forgot about them for a few months. The week before last, I was idly surfing around, when I found myself on the "Seattle Sounders" website and I was intrigued by what I found there.

It's a site that any European club would be proud of - certainly Parma, pre-website improvement day (English webdesigners, by the way!).; they even sold T-shirts etc. online (make note, Parma!). The fans were obviously very proud of their club and yet, there was only an average attendance of 2,181. Why? Before proceeding to try to answer this question, however, I took time out to write to one of the players; one with a catchy enough name; Randy Mann (I could make a smutty joke or two here, but I wouldn't do that!). Good names appeal to me (next up, Patrick Posing of F91 Dudelange, Luxembourg!), but of course I don't just write because of the name, and I asked for other Sounders' autographs in the same letter.

As well as the official Sounders website, there is another, called "Seattle Pitch" (established 1994; first US club page on the net), which is written by Mark Coker and a couple other fans. This site maintains, "Seattle Pitch is a supporters website. Seattle Pitch is not affiliated with the Seattle Sounders. Our opinions are our own and may not be popular or even nice". In other words, they might be controversial. From this site, I found a supporters' mailing list. I joined it.

It was obvious from what I read on the mailings that these were real soccer fans who disliked the points system, astoturf and shootouts which differed so much from European (or any other) football. On the Official Sounders website, there was an advertisement for a bus trip to Vancouver to see the away match with the 86ers. (The 2nd game of a busy weekend against Vancouver, as they were to play the team at home on the Saturday!). But the bus-trip had to be cancelled due to lack of interest (only 13 people had put their names forward), which was very sad, but indicative of the way American soccer appeared to be. I decided to send an email to the list and ask questions about how their soccer differed from ours. I was extremely grateful to receive excellent answers back from Mark Coker, Ronald Stickney and Roberto Alvarez - and these answers are the background from which the "'A' League/Points/Shootouts/Bones of Contention" was written. Thanks boys!