Please watch your soccer responsibly

One of the simple pleasures of being a soccer fan in America is the experience of gathering with other like-minded misfits at your local watering hole to cheer on your team, whether it's your favorite foreign club in the Copa Libertadores or the European Champions League or your national side at the Olympics.
I was pleased this week to notice that MLSNet has gone and stolen one of my favorite unused ideas: a map of the best soccer pubs in America.

It looks like the Web site is going to start profiling some of the best bars in the country to catch an MLS game. This is a great idea, particularly as supporters travel around or move to a new city. There's few things worse than being stranded in a strange town and having no idea how to find a bar that's heard of Setanta.

I have just a couple of suggestions for the powers that be at MLS. Make this a truly nationwide map. As a supporter, where can I go when I'm stuck in St. Louis or Miami or Minneapolis to find a great soccer bar to catch the Red Bulls v. Toronto FC match?

And give us a sense of what the criteria is for adding these pubs to the map. Do they actively support the league or do they just tolerate its matches? Can I go there to see any football game on TV, or just the away games for the local MLS side? Perhaps there can be some kind of contest to find good soccer bars around the country. Supporters can send in the names and profiles of their favorites and then everyone can vote in one of those online polls MLSNet loves so much. The winning pub gets a free year of Direct Kick, a bus trip for 20 to the closest MLS stadium and a night with drinks on the house with Jimmy Conrad.

My only real criticism of the map is the exclusion of my favorite soccer pub: Iona in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. On Saturday night, I asked the Sunday morning barman if he'd be open at 7:45 a.m. for the U.S. v. Holland Olympic match. He said he wasn't planning on coming in until 10 a.m. for the Community Shield, but now that I suggested it, he'd open shop for the U.S. game. That's the kind of bar that caters to the soccer fanatic.

- Tom Meagher

p.s. - The only Passaic County bar to rate is Pub 46. Leave a comment and let me know your favorite spot to catch a match.

Comments

[Wendel]

Great idea! the map needs to nationwide. having lived in upstate ny my whole life, nowhere near an mls franchise, I know i'm not alone in my love of mls or soccer in general. However there has been no attempt to round up and organize fans who live outside franchise areas. MLS could gain a lot by tapping into and supporting this previously ignored fan base.

[Tom]

So Wendel, do you have a good pub near you that you gather with other MLS fans, or do you prefer to watch games at home on TV or the Internet?

[Andy]

Tom,
I've been thinking of adding a map to http://www.SoccerBars.com but I just can't find the time. As you say "There's few things worse than being stranded in a strange town" so I hope that SoccerBars.com can be of help. And the more feedback the fans can give on the bars the better.