It's true that the Spanish Primera Liga and the Italians have pretty good soccer leagues. But in reality, there is no place for soccer like England. What makes the Premier League so special? Are English teams better than others? Are their commentators more humorous?
Barcelona and Real Madrid could definitely give Manchester United and Arsenal a run for their money. In terms of commentators, the British are funny, but no one can forget the South Americans with their loud cries of "GOOOOOAL!"
Yet no other sport has the power to unite and divide a country in the way that soccer can in Great Britain. The British love their soccer. You would be hard-pressed to find an Englishman who did not support a certain club. Here, most fans pick their baseball teams based on where they're from. It's harder in England since every city has more than one club - London itself has 12 teams, five of which are in the Premiership alone.
To begin, the international soccer season is timed perfectly. It starts in August and ends in May with about one game per week, giving each match a lot of weight. In contrast, MLB teams play almost every day from April to September for a total of 162 games, rendering each individual game relatively insignificant. The NFL plays one game per week but has a much shorter regular season with only 17 weeks.
The Premiership is perfect because each game can have serious repercussions for the end of the season, and fans can watch it during the whole academic year. The best part is that college students leave for summer vacation after the season is over, and when they return to school, a new season is starting up again.
The Premiership is also less predictable than its American counterparts. While it's true that fans can most likely guess the top four teams at the end of every year - Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool - it's never clear which one of those teams will walk away with the title. In addition, every team in the Premiership has the potential to beat any other on a given week. For example, Bolton recently defeated Man U and Aston Villa beat Chelsea. Each week can make or break any of the teams, and often the bottom of the league is just as exciting as the top due to the concept of relegation.
The teams with the three worst records are relegated to the Championship League, one level below the Premier League, at the end of each season. There are still more levels below the Championship: League 1, League 2 and the Conference. So if a team manages to pull ahead into 17th place in the last few weeks and avoid being demoted, their fans still have reason to celebrate.
A perfect example is West Ham, a team that was facing relegation the entire 2006-07 season heading into its final game against Manchester United. The combination of an amazing comeback victory for Wigan over Sheffield United and West Ham's unlikely victory over Manchester United left Sheffield the team to be relegated.
However, even if fans do get tired of regular season games for an entire year, the English also host two exciting tournaments: The Carling Cup and The FA Cup. Generally, people prefer the FA Cup because it takes place at the end of the year, and any team can play - and that leaves room for plenty of excitement.
Just take this past weekend as an example: Havant, a team that isn't even in the Conference nearly beat Liverpool. That's right, Liverpool nearly lost to a team that was beyond the lowest English League possible. It's outcomes like that which make English soccer so thrilling.
Whether it's the obsessed - or just devoted - fans, the length and set-up of the regular season, or the various tournaments that can give any team a victory, soccer in England is unlike any other sport in the world. The MLB, NBA, NHL and NFL can all be fantastic to watch, but nothing beats the excitement of when a soccer team is playing an intense game with end-of-the-year implications. When fans see a beautiful cross, a beautiful finish, a tackle worthy of a red card or an amazing goal, the rush is unlike any other. International soccer, especially in England, is the best sport to watch.
