Paul’s Soccer Stories
What “Welcome to Wrexham” Tells Us — Or Should, Anyway — About Football
(Photo above by Markbarnes, CC BY-SA 3.0, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons Since I own a football-related company, and since I have been to more than 200 games all over the UK and Europe, many Americans have asked me what I think about the show “Welcome to Wrexham.” Or they have simply expressed their admiration for…
Soccer Games I Have Seen in my Quest to Join the 92 Club
I update this post regularly with all the football soccer games I've seen in the UK and Europe. But why does it matter? Because my goal is to join the 92 Club, also called "Doing the 92." For more on what that means, check out this post about the world of groundhopping. As of January…
Back to the Beginning at City Ground
I don't remember the first time I ever kicked a soccer ball, or watched a game, or walked into a stadium. But I do remember the first fact that made me fall in love with the game -- the first shaft of light, if you will, that shone on me from another world, which I…
I Guess I’m Not a Curse
In nine years of attending games all over the UK and Europe, I have come to believe I might be a curse for the home team. The reason? In the more than 200 games I've seen, the home team has averaged between 1.3 and 1.4 points per game -- basically an even split between wins,…
Paul’s 2022-23 Groundhopping Plan
"Groundhopper Paul" is on the road again. Updated February 3 -- Everything paused for a couple months. I think this is the season I am going to officially "do the 92." I'll also be checking out many of the European and Premier League tickets and hospitality options we sell. And I'll be touring the continent.…
Stockport County May Be What It’s All About
There are a lot of reasons I love going to soccer games, and I came across quite a few of them on my trip to Stockport County. I try not to "rate" my groundhopping experiences too much, mainly because turning one's passion into one's profession, something fun into a series of checkboxes, is a sad…
Shrewsbury Can Wait
I finally hit the pause button here in Crewe. Groundhopping is a fun hobby, and I've done more than my share of it: nearly 200 games in just over eight years. But it's been about 40 games in the last four months, in England, Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, back to England, back to Italy,…
England supporters and the World Cup: Inside the wacky minds of football supporters
Being in England during a World Cup is like being at a family reunion where the favorite son is the life of the party one day and an alcoholic the next. As an outsider, I find it somewhat comical, but also a window into the mind and soul of football supporters everywhere. So, as one…
At the Seville Derby: Look Out when the Rocket Lands
Sometimes, in the middle of a big crowd, during a big game, in a stadium filled with emotion and a city gone briefly mad, there are some very fine lines to walk. Tension is high, things can easily go off track, and people who might be sane for 363 days of the year should not…
Paul’s Groundhopping Adventures So Far
Greetings from the #groundhopping road, where I am actually on a bit of a break right now after three hustling weeks of games all around England. So far I've seen eight games, including three straight home wins after they failed to win in the first five, scoring only four goals in the process. So maybe…