So I'm just some Yank who has caught World Cup fever and has decided to maybe pick an EPL team to try and follow to get into the sport a little more.  I'm currently a big American Football fan (Indianapolis Colts, with season tickets) as well as following NHL hockey (Detroit Red WIngs) & college basketball (Purdue Boilermakers)

I knew right off I didn't want to pick a team that was in the Big Four, and also didn't want to pick a team that has crazy billionaire owners trying to buy championships. Also wanted at least a little American presence. My final requirement was to pick a team that doesn't really flirt too hard with relegation - I need to be able to follow the team and hopefully watch at least a few games from across the pond.

In the end, I really like Everton. I've loved watching Tim Howard (and bouncing between elation and heartbreak in his play). I love the history of Everton, or what I've read of it so far and how far back it goes. And how can you get better than a team where one of the nicknames is "The School Of Science" (at least according to WIkipedia, so correct me if Wikipedia is full of it).

I know they sound like weak reasons to pick a team, but I'm coming at this as someone who has never really followed the sport at all until this World Cup.

So... if I'm to jump onto the Everton bandwagon and start following the team, what do I need to know?

• What are my options for watching the team from the US?
• What teams should I hate? :D
• Who are the players to watch?
• Prospects for the coming season?
• Is some newbie who is just learning the sport welcome around these parts? Doubt I'll post much but I'll certainly be reading alot of the old posts here soon to catch up.

Oh, do I have to call it football? Is it okay if I say soccer? 30+ years of "football = gridiron" is going to be hard to change. :)

Anyway, Hi from a clueless Yank :)