Naming conventions of soccer team names around the world vary tremendously, even within leagues. When you have time on a Saturday or Sunday, scroll down this list of soccer scores and I assure you that many will catch your eye and amuse you. I’m a big fan of Bolivia’s “The Strongest”
A couple of years ago an MLS team got ripped by European football fans and media for handing out songsheets of chants that in America are common in college sport but are totally out of place in European football culture. Over there chants get popular from spontaneity. A group of fans in a pub might start it, others join in, even more participate on the way in the stadium and during the game they are all at it. Then there are the ironic chants aimed at the opposition fans who are segregated in the stadium with a specific section for away fans. You don’t have that in the US much because the tribalism is just not there and handing out songsheets was pretty embarrassing as a way to drum it up.
That seems pretty damned cheesy, yes. Also unfamiliar - it’s been thirty-odd years since I was a college student going to football games, but I never saw or heard of pre-printed songsheets with chants. Chants and cheers arose organically. The only persistent one at the University of Georgia was during kick-offs: “GoooooOOOOOOO [rising in pitch as the kicker ran up to the ball] DAWGS! [the kick] WOOFWOOFWOOF! [the remainder of the play]”
Maybe it’s a soccer thing - I didn’t follow collegiate soccer, so I have no idea.
But if you think we don’t have tribalism over football teams in this country, whoo chile! Just tune in to a Georgia-Florida game, or Michigan-Ohio State, or Army-Navy, or Auburn-Alabama, or any of dozens of rivalry games, and see how tribal we Americans can get over ouah foot-bawl.
I don’t see anything cheesy about it, tbh. I think every expansion MLS team has a “here are the chants and songs that Supporters Groups have come up with” - usually distributed by the Supporters Groups themselves. I believe Atlanta United even had it once or twice. I remember the hubbub - I believe it was NYCFC. But as someone who is a Season Ticket Holder, but not a member of a Supporters Group, I didn’t know most of the words they were singing - so I’d just sing the chorus. So they were very helpful.
Though European football fans also rip MLS for expansion teams (ie, no promotion/relegation), so they don’t get trying to get thousands of people on the same page in a few months as opposed to learning songs when you are a young person.