My favorite team is FC Bayern Munich who easily won the Bundesliga championship this year.  However the second team I follow is Fulham who narrowly escaped relegation.  During Fulham's relegation battle on shows such as Fox Football Fhone in on Fox Soccer Channel the argument was made that sometimes the fight for avoiding relegation is more exciting.  This past week of May 11-17th I've been watching replays of Fulhams escape and remembering how I felt sitting in my computer chair early morning on May 11th watching ESPN Soccernet waiting for updates and watching what amounted to a picture show that was supposed to be a streaming feed of the Fulham vs. Portsmith game.  Then it happened Murphy's header put them up and I jumped out of my chair. 

Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger recently this past week wrote an article in which he argues that being a fan of a team that is a perennial winner is not nearly as fun as being a fan of an underdog team someone who fights for wins and any silverware they win is an incredible achievment.  And I have to say watching this video recap of Fulhams last games of the season (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=copVfYSPmwA) I tend to agree with Uli.  You want your team to win but win they win every year or every other year you expect to win every year and you lose that appreciation for winning.  When you support a team in the middle of the pack or in a relegation battle, as everyone knows, every game is crucial which makes every win that much more sweet.  As a fan you experience the thrill of a cup win every victory you have.

While I will always continue to love FC Bayern I think most of the time I'll enjoy the victories that Fulham have more because everyone will mean something to Fulham where as I will expect Bayern to win.