It used to be that us football fans could watch some live football on TV as and when the stations decided to show them. Perhaps only one or two games per week and usually only featuring the top teams of the time, like Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester United or Everton. Then the sport really exploded onto the scene big time commercially and broadcasters started to show more live matches every weekend, before entering into the midweek schedules. Once satellite TV came onto the scene, real time sports on TV and not just football then took over the airwaves as fans of all sorts became really pampered with the various choices on offer. Whether you were a fan of famous teams like Manchester United or Real Madrid, or of the more humble sides like Hull City and Portsmouth, chances were that you would get to see them featured on telly a few times at least. This was all before live streaming football was introduced via Internet, which then led to all bets being off and no restrictions in terms of which team or which sport you could catch as they happened.

Using web streaming technology, it is not just football that you can catch in the comfort of your own home and on the computer now. For oldies like me, it is something that offers ease of use and real convenience since traveling to stadiums can often be a problem before and after games especially with the crowds and a bad back from previous bodybuilding training mishaps. Watching football via live streams might not offer the same sort of atmospheric experience one might get standing amongst fellow fans and cheering them on, but you still get the same amount of detail offered on the still steady diet of games on TV, as well as angles and views that might otherwise not be available to the crowds at the games. You also get the usual commentators who try to show off their knowledge of the game (some of them are great like Martin Tyler, while others are a real bore) and if you have a complete sound system setup together with your computer, with surround sound and a subwoofer bass boost, that would allow an almost surreal recreation of an atmosphere of being at the ground yourself. You have no idea how much of an adrenaline rush that still gives me at this age.

At first when I discovered this feature on the Internet, it excited me to no end. I was initially disappointed when I found out that not many matches were available at that point in time, and the picture quality were nothing to shout about especially with poor bandwidth speeds and a technology that was still in a stage of infancy then. I kept my patience and just enjoyed the games I could catch that were not available on TV, such as those in the less popular European leagues like in Italy and Portugal. The domestic MLS games and wildly popular English Premiership (EPL) fixtures were available but I could still have them in better quality on TV so I stuck to the latter. I still do that for the former but now I have a wider selection of EPL games that can be watched online via live streaming.

After a couple of years and with broadband availability increasing as well as broadcasting speeds and quality improving, the TV is quickly becoming obsolete unless I want to watch the likes of Danny Dichio still ply their trade with the likes of David Beckham. Live streaming football has come full cycle with just about every match being made available for fans all over the world. I would imagine that this would be a great gift for football fans in places like Asia or Africa where they might not have the benefit of local traditional broadcasters being able to afford the really crazily expensive rights to show these games in their country. Now they just need to get on the Net and catching all the live footy they want, be it in sound (commentary) or video. The technology has also allowed many media providers to go online and offer their own content, providing reasonably priced packages for fans with more discerning tastes. If one wanted to just catch a single match, they could do so via a pay per view service. Most fans would prefer being able to follow their team in action for the whole season and that is not a problem either for the various services available.

Me being a Manchester United fan, and knowing how exclusive they can be sometimes in all manners of the word, now that I can see them in every single regular season game, I could probably die happy. Streaming technology has provided me with my live football fix, and it probably has done the same for millions of fans worldwide. Now if only the summer break were to end sooner and we could start breaking Liverpool's record of 18 league titles next season.

Oh and with the USA facing Costa Rica today, I sure hope our boys beat them and storm clear at the top and onwards to the World Cup next year!