Know Your Enemy: Sunderland
Team: Sunderland A.F.C.
Nickname: The Black Cats
Supporters: Mackems (has to do with the dialect spoken in, and only in, Sunderland).
Founded: 1879
Home Stadium: Stadium of Light
Capacity: 49,000
Manager: Regis Le Bris
Main Rival: Newcastle United. Why? Mainly because it’s a territorial thing - Sunderland and Newcastle United’s home stadiums are 14 miles apart.
Trophies: 1st Division Champions: 1892, 1893, 1895, 1902, 1913, 1936; FA Cup Winners: 1937, 1973; League Cup Winners: 1985, 2014
Last Won The Premier League (or 1st Division) In: 1936
Basic History: Founded by a Scottish teacher in 1879 as Sunderland And District Teachers Football Club, they were renamed as Sunderland Association Football Club in 1880. After a dominant spell in the 1st Division in the 1890s, they kind of puttered along before achieving success again in the 1930s. They became the first team in the last 60 years to win the FA Cup while playing outside the first division of English soccer when they beat [grits teeth] Leeds United in the 1973 Cup Final thanks to their goalkeeper Jimmy Montgomery, who played like a gahdang octopus. They were promoted and relegated numerous times over the next 30 years.
Sunderland were relegated out of the Premier League for the first time in 10 years at the end of the 2016-17 season, leading to the resignation of former Everton/Manchester United/West Ham manager David Moyes and the sale of academy product goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, now GK1 at Everton under Moyes, and GK1 for the English National Team. They got relegated again the following year to League One (the third tier, I know it’s complicated), and after four seasons returned to the Championship (second tier) at the end of the 2022 season.
The last three years have been a roller coaster, finishing 6th in the Championship in 2023, dropping to 16th in 2024, and promotion back to the Premier League for the first time since 2017 this past season.
2024-25 Finish: 4th in the Championship, Promoted to the Premier League via Playoff Final win over Sheffield United.
Famous Fans: Actor Peter O’Toole, Franz Ferdinand lead singer Alex Kapranos, Broadway legend Tim Rice, something called Jojo Siwa.
Popular Culture: One of the greatest soccer series I’ve ever seen is “Sunderland ‘Til I Die” streaming on Netflix.