As a sports fan who has recently become a soccer fan, one of the hardest things to come to grips with is the lack of a season ending tournament. It is inconceivable to think that the team with the most wins at the end of the regular season would just become the champion. Where is… Read More »
Last week in discussion, we talked about the way that biases can affect how soccer players are used on the field and how they are viewed by both managers and spectators. “African Soccerscapes” by Peter Alegi pointed out that African players in European leagues are disproportionately used as strikers or in wide positions, often seen… Read More »
A 2010 article in the New York Times Magazine (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html) described the Ajax youth academy and told of how they go about creating world-class talent. Ajax takes promising soccer players into the academy at just 7 years old (sometimes scouting kids as young as 5) and then scientifically trains them to become stars that can… Read More »
While learning about South America’s passion for soccer this week, I couldn’t get something that I had recently seen out of my mind: Copa America, the tournament of national teams from South America will feature two teams not from South America. I had seen a notification that the field for this summer’s tournament had been… Read More »
Reading about the dominant women’s soccer team in In a League of Their Own!: The Dick, Kerr Ladies Football Team made me consider what makes certain countries strong in women’s soccer. At the time, it seemed that England had a huge advantage over the US in women’s soccer and probably over everyone in the world.… Read More »
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