France, happily (for me at least) continued it’s strong run in Euro qualifiers with a convincing victory over Luxembourg, which is reassuring since the team has a bit of tradition of wasting such games with draws. The first goal by Benzema was a beauty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9P4nxiaz2E
Swedish director Mattias Löw, of the production company Freedom From Choice, shared with me a short documentary called “The Referee,” about the unfortunate Martin Hannson, who officiated the France-Ireland qualifier last fall and failed to call Thierry Henry’s decisive handball. I wrote about the case here at the time, and later did penance for the… Read More »
Yes, the European Cup of 2012 is still 21 months away, and the fact that the qualifying games are already underway seems slightly obscene: I’ve barely recovered from the drama of the World Cup, and now I’m supposed to start thinking, and, hoping about this tournament? But no matter: I’m awake. Today’s match between France… Read More »
The Football Scholars forum, organized by Alex Galarza at Michigan State University, recently hosted a discussion with Chris Gaffney about his marvelous book on stadia in Latin America. You can read about the event and request access to the audio recording here. Later in the semester look for discussions with David Goldblatt on his magisterial… Read More »
We had an interesting discussion here last Wednesday on this topic. You can link to the audio of the presentations at itunes-u here: The first two (by me and Achille Mbembe) focus on football in Europe and Africa, and I highly recommend Achille’s intervention, starting at about 15 minutes. He thinks and talks about football… Read More »
Wayne Norman has posted a nice collection of quotes looking back at the 2010 World Cup and it’s impact here at his blog, This Sporting Life — and I’m not just saying that because he quotes me… If anyone has seen other interesting reflections on the event please share them!
Courtesy of the blog From a Left Wing, here’s some engaging footage of the celebrations in Ghana after the World Cup victory over the U.S.
My colleague at Duke University, Wayne Norman, has written some great material reflecting on the place of soccer in the U.S., available here. Peter Alegi, meanwhile, offers up this nice ode to the recent World Cup, via the blog Football is Coming Home:
Marcus Gilroy-Ware, who I went to several games with in South Africa, has produced this interesting short video about South African perspectives on the recent World Cup, featuring Achille Mbembe and Sarah Nutall (Visiting Professors at Duke this coming fall) among others. I also published a set of final reflections on the World Cup, with… Read More »
Two days after the World Cup final, the whole event seems slightly surreal. I’m returning from South Africa today, having survived on my last day here a gauntlet of baboons and a march up a gorgeous mountain, after arriving on the 26th of June just in time to see Ghana beat the U.S. I’ve had… Read More »
|