Terça-feira. Dia 22 de Março de 2016. Bruxelas, Bélgica. 7:58 da manhã. Duas bombas explodem na sala de embarque do Aeroporto de Bruxelas em Zaventem. Um pouco mais de uma hora depois, uma outra bomba explodiu na estação de metro Maelbeek. Quando o sol se pôs sobre a capital da Europa, trinta e cinco pessoas… Read More »
In Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Eduardo Galeano proclaims the United States to be “the home of baseball” and sarcastically describes efforts by the American media to herald soccer as “the sport of the future” during the 1994 World Cup. Americans, however, do not necessarily appreciate soccer to a lesser extent than others. As of… Read More »
It’s no secret that every athlete wants to maximize the time they are able to play the sport they love. And what is the best way to maximize time on the pitch? Starting the game and controlling your level of play. After all, who wants to spend time on the bench, especially in the context of professional… Read More »
After reading African Soccerscapes, I was reminded of Qatar’s Aspire Academy: a footballing academy based in Doha, Qatar that takes children from Africa, South America, and Asia and brings them into Qatar to develop their football skills. When most people think of Qatar and soccer, they think of the 2022 World Cup or perhaps Paris Saint… Read More »
Since as far back as I can remember, Arsenal has been my team. The team that I would get butterflies in my stomach for before matches, the team that I would find myself whole-heartedly arguing with others in support of, the team that could leave me both endlessly smiling in victory, or absolutely distraught in… Read More »
(image courtesy of the BBC) This past summer during the World Cup viewers learned a lot about the political troubles of Brazil and how the World Cup helped unite the nation to some extent during the games. A conflict we do not hear much about in America is that of Belgium: specifically the French and… Read More »
This week I began teaching “Soccer Politics” here at Duke University for the third time. This blog will host the writings of students in the course in four different languages: English, French, German and Spanish. You can see the class readings here. On the first day of class we analyzed three bits of the visual… Read More »
I wrote this analysis of the U.S. vs. Belgium match for The New Republic. An earlier analysis of the Belgian team, in comparison with the French team, is here.
Recently, the Japanese soccer team has been on the rise. They’ve recovered from the recent criticisms arising from their poor performance in the Confederations Cup. In their most recent matches, the Japanese national team has stood toe-to-toe with both the Netherlands and Belgium. In the match versus the Netherlands, Japan was not fazed at all… Read More »
After the conclusion of the World Cup, a new cycle of FIFA World Rankings begins. Every month, FIFA releases an updated list ranking every national football team — #1 to #207. For most fans, myself included, these rankings seem arbitrary. What does it matter that Croatia is ranked #10 and USA is #13? What does… Read More »
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