On Sunday afternoon, I rode the metro up from my place in the thirteenth arrondissment to Belleville, in the northeastern part of Paris, to take in the Algeria-Slovenia match in a neighborhood with a large Algerian population. Almost as soon as I emerged from the station onto the wide Rue Belleville, I met Ben, an… Read More »
My second post to the “Pilgrimages” Blog is up, this one on how France is the Caribbean team in this World Cup. “When the French team takes the field against Uruguay, and later against Mexico, history will be lurking. In 1924 and 1928 the Uruguayans famously took the Olympic football competition by storm, leaving a… Read More »
My first piece is up at Chimurenga’s Pilgrimages Blog: “In Port-au-Prince there stands – or at least there stood, before the January 12th earthquake devastated much of the city – a mural depicting four great nationalist heroes of the Caribbean: Toussaint L’ouverture, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and Emmanuel Sannon. If you don’t recognize the last… Read More »
Yesterday I did an interview for the “How We Got Here” podcast of BBC’s The World, available here. I talk about my book Soccer Empire, about Zidane, Thuram, and the 2006 World Cup, and about my hopes for this tournament.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/24/AR2009102401219.html
Here is an interesting take on the ’78 World Cup in Argentina that took place under a violent military dictatorship. It highlights how FIFA can be used for political means – what should FIFA’s response be in situations like this? [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/n89H2cyccX8″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Very enthralling to see the films of the ’74 West Germany World Cup. Watching these legendary players and teams is such a different experience than it is today, in the times of HD and incredibly high frame rates. The filmic moves of Cruyff and company appear to take us to a mythical realm… who can… Read More »
Eduardo Galeano, in Soccer and Sun and Shadow (London: Verso, 2003), provides beautiful descriptions of famous goals from footballing history. Here is one of his descriptions, and a video of the goal. What do you think of the description? Can you find clips of other goals he describes? “It was at the ’78 World Cup.… Read More »
Eduardo Galeano, in Soccer and Sun and Shadow (London: Verso, 2003), provides beautiful descriptions of famous goals from footballing history. Here is one of his descriptions, and a video of the goal. What do you think of the description? Can you find clips of other goals he describes? “It was 1979. At Wembley Stadium, Arsenal… Read More »
Eduardo Galeano, in Soccer and Sun and Shadow (London: Verso, 2003), provides beautiful descriptions of famous goals from footballing history. Here is one of his descriptions, and a video of the goal. What do you think of the description? Can you find clips of other goals he describes? “It was at the ’78 World Cup.… Read More »
